UT Institute of Agriculture Presents Top Faculty and Staff Awards for 2025
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture celebrated the accomplishments of some of its top faculty, staff, researchers and Extension experts at UTIA’s annual awards luncheon. This year’s ceremony was held in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Building on the UTIA campus in Knoxville on July 30, 2025. Many of the awards are gifts made possible by faculty, alumni and friends of the institute.
UT Institute of Agriculture Senior Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice President Keith Carver hosted the award winners and praised them for their work. “The enthusiasm and expertise demonstrated by our UTIA faculty and staff is unparalleled,” he said. “I am always in awe of their dedication to providing real life solutions to the people of Tennessee. These well-deserved awards represent impacts and accomplishments that benefit Tennesseans and society now and for years to come.”
Sawyer Main, an Extension assistant II in the university’s Department of Animal Science, has been honored with the UT Smith Center for International Sustainable Agriculture Outstanding Staff Global Engagement Award. The award recognizes individual staff members for their outstanding engagement in support of globalizing the university’s missions of teaching, research or outreach. This honor recognizes the contributions of individuals who make international programming more accessible to faculty, staff and students and/or who raise the visibility of international programming across the institute.
“I’m incredibly honored to receive the Outstanding Staff Global Engagement Award,” Main says. “Supporting our faculty, students and Extension programs in their international efforts has been one of the most meaningful aspects of my work. I’m proud to contribute to the mission of creating global connections and furthering agricultural collaboration across the world.”
Main has worked three-and-a-half years in his current position with UT. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the university, and previously was a recipient of the Gamma Sigma Delta team award, which reflects the collaborative efforts he says he’s been proud to be a part of.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch, and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.