UT Institute of Agriculture Presents Top Faculty and Staff Awards for 2024
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 and promotions luncheon. This year’s ceremony was held in the newly-opened Agriculture and Natural Resources Building on the UTIA campus in Knoxville on August 14, 2024. 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. “I continue to be amazed by the dedication, enthusiasm and expertise demonstrated by the impressive work of our UTIA faculty and staff,” says Carver. “The awards are well deserved, and the impacts of these accomplishments are seen across the state and will benefit Tennesseans for generations.”
Tong (Toni) Wang, UTIA institute professor in the Department of Food Science, is one recipient of the UT AgResearch Dean’s Grantsmanship Award. The UT AgResearch Dean’s Grantsmanship Award recognizes the extraordinary effort of faculty members in successfully securing competitive extramural grants and contracts and who exceed expectations of good departmental and institutional citizenship. This award is based on the total dollar amount of competitive extramural grants or contracts secured by the faculty member serving as principal or co-principal investigator. Sindhu Jagadamma, associate professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, and Alicia L. Rihn, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, also received this award.
Wang’s research focuses on food chemistry. She works to improve food quality, safety and public health, reduce waste and environmental impact, and create new applications for biobased materials in food, feed and renewable energy. Examples of her research include improving the freezing quality of dairy foods and modifying vegetable oils, cereal and eggs to enhance nutritional and functional properties. She has been supported by millions of dollars in funding from multiple sources including the National Science Foundation. Her efforts have led to more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. Her many awards include receiving the 2024 UT Knoxville Outstanding Graduate Student Support Award from the UT Knoxville Graduate Senate; the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) Best Paper Award in 2023 and UTIA’s Charles E. Wharton Institute Professor in 2022. Wang was also recognized in 2020 with the AOCS Alton E. Bailey Award for Outstanding Research and Exceptional Service in the field of lipids and associated products. She became a Fellow of the AOCS in 2016, and currently serves on the governing board for that organization.
Wang finds joy educating her motivated students and seeing them become successful in their own right.
Wang began her 7-year bachelor’s and master’s studies in her native China at Shenyang Pharmaceutical University and received her second master’s in food science from the University of Arkansas and her Ph.D. in food sciences from Iowa State University.
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.