UT Institute of Agriculture Presents Top Faculty and Staff Awards for 2024
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Vince Pantalone, a professor in the University of Tennessee Department of Plant Sciences, says among his greatest joys is having mentored 19 master’s students and 10 doctoral students and seeing them excel in their careers. Six have gone on to be professors at other institutions or joined the United States Department of Agriculture as research geneticists. Now their mentor has been named as the 2024 UT Institute of Agriculture Institute Professor.
On August 14, UTIA 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. 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.”
The highest honor awarded annually by UTIA is the Institute Professor Award, and this year the title goes to Pantalone. The UTIA Institute Professor Award is granted to a faculty member who has served at the rank of professor for a period of at least seven years and is a recognition of consistent outstanding performance over this period. The award recognizes excellence in teaching, research and Extension or clinical practice. Leadership and reputation through service at the national or international levels is also expected.
Pantalone has served at the Institute for the past 26 years, seventeen of which have been at the rank of professor. A plant breeder and geneticist, he oversees UTIA’s soybean breeding and genetics program that uses a combination of classical plant breeding and DNA laboratory technologies to develop high-yielding cultivars that are resistant to pests and adapted to the climate, soil, and cultural practices of Tennessee, the Mid-South, and the Southeast. His particular interests lie in the protein and fatty acid composition of soybeans and in analyzing molecular markers to assist in enhancing soybean cultivars.
Pantalone has released 21 soybean cultivars that are now commercialized varieties and filed 14 invention disclosures with the UT Research Foundation. He holds two utility patents, including one with a plant science colleague for their collaboration on soybean cyst nematode-resistant soybean genes.
Soybeans are among the state’s top crops and economists value Pantalone’s impact at $150 million in revenue for Tennessee producers, and a one-point-three-billion-dollar benefit to the region.
Pantalone has been recognized by UTIA previously with the B. Ray Thompson, Sr., Award; the UT AgResearch Research Impact Award; the Webster Pendergrass Award for Outstanding Service; and the T.J. Whatley Distinguished Young Scientist Award. He has also received the B. Otto and Kathleen Wheely Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer, the Archer Daniels Midland Award for Best Paper in Chemistry and Nutrition, the UT Oak Ridge Science Alliance Award, and as the Crop Science Society of America Outstanding Associate Editor.
Pantalone, who received his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, is a member of the Crop Science Society of America, the American Society of Agronomy, and the American Oil Chemists’ Society, and has published 115 refereed journal articles.
He is a native of Maryland. He graduated from Largo Senior High in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. His brother Michael lives in Cecil County on the eastern shore along the Chesapeake Bay. His sister Cindy and her husband David live in Baltimore. His sister Elizabeth and her husband Talon reside in Seattle, Washington. Pantalone will be retiring to Cecil County in his new home along the Northeast River.
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.