Richmond taps Ayers as president, Mears dies in Knoxville, Geier joins university—these and other stories in this edition of UTopics.
When you step through the doors of the Tennessee Governor’s Academy for Mathematics and Science in Knoxville, it’s clear you’ve entered a radically different kind of school. The walls are covered in posters singing the praises of science and scientists, and the mood during a calculus class is upbeat—to put it mildly.
A prodigy in many respects, Clarence Leon Brown completed Knoxville High School in 1906 at the age of 15 and received special permission to enter UT. Four years later, he graduated with two degrees in engineering. He learned to fly during World War I and served as an instructor in the U.S. air corps. After he ran his own successful car dealership in the early 1920s, he talked his way into a job in what was then called moving pictures.
UT is a leader in the development of alternative fuels, the university is enjoying its best year in recent history in terms of state funding, and Dr. Bill Bass has solved the mystery of “The Big Bopper”—these and other stories in this edition of UTopics.
The old maxim “never succeed a winning coach”—or a popular chancellor—may sound like good advice. But Dr. Thomas A. Rakes, the new chancellor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, prefers to think about the work ahead in a different light.
Sean Loftin didn’t shake a Magic 8 Ball to be certain of the new direction his career was taking. “Without a doubt,” this Navy veteran and professional photographer felt a different calling. Loftin plans to take his new master’s degree in elementary education from UT Chattanooga and teach in an urban public school.
UT’s vital signs are good: The university’s enrolling its best students ever, research funding is on the rise, and alumni and friends are unusually generous in their support. The next logical step toward realizing the university’s full potential is to increase the number of graduates it turns out to fuel Tennessee’s future workforce.
They say a moUThful with a single word. I’m talking, of course, aboUT those new billboards, newspaper ads, and that cool TV commercial toUTing the University of Tennessee, using a variety of words with “UT” in them.
UT is becoming more brand conscious. A statewide marketing effort keyed to the “fUTure” includes billboards, a new television commercial, and print advertising. The branding effort was launched September 19 at a six-way simulcast for UT employees.
Blair Pancake (Knoxville ’05) won the Miss Tennessee title, UT Chattanooga alumnus Leslie Jordan won an Emmy, and we catch up with two Katrina evacuees who were featured in the Summer 2006 issue—that and more in this installment of UTopics.
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