The School of Architecture received and accepted an invitation from the Nicaraguan government in January 1974 to assist in reconstructing the earthquake-stricken city of Managua. The 1972 two-and-one-half-hour earthquake measuring 6.25 on the Richter scale had left ten thousand Nicaraguans dead and half of its residents homeless. The architecture school sent 10 fourth-year design students, … Continued

Professor Nicholson, son of Alfred Osborne Pope Nicholson, a prominent Middle Tennessee Democratic leader, newspaper editor, lawyer, judge and US senator, was appointed the first professor of agriculture on December 4, 1869. After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1855, he became associate editor of the Washington Union, of which his father was … Continued

Strang Nicklin, from Chattanooga, transferred from the University of North Carolina to UT in 1896. He was captain of the first undefeated football team in 1896 (four games). He was the first UT athlete to play major league baseball and the first to play in a World Series game. Because some of his family objected … Continued

The nickname for UT athletic teams and groups is “The Volunteers.” In the final road game of the 1902 season (UT vs. Georgia Tech) T. B. Green scored a touchdown in the game’s final five minutes to give UT a 10-6 victory. The next day, the Atlanta Constitution referred to the UT team as The … Continued

Construction on the new physics building began November 28, 1960, and the building was occupied in summer 1962. The 70,359-square-foot building was designed by Barber and McMurry and constructed at a cost of $1,148,000. A $108,000 grant from the National Science Foundation was matched by the State to allow adding 14,702 square feet of research … Continued

When the physics building was complete, Liberal Arts Dean Alvin Nielsen felt that the bare front needed a sculpture—one that would suggest the relationship between mass, energy, and radiation. Philip Nichols, UT art professor, was commissioned to create such a sculpture. A small-scale model was created and approved in the summer of 1964, and Nichols … Continued

Alvin Andreas Herborg Nielsen joined the faculty of the Physics Department in 1935 and became head of the department in 1956. He became dean of liberal arts in 1963. A native of Menominee, Michigan, he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and was a teaching and research fellow at Ohio … Continued

In January 1979, the 108 Nigerian students at UT were among hundreds of the fourteen thousand Nigerian students attending US colleges and universities on scholarships from the Nigerian government whose tuition was unpaid for more than several months after it was due. UT was owed $58,000 in addition to winter tuition charges for enrolled students. … Continued

To raise awareness of the College of Nursing’s many milestones and recognize the contributions of healthcare professionals who prepared for their careers at UT, the College of Nursing held its first annual NightinGala in September 2009. More than 350 alumni and friends attended the initial celebration.

The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis was established at UT in September 2008, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Department of Agriculture, and UT. Under the leadership of founding director, Dr. Lou Gross, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, more than four hundred individuals from … Continued