The University of Tennessee Biofuels Initiative is a program of the UT system coordinated by the UT Institute for Agriculture’s UT Office of Bioenergy Programs.  In 2007 the State of Tennessee committed $70 million to the UTBI to lead the effort to transition to an advanced biofuels economy. The immediate goal of the initiative was … Continued

The UT Biology in a Box program began in 1996 at Powell Elementary School. The first box was titled “Fossils: True or False.” Primary funding for the project comes from the Howard Hughes Foundation and the Dwight Eisenhower Foundation. The program’s developer, Dr. Susan Riechert, designs boxes with biological or other scientific articles and prepares … Continued

On October 14, 2008, ground was broken in the Niles Ferry Industrial Park in Vonore (Monroe County) for a $40.7 million pilot-scale biorefinery and state-of-the-art research and development facility for cellulosic ethanol. The project was funded with the lion’s share of Tennessee’s $70 million investment in the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative. Mascoma Corp., a Boston firm, … Continued

Built as the new Agricultural Engineering Building, this facility was completed in 1981. It was designed by McCarty, Bullock, and Holsaple and built by Rouse Construction Company at a cost of $3.3 million. Its name was changed in 2005 to reflect the changed name of the Department of Agricultural Engineering.

Built as the Agricultural Engineering Building, this structure was completed in 1941. Constructed with WPA funds, this building was designed by Barber and McMurry. It replaced an 1899 three-story abandoned-dairy barn, which had been remodeled during the summer and fall of 1936 to allow agricultural engineering courses to be taught on the agriculture campus instead … Continued

For 28 years (1971–1999), George Bitzas’s tenor voice started home football games with the “Star Spangled Banner.” He joined the music faculty in 1965 as an assistant professor of voice. His first appearance on Shields-Watkins Field was to sing the tenor aria La Donne e Mobile in a halftime show titled “Back to Bluegrass.” Director … Continued

The UT Black Alumni Associates was created September 1, 1984, as a suborganizational group of the UT National Alumni Association. The Black Associates group encourages African American alumni involvement in university affairs. All African American graduates and former students are automatically members of the associates. A 25-member board of directors represents the associates and meets … Continued

Started by Ralph Boston in spring 1968, the Black Arts Festival was held during the third week of May through 1980. The purpose of the festival was to present to the university, and to Knoxville, examples and information about black culture and identity. The Black Ball, at which the Miss Black Arts Festival was selected, … Continued

In 1968 newly appointed Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Professor Michael R. Pelton began the Black Bears of the Smokies project, which became the longest continuous study of any bear species in the world. Upon Pelton’s retirement, Dr. Frank T. van Manen, a research ecologist with the US Geological Survey’s Appalachian Field Branch located at UT, … Continued

The idea for a Black Cultural Center was first discussed in 1968. Ralph Boston, then the coordinator of minority affairs, along with members of the Black Students Union (later, the Afro-American Student Liberation Force) advanced the need. A director of the center, Dennie Littlejohn, was appointed August 1, 1975, and the center opened its doors … Continued