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Lenhart and Guest Honored at Annual Faculty Awards Banquet


Each year, faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are recognized for their contributions to the college, the university, and the impact of their teaching and research at the annual faculty awards dinner. Two members of the Department of Mathematics received awards at this year’s event, which took place Thursday, December 1, 2016.


Research Award The Excellence in Research/Creative Achievement awards recognize faculty excellence in research and creative achievement at three levels: the early career, midcareer, and senior career. One faculty is also recognized for his or her distinguished research career at the University of Tennessee. This year, Suzanne Lenhart, professor of mathematics, was honored with the Distinguished Research Career at UT award. Professor Lenhart is a renowned researcher in the field of differential equations. She is best known as a leader in the area of applying optimal control theory to biological, medical, environmental, and epidemiological problems. She has published 177 research papers and two books, and has delivered more than 275 invited presentations across the globe. She is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. She delivered the internationally-known Kovalevsky Lecture in 2010 and was President of the Association for Women in Mathematics from 2001 to 2003.


Teaching Award The Excellence in Teaching awards recognize faculty members’ excellence in teaching at the lecturer, junior, senior level. Robert Guest, lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, received one of the three lecturer awards at this year’s banquet. Guest has remarkable scores for his 100-level, general education math classes, and has made significant contributions to the curriculum and the GTA training in the math department. His nominator wrote “Bob Guest is probably the department’s best teacher of lower division course.” His students appreciate his commitment to their success, which is the main reason he continues his work. According to Guest, “Teaching is about the students. People are capable of accomplishing much greater things than they believe they can.”


Congratulations to our award winners for their achievements.
last updated: December 2016

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