This week’s Pre-Game Faculty Showcase at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, highlights the work of Sally Horn, professor of geography.
Students, faculty, staff and all football fans are invited to “Inspiring Tomorrow’s Scientists: Taking UT Research and Discovery into Tennessee’s Classrooms,” the fourth program in the UT Pre-Game Faculty Showcase, at 5:45 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 27, in the University Center Ballroom.
Horn will discuss how rural middle school students are taking part in research and experiencing firsthand the excitement of discovery.
The UT Pre-Game Faculty Showcase, now in its 18th year, is held two hours before every home football game. The College of Arts and Sciences selects a top faculty member for each presentation.
The programs are free and open to the public. Each program lasts 45 minutes and includes a question-and-answer session. Light refreshments are served, and door prizes including footballs and basketballs signed by UT coaches are awarded.
Horn is internationally known for her research as a biogeographer and always has involved graduate students and school teachers in her studies.
A grant from the National Science Foundation enables her to take the research to rural middle schools and let them be a part of it. Students study local water quality, erosion on school grounds and fossils, shells and seeds dating from the time when mastodons roamed North America.
Horn earned her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the UT faculty in 1987.
Her research focuses on the effects of human activities and climate change on vegetation and environments in Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Southeastern U.S. over periods of time from less than 10 years to more than 10,000 years. She has received more than $2.8 million in research grants, and her research has been published in more than 70 refereed articles.
Horn was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2003. In 2002, she received the Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award from the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers and the UT Provost’s Award for Research and Creative Achievement.
The Pre-Game Faculty Showcase is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences with the support of the UT National Alumni Association and UT Athletics.
—
Contact:
Elizabeth Davis, UT media relations, (865) 974-5179, elizabeth.davis@tennessee.edu
Photo available on request.
—
###