View on site | Email this event

Title: Tensors and computations on embedded manifolds: a practitioner perspective.

Disclaimer: No prior knowledge of differential geometry is required; in fact, the speaker takes no responsibility for any damage incurred by previous exposure to the intrinsic point of view on manifolds.

Abstract: Many applications in science involve evolving submanifolds (e.g. domains, surfaces and curves moving in $\mathbb{R}^n$) with boundary and tensor (e.g. scalar, vector, matrix) fields defined on them. The mathematical concepts required to describe these systems such as differential operators and integration-by-parts rules

are often developed intrinsically using local coordinates and relying on Ricci index notation. While powerful, this formalism can nevertheless hinder computations, especially in the presence of geometric evolution. The talk aims to demystify this situation by developing a purely extrinsic framework for tensor calculus and provides practical tools that are immediately usable in mathematical physics, geometry‑aware PDEs, and numerical simulations in arbitrary dimension and co-dimension.

The central idea is simple and not novel: rather than working in charts, we exploit level set functions, the projection operator and the ambient Cartesian derivative. Surprisingly, the idea leads to transparent formulae for concepts such as gradients, divergences and Laplace-type operators for tensor fields of general rank independent of dimension or co‑dimension of the underlying submanifold. Moreover, the presented approach is algorithmically recursive which makes it extremely amenable to computations, in silico or on paper. We will demonstrate the latter by deriving the extrinsic total force balance of classical Euler flows on manifolds that does not seem to be known.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Can’t attend in person? Click here to watch virtually via our livestream.

Click here to view the program.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Title: Zero sets for functions in the Dirichlet space.

Abstract: One of the first theorems that a student learns about analytic functions f on a region G in the complex plane is that, either f is identically 0, or f(z)=0 only for z in some discrete subset of G. The Weierstrass product theorem says the converse is true as well: If Z is a discrete subset of the region G, then there is an analytic function f whose zeros are precisely the points of Z, and one may even specify the multiplicity of the zeros. Similarly, given a Banach space B of analytic functions on G, it is of interest to determine which discrete subsets of G can be the zero set of some non-trivial function f in B. For some such Banach spaces we have explicit solutions, but for many spaces only partial solutions are known.

In these two talks I will discuss this problem for certain spaces of analytic functions in the unit disc. The emphasis will be on the Dirichlet space, which consists of all analytic functions, whose derivative is square integrable. I plan to explain some classical results and mention some new ones that were obtained jointly with Michael Hartz.

View on site | Email this event

Title: Jekyll & Hyde: modeling how bacteria alter pathogenicity during algal blooms

Abstract: Phytoplankton are central to the global ocean carbon cycle. Their role in marine organic matter cycling has been extensively studied and incorporated into ecosystem models. However, influences of heterotrophic bacteria on elemental flows remain underrepresented in models. Emiliania huxleyi is a bloom-forming, calcifying microalga that exudes dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and plays a key role in global sulfur and carbon cycling. E. huxleyi blooms are believed to be moderated by Sulfitobacter D7, a Roseobacter strain, whose pathogenicity toward E. huxleyi is induced by DMSP concentration. As a step toward representing bacterial pathogenicity in marine ecosystem models, we developed a mathematical model of population dynamics using a series of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to describe the interactions between E. huxleyi and D7. We present a system of equations that capture dynamics of live cell counts, SYTOX stained dead cells, and measured DMSP concentration from E. huxleyi and D7 co-culture growth experiments. Initially, E. huxleyi grows in co-culture similarly to pure culture, but as it enters stationary phase, the population collapses. We struggled to fit both the E. huxleyi and D7 growth curves in co-culture, as an increased abundance of D7 resulted in a premature decline in E. huxleyi population. We solved this by modulating pathogenicity as a function of estimated DMSP concentration in solution, which delayed E. huxleyi death and dramatically increased model accuracy. Additionally, we found that by using separate parameters for natural E. huxleyi death and D7-induced death, we could incorporate SYTOX stained cells into the model. This model provides a framework for modeling metabolite-initiated pathogenicity in microbial interactions. On larger scales, this framework could be incorporated into ecosystem models to characterize impacts of pathogenic bacteria on algal blooms and their demise.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Presented by Professor Mary Droser, University of California, Riverside

Reception to follow

View on site | Email this event

Title: An Introduction to Morse Theory and its Applications

Abstract: We are going to set up Morse functions and talk about Manifolds. After going over Morse functions, we will dive into constructing Homology groups. Once we have constructed homology groups, we will go over persistence modules. We will wrap up with applications of Morse theory, its generalizations and applications, and how it ties into research level mathematics.

View on site | Email this event

Title:

Exploring Applications for Quantum Topological Data Analysis

Abstract:

Topological data analysis is a methodology leveraging persistent homology to help identify and describe topological features within data. These topological features are inherently coordinate-invariant and can help determine the birth and death of informative structures in graphs. Quantum topological data analysis is the quantum algorithm analogous to using TDA to estimate the number of higher-dimensional holes known as Betti numbers. IonQ specializes in using QTDA to explore early utility through experiments with state-of-the-art trapped ion quantum computers. This talk will cover application areas the QTDA research team has explored and share initial results using IonQ's proprietary methods.

Bio:

Daniel Pompa is a Quantum Field Engineer at IonQ, the world's leading quantum platform company. His academic background is in quantum machine learning in condensed matter physics and he currently supports research efforts at IonQ in quantum algorithms and applications. His current areas of interest are in quantum topological data analysis and physically inspired quantum neural networks.

View on site | Email this event

Ross and partner, Brendan Copestake, founded Jillian Ross Print (JRP) in 2021. Jillian Ross Print is a collaborative print studio and publisher working primarily with South African and Canadian artists, studios, institutions and galleries to develop print projects, exhibitions, art workshops, and talks.

Collaboration is central to their working practise and many of their large-scale projects include a team of printers for their creation and multiple workshops for their making.

In 2024, JRP installed their working studio into the Connect Gallery at Remai Modern to showcase the editioning of their latest large-scale, inter-continental collaborations with Kentridge based on his

theatrical production The Great Yes, The Great No.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

This talk is part of the 2026 Conversations & Cocktails series at the Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts. The series is a free public lecture and discussion series that showcases the original research of our distinguished UT arts and humanities faculty. Join us as we feature groundbreaking work exploring a wide range of topics in the arts and in humanities fields such as philosophy, history, and literature studies.

Natalie J. Graham, a native of Gainesville, Florida, earned her M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Florida and Ph.D. in American Studies from Michigan State University. An award-winning poet and scholar, she served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Orange County, California, 2021-2023. In August 2024, she joined the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as a professor in Africana Studies and currently serves as the Interim Department Head.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

This conference is run by UTK English Graduate Students.

Practice and Performance

These two words carry with them kindred connotations of shallowness. Mere practice suggests preparation without follow-through, while mere performance conjures presentation without substance. But at the same time, bebop architect Thelonious Monk once said, at a recording engineer’s demand for more rehearsal upon hearing the group’s performance in the studio, that “you rehearse every time you play your instrument.” How do we distinguish between preparation and action? In a world increasingly oversaturated with “content” often beholden to corporate interests rather than cultural touchstones, it is necessary to grapple with what it is that we practice and perform and why. Such grappling is the collective intellectual act NEXUS 2026 will facilitate: interdisciplinarity is the best way through this seemingly impenetrable fog of difference.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

The Chartiers explore concepts such as estimation, tiling, and infinity through classic mime illusions—building invisible walls, pulling unseen ropes, and donning masks covered in geometric forms.

In this theatre-in-the-round dinner event, mathematics and mime will be blended into a playful, visually rich performance that makes abstract ideas tangible.

Enormous thanks to the sponsors who are making this possible: the UT College of Arts and Sciences, the UT Department of Mathematics, and the Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America. This event will be both the Tennessee State Dinner for MAA-SE and the Spring 2026 invited guest event hosted by the Mathematics Innovative Teaching Laboratory at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

In this talk, Avinoam Patt will reflect on how and why April 19 became the focal point of Jewish memory of the Holocaust, and how the calendar of Holocaust memory has evolved since then.

This event is part of the Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts' 2025-26 Distinguished Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies program and the Department of Religious Studies.

Avinoam Patt is the Maurice Greenberg Professor of Holocaust Studies at New York University where he also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Antisemitism. He is the author of multiple books on Jewish responses to the Holocaust, including Finding Home and Homeland: Jewish Youth and Zionism in the Aftermath of the Holocaust (2009) and The Jewish Heroes of Warsaw: The Afterlife of the Revolt (2021). He is also co-editor of Laughter After: Humor and the Holocaust (2020) and Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust (2020). His newest books include Israel and the Holocaust (2024) and the document collection, The Surviving Remnant: Jewish Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany (2024).

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Title: An original energy-dissipative, length-preserving and convergent numerical scheme for the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation

Abstract: The Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation, regarded as a gradient flow with manifold constraint, is the fundamental model describing magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic materials. This equation exhibits highly nonlinear behavior and involves a non-convex manifold constraint, namely a point-wise unit length preservation, along with energy dissipation property. It is well known that the normalized tangent plane method is able to simultaneously achieve the non-convex manifold constraint and original energy dissipation. However, the associated computational cost of this numerical approach is exceedingly high. By contrast, the projection method is more straightforward to implement, while it often compromises the inherent energy dissipative property of the continuous model, and the error analysis turns out to be even more challenging. In this work, we first construct a linear and fully discrete finite difference numerical scheme, based on the projection method for the LLG equation, which is capable of simultaneously preserving the point-wise unit length and an unconditional original energy dissipation. In the error analysis, the classical theoretical technique becomes ineffective, due to the presence of the nonlinear Laplacian term, which in turn poses a significant challenge. To overcome this subtle difficulty, we carefully rewrite the numerical method in an equivalent weak form, in which a point-wise length preserving feature of the numerical solution plays an essential role. Based on such a reformulation, a nonlinear Laplacian estimate is avoided, and the rest nonlinear error bounds could be derived with the help of discrete Sobolev interpolation, as well as a Law-of-Cosine style estimate of the numerical errors at the renormalization stage. As a result of these estimates in the reformulated weak form, an optimal convergence rate could be theoretically established. In our knowledge, this numerical method is the first linear algorithm that preserves the following combined theoretical properties: (i) point-wise length preservation, (ii) unconditional original energy dissipation, (iii) a theoretical justification of convergence analysis and optimal rate error estimate. Some numerical experiments are presented to verify the theoretical findings and illustrate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Title: Zero sets for functions in the Dirichlet space.

Abstract: One of the first theorems that a student learns about analytic functions f on a region G in the complex plane is that, either f is identically 0, or f(z)=0 only for z in some discrete subset of G. The Weierstrass product theorem says the converse is true as well: If Z is a discrete subset of the region G, then there is an analytic function f whose zeros are precisely the points of Z, and one may even specify the multiplicity of the zeros. Similarly, given a Banach space B of analytic functions on G, it is of interest to determine which discrete subsets of G can be the zero set of some non-trivial function f in B. For some such Banach spaces we have explicit solutions, but for many spaces only partial solutions are known.

In these two talks I will discuss this problem for certain spaces of analytic functions in the unit disc. The emphasis will be on the Dirichlet space, which consists of all analytic functions, whose derivative is square integrable. I plan to explain some classical results and mention some new ones that were obtained jointly with Michael Hartz.

View on site | Email this event

Exhibiting students | Grace Sutt, Emma Toledo, Giantae Warblow, Julia Johnson, Iris Love, Sarah Redding, Tracy Yu, Lilian Call, Abbigail Corwin, Benjamin Sechrest, Gwen Aguilar, Ella Sykes, Emery Ball

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

with guest speaker Dr. Ronald A. Johnson

Entangled Alliances is a reinterpretation of the American Revolution through analysis of diplomacy in the emerging United States during decades of hemispheric transformation. Ronald Angelo Johnson brings to light the fascinating story of American patriots and rebels from Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) allying against European tyranny.

The American Revolution occurred between two of the greatest achievements in diplomacy of the eighteenth century: the peace treaties at Paris in 1763 and 1783. In Entangled Alliances, Johnson draws on original multilingual sources to offer readers fresh, lively stories in a timely study. While modern understandings of freedom are often linked to the US Declaration of Independence, Johnson argues that the desire of Black Atlantic inhabitants for liberty and their will to resist slavery predated the fateful standoff between minutemen and redcoats at Lexington and Concord.

Entangled Alliances is a US history of the American Revolution, fusing the search for freedom by Black and white founders in the United States and Saint-Domingue into a coherent story of collective resistance during the most explosive twenty-year period of the eighteenth century.

View on site | Email this event

Tittle: Discontinuities in the nonlocal Poisson equation: Analysis and a semi-analytic spectral method

Abstract: We explore the nonlocal Poisson equation with a discontinuous right-hand function $f$ in one spatial dimension. Whether the solution exhibits discontinuities depend both on the nature of the discontinuity of $f$ and the regularity of the integral kernel for the nonlocal operator. This study investigates how the kernel's regularity's influence the solution's discontinuities, shedding light on the interplay between these features in nonlocal models. In addition, we develop a semi-analytic spectral method to resolve discontinuities with high accuracy.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Jewish merchants — many of them originally from North Africa but with families that had settled in Fustat (Old Cairo) for one or more generations — were involved in long-distance trade of goods to and from the Indian Ocean littoral. The goods that passed east and west in this trade included dozens of varieties of textiles, botanical products and spices, metal objects and household items. This lecture explores the lives of these merchants and of the goods for which they risked perilous land and sea voyages. Jewish merchants often went via Nile and Red Sea ports all the way to present-day Gujarat and the Malabar coast to sell and buy goods. They kept records of their commercial transactions — shot through with their hopes and fears — in hundreds of letters, accounts and legal documents that were deposited in the Cairo Geniza. This lecture considers what these records can tell us about the merchants, as well as the free and enslaved laborers, middlemen, and the merchants’ own families back home who made their ventures possible.

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Title: Global Existence for Reaction-Diffusion Systems; History, Questions and Current Projects

Abstract: A brief overview of historical results will be presented, along with open questions and current progress from collaborations on a variety of projects related to systems with nonlocal and local diffusion.

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Title: Advancing a novel performance-based test of cognition and daily functioning for preclinical Alzheimer’s disease screening using secondary data: Bridging the computational and clinical gap

Abstract: Clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention face major challenges due to high screen-failure rates and substantial variability in disease progression, limiting their efficiency and statistical power. While blood-based biomarkers can identify underlying pathology, they do not reliably predict near-term cognitive decline.

In this talk, I will present a complementary, low-cost approach to trial enrichment using the Brief Evaluation of Cognition and Daily Function (BEan), a rapid, performance-based assessment of real-world cognitive functioning. Leveraging existing longitudinal cohort data, I will demonstrate how secondary data analysis can be used to evaluate and refine the BEan as a prognostic tool, showing its associations with cognitive and functional decline in asymptomatic older adults. I will also discuss how integrating behavioral measures with biomarker and imaging data can improve participant selection. More broadly, this work highlights how secondary data and computational methods can be used to bridge the gap between scalable measurement and clinical trial design in preclinical AD.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA

View on site | Email this event

Title: Uniform convergence of Pfaffian Point Process.

Abstract: Recent years have seen significant progress in understanding fluctuations in half-space models within the KPZ universality class. In this talk I will discuss a Pfaffian Schur process, which is a measure on a sequence of partitions, which was introduced by Borodin and Rains as a Pfaffian analog of the determinantal Schur processes introduced by Okounkov and Reshetikhin. The model we investigate arises in a half-quadrant last passage percolation model, which has i.i.d. geometric weights with parameter $\alpha \in (0,1)$ off of the main diagonal and with parameter $c \in (0, \alpha^{-1})$ on the main diagonal. We show that when $c$ is subcritical the line ensembles formed by the parts of our random partitions converge uniformly over compact sets to the Airy line ensemble; when $c$ is critically scaled with the size of the system the ensemble instead converges to the Airy wanderer line ensemble with a single parameter; and when $c$ is supercritical we will see both Gaussian and Airy line ensemble in the limit.

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

All students conducting undergraduate research in a related field are encouraged to apply. As a note, you do not need to be an EEB major or a member of the EEB Mentoring Committee to register for this symposium. Research may include honors theses, laboratory work (paid or volunteer), relevant internship research, and ecology and evolution themed course projects. Posters presented at EUReCA may also be presented at the UTK EEB Undergraduate Research Symposium. Posters will stay up during the entire session, but students will be expected to be at their poster presenting for at least two hours (either 10 - 12 or 12 - 2). Preferred windows can be indicated on the registration form.

Registration for the symposium is open now! Click here to register and submit your abstract.
Deadline: April 6th at 11:59pm. You must sign up to present!

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Date: April 29, 2026
Time: 2:30 – 5:00 PM
Location: UT Institute for Advanced Materials & Manufacturing, 2641 Osprey Vista Way, Room 147, Knoxville, TN 37920

CAMM is beginning early strategic planning for a potential third Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) as part of our NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). This session will bring together researchers to explore scientific opportunities that align with emerging national priorities and the future directions of NSF MRSEC programs.

The goal of the workshop is to generate ideas, identify potential collaborations, and begin shaping the scientific vision for a future IRG. The session will include several brief concept presentations followed by breakout discussions to explore promising directions in more depth.

Participants are encouraged to come prepared with short idea pitches (approximately 3–5 minutes) that address topics such as:

Emerging scientific opportunities in materials researchInterdisciplinary collaborations that could form the basis of an IRGConnections to national research priorities or major federal initiativesOpportunities for integrating research, education, and workforce development

To help familiarize participants with the MRSEC model and the structure of IRGs, you may find the following information helpful:

NSF MRSEC Program Overview

NSF MRSEC Program Solicitation (NSF 26-500)

Examples of MRSEC IRG research structures

UTK-MRSEC NSF Award Details

What is a MRSEC (pronounced "MER-sek")?

The NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) program supports interdisciplinary materials research and education at universities across the United States. MRSECs bring together researchers from multiple departments and disciplines to address fundamental scientific challenges in materials science while integrating education, outreach, and workforce development.

Key elements of MRSECs include:

Interdisciplinary research teamsIntegration of theory, computation, and experimentEducation and workforce development initiativesPartnerships with national labs, industry, and other institutionsBroad societal impact and community engagementWhat is an IRG?

An Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) is the central research unit within an MRSEC. Each IRG focuses on a cohesive scientific theme that requires expertise from multiple disciplines and research approaches.

Typical IRG characteristics include:

A focused, high-impact research themeCollaboration across multiple departments and fieldsIntegration of experimental, theoretical, and computational approachesMultiple faculty investigators working toward shared scientific goalsOpportunities for graduate and undergraduate trainingIRGs typically involve 5–10 faculty investigators and support students, postdocs, and collaborative research infrastructure.

Please RSVP here if you are interested in participating, and feel free to share this invitation with colleagues who may have relevant expertise.

View on site | Email this event

Date: April 29, 2026
Time: 2:30 – 5:00 PM
Location: UT Institute for Advanced Materials & Manufacturing, 2641 Osprey Vista Way, Room 147, Knoxville, TN 37920

CAMM is beginning early strategic planning for a potential third Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) as part of our NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). This session will bring together researchers to explore scientific opportunities that align with emerging national priorities and the future directions of NSF MRSEC programs.

The goal of the workshop is to generate ideas, identify potential collaborations, and begin shaping the scientific vision for a future IRG. The session will include several brief concept presentations followed by breakout discussions to explore promising directions in more depth.

Participants are encouraged to come prepared with short idea pitches (approximately 3–5 minutes) that address topics such as:

Emerging scientific opportunities in materials researchInterdisciplinary collaborations that could form the basis of an IRGConnections to national research priorities or major federal initiativesOpportunities for integrating research, education, and workforce development

To help familiarize participants with the MRSEC model and the structure of IRGs, you may find the following information helpful:

NSF MRSEC Program Overview

NSF MRSEC Program Solicitation (NSF 26-500)

Examples of MRSEC IRG research structures

UTK-MRSEC NSF Award Details

What is a MRSEC (pronounced "MER-sek")?

The NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) program supports interdisciplinary materials research and education at universities across the United States. MRSECs bring together researchers from multiple departments and disciplines to address fundamental scientific challenges in materials science while integrating education, outreach, and workforce development.

Key elements of MRSECs include:

Interdisciplinary research teamsIntegration of theory, computation, and experimentEducation and workforce development initiativesPartnerships with national labs, industry, and other institutionsBroad societal impact and community engagementWhat is an IRG?

An Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) is the central research unit within an MRSEC. Each IRG focuses on a cohesive scientific theme that requires expertise from multiple disciplines and research approaches.

Typical IRG characteristics include:

A focused, high-impact research themeCollaboration across multiple departments and fieldsIntegration of experimental, theoretical, and computational approachesMultiple faculty investigators working toward shared scientific goalsOpportunities for graduate and undergraduate trainingIRGs typically involve 5–10 faculty investigators and support students, postdocs, and collaborative research infrastructure.

Please RSVP here if you are interested in participating, and feel free to share this invitation with colleagues who may have relevant expertise.

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Considered one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times, the Tony Award-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, written by George Kaufman and Moss Hart, is a celebration of individuality, love, and the belief that happiness cannot be measured by material wealth.

“It’s an over-the-top, old-fashioned comedy and feel-good crowd-pleaser.” – AM New York

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Due to the enthusiastic response of last year, we are repeating our Ice Cream Social at the Greenhouse! Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics faculty and staff are invited to mingle, enjoy a sweet treat, and explore the Hesler Greenhouse at this end-of-semester social. Stop by between 1-4 p.m. and join Dean Kate Jones and your colleagues to reflect on the year together, and enjoy ice cream from UT Creamery.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

The day-long workshop is designed for scholars interested in moving from academic research projects to commercial publishing, guiding authors from conceptualizing the project to publication. Workshop topics will include working with literary agents, types of books sought by trade publishers, and the different aims and audiences of trade publishing.

Please submit a 250-word summary of a current research project and statement of interest, along with an updated 2-page CV to the Denbo Center at humanitiesctr@utk.edu by email no later than 5pm on May 1, 2026.

Contact the Denbo Center at 974-9921 or humanitiesctr@utk.edu for more information.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event

Title: Facets of complexity in chemotactic aggregation

Abstract: Keller-Segel type cross-diffusion systems have been playing an outstanding role in the understanding of various patterning phenomena in biology. Concentrating on issues of predominant application relevance, the description of taxis-driven explosions has been among the most challenging topics in their analysis, and a natural focus of the literature in this regard is on the characterization of solution behavior near collapse. The presentation aims at reporting both on classical and on some recent developments, with a particular focus on the identification of circumstances under which solutions either must blow up at single points only, or alternatively may form singularities throughout larger regions in space.

View on site | Email this event

This event is for veterans only. We want to do more than thank veterans for their service.

The event is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Tenneseans and War, the Veterans Success Center, and the Department of History.

View on site | Email this event

View on site | Email this event