UT Department of Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science

04/09/2026

Proud to highlight Katy Daniels, a Biosystems Engineering PhD student at UT Knoxville and finalist in the Graves Business Plan Competition!

Her venture, The Henry BnB, transforms a multi-generational Appalachian family farm into an immersive agritourism farm-stay—offering guests hands-on experiences like livestock care, gardening, and beekeeping while preserving rural heritage and creating sustainable farm income.

With 12M+ annual Smoky Mountain visitors and family farms disappearing nationwide, Katy is building a business that bridges the gap. Go Katy! 🧡🌿🐝

04/07/2026

Excited to share good news for BESS at UT Knoxville—our Biosystems Engineering graduate program is ranked #20 among public universities in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Graduate Schools (released April 7).

Big thanks to our faculty, students, staff, and partners—this reflects the work you’re doing every day.

More here: (https://lnkd.in/e27kzd_y)

Herbert College of Agriculture
University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture

04/05/2026

Congratulations to Ahmad Amirivojdan on winning third place in the Research Poster Presentation at the AI in Agriculture Conference 2026 held at NC State University in Raleigh.

His poster presentation, “ChickenMAE: Large-Scale Self-Supervised Visual Representation Learning for Poultry Behavior Analysis,” was completed under the mentorship of Dr. Gan Hao.

We congratulate Ahmad on this outstanding achievement and are proud to celebrate his success.
University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture
Herbert College of Agriculture

04/05/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer DeBruyn and Dr. Jie Zhuang from BESS on being named 2025 AAAS Fellows.

Their election reflects the impact of their research and their outstanding contributions to science. We are proud to celebrate this well-deserved recognition.

12/09/2025

12/04/2025

CSM Capstone presentation! "Cornerstone Contracting" (CSM Seniors Penelope Roccia, John Woods, Matthew Hickin, Harris Brim and Garret Liles) presented their Capstone Project. "Cornerstone Contracting" was bidding for the contract for building Morristown Firestation 3. Well done team and instructor Daniel Sain 🎉👏🎉

12/01/2025

3 BESS/ESS undergrads presented at today's Herbert Undergraduate Research Poster Celebration.

Olivia Wheelock (mentors Stacy Taylor, Jennifer DeBruyn), Avery Hood (mentors Rachel Wooliver and Sindhu Jagadamma) and Jannat Bahanni (mentor Joe Zhuang) presented their posters 👏👏👏

11/26/2025

BESS is wishing you hope, joy, peace, good health, favor, and love (and pumpkin or pecan pie) on this Thanksgiving Day!🪾🍁🌞🥧

11/24/2025

Jason Koehler (BS ESS and MS BsET (May 2025 mentor Dr. Buchanan)) completed the Appalachian Trail!!!

Way to go Jason!!! 🎉🎉🎉

11/24/2025

Hurricane Helene Flood Recovery Team is the winner of the 2025 Tennessee Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta Team Award - congratulations 🎉 👏

11/24/2025

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