{"id":4942,"date":"2026-03-28T05:26:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T05:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/28\/four-faculty-elected-2025-aaas-fellows-university-of-tennessee-knoxville\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T05:26:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T05:26:59","slug":"four-faculty-elected-2025-aaas-fellows-university-of-tennessee-knoxville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/28\/four-faculty-elected-2025-aaas-fellows-university-of-tennessee-knoxville\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Faculty Elected 2025 AAAS Fellows – University of Tennessee, Knoxville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four faculty members at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have been elected\u202f2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science<\/a>,\u00a0one of the most prestigious honors a\u00a0scientist\u00a0can receive. The\u00a0honor recognizes\u00a0efforts across disciplines \u2014 including research, teaching and technology as well as leadership in academia and industry.\u00a0In recognition of their extraordinary achievements, AAAS Fellows are elected to a lifetime appointment by their peers on the AAAS Council.
UT\u00a0has shown sustained strength in AAAS Fellowship recognition, with multiple faculty members elected each year.\u00a0The latest additions bring the university\u2019s total number of AAAS Fellows to\u00a0103.
This year\u2019s\u00a0elected faculty\u00a0are\u00a0Brad Binder\u00a0of the\u00a0College of Arts and Science\u2019s\u00a0Department of Biochemistry and Cellular Molecular Biology, Jennifer DeBruyn\u00a0and Jie Zhuang of the\u00a0UT Institute of Agriculture\u2019s Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, and Elisabeth Schussler\u00a0of the\u00a0College of Arts and Science\u2019s\u00a0Department of\u00a0Ecology and Evolutionary\u00a0Biology.
\u201cThe election of these faculty members as AAAS Fellows reflects the strength and influence\u00a0of UT\u2019s research community,\u201d said Deborah Crawford, vice chancellor for research,\u00a0innovation\u00a0and economic development. \u201cTheir\u00a0bold and innovative\u00a0work\u00a0is expanding knowledge, confronting challenges\u00a0across the globe and\u00a0inspiring tomorrow\u2019s scientific leaders.\u201d
Brad Binder <\/strong>
A professor and the associate head of UT\u2019s Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology<\/a>,\u00a0Brad Binder\u00a0works\u00a0to understand how plants perceive and\u00a0respond to signals from their environment by studying\u00a0signal transduction \u2014 how\u00a0cells detect\u00a0cues and convert them into biological responses. His research centers on\u00a0ethylene,\u00a0which is both a simple gas and a plant hormone.
\u201cIt\u2019s unusual that\u00a0a gas\u00a0is a hormone,\u201d he said. \u201cUnlike something like adrenaline in humans, ethylene diffuses. One plant can make it, and neighboring plants are exposed to it. That has fascinating implications.\u201d
Ethylene is not only scientifically intriguing but also economically significant, with its ripening effect contributing to\u00a0billions of dollars in post-harvest losses each year.\u00a0Binder\u2019s lab\u00a0has\u00a0uncovered a beneficial effect of brief exposure\u00a0to\u00a0ethylene:\u00a0priming plants to grow larger and become more tolerant to stress.
In the past decade, his research has expanded beyond plants into bacteria and fungi.
Binder\u2019s\u00a0work\u00a0sheds light on\u00a0how one molecule\u00a0in nature exerts profound effects across plants and microbes.
Jennifer DeBruyn\u00a0<\/strong>
A professor of environmental microbiology in UT\u2019s Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which is\u00a0ranked among the top agricultural and biological engineering graduate programs in the U.S.<\/a> \u2014 DeBruyn studies how microbial communities break down organic materials\u00a0from agricultural plastics to animal and human\u00a0remains.
\u201cDecomposition is fundamental to how ecosystems function,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we didn\u2019t have decomposers\u00a0or\u00a0microbes\u00a0to fuel that process, the planet would be covered in dead things.\u201d
When she first began studying the\u00a0microbial community associated with\u00a0decomposition \u2014\u00a0called the\u00a0necrobiome \u2014 nearly 15\u00a0years ago, little was known about which microbes were involved or how they functioned. A collaboration with UT\u2019s\u00a0internationally renowned\u00a0forensic anthropology researchers opened the door to a new field of inquiry.
DeBruyn also\u00a0studies\u00a0how microbes interact with agricultural plastics and the microplastics they produce.\u00a0As plastic use in farming has increased, so have concerns about microplastics accumulating in soil.\u00a0Her group is working to understand what that means for soil and ecosystem health.
Her work reveals the unseen biological systems that keep ecosystems functioning and offers new ways to\u00a0understand\u00a0waste, death and sustainability in a changing world.
Looking ahead, DeBruyn is particularly interested in the science behind green\u00a0burials \u2014 practices designed to reduce the environmental footprint of human\u00a0burials.
Elisabeth Schussler\u00a0<\/strong>
A\u00a0professor\u00a0in UT\u2019s\u00a0Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 which\u00a0is in the top\u00a010%\u00a0of ecology programs in North America based on research impact \u2014 Schussler studies how instructor practices and departmental culture shape student\u00a0learning and outcomes.
\u201cI\u2019ve always been really interested in the power of instruction,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we do in classrooms\u00a0shapes\u00a0the student experience,\u00a0sometimes without\u00a0us\u00a0even knowing it.\u201d
A\u00a0major\u00a0focus of her research is\u00a0student anxiety, particularly in large introductory biology\u00a0courses. Her work has shown that anxiety levels vary\u00a0not only across different courses and instructors\u00a0but also\u00a0within\u00a0sections of the same\u00a0course taught by the same professor,\u00a0affecting how students experience the same content.
Schussler also\u00a0focuses on graduate teaching assistant professional development. In many large science courses, teaching assistants serve as the primary point of contact for first-year students, yet\u00a0they\u00a0often receive little formal training in teaching.
Since 2013, she has helped lead a national research coordination network examining how departments support TA professional development.\u00a0As she\u00a0works\u00a0with\u00a0collaborators across multiple universities, her research investigates the factors that influence whether departments invest in training graduate instructors.\u00a0The goal is to develop a model that departments can use to assess their own practices and create more effective systems of teaching support.
As a biology education researcher working within a science department, Schussler occupies a space that is still relatively uncommon. She is proud to\u00a0represent\u00a0a growing community of scholars who treat education research with the same rigor as laboratory science.
Jie\u00a0Zhuang\u00a0<\/strong>
Zhuang, a professor in the\u00a0Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the faculty lead of UT\u2019s cluster\u00a0hiring initiative in resilient agriculture\u00a0and forest\u00a0systems<\/a>,\u00a0works\u00a0to understand how water, nutrients and contaminants move through\u00a0soil\u00a0in\u00a0hopes\u00a0to improve\u00a0soil\u00a0health for agriculture, clean water and resilient ecosystems.
Much of his work focuses on the constantly changing patterns of contaminant\u00a0water movement that occur in natural environments due to rainfall. Unlike steady laboratory conditions, real soils experience fluctuating water velocity and pressure, making contaminant transport and distribution difficult to predict. Understanding those processes is\u00a0critical\u00a0to\u00a0maintaining\u00a0soil health, reducing pathogen risks and protecting groundwater and surface water.
Zhuang also researches\u00a0the connections between food, energy and water. Rather than examining one problem at a time, he studies how agricultural, water and energy systems interact and how to reduce trade-offs between them.
\u201cWe don\u2019t want food, energy and water systems competing for resources,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want them to become mutually beneficial.\u201d
Zhuang currently\u00a0works\u00a0on supporting smallholder farms, which make up\u00a0nearly 90%\u00a0of the\u00a0roughly two\u00a0million farms in the United States. While large farms can often adopt expensive precision technologies, small farms frequently\u00a0cannot.
\u201cWe are trying to develop efficient but cost-effective solutions,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to transform smallholder farms into circular bioeconomy systems, which can make agriculture regenerative.\u201d
Those systems emphasize reuse of local resources \u2014 from animal manure to crop residues \u2014 and incorporate wastewater reuse and renewable energy to create more self-sustaining agricultural operations.
A\u00a0particularly proud moment for Zhuang was serving as corresponding editor of the recently published Handbook of Circular Bioeconomy<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0a project that brought together world-class scholars from\u00a017\u00a0countries.
\u2014
MEDIA CONTACT:
Tyra Haag (865-974-5460, tyra.haag@tennessee.edu<\/a>)
Report an accessibility barrier<\/a><\/p>\n

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Four faculty members at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have been elected\u202f2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,\u00a0one of the most prestigious honors a\u00a0scientist\u00a0can receive. The\u00a0honor recognizes\u00a0efforts across disciplines \u2014 including research, teaching and technology as well as leadership in academia and industry.\u00a0In recognition of their extraordinary achievements, AAAS Fellows are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}