Tiger Pride

The C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa received the New Sponsor of the Year Award from AmeriCorps. The award recognizes the unique role the museum has played in coordinating service projects between AmeriCorps teams and community partners in southwest Memphis.

Dr. Rosie Phillips Bingham, vice president of Student Affairs, has been named a Distinguished Elder by the National Multicultural Conference and Summit. The award honors individuals who have been pioneers in recognizing the importance of addressing multicultural issues in the field of psychology, its practice, theory, education and training.

The U of M Opera won first place in its category in the National Opera Association's Production Competition for the 2011 production of Mozart's Idomeneo. This is the second win for the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, following its 2008 production of Hansel and Gretel.

Dr. Firouzeh Sabri, an assistant professor of physics, and her collaborator, Dr. Jeffrey Marchetta, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, received a TN-SCORE Research Stimulation Award. They won the award for the study of Aerogel-based Nanomaterial Insulation for Energy Conservation of Industrial Burners. Only two such awards were made in Tennessee this year.

U of M President Shirley Raines has been honored with the Woman of Achievement Award from Women in Higher Education in Tennessee (WHET).

Our audiology program is ranked 12th and speech-language pathology is ranked 15th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in its Best Graduate Schools 2013 issue.

Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, professor of computer science, and a colleague at MIT have received a $853,289 grant to develop a biologically inspired way to secure computer information and networked systems. The funding from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity will support development of a negative authentication system, which is expected to shield password-protected information systems from cyber-attacks.

Dr. Stan Hyland, professor of anthropology and head of the School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy, has been selected to receive the 2012 Solon T. Kimball Award for Public and Applied Anthropology.

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded the University of Memphis and Georgia State University, along with four other universities in the United States and Canada, a five-year, $10 million grant to establish a new research center that will support research focusing on ways to improve adult literacy in the United States.

With more than 1,850 participants, the Helen Hardin Honors Program is in its 37th year. The program is the largest in the state of Tennessee.

The Rehabilitation Counseling program in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences was ranked 17th in the country in the U.S. News and World Report Best Graduate Schools 2013 issue.

The Office of Naval Research selected the University of Memphis as one of four winners of its STEM Grand Challenge. The winning academic and industry teams will develop affordable digital tutoring software to improve the science, technology, engineering and math knowledge of middle and high school students.

The defensive driving course offered through the University of Memphis, Alive at 25, has received a Best Performance Award from the National Safety Council. This is the fifth year the U of M program has been honored.

Two U of M associate professors, Dr. Brian Waldron and Dr. Arleen Hill, were honored with First Responder Awards from the state of Tennessee for their roles in protecting citizens during the summer 2011 Mississippi River flooding.

Four University of Memphis students received a national Jefferson Award as part of the Youth Service Challenge. The students, who are active in the Hardin Honors Program, received the award for their environmental work cleaning up McKellar Lake in south Memphis.

The Systems Testing Excellence Program (STEP) at the FedEx Institute of Technology represents the largest interdisciplinary group of academic researchers working to advance both the theoretical science of software testing and empirically validated best-practices in industry. It also serves as the research and training partner of the Global Testing Center of Excellence at FedEx Corp. and has a close partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense.

The National Wildlife Federation has recognized the University of Memphis as an official Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Our Center for Earthquake Research and Information maintains a 144-station seismic network throughout the southeastern United States for earthquake monitoring, and conducts scientific research on all continents of the world.

The University of Memphis received a $111,490 grant from the National Science Foundation to partially fund undergraduate student design projects that aim to assist people with general or age-related mobility issues.

Washington Monthly magazine ranked the University of Memphis 51st among 281 schools based on their contributions to the public good in social mobility, research and service. The publication rated the U of M fifth in the service category.

Roots of the Olive Tree, the debut novel of Courtney Miller Santo, was released in five countries. Santo is the creative writing program administrator in the Department of English.

The University of Memphis won the 2012 Conference USA Men's Golf Championship.