Accolades: Super(conductor) Award for Zamperini, Burks-Jelks Speaks for MLK Day, Bennett Makes Journal Cover
Zamperini Brings Home Super(conductor) Award
Shawn Zamperini, graduate research assistant in nuclear engineering, earned best presentation at the 2019 ITER International School in Korea in January.
The unique award is an engraved section of the superconductor used in ITER, a multinational nuclear fusion experiment underway in France. Zamperini attended via scholarship from the US Burning Plasma Organization.
UTSI’s Patricia Burks-Jelks Speaks for MLK Day
Patricia Burks-Jelks, human resources director at the UT Space Institute, spoke at the Martin Luther King (MLK) Memorial Foundation event in Winchester, Tennessee, on Sunday, January 20. This year’s event focused on the future of the community and ways that youth can contribute to help it grow. Burks-Jelks, a native of Franklin County, brought inspiration to the youth she spoke to.
“This occasion gives each of us an opportunity to reflect on the life of Dr. King and to emulate his work to make our community a place to be proud of,” said Burks-Jelks. “Each of us can make a difference, one person at a time.”
The UTSI family is honored to have Burks-Jelks as human services director. She is also the state chair for the American Council on Education for Women in Higher Education (WHET), chair of the Franklin County Faith Based Recovery Coalition, and a member of the County Community Association. She serves in the music ministry at New Hope Church of God in Christ in Cowan, Tennessee. One of her goals in life—inspired by her love of family—is to help others and the community.
Bennett Makes the Cover for Journal Launch
Chemical and biomolecular engineering graduate student, Tyler Bennett, had the honor of his article, “Jolly green MOF: confinement and photoactivation of photosystem I in a metal–organic framework,” being selected as the inaugural cover of journal, Nanoscale Advances (Nanoscale Adv., 2019, 1, 94).
The article co-authors are Bennett, Michael D. Vaughn, Seyyed Ali Davari, Kiman Park, Dibyendu Mukherjee, and Bamin Khomami.