{"id":1196,"date":"2026-04-22T09:36:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:36:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:36:44","slug":"ise-bestows-honors-at-awards-banquet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/ise-bestows-honors-at-awards-banquet\/","title":{"rendered":"ISE Bestows Honors at Awards Banquet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Students, faculty, and alumni were recently honored at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Awards Banquet, held April 10 at Regas Square.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The banquet opened with remarks from department head Mingzhou Jin and included student chapter updates, recognition of graduates, department awards, and a Hall of Honor induction.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">ISE\u2019s 2026 Awards<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:2880,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"font-size: 20px\">Outstanding Undergraduate Students<\/h3>\n<p><i>Selected by ISE faculty to recognize students whose accomplishments in the department set the standard for excellence for future students<\/i><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><strong>Junior recipient:<\/strong> Faith Keating\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><strong>Senior recipient:<\/strong> Katherine Koester\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-size: 20px\">Outstanding Graduate Student<\/h3>\n<p><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Selected by ISE faculty to honor one graduate student for excellence in research, academic performance, leadership, and service<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Madelaine Idalides Martinez Ferguson<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-size: 20px\">Outstanding Professor<\/h3>\n<p><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Selected by ISE students for excellence in education and service<\/span><\/i><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/faculty\/william-hicks\/\">William \u201cBill\u201d Hicks<\/a>, Lecturer<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-size: 20px\">Kirby Faculty Award<\/h3>\n<p><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Dr. Kenneth E. Kirby endowed faculty award recognizes faculty excellence in teaching, research, and contributions to the mission of the Department of Industrial &amp; Systems Engineering. The endowed award was established by alumni to honor Dr. Kirby, Associate Professor Emeritus, for his impact on the academic experiences and subsequent careers of hundreds of ISE alum.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/faculty\/bing-yao\/\">Bing Yao<\/a>, Dan Doulet Early Career Assistant Professor and Director of the RME Program<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-size: 20px\">Kessel Faculty Award<\/h3>\n<p><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The award was created to recognize the \u201ccreative and effective integration of current research into the academic curriculum.\u201d The basis for selection is exceptional classroom performance combined with an effective research agenda or program development.<\/span><\/i><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/faculty\/gary-null\/\">Gary Null<\/a>, Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs and Assistant Professor of Practice<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-size: 20px\">ISE Hall of Honor Inductee<\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Joe C. Cook, Jr. (BS\/ISE, \u201965)<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:360,&quot;335559731&quot;:360,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students, faculty, and alumni were recently honored at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Awards Banquet, held April 10 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":1197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,99,19,3,38],"tags":[86,315,316,314],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-awards","category-department-news","category-full-time-adjunct-faculty","category-ise-students","tag-bing-yao","tag-gary-null","tag-joe-c-cook","tag-william-bill-hicks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>ISE Bestows Honors at Awards Banquet - Industrial and Systems Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Students, faculty, and alumni were honored at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Awards Banquet.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/ise-bestows-honors-at-awards-banquet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ISE Bestows Honors at Awards Banquet - Industrial and Systems Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Students, faculty, and alumni were honored at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Awards Banquet.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/ise-bestows-honors-at-awards-banquet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Industrial and Systems Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T13:36:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/ise\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/04\/Jin-and-Cook-1500x1000-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ashlyn Kittrell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ashlyn Kittrell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tickle.utk.edu\\\/ise\\\/ise-bestows-honors-at-awards-banquet\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tickle.utk.edu\\\/ise\\\/ise-bestows-honors-at-awards-banquet\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ashlyn Kittrell\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tickle.utk.edu\\\/ise\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3b0fd11d83b771eba159678fc6920b12\"},\"headline\":\"ISE Bestows Honors at Awards Banquet\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-22T13:36:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tickle.utk.edu\\\/ise\\\/ise-bestows-honors-at-awards-banquet\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":264,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tickle.utk.edu\\\/ise\\\/ise-bestows-honors-at-awards-banquet\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tickle.utk.edu\\\/ise\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Jin-and-Cook-1500x1000-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bing Yao\",\"Gary Null\",\"Joe C. 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