Armsworth receives SEC Faculty Achievement Award

(Press-News.org) Paul Armsworth, Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has received a 2025 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award for excellence in teaching, research and service.

He and the 15 other recipients this year — one from each SEC member university — are now nominated for the SEC Professor of the Year Award, which will be announced later in the spring.

“I am thrilled to receive this recognition, but it is also very humbling to be celebrated in this way because all science, and ours in particular, is a team sport,” said Armsworth, who joined UT in 2009. “My students and colleagues here at UT and at other universities who work with us on conservation questions, as well as our partners in conservation practice, are the source of new research questions and ideas. They’re the ones who implement our research and are doing the critical work to protect species and ecosystems on which we all depend.”

“Dr. Armsworth exemplifies UT’s commitment to excellence in research, teaching and service and is a deserving recipient of the SEC Faculty Achievement Award,” said Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor John Zomchick. “This recognition reflects his profound impact on both his field and our academic community.”

It is Armsworth’s interdisciplinary approach to conservation biology that makes him stand out, said Kate Jones, professor and divisional dean of natural sciences and mathematics within UT’s College of Arts and Sciences.

“Dr. Armsworth sees connections between the natural world and humans  and looks at all aspects of conservation biology in a very interconnected way,” she said. “His research bridges ecological and economic dimensions of conservation, considering disparate but intertwined issues such as public support for conservation, data relating to species locations and the management required to support their survival. These issues become significant when protected areas attract development, or a decision needs to be made to protect sites that may be costly but in immediate danger over more remote sites that may be cheaper to acquire.”

Inside the classroom, Armsworth exemplifies an experiential style of teaching that makes him a favorite among students, Jones added. He brings professionals from a broad swath of conservation careers to his class and offers exceptional research experiences to undergraduates in addition to mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in his lab.

“We integrate research into the classroom, we integrate students into our research and everything we do is in service of improving conservation efforts,” Armsworth said. “Students learn about the science-to-policy interface. Meanwhile, those students are applying what they’re learning  to projects that are supporting our state and NGO partners as they develop conservation plans in the real world.”

The work benefits both the mountains of East Tennessee and the greater Southeast.

“Here in our region, we are in a biodiversity hotspot,” Armsworth said. “We have unique species that are found nowhere else on the planet. That means we carry disproportionate responsibility for the protection of some groups such as salamanders, mussels and crayfishes.”

Protecting ecosystems provides important benefits not just to flora and fauna but to people throughout the region as well — from offering recreation opportunities to helping purify water to sequestering carbon to improve air quality.

“And  all of that is all very interdisciplinary,” Armsworth said. “The world is an interdisciplinary place. So we are chasing ecological questions. We’re using mathematical, computational, statistical approaches. We’re weaving spatial data. We’re collaborating with economists and public policy experts. We’re working with environmental anthropologists talking with communities in these regions.

“We couldn’t approach these things without that combination, that coming together of disciplines,” he added. “It is done with and for partners, and it also couldn’t be done without them.”

For more than a decade, the SEC has used its SEC Faculty Achievement Award to honor faculty. The program was established in 2012 by the conference’s presidents and chancellors.

Previous winners from UT are Alison Buchan, Professor of Microbiology; Elbio Dagatto, Distinguished Professor of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics; Louis Gross, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; J. Wesley Hines, Postelle Professor and Chancellor’s Professor of Nuclear Engineering; Suzanne Lenhart, Chancellor’s Professor and James R. Cox Professor of Mathematics; Hap McSween, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Earth and Planetary Sciences; Susan Riechert, Distinguished Service Professor and Chancellor’s Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Tony Schmitz, Richard Rosenberg Distinguished Professor of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering; Daniel Simberloff, Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Science; Gregory Stuart, Professor of Psychology; Carol Tenopir, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Information Sciences; Leon Tolbert, Chancellor’s Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and Penny White, Professor Emerita of Law.

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