Virtual Science Club (VSC) resumed on September 5, 2023, and continue until February 6, 2024. During November and December, VSC will meet once a month on Tuesday nights at 7:00 PM EDT in observance of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Meetings will increase to twice a month on Tuesday nights at 7:00 PM EDT during non-holiday months. Meeting details will be announced throughout the season.
VSC provides free programming to assist students and teachers in developing STEM skills and to motivate students to enter the upcoming Southern Appalachian Science & Engineering Fair (SASEF), which will be held in person on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus on March 26, 2024.
Students and teachers from Central and West Tennessee are also welcome.
To register for a VSC meeting, click on the date you’d like to register for and follow the prompts! On the day of the meeting, you will receive an email with the Zoom link. See you there!
Past Sessions & Recordings
- The Virtual Science Club
- The Southern Appalachian Science & Engineering Fair
- How to structure a STEM project
- Go into breakout rooms by research area to meet your UTK graduate student mentor that will be hosting sessions monthly through January. The four research areas to choose from are:
- Human Sciences
- Behavioral & Social Sciences
- Medicine & Health Sciences
- Natural Sciences
- Animal Sciences
- Biochemistry
- Cellular & Molecular Biology
- Environmental Sciences
- Microbiology
- Plant Sciences
- Physical Sciences
- Chemistry
- Earth & Planetary Science
- Environmental Management
- Physics & Astronomy
- Engineering & Math
- Computer Science
- Engineering: Electrical & Mechanical
- Engineering: Materials & Bioengineering
- Energy & Transportation
- Mathematical Sciences
Recorded Meeting: 09.05.23 – VSC Human Sciences
Recorded Meeting: 09.05.23: VSC Engineering & Math
Session Description: What else can trees and grasses bring to our life?
Dr. Mi Li is an Assistant Professor in Biorefinery and Biopolymer Chemistry at the Center of Renewable Carbon, School of Natural Resources, University of Tennessee Knoxville. Before that, he was a post-doc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. in Wood Science from Auburn University and his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering at Northeast Forestry University in China.
He also serves as the Chair of the ES-220 Bio-based Energy, Fuels, and Products Committee for the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. He received the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe 2021 Junior Faculty Award and the Distinguished Achievement Award 2017 of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He focuses on developing bio-derived functional materials and chemically recyclable polymers from renewable plant resource (https://mili.utk.edu).
Recorded Meeting: 09.19.23 – Dr. Mi Li
Dr. Andi Lear holds a DVM from Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. While performing a large animal internal medicine residency, with an emphasis in livestock medicine and surgery, at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine, she received a MS. Dr. Lear joined the Farm Animal Field Service team at the University Of Tennessee and concurrently attained her PhD in immunology and infectious disease. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at the University Of Tennessee College Of Veterinary Medicine. Her clinical interests include livestock medicine and surgery, small ruminant and camelid herd management, herd disease investigation, and neonatology. Her research interests focus on both basic understanding of infectious disease during pregnancy and clinically relevant diagnostics/interventions.
Session Description:
“A day in the life of a veterinarian scientist”
This session will describe a career path into animal agriculture and specifically discuss becoming a veterinary scientist. The session will also describe clinical based research to advance the well-being of agriculture animals today and the use of livestock as a model for human disease.
Recorded Meeting: 10.24.23 – Dr. Andi Lear
Session Description:Congratulations to CAK 8th grader, Kristen Moor! She was named to the Top 300 in the 2023 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge for her ‘AI Recycling Assistant’ project.
She was selected from nearly 2,000 students from 49 states, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico who applied to compete in the Thermo Fisher JIC.
Recorded Meeting: 11.07.23 – Kristen Moor, Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge
Jolene Martin is a 35-year NASA Veteran who began her career in the Science and Engineering Laboratory at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. After the Space Shuttle Challenger accident, as a relatively new hire, she was quickly pulled into the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) “O-ring joint” redesign. She was later temporarily moved to KSC to help perform final preparation of the redesigned SRB for its maiden flight.
Over the years she has held various technical, programmatic and managerial positions. Her supervisory role began as the Propulsion Integration Manager in the Space Shuttle Program Office. As an integration project manager she was over divisions with a wide range of responsibilities from integrating budgets and schedule that were presented in Washington DC, to Space Shuttle Launch vehicle system engineering analysis (Aerodynamics, Thermal dynamics, Electromagnetic Effects). Her leadership included management of MSFC’s Shuttle Engineering Support Center (SESC). The SESC provided on-console day-of-launch propulsion engineering expertise. After the retirement of the Space Shuttle, Jolene was assigned to manage the SRB Manufacturing Facility at Kennedy Space Center to ensure the smooth transition of necessary SRB Components to the new Space Launch Systems (SLS) Program (https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html) or to have them placed into retirement/museums.
Prior to her retirement, she was the Manager of the Government’s SLS Safety and Quality Program at the Booster component Manufacturing Facilities. Over the years, Jolene has received numerous Awards such as the Federal Women Supervisor of the Year and the Human Space Flight Managerial award, and has received executive training at several prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Brookings Institute, Wallops and Georgetown University. After retirement, Jolene become involved in various engineering and non-engineering, mainly volunteer, endeavors. Her interests include jogging, writing, camping, traveling, reading, boating, mentoring and volunteering. She has two married children and own and operate an Airbnb business with her husband.
Future Sessions
Ms. Swientoniewski will be presenting on the science behind food allergies, specifically nut allergies. She will highlight her work on cross-reactivity between various nuts and discuss current research on potential therapies for nut allergies.
Session Description: No formal presentation or session. Stop by any time for 5 minutes or for the full hour, or anywhere in between! We will be on Zoom to answer any and all questions you may have about the Southern Appalachian Science & Engineering Fair (SASEF). Students are welcome to come by and ask about their project or abstract, their poster, their optional video, etc. Teachers are welcome to stop by to check in on their students’ registrations, ask questions about event day in March, etc. If you can’t make office hours contact us any time at prep@utk.edu or call 865-974-9493.
SASEF Categories – What breakout session to attend?
One meeting per month will feature smaller “breakout” sessions separated into the following four research areas. Each research area’s breakout room will have mentors including a UT graduate student, at least one science and engineering professional, and at least one SASEF board member. These mentors will assist students with questions about STEM activities particularly focusing on those activities that will support a SASEF project.
- Human Sciences
- Behavioral & Social Sciences
- Medicine & Health Sciences
- Natural Sciences
- Animal Sciences
- Biochemistry
- Cellular & Molecular Biology
- Environmental Sciences
- Microbiology
- Plant Sciences
- Physical Sciences
- Chemistry
- Earth & Planetary Science
- Environmental Management
- Physics & Astronomy
- Engineering & Math
- Computer Science
- Engineering: Electrical & Mechanical
- Engineering: Materials & Bioengineering
- Energy & Transportation
- Mathematical Sciences
Meet The Research Area Mentors
Sandra Peña, Human Sciences Mentor
Sandra Peña works full time in public health as an infectious disease epidemiologist, while also being a part-time MS student at UTK studying Entomology. Sandra plans on blending her current work interests with her growing knowledge in entomology with hopes to become a vectorborne epidemiologist. Sandra enjoys mentoring early career professionals, spending time in the lab, and studying emerging diseases.
Aaron Onufrak, Natural Sciences Mentor
Aaron is a 3rd year PhD student in the Entomology and Plant Pathology department at the University of Tennessee. He studies the fungi and bacteria that associate with eastern black walnut, a tree that is highly valued for its lumber. He is currently working to identify methods to control the fungal pathogen that causes Thousand Cankers Disease, which kills eastern black walnut trees throughout the United States. His long term career goal is to be an instructor at a college or university sharing my passion for biology with undergraduate students.
Agustin Kriscautzky, Physical Sciences Mentor
Agustin earned his BS in geology in Argentina and his MS and PhD in geology in Knoxville, Tennessee. He studies ancient marine rocks from various places around the world, older than a billion years! He works on understanding the geochemistry of the ancient oceans and how these rocks have recorded information that may help us unwrapping the Earth’s history and evolution through geologic time. His future goals are to become a professor and a researcher and, if possible, to be a field geologist traveling around the world, finding information hidden in rocks. He is passionate about Natural Sciences.
Emily Proehl, Engineering & Math Mentor
Emily is a 4th year graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Her research focuses on structural materials for nuclear reactors, which must withstand extreme environments – high temperature, corrosive fluids, and intense radiation. The overarching objective is to make nuclear reactors more cost-competitive and safer to help power the globe. Emily’s career goals are to further nuclear materials development and the understanding of radiation effects in materials, while paying forward the invaluable mentorship she received throughout her educational pursuits.