Bredesen Center

Author: Bridget Waller

Kevin De Angeli

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Kevin De Angeli

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While 90 million people are playing Call of Duty each month, Kevin De Angeli is using the skills he learned through Bredesen Center’s Data Science & Engineering PhD program to examine how social behavior drives their engagement in the game.

De Angeli said he uses the concepts, problem-solving, independent learning and communications skills he learned in the DSE PhD program on a daily basis in his work as a data scientist on the Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning team at Activision. Activision is a worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment that includes Call of Duty, Crash, Spryro, Guitar Hero and many more.

“The concepts I learned through my PhD classes frequently surface in my work at Activision,” De Angeli said, “Bredesen Center’s Data Science & Engineering program honed my problem-solving skills and fostered a strong sense of independent learning, both of which are invaluable in my daily tasks.”

De Angeli was a graduate research assistant at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for three and a half years, while completing his PhD through the Bredesen Center.

“The skills I developed while presenting results to my advisor at ORNL have greatly benefited me in effectively communicating with stakeholders at Activision,” De Angeli said.

Kevin’s LinkedIn Profile

Shang Gao

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Shang Gao

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A senior machine learning researcher at Casetext/Thomson Reuters, Bredesen Center graduate Shang Gao recently helped with the development of CoCounsel, Casetext’s AI legal assistant based on OpenAI’s GPT-4. This AI technology does something that had never been done before. Open AI’s GPT-4 passed the bar exam and it scored in the top 10 percent.

Gao became interested in data science while working as a technical writer at a software company, after completing his bachelor’s in economics at Duke University.

“I started teaching myself data science via online courses, while I was working as a technical writer,” Gao recounted. In 2016, he was accepted into the Artificial Intelligence graduate program at the University of Georgia. The following year, he became an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he worked on a project with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to automate information extracted from millions of cancer patient records to track cancer trends and statistics.

“I started working on the NCI project and immediately fell in love with the work,” he said. “When the opportunity came to continue working on this project by joining the Bredesen Center PhD program, I immediately took it.”

Gao completed his PhD in Data Science and Engineering at UT-ORII’s Bredesen Center in 2019. He continued his work at ORNL and working on the project with NCI until he left in 2022 to accept his current position at Casetext.

At Casetext, Gao designs, develops, and deploys solutions for legal and transactional language understanding, generative question answering, and knowledge retrieval.

“The journal publications and hands-on research experience I completed during my PhD (at the Bredesen Center) were critical in preparing me to succeed and thrive within a professional research setting and helped open doors to my job positions at ORNL and Casetext,” Gao said.

Shang’s LinkedIn Profile

Sally Ellingson

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Sally Ellingson

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An assistant professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center, Sally Ellingson uses computational biology to decode DNA to help researchers better understand different types of cancer and develop cancer-fighting drugs.

Using machine learning techniques, researchers can add large amounts of biomedical data into the drug development process to determine what factors increase the accuracy and efficiency of predictions. Part of Ellingson’s research focuses on factors affecting predictions of “drug binding” – the process of drugs attaching to proteins. The better the predictions, the faster and safer the development process.

While doing this, she said, she became interested in pinpointing biases in the data that can affect the accuracy of the results.

“This has real world applications outside of drug binding predictions too. These methods can be used to better understand and handle gender and racial biases inherent in clinical datasets as well.”

When Ellingson started college, she planned to study art. She gravitated toward digital art because it seemed a more stable career option.

“I discovered I was better at the technical side and became interested in how computers work,” she said. “I started a computer science program which involved taking higher level math courses and fell back in love with math.”

Along the way, she became interested “in using these fields as tools to study important and impactful problems.”

She earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematical sciences and computer science, both from the Florida Institute of Technology. Then in 2014, she earned her PhD in Genome Science and Technology, a University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute program that combines the resources of UT and ORNL.

“I chose Genome Science and Technology because of the rotation program and access to scientists and facilities at ORNL,” she said. “I wanted to be more submerged in the biology side since it is where I was lacking in my training. I was able to join early and work in a biochemistry lab, get a diverse training in bioinformatics and computational biology, and have access to the fastest supercomputers in the world.”

Although she doesn’t teach, she mentors students and engages in outreach activities.

Ellingson lives in Lexington, Ky., with her daughter Kyla, now a high school senior. When she’s not working, she enjoys hiking, biking, and camping.

Mallory Ladd

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Mallory Ladd

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Mallory Ladd recently started a new role as a scientific analyst for the director of Surface Warfare (N96), within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), a federally-funded, nonprofit research and analysis organization in Arlington, Va.

Ladd previously specialized in Arctic maritime operations, training and readiness with interests in cyberspace operations and climate security.

Ladd completed her PhD in Energy Science and Engineering with a concentration in analytical chemistry at UT-ORII’s Bredesen Center in 2018 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Ladd won a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation in 2014 and developed a top website where program applicants can view examples of past successful essays and suggested best practices.

While completing her graduate studies, she founded “Pipeline: Vols for Women in STEM” that hosted an annual symposium where undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields made presentations about their research at the University of Tennessee and ORNL.

In 2016, she was one of 600 graduate students invited to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Bavaria, Germany. There, she networked with other graduate students and a group of Nobel Laureates, and she joined two laureates — 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winner Harold Varmus, and 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Brian Schmidt — on a panel discussing science communication.

Ladd’s dissertation research focused on developing analytical techniques to characterize the chemistry of permafrost soils in the Arctic. She worked with the Department of Energy’s Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE-Arctic) Project, which allowed her to conduct fieldwork in the Alaskan Arctic, collecting soil and ice cores to bring back to ORNL to run experiments. 

“It was my work on climate change and permafrost modeling that led me to cross paths with a retired three-star admiral who happened to be on the board of CNA at the time. We were both invited to speak on climate security at ORNL and got to talking. Within three weeks I was visiting CNA headquarters and a week after that had a job offer.”

In her newest role within the CNA, Ladd said she’s “looking forward to building on and leveraging my recent experiences with The Joint Staff and previous embedded support to strike group commanders as I move over to the Pentagon.”

Ladd lives in the D.C. metro area with her husband, fellow Bredesen Center graduate Tony Bova, who is founder and CEO of mobius (formerly Grow Bioplastics).

Jessica M. Vélez

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Jessica M. Vélez

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As the Membership, Engagement and Early Career programs manager for the

Genetics Society of America (GSA), Jessica Vélez uses her Bredesen Center training to help scientists explore career opportunities and develop new skills.

Vélez earned her PhD in Energy Science and Engineering at UT-ORII’s Bredesen Center in 2020. Her research focused on Cenococcum geophilum, a fungus commonly found in forests, and its tolerance for heavy metals. If capable of thriving in the presence of these metals, the fungus could nurture poplar trees planted in mining runoff sites and other polluted areas. Meanwhile, the trees, harvested for biofuel production, could help drain the harmful chemicals from the soil.

With this research specialty, Vélez could have pursued a career in academia or at a national lab or a governmental agency, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Department of Energy.

“But it’s a very small community that studies this,” she said.

In UT-ORII’s PhD programs, students are urged to think about careers beyond the lab or classroom. They explore policymaking, entrepreneurship, and science communication and outreach.

For Vélez, science communication and outreach began a passion: “I really enjoy the challenge of trying to explain what scientists do.”

As Vélez was completing her PhD, she was accepted into the GSA’s Early Career Leadership Program that allows graduate students and post-docs to network, work on projects to help other early career scientists and hone their writing skills. After completing her PhD, she stayed involved with the GSA as a contractor and volunteer. In February 2021, she was hired into her current position.

GSA has about 5,000 members, including governmental research scientists, college professors, post-docs, and graduate students. Although the organization is based in Pennsylvania and Maryland, Vélez lives in Knoxville and works remotely. She plans professional development programs, conferences, seminars, and other activities for members and prospective members.

Before studying at the UT-ORII’s Bredesen Center, Vélez earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from UT Knoxville and a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from the University of Texas at Austin.

In her job, she draws on all this expertise: “English and science are not all that different,” she said. “You’re just applying the same skills in a different way – dissecting things and coming up with hypotheses to determine meaning.”

Jerreme Jackson

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Jerreme Jackson

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A love and understanding of science. The value of mentorship. These are among the important lessons Jerreme Jackson gleaned from his time in UT-ORII’s Genome Science and Technology PhD program at UT Knoxville.

Jackson is now trying to share those benefits with his own students. As an assistant professor of biology at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Jackson wants to make sure students from underrepresented populations recognize the opportunities that exist in STEM disciplines. 

“I would not be where I am today had it not been for all of the mentors I had along the way,” he said. The teachers and advisers who guided him through his education journey “uniquely impacted my development as a young scientist.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in genetics from the University of Kansas in 2002, Jackson worked as a scientist at Seikisui XenoTech LLC and Hill’s Pet Nutrition for several years before returning to school.

“I chose the GST program because the faculty’s expertise covered a tremendous range of categories,” he said. He was sure he could find an advisor he clicked with – and who would stretch his thinking.

In the GST program, his research focused on what happens in the digestive tract of the tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens) when it ingests certain toxins expressed in genetically modified crops.

“I used insect bioassays, molecular biology, immunohistochemistry, and microscopy,” he said. His graduate advisor “laid the foundation by teaching me insect physiology and molecular approaches used to characterize gene function.”

After completing his PhD in 2015, Jackson went on to do postdoctoral research at Oklahoma State University. Now at the University of Northern Iowa, Jackson’s research builds on his earlier work.

Today, he studies bacteria living in the guts of two insects – the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) and the corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) – in hopes of gaining knowledge that can improve scientists’ understanding of factors affecting bacteria critical to the human digestive process.

“As humans living on earth, we have to be able to get food from our environment. Likewise, the bacteria that reside in our intestinal microbiome have to get nutrients or else they will fail to remain colonized. The genes that bacteria use to stably colonize will highlight the environmental conditions they face as well as what nutrients they are metabolizing to make energy.”

Erica Grant 

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Erica Grant 

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Erica Grant is the inventor and founder of Quantal Security LLC. Grant’s company uses quantum physics to create better security for door locks and equipment access in facilities that store proprietary information, or which may be at risk for terrorist attacks.

Now in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory‘s Innovation Crossroads program, Grant completed her PhD in cross-cutting energy science, specializing in quantum computing, at UT Knoxville in December 2020.

Quantal Security uses the inherent randomness in quantum physics to create unpredictable and encrypted digital keys that secure locks, equipment, computers, or robots embedded with technologies that allow them to connect with other devices or systems via communications networks. The mission of Quantal Security is to create the best in physical security as it becomes increasingly linked to cybersecurity.

Grant said the market for Quantal Security includes industrial control systems in the energy, manufacturing, and government sectors. The technology also can be applied to hotels, apartments, and other facilities.

Raised in Richmond, Va., Grant learned about entrepreneurship from her father who started Blue Triangle Technologies to monitor the effectiveness of commerce websites. During high school, Grant helped her dad at trade shows and with digital marketing.

Grant earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and minor in nanotechnology at Virginia Tech. She became interested in quantum computing after two internships at ORNL. She chose UT-ORII’s Energy Science and Engineering PhD program, in part, for its multidisciplinary entrepreneurial track.

“I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur to create something new that could positively impact the world and build my own team for innovation,” she said.

As part of Innovation Crossroads, Grant works with the Cybersecurity Institute at ORNL to develop prototypes. She hopes to have a pilot version in 2022. Grant has two patents for the Quantal Security technology with 100 percent ownership.

With $500,000 from the Department of Energy’s Innovation Crossroads program, Grant has built a team of engineers, scientists, and business-minded industry experts. She also earned $75,000 in start-up money from several entrepreneurial competitions, including Knoxville Entrepreneur Center’s 2019 “What’s the Big Idea?” pitch competition; the 2018 and 2019 VolCourt contests, the 2018 Boyd Venture Challenge, Launch Tennessee’s 36/86 Business Plan Competition, Innov865‘s Startup Day, and the Stu Clark New Venture Challenge. In 2021, Grant was named to Forbes’ “Next 1000” list.

To learn more about Grant’s company, go to: https://quantalsecurity.com/

Megan Bryson Published in The Conversation

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Megan Bryson Published in The Conversation

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Message from the Department Head
In our Spring 2022 newsletter we are proud to share with you some highlights of the exciting and important research being conducted in the Department of Microbiology here at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. A distinguishing characteristic of academic scientists is their passion for integrating discovery with education. Scientists stand at the edge of knowledge, pushing outward toward information and ideas that can and do change the world for the better.

Throughout my career I have been inspired by the students with whom I have interacted, who are learning where that edge is, where to push, and how to be comfortable with not knowing all the answers. Often, undergraduate researchers are just beginning to realize that there even is an edge, and as educators we are metaphorically holding up signs that say “mind the gap.” Graduate student researchers know there is a gap, and have decided to commit themselves to exploring what lies within it. This is a brave decision that causes them to diverge from their peers who are starting or continuing their jobs in the ‘real world.’ For many, becoming a graduate student means daily struggles: trying to make the experiments work, trying to explain to friends and family why the results were devastating or exciting, trying to explain to a mentor why the experiment was done that way in the first place, and trying to balance the many obligations that come with being a scientist, student, educator, and a human being.

In my view, one of the greatest privileges of being a faculty member at an institution like ours is watching graduate students grow in their confidence as they realize that they are the world’s expert in the length of the gap they have chosen to study, and as they hone and expand on their ability to communicate old and new scientific ideas to anyone and everyone.

Graduate students are the linchpins of academic research. They are at the frontline of the gap, spending hours at the bench, computer, and field to wrangle large amounts of data and small amounts of liquid into something interpretable for the world. They are at the frontline of our ‘mind the gap’ campaign, helping convey in the classroom and instructional labs the results and importance of scientific discovery to hundreds of undergraduates, most of whom will not share their enthusiasm. They are at the frontline of our self-awareness and image as a department, reminding us of our obligations, both scientific and nonscientific to all members of society; reminding us often of why we are pursuing new knowledge.

Here in the department, as we start the spring semester of 2022, we have just finished interviewing students for the incoming graduate class of fall 2022. The first-year students are entering their second semester and have made the important decision of joining a lab, which will define the general area of the gap they will be exploring. The second-year students are developing and defending their project goals and approaches as they take their preliminary exam or defend their thesis. And the continuing dissertators are running ahead of their mentors, calling back as they transform the unknown into the known.  

As you read through the newsletter and gain a glimpse into the stories of some of our graduate students and faculty, I hope you will share my gratitude and awe for their choice to dedicate themselves to scientific inquiry. This choice, though difficult, makes all the difference to making sure the rest of us have solid ground beneath us. 

Heidi Goodrich-Blair
David and Sandra White Professor and Head of Microbiology

Shepardson on Turkey’s historic city of Antakya

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Shepardson on Turkey’s historic city of Antakya

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Marie Curie once wrote “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” While speaking with doctoral researcher Jill Walton, it’s clear she is the embodiment of Curie’s words. As she excitedly tells me about her studies, volunteer work, and outreach dreams, I see her vision for a more intentional use of research, academia, and scholarship to benefit not only scientific knowledge, but also humanity. 

Walton studies the roseobacter clade of marine bacteria in Alison Buchan’s lab. Roseobacter has a unique ability to degrade stable benzene rings, making it a promising candidate for the natural removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are anthropogenic pollutants composed of 2 to 6 fused benzene rings. 

Both roseobacter and PAHs — which come from oil spills, industrial discharge, wastewater, and runoff — are largely abundant in coastal environments. This mutual presence, along with roseobacter’s degradation ability, present a promising situation. 

“Roseobacter and the pollutants are there. They show the ability to degrade smaller compounds, so can they degrade more complex, structurally similar compounds?” Walton summarizes. 

Her overarching goal is to create an effective solution for PAH removal in degraded coastal environments. 

“I’m looking at roseobacter’s ability in a lab environment to degrade these pollutants to see if we can harness its ability to bioremediate these areas,” she explains. “If we know how to stimulate them, we can use what is already there instead of adding nonnative solutions.” 

Little is known about the intricacies of roseobacter’s degradation ability; however, these hurdles do not phase Walton. 

“We just need to put all the pieces together and build the story,” she enthusiastically states. 

Walton’s passion for research and solution-oriented mindset extends outside of the lab as well, resulting in an extensive list of extracurricular involvement. She regularly volunteers at the Sustainable Future Center, serves as the Microbiology Department’s Graduate Students Association Outreach and Engagement chair, and lends her voice to the Student Disability Services (SDS) Student Advisory Board. 

But her engagement does not stop here. Walton is a participant in the Community Engagement Academy offered through UT’s Diversity and Engagement Department where she applies her love for research to outreach initiatives. 

“We have been learning about engaged scholarship,” she explains. “We are focusing on engagement that not only benefits the community, but also our professional interests.” 

Her goal is to utilize her connection with the Sustainable Future Center to implement a community soil and water testing initiative. Walton hopes to provide free testing kits and educational workshops for community members. 

“I don’t want there to be any barriers to participation,” she elaborates. “I am really excited about it! I think it has a lot of potential to be great and an initiative other people will continue when I am no longer here.” 

Walton undoubtedly has a bright future ahead of her. Her passion for scientific discovery and her unrelinquished kindness make her invaluable to both academia and her community.

-By Taylor Mattioli

Spirit Guide: How the Arson of a Black Church in Knoxville Has Affected More Than the Church Community

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Spirit Guide: How the Arson of a Black Church in Knoxville Has Affected More Than the Church Community

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Alison Buchan, Carolyn W. Fite Professor and associate head of microbiology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was recently elected as a 2022 Fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology. This is an honor that recognizes service, leadership, and creative achievement in the field of  microbiology.  

The fellow selection process is based on several factors, such as scientific and innovative achievements. This year, only 65 professors from across the world received the honor.

“I am humbled and honored to join the ranks of the American Academy of Microbiologists,” Buchan said. ”I am grateful to my many past and current mentors, supporters, and also the many talented and inspiring undergraduate and graduate students that I have had the unique privilege to work with over the years.”

Buchan’s expertise in her discipline has a broad scope. She is a microbial ecologist who studies the interactions bacteria have with one another and more recently she is studying the viruses that infect them. She is also trained as a microbiologist (MSc) and a marine scientist (PhD). The multidisciplinary research Buchan has accomplished at UT has given her the opportunity to collaborate with several other scientists such as chemists, geochemists, and modelers.  

“Science is most definitely a team effort and I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with fabulous students, faculty and research staff here at UT.”