Jeff Foote, STEM Skills: Design & Prototyping Director
Jeff Foote is an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Tennessee, where he manages the Kao Innovation & Collaboration Studio and teaches hands-on courses in advanced manufacturing. Before joining UTK, Jeff built a diverse career in structural analysis, product design, industrial robotics, commercial 3D printing, and prototype development. Today, he enjoys teaching these skills to undergraduate students, helping prepare the next generation of engineers and innovators.
In addition to his academic role, Jeff owns and operates a small consulting firm that specializes in highly customized hardware and software solutions across a range of industries and clients. He holds both a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee Tech, is a registered Professional Engineer, and is a proud 1998 alumnus of the Governor’s School for the Sciences and Engineering at UTK.
Dr. Rachel Wood-Ponce, STEM Skills:Code, Analyze, Create Co-Course Director
Rachel Wood-Ponce is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of
Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. She received her PhD and MS in Industrial Engineering from UTK. In addition to her research, she focused on gaining knowledge and experience in engineering education while in graduate school. Specifically, she took courses to contribute to an Engineering Education Certificate, which covered pedagogy, methodology, and practical application of teaching engineers, and taught three undergraduate classes in the IE department.
Brian LaRose, STEM Skills:Code, Analyze, Create Co-Course Director
Brian LaRose an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Applied Engineering
Department, College of Engineering at UT Knoxville.
Brian received his BS and MS in Computer Science from UT. He worked for 30 years in the high-tech industry with such giants as Hewlett-Packard, Dell/EMC and VMware where he architected, designed, built and deployed large scale, high performance ultra reliable solutions across a variety of industries.
Brian coordinates the curriculum for the newly formed Applied Engineering Department, where he specifically focuses on Software Engineering and Infrastructure (SEI). He is a faculty advisor for the Formula SAE racing team at UT, leaning in to his more than 20 years of racing with SCCA and other racing series.
Dr. Kristina Gehrman, STEM in Society Course Director
Dr. Kristina Gehrman is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She specializes in ethics and environmental philosophy, and she is especially interested in understanding the thoughts processes people use to make decisions. How do we solve moral dilemmas? Make major life decisions? Etc. And – could philosophy possibly help us to make better decisions? She received her PhD from UCLA.
Dr. Katie Mason, STEM in Society Course Director
Dr. Stephanie Drumheller-Horton, Biology Course Director
My research interests center on vertebrate taphonomy, ichnology, paleopathology, and paleoecology. In particular, I study bone surface modifications generated under modern and experimental conditions to better understand the processes which left similar traces on bone in the fossil record. My current research projects include:
- testing methods for applying these modern analogies in a deep time perspective
- interpreting trophic interactions, behavior, and diet from bite marks left by different archosaurian groups, especially members of Crocodyliformes
- identifying and differentiating historically understudied traces and pathologies, such as bite marks vs. shell disease and different types of plant mediated damage to bone.
Dr. Doug Stuart, Chemistry Course Director
Dr. Stuart has a Masters in Literature from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and a PhD in Bioanalytical Chemistry from Indiana University Bloomington. He did postdoctoral research at Northwestern, and was a Professor at The University of West Georgia for over a decade before coming to UT in 2019 to be the Advanced Lab Director and Lecturer. He has done research using microscopy and spectroscopy to peer into cells, to develop new ways to image cancerous tissue, to design biochemical assays for biomarkers and DNA, and to investigate laser-based methods to detect chemical/ biological warfare agents and monitor glucose levels.
Dr. Vermont P Dia, Food Science Course Director
I am an associate professor at the Department of Food Science, The University of
Tennessee. Our research focuses on the health-promoting aspect of foods and their bioactive components. We are also looking at potential alternative sources of proteins as food ingredients. I teach the following courses: Science of Foods, Science of Food Ingredients, Fermented Foods of the World, Food Chemistry, and Food Product Development.
Dr. Gary Null, Industrial & Systems Engineering Course Director
Dr. Gary Null is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE). He teaches ISE, Engineering Management, and the (Ralph) Heath Integrated Business and Engineering Program (IBEP) courses.
Prior to joining the University of Tennessee, he taught various MBA, quantitative studies, operations management, and engineering courses. He received his Ph.D. in Systems and Engineering Management from Texas Tech University. He received his MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, his MBA from the University of Colorado, and his BS in Systems Engineering from the US Naval Academy. He is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a Design Thinking facilitator and coach.
Dr. Remus Nicoara, Mathematics Course Director
Dr. Remus Nicoara earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from UCLA, and his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Bucharest, Romania. He is currently a Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Math Honors Program at the University of Tennessee. His main research interest lies in von Neumann algebras, which are algebras of operators that model quantum mechanical systems. Outside of work, Remus likes to hike, bike and garden while thinking about math. He enjoys meditation, Sci-Fi books, and Hanayama puzzles. He is also an avid gamer and he currently teaches a class about video games and math, called Math Effect.
Dr. Matthew Cothrine, Materials Science & Engineering Co-Course Director
Matthew Cothrine is an assistant teaching professor in the Materials Science and
Engineering Department. He received his Ph.D. in materials science from UT in 2025 and had previously been a graduate teaching assistant for the governor’s school program before stepping up to be a primary instructor. His research focuses on synthesizing quantum metamaterials – materials predicted and tuned to have novel properties that enable the study and use of quantum mechanical effects, such as low-dimensional magnetism and spin liquids – and the characterization of these materials using techniques such as x-ray and neutron diffraction. Prof. Cothrine also teaches courses such as Introduction to Materials Science and the hands-on junior level laboratory sequence in which students learn how to use critical equipment for the major, such as scanning electron microscopes and x-ray diffractometers.
Dr. Dustin Gilbert, Materials Science & Engineering Course Director
Dustin Gilbert is an Associate Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, at the University of Tennessee. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California in Davis in 2014 and was an NRC postdoctoral fellow at the NIST Center for Neutron Research before joining the faculty at the University of Tennessee in 2018. Prof. Gilbert conducts research on nanoscale systems with an emphasis on magnetic materials and spin phenomenon. This research has included magnetic skyrmions, hard drive materials, biomedical materials, ultralight metamaterials, materials for microwave defense applications, magneto-ionic systems, and high entropy alloys and oxides, as well as fundamental research into proximity effects and hysteretic reversal processes.
Dr. Mackenzie Warwick, Nuclear Engineering Course Director
Dr. Mackenzie M. Warwick is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of
Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. She received her PhD (’25), MSE (‘22), and BSE (’20) in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. Her research focused on the stress-induced preferential radiation-induced segregation mechanism observed under high-temperatures and high-stresses under irradiation. In addition to research, she taught multiple courses in nuclear engineering, and developed and led numerous K-12 outreach programs for nearly six years (’20-’25), most notably instructing for the Harper Academy 4 Future Nuclear Engineers program in July 2025. She is passionate about increasing the accessibility of nuclear engineering topics for young students; in early 2024, she reached over 1,000 K-12 students. Mackenzie has a strong interest in Japan’s nuclear energy sector after she became interested in nuclear engineering after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident. She has over 14 years of intermediate Japanese experience and has visited Japan five times (Fukushima Daiichi twice!). She looks forward to sharing her excitement about nuclear engineering and its vast applications with students.
Dr. Haidong Zhou, Physics Course Director
Haidong Zhou is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UTK. Haidong obtained his PH.D. in Physics in December 2005 from University of Texas at Austin. He joined the Physics Department at UTK in August 2012. He was promoted to be full professor at UTK in 2023. He became a Postdoctoral Associate at National High Magnetic Field Lab/Florida Sate University with Prof. C. R. Wiebe. In August 2008, he obtained a position as assistant scholar/scientist in NHMFL. He became an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at UTK in August 2012.
Haidong’s research is concerned with the nature of phase transitions in condensed matter systems, especially strongly correlated systems and quantum matters. More specifically, he is involved with the single crystal growth and using the x-ray scattering, low temperature and high magnetic field measurements, and neutron scattering, as complementary probes to study the spin, electron and structure of solids. His research interests are:
- Single crystal growth
- Geometrically frustrated magnets (GFM)
- Multiferroic systems
- Systems with strong spin/orbital/lattice coupling
- Systems approaching the itinerant electron limit