Macebearer

The Macebearer is the highest faculty honor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, symbolic of the faculty’s commitment of service to students, to scholarship, and to society.

The 2008 Macebearer is lee riedinger, professor of physics, who came to UT in 1971. Since then, he has served as director of the Science Alliance, director of the Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research, head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and vice chancellor for research. Additionally, no one has done more for the collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and UT than Riedinger; over the past 25 years, he has initiated or been an integral part of every major joint program between the two organizations. ORNL further benefited from Riedinger’s talents from 2000 to 2006, when he took a leave of absence from the university to serve as deputy director of science and technology and later as associate director for university partnerships.

Riedinger also is a highly accomplished researcher, having published more than 240 refereed works and having held many prestigious positions within the nuclear physics field, including serving as a member of the federal government’s Nuclear Science Advisory Committee. Riedinger’s extraordinary combination of teaching, research and service certainly qualify him for UT’s highest faculty award.