Dr. Lloyd Davis, Professor of Physics at The University of Tennessee Space Institute, has recently been given the honored title of B.H. Goethert Professor. Dr. Davis is primarily involved in projects relating to single-molecule detection, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. He is currently the principal investigator on 3 major research contracts for UTSI, one with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and two with the National Institutes of Health.
With his new title, Dr. Davis joins an elite group of professors and research scientists. Dr. Jimmy Wu was the first to hold the honor, followed by Dr. Dennis Keefer, Dr. John Caruthers, Dr. John Steinhoff and now, Dr. Davis, who is the first physics professor to receive the title. The Goethert Professorship is an endowed award named in honor of Dr. Bernhard Hermann Goethert, the first Dean of UTSI. The award is conferred for a period of 5 years, with the title kept as long as the recipient is a faculty member of the University of Tennessee.

“Dr. Lloyd Davis has certainly earned the honor of being the first Physics faculty member at UTSI to hold the distinctive Goethert Professorship,” said UTSI Chief Operating Officer Dr. Donald C. Daniel. “His research, scholarship and standards of excellence are outstanding. I am very proud of him and very pleased for him.”

“This is a very nice thing to have; it is quite an honor and an encouragement,” said Dr. Davis. “It’s good for my students to see the recognition of this area of study, and to know that this research is supported by the Institute.” Dr. Davis has been a member of UTSI’s Center for Laser Applications since he first came to The Institute in 1985. He says that the CLA is really flourishing under the leadership of Dr. William Hofmeister, who joined UTSI in 2005, and that he feels this honor is also in recognition of the work done by everyone at the CLA.

Dr. Davis says the upcoming semester promises to be really exciting for the UTSI Physics Department as there are a number of new outstanding students who are becoming involved in the research projects. Dr. Davis is presently advising six graduate research assistants and also three undergraduate interns. The CLA/UTSI staff who are contributing to the research led by Dr. Davis include Research Scientist Dr. Guoqing Shen, Research Associate Mr. Alexander Terekhov, and Postdoctoral Associates Dr. Xiaoxuan Li, Dr. Yelena White, and Dr. Zbigniew Sikorski. Dr. Davis himself began his career at UTSI as a postdoctoral associate in 1985, when he moved to Tullahoma, Tennessee from Auckland, New Zealand.

GOETHERT PROFESSOR WITH HIS STUDENTS—Professor Lloyd Davis is shown at left with his graduate students in physics (from left) Justin Crawford, Jason King, Yolanda Li (front), James Germann, Jesse Ogle, and Will Robinson.