Science, Technology & Healthcare

Murray Bowen (Knoxville ’34, Health Science Center ’37) was a pioneer in the field of family therapy. He was the first director of the Family Division at the National Institute of Mental Health. Later he joined the psychiatry department at Georgetown University and gained international recognition for his leadership in the field of family therapy. He established the Georgetown University Family Center in 1975. The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family at Georgetown is named in his honor. (deceased)
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Mark Dean (Knoxville ’79) developed the technology that effectively launched the personal computer. His PC-AT (personal computer–advanced technology) is the interface that allows users to plug modems, printers, and scanners into computers. He is an IBM fellow and vice president of systems in IBM Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and received the Black Engineer of the Year Award.

Dr. William Evans (Health Science Center ’74) is director and chief executive officer of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Evans graduated from the College of Pharmacy and has been affiliated with St. Jude’s and UTHSC for his entire career.
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Weston Fulton (Knoxville ’01) invented the metal bellows used in thermostatic devices. He held more than 125 patents for his inventions. (deceased)

Patricia Welesko Garland (Knoxville ’95) was named one of 10 Outstanding Young Americans by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2000. She is a chemical engineer and program manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Carl Barton Huffaker (Knoxville ’38, ’39) was president of the International Organization for Biological Control and an influential professor of entomology at the University of California. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, president of the Entomological Society of America, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (deceased)

Full image Chris Leichtweis (Knoxville ’03) is founder and CEO of Safety and Ecology Corporation (SEC), an environmental and infrastructure services company that ranks among the top environmental companies in the United States. Learn More

W. Eugene Mayberry (Health Science Center ’53) is a former chairman of the Mayo Foundation.

Fred R. Mynatt (Knoxville ’62, ’64, ’69) received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Memorial Award for outstanding contributions in atomic energy in 1981.

Bergein F. “Gene” Overholt attended UT in Knoxville and graduated from the UT Health Science Center in 1961. He designed an early version of the flexible fiberoptic colonoscope, an important tool in cancer detection. He has been president of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American Society of Outpatient Surgeons.

Paul Selby (Knoxville ’72) received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Memorial Award for outstanding contributions in atomic energy in 1981. He is a staff member in Life Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology.

Robert R. Waller (Health Science Center ’63) is president emeritus of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is a member of the Health Care Hall of Fame.

Samuel C. Collins (Knoxville ’20, ’24) was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Science. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a research chemist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. (deceased)

Sheldon Datz (Knoxville ’60) won the Enrico Fermi Award for lifetime achievement, one of the top U.S. scientific prizes. He pioneered crossed molecular beam chemistry and was a physicist and senior corporate fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (deceased)

Full image Marion Dorset graduated from UT in 1893. He discovered the cause of hog cholera and developed a serum for it. The eradication of hog cholera is his best known accomplishment, but he also developed a rapid diagnostic test for pullorum, a disease of chickens, that has saved poultry farmers millions of dollars. The purple ink used by government graders on meat to indicate that the meat is healthy and wholesome is a Dorset invention. He is a member of the Tennessee Agricultural Hall of Fame. (deceased) Learn More

John Melvin Googin Jr. (Knoxville ’53) won the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Memorial Award in 1967. He was involved in the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and later was principal chemist and senior corporate fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was Tennessee president of the American Civil Liberties Union, a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, and held 20 patents. He died in 1994.

Dr. Jack McConnell (Health Science Center ’49) founded the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in Hilton Head, South Carolina, which served as a model for the Volunteers in Medicine Institute’s nationwide network of free clinics. McConnell also was instrumental in developing the tuberculosis tine test, Tylenol tablets, and magnetic resonance imaging technology. AARP named McConnell one of its Impact award winners in 2007.

Dr. Arthur T. Porter (Knoxville ’98) is CEO of the McGill University Health Center in Montreal, Canada. He has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and has worked to establish international medical research and treatment programs in several nations.

Mark Rabold (Knoxville ’79, Health Science Center ‘85) has summitted the highest peaks on seven continents. He is an emergency physician at St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena, Montana.
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Betsy Middleton Sutherland (Knoxville ’67) was the first woman recipient (1985) of the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Memorial Award for outstanding contributions in atomic energy. She is a scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory.