14 minute read
Pearls of Wisdom
On-campus institutes incubate ideas and innovations to impact the world
by Skip Anderson, Allison Gorman, Jimmy Hart, Gina K. Logue, Drew Ruble, and Patsy Weiler
According to Tennessee State Symbols (1995), Murfreesboro natives Charles Bradford and James Johnson were fishing in the Caney Fork River in the early 1880s when, on opening mussels, they found a large white pearl.
They took it to William Wendel, a local druggist, who sent it off to Tiffany’s in New York. A few days later the men had a check for a then-impressive $83. More than 130 years later, mussels are a $40 million industry in Tennessee, according to the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum. And the freshwater pearl is the official state gem.
Pearls are formed when freshwater or saltwater mollusks—clams, oysters, mussels, and more—secrete layer after layer of ultra-thin fluid in an onion-like manner around an irritant. Conceptually speaking, mollusks producing pearls are a good metaphor for the various research centers and institutes housed on the campus of MTSU. Each in its own way, shape, and form is cultivating important research for the state’s benefit, responding to a need and resulting in valuable gems for Tennessee’s economy and workforce development.
MTSU’s research prowess was recently validated in a big way. In the newly revised Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, MTSU was elevated to R2 status (doctoral university with high research activity) from R3 (doctoral/professional university)—joining a select group of just a few hundred institutions nationwide to carry the R1 (highest research activity) or R2 designation. This is an exciting development years in the making—one that raises the profile of MTSU.
The following stories open a few of the oysters that are some of MTSU’s most prominent research centers and institutes on campus to see what is happening within and to hear stories, or “pearls of wisdom,” about the results incubated by faculty, staff, and students.
ROOTS RISING
Digging for ginseng has been a tradition for generations of Tennesseans. They’ve fed their families by heading to the deep woods in the fall.
Yet the work is hard and often dangerous, and it usually doesn’t provide a stable income, especially now that ginseng is getting harder to find. Despite government regulation of digging—all but forbidden on public land—American wild ginseng is an endangered species.
“Wild-simulated” farming isn’t new, but it’s new to American ginseng, said MTSU Professor Iris Gao, director of the International Ginseng Institute (IGI) at MTSU. With backing from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), she’s working to advance the farming model, which could do more than save an endangered species. It could bring new life to rural communities in Appalachia.
Much of the work Gao does is grassroots, providing oneon-one support for budding growers on wild-simulated methods. Meanwhile, her research team is developing technologies to make those methods more efficient and effective. The IGI brings together growers, dealers, regulators, and researchers, disseminating information online and through workshops and symposiums. But the larger goal is to reengineer the economics of wild American ginseng, to create a new, sustainable supply to meet global demand.
The demand for ginseng has always been strong in Asia, where it’s been used as medicine for 2,000 years. But Gao says the market is growing as science is beginning to substantiate the health benefits long attributed to ginseng root. In Chinese medicine, it’s prescribed for side effects of chemotherapy, as well as chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension.
Promoting wild farming in Tennessee will pay dividends, with an estimated $32.5 million in net annual income and economic impact of up to $87.3 million. Wild-cultivated ginseng takes at least seven years to harvest, but its roots are more potent and more valuable than field-farmed.
Recognizing this potential, the USDA has invested heavily in Gao’s work, including a $455,000 grant (combined with $300,000 from MTSU) to develop biocontrol agents to prevent blight.
“Imagine getting a fungal disease in your fifth or sixth year that wipes out all your plants. It would be a disaster,” Gao said.
Of 19 states allowed to harvest and trade ginseng, Tennessee is the third-largest exporter. Locations with high harvest rates have high poverty and unemployment, especially in southeast Appalachia, where wild ginseng provides an economic safety net. IGI’s work is aiding such communities in a meaningful way.
AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Data collection has become a kind of currency over the past decade, whether it be from social media feeds, online shopping patterns, or other digital data that companies can source.
But most organizations don’t specialize in analyzing such data to make better business decisions. As a result, data science has emerged as a valuable new strategy in corporate circles.
In 2018, MTSU launched the Data Science Institute (DSI), the first of its kind in the midstate, to develop public and private collaborations around this emerging field of “big data.” Drawing on the expertise of faculty from disciplines ranging from agribusiness and sociology to chemistry and information systems, the interdisciplinary institute produces highly specific, highly targeted information for varied clients. In the course of this work, the DSI is generating novel new research in the digital age.
Funding entities are taking notice. Since 2019, the DSI has garnered more than $1 million in external grants from national sources. And in 2021, the state allocated nearly $2.6 million to create a fully integrated data science model at MTSU to develop a pipeline of students who can support workforce needs of the growing technology-based industries in the region.
The DSI aims to use data for the public good, including a past partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.
The institute also conducts independent data research aimed at answering modern society’s most pressing questions. That includes partnering with global behemoth Amazon to study autonomous driving. The DSI and Amazon Web Services recently held their first AWS DeepRacer machine learning contest at MTSU, featuring model cars programmed by students to navigate a course autonomously.
“From a workforce perspective . . . we’re looking for bright, young talent who understand intimately the details that are involved in high-performance computing, analytics, data science, machine learning,” said Joseph Hart (’90), an AWS principal account manager and MTSU alumnus based in Nashville.
DSI Director Ryan Otter said the need for data scientists is soaring nationwide. And tech workforce growth in middle Tennessee is projected to outpace national growth by an eye-popping 78% the next five years. Filling that need, MTSU recently added Tennessee’s first Data Science bachelor’s degree, just received approval on a master’s, and offers a Ph.D. in Computational and Data Science.
Nashville Technology Council President Brian Moyer praised MTSU’s efforts that “will play a critical role in generating the talent required to fuel our future growth.”
BLUE-CHIP INSTITUTE
One of the leading economists in the 20th century, MTSU alumnus James M. Buchanan won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his leadership in developing the public choice theory. A farm boy from Rutherford County, he is the only MTSU graduate ever awarded a Nobel.
Like Buchanan, Daniel J. Smith grew up in rural poverty. Director of MTSU’s Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) since 2018 and an Economics professor, Smith was drawn to do graduate study at George Mason University, where he met and interacted with Buchanan.
“I wrote my dissertation under a committee comprised of his former students and co-authors, all well-known for their research in political economy,” said Smith, who published two books in 2021.
Housed jointly by MTSU’s Jennings A. Jones College of Business and University Honors College, PERI issues public policy studies; hosts debates and lectures; has built strong social media platforms; provides a vibrant voice to media editorial pages such as the Wall Street Journal and The Hill; and is adding to a growing bookshelf of publications, including the forthcoming The Ill-Gotten Gains of Crony One-Percenters.
At its core, the institute is a “privately funded, studentcentered MTSU institution, with a mission of engaging undergraduate and graduate students with faculty in both teaching and research that will further the understanding of free market, business, and economic principles, as well as their impact on regional, national, and international financial conditions and the well-being of society,” Smith said. “That is a mission that transcends politics.”
Seed money to help establish the institute came from a $3.5 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation. Ongoing student programming is made possible by private donors, many from Tennessee, Smith said. PERI does not accept donations connected to directed research, and affiliated faculty have complete academic freedom and are expected to meet the rigorous standards of academic integrity.
Since its founding in 2016, the strength and success of the institute’s graduate programming has attracted Ph.D. candidates from around the country and the world. It is proof not just that the demand for economics courses is skyrocketing but that PERI is truly an institute for its time.
One such scholar, King University faculty member Emilia Suggs, holds the distinction of being the first PERI research fellow to earn her doctoral degree at MTSU. Suggs, whose research focuses on political economy and voting system design, was recently published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
CSI: MTSU
His research goes by titles such as “Common Household Rope and an Outdoor Hanging,” “Cervical Vertebrae Entrapment in the Noose,” and “Evidence of Prehistoric Violent Trauma from a Cave in Middle Tennessee.”
Such scholarly, albeit gruesome, work in the field of trauma earned longtime MTSU Professor Hugh Berryman a reputation as one of the nation’s foremost forensic anthropologists; in fact, he’s one of only 120 boardcertified forensic anthropologists in the world. Venerable institutions like the Smithsonian Institution regularly tap Berryman’s expertise on bones and bone trauma.
Certainly, the glamorization of forensics on television and in fiction has inflamed student interest across the U.S. At MTSU, Berryman turned that fascination with forensics into a flagship program. He did so in large part by founding MTSU’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education (FIRE), which advances forensic science through education, research, and community service.
For one, FIRE offers crucial training to medicolegal death investigators, local law enforcement, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. When skeletal remains are found anywhere in Tennessee, there’s a strong likelihood Berryman will be on the road and invited behind the yellow crime tape.
Research and grant work also are substantial at FIRE— perhaps the most significant involving identification attempts and the return of soldiers who died in the Mexican-American War.
Last, the institute boasts the Forensic Anthropology Search and Recovery team, a highly specialized student experiential learning opportunity. Team members prepare for future careers by assisting law enforcement and medical examiners with skeletal remains.
“The human skeleton records its own history,” Berryman said, “and if you know how to read that history, it’s almost as though you’re conducting an interview with the decedent.”
Berryman recently handed over the reins of the institute to Tom Holland—the former scientific director of the Department of Defense’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, who has led forensic recoveries around the world, from the barren deserts of Iraq to the steamy jungles of Vietnam to the snow-covered mountains of North Korea. Holland routinely briefs high-ranking military and government officials.
Every university wants all its programs to be as good as they can be. But some, by nature of the quality of the faculty and the uniqueness of the program, rise to a higher level nationally. The forensic program at MTSU—and the institute it supports—is precisely one of those signature programs impacting all of Tennessee.
PROTECT AND PRESERVE
The work of the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation (CHP) continues to expand both academically and geographically, administering millions of research dollars along its path.
The center’s biggest impact is on the communities of Tennessee—large and small, rural and urban—in developing and providing, at no charge in most cases, historic preservation plans, historic structure reports, heritage tourism plans, Main Street program assistance, National Register and survey projects, and a host of other related support. The center also helps many of Tennessee’s heritage organizations.
Along the way, MTSU master’s and doctoral students in Public History have worked alongside the CHP’s nationally recognized director, Carroll Van West, and his staff, getting real-world historic preservation experience. (The Ph.D. program, launched in 2005, is one of only six in the nation.)
“There is no better way to learn history and develop a passion for it than to go put your hands on it,” West said.
Since 1985, CHP staff have managed the Tennessee Century Farms program to identify, document, and recognize farms that have been continuously in the same families for at least 100 years. The ongoing research has certified more than 1,800 Century Farms and became a model for other states.
A second major statewide project, the Rural African American Church Survey, has engaged congregations large and small in the preservation and heritage development of these properties, leading to many National Register of Historic Places nominations.
In 2001, the CHP became administrator of the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area in partnership with the National Park Service—the first managed by a university. During the ensuing two decades, center staff and students have steadily enhanced the effectiveness of statewide Civil War interpretation, preservation, education, and heritage tourism efforts, overseeing nearly $8.2 million in funds.
The CHP’s expansive fieldwork is impressive. So, too, is the CHP’s status as a national stalwart in the development of teaching methodology related to American history. In conjunction with the Library of Congress’ Teaching with Primary Sources program, the CHP’s multidisciplinary effort teaching the Civil War era across Tennessee in 2008 was highlighted in the Teaching with Primary Sources Journal inaugural issue. Thousands of teachers across the nation have since used the materials in their classrooms.
Future fireworks on the CHP drawing board include Tennessee’s plans to commemorate America’s 250th birthday July 4, 2026. West, who is Tennessee’s state historian, is initial chair of the Tennessee 250th Commission.
PURSUIT OF COLLABORATION
MTSU launched into the 21st-century world of STEM education with help from a $300,000 NASA grant to open a small center focused on programming and support for Tennessee teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Two decades later, the Tennessee STEM Education Center (TSEC) remains an outreach arm of MTSU aimed at improving STEM education, both locally and nationally.
These days, it has rocketed from a single star to become a bright constellation in the STEM education universe. Building a culture of research and collaboration, TSEC has generated numerous grants from prestigious organizations including the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Greg Rushton assumed the TSEC director reins in 2018, with a laser focus on STEM education, innovation, and research. Over his career, he has directed or co-directed more than 25 research or professional development projects, with external awards exceeding $18 million.
He has a solid mission in mind for TSEC: serve as a model of expertise and leadership in STEM education through the growth of research initiatives, fostering of partnerships, and expansion of educational programs, while seeking to engage with other stakeholders invested in STEM education.
“TSEC is positioned well, within MTSU, Tennessee, and the Southeast, for continued growth as a STEM leader for educators in both K–12 and higher education, as well as a provider of engaging experiences for K–12 students to explore STEM as a career path or as a lifelong learner,” Rushton said.
A prime example of this type of collaboration is MTSU’s selection by the Institute of Education Sciences as a partner institution on a nearly $1 million research grant awarded to the state. The award will support research on the effectiveness of Tennessee Pathways, an initiative that aligns K–12 and postsecondary schools with industry to provide students relevant education and training to seamlessly enter the workforce.
“We are encountering our future quicker than at any time in history,” Rushton said. “Consider Alexa and Siri, Amazon and Apple’s digital voice assistants, both applications of artificial intelligence. Most of us increasingly use this technology in our daily lives that barely more than a decade ago was largely unknown. . . . Expanding STEM education and developing a strong research enterprise— through basic, applied, and experimental approaches— prepares MTSU to be a catalyst of innovation and recognized as a thought leader not only in Tennessee, but across the country and our world in a rapidly growing arena.”