For release: April 30, 2013
News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
MTSU Marketing and
Communications contact: Andrew Oppmann, 615-494-7800 or Andrew.Oppmann@mtsu.edu
MURFREESBORO — Dr.
Cliff Ricketts’ five decades of alternative fuels research and exemplary
classroom teaching have been acknowledged in a special way by MTSU President
Sidney A. McPhee.
McPhee
surprised the 37-year MTSU School of Agribusiness and Agriscience faculty
member today (April 30) when he presented Ricketts with the President’s Silver
Column Award in a brief ceremony at the Vocational Agriculture building on
Lightning Way.
Ricketts
becomes the sixth Silver Column Award honoree since the president established
the award in 2004.
“We
are what we are because of people like you,” McPhee said. “… The President’s
Column Award goes out to faculty, staff and employees who go truly beyond the
call of duty, in bringing recognition to the university, or for unsung heroes.
“And
I just consider you for years being one of our unsung heroes. You just go about
and do your job. You don’t expect the cameras (limelight). You don’t ask for
anything other than a little support to keep your work going.
“I’ve
watched you since I’ve been at this university do so much for our students, the
relationship you have with our students, the ground-breaking research in an
area so badly needed in our country with your fuel efficiency work, and most
recently, your travels around the country that have drawn attention to the
university from all sources around the world.”
Ricketts
said he felt “so honored to receive this (award).” Later, he said, “We’re here
for the students. We need to do all we can to help them.”
McPhee
said that when selecting graduation speakers and President’s Silver Column
Award recipients, he is a committee of one.
“This
is very, very special in that not everyone gets to wear this,” he shared,
noting that the lapel pin features a silver column accented in blue symbolizing
Kirksey Old Main, one of the four original buildings on campus in 1911.
“This
is for you, for quietly behind the scenes being an extraordinary person, an
extraordinary professor and an incredible researcher in terms of the work that
you’re doing that’s really going to change lives and be a major contribution
not only to the state but the country.”
Those
attending the brief presentation included Ricketts’ wife, Nancy; School of
Agribusiness and Agriscience Director Dr. Warren Gill; ag faculty member Alanna
Neely; and College of Basic and Applied Sciences associate dean Dr. Saeed
Foroudastan.
Neely
told McPhee how she “owes a lot — 80 percent — to Dr. Ricketts” in helping her
adjust from student to instructor to coordinator of the dual-credit program in
the department.
Ricketts
said more than 30 former students pursued Ph.D.’s.
Ricketts and his support teams have made back-to-back,
2,600-mile trips. In March, the journey was made using no gasoline (hydrogen
from water separated by the sun, all processed on campus, was the fuel source).
In 2012, they only used 2.15 gallons of gas to complete the trip.
Ricketts’ quests both years generated phenomenal amounts of
news coverage nationwide and beyond U.S. borders.
This year alone, Discovery Channel Canada, RFD-TV, KABC in
Los Angeles, Fox 5 in Atlanta, The Associated Press, United Press International
and newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations and the Internet provided
coverage of his expedition.
Ricketts has
run engines off ethanol from corn, methane from cow manure, soybean oil,
hydrogen from water, a solar/electric truck and a vehicle that runs off
gas/ethanol/electric and hydrogen from water separated by the sun.
A native of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., Ricketts earned degrees from
the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Ohio State University. He joined the
MTSU faculty in August 1976.
Previous
Silver Column Award recipients include:
•
Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross, MTSU chemistry professor, 18-year faculty member,
director of the WISTEM Center and champion of the cause of recruiting girls and
young women into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields;
•
Sherian Huddleston, retired associate vice provost for
enrollment services;
•
Larry Sizemore, supervisor of ground services;
•
Suma Clark, retired director of publications and graphics (now Creative and
Visual Services) who now serves as a part-time web management team-project
coordinator; and
•
the late Dr. Charles Wolfe, a distinguished folklorist, accomplished author and
music historian and English professor.
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