Tournament History
History of the Science Olympiad State Tournamentat UT Knoxville
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville began sponsoring the Science Olympiad State Tournament in 1994.
Prior to 1994, the American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE)in Oak Ridge sponsored the state tournament. When a reorganization of that museum made it impossible to continue sponsoring the tournament, UT Knoxville assumed the sponsorship. Tom Broadhead (Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences) was the first director at UT Knoxville, serving from 1994-96. The second director was Don Byerly (Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences), the third director was Ken Monty (Professor of Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology), the fourth director was David Smith, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The fifth director was Jon Levin (Professor of Physics). The sixth and current director is Jeff Kovac, Professor of Chemistry.
The current administrative home for the Tennessee Science Olympiad State Tournament is the Office of Academic Outreach and Communications in the College of Arts and Sciences.