Christopher Sneed, an associate professor and consumer economics specialist in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) at the University of Tennessee, has received the 2025 Excellence in Extension Award for an individual.

The prestigious national award was presented at the recent Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) Conference by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Cooperative Extension and the APLU. The award recognizes one Cooperative Extension professional who has demonstrated outstanding scientific programming, visionary leadership and positive community impact. 

For years, researchers have puzzled over how the ancient people of Rapa Nui did the seemingly impossible and moved their iconic moai statues. Using a combination of physics, 3D modeling and on-the-ground experiments, a team including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has confirmed that the statues actually walked – with a little rope and remarkably few people.

Work engagement is a persistent, positive state of mind that enhances productivity, creativity, and well-being. However, few practical methods exist to foster it. Addressing this gap, researchers from Japan developed WEDiary, a smartphone app that encourages daily positive reflection on work achievements. In a randomized controlled trial involving 600 Japanese workers, the app significantly improved work engagement levels in only 2 weeks, with effects lasting 3 weeks beyond the intervention.

Entrepreneurship studies often focus on firm growth-related topics. The factors affecting the high-growth (HG) in high-growth firms (HGFs) are not well established. While some studies suggest that proactive strategizing precedes the HG period, others consider that the near-random structure of the firm’s growth is better to delay growth-related investments. This study focuses on the “timing” of setting up new hierarchical layers and the consequences if it happens before or after the growth event.