COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
FIELD TESTED
University of Tennessee’ s turfgrass students are growing careers on the global stage
By Brian Canever
The sun has barely crept up over the horizon at the University of Tennessee( UT) AgResearch and Education Center, a 200-acre tract of land just south of the Knoxville campus where plant and soil science students are at work doing research that, quite literally, touches the world. The sound of a lawnmower firing in the distance breaks the silence. Before long, Rose Gibbons, a turfgrass science and management undergraduate who spent the summer interning at the center, rides out, ready to do her morning’ s labor.
Small plots of various species of grass are set up for UT turfgrass science professors to study. Gibbons, a transfer student from Illinois, worked in commercial landscaping before moving to Knoxville and realizing that she had moved only a few miles from one of North America’ s most elite turfgrass education programs. Two years into her studies, she’ s already completed internships with Major League Baseball’ s Baltimore Orioles and helped to prepare the field at Orlando’ s Inter & Co Stadium for this past summer’ s FIFA Club World Cup 2025.
Rose Gibbons, University of Tennessee turfgrass science and management undergraduate, at the UT Institute of Agriculture’ s East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center’ s turf research and development facilities. All photos provided by University of Tennessee
As Gibbons finishes her mowing, trading one piece of equipment for another, the morning’ s rays shine on a building behind her that is proof of how highly UT is regarded in this discipline.
“ That’ s the FIFA building,” said Gibbons, who helped install and maintains the plots of grass inside. This is the testing ground for the playing surfaces that billions of people will see when the men’ s FIFA World Cup 26 kicks off in North America. Gibbons and about 15 other UT undergraduates are involved with a long list of research and performance activities, from testing for ball bounce, grass color, and player safety, to
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