Ingrid Luffman, an assistant professor for the Department of Geosciences, was honored with the 2019-20 Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Tennessee in Knoxville’s Department of Geography.
Graduating from UTK in 2013 with a doctoral degree in geography concentrating in spatial analysis and watershed dynamics, Luffman received her award in the early career category, which is for graduates who received their degree less than 10 years ago.
“I’ve never felt that being a woman has changed my opportunities or limited my opportunities,” Luffman said. “For this award, two out of the three [recipients] were women. I’ve been pleased to see that it hasn’t been limiting. Don’t see gender as a barrier. If you’re interested, then just do it. Nontraditional avenues of study or nontraditional fields – they won’t be nontraditional for long if we just go and study and pursue the things that really speak to us.”
Luffman completed her undergraduate degree in mathematics before realizing what she wanted to do in her career.
“I worked for a department of the Canadian government called Energy Minds and Resources,” Luffman said. “I suddenly moved into this area of applied mathematics, where you take your math and apply it to Earth and physical problems. I loved it, so from there I sort of figured out where I wanted to go next.”
Among her successes, Luffman has served on the Boone Watershed Partnership as vice president for years to improve the water quality in our local area.
“Most of our local stream are impaired for one contaminant or another,” Luffman said. “Excess sediment, which is not good for our ecosystem. E.coli, which is not good for humans when we’re in contact with the water. So I work with this group to try to address some of these issues.”
Another known project began in Founder’s Park. The project is considered the “Citizen Scientist” project and is meant to engage the community in science. Patrons in the park can read the water level on the giant ruler under the bridge and text it to the number posted for Luffman and her team to conduct their analysis.
“In Tennessee, the state will assess the streams and identify which ones are impaired and what they’re impaired for, but the mandate to clean them up, the money is not there,” she said. “So it’s relied on community groups, or partnerships like ours, to figure out how is a good way to fix it.”
