Dr. Kenneth Holditch '55 dedicated much of his professional life to studying the works of Tennessee Williams, a Pulitzer-prize winning playwright and prolific amateur artist. In 2022, his estate bequeathed seven of Williams' paintings to Rhodes, and in fall 2024 five of the paintings, loaned from the college, were a highlight of the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival.

In the research lab of Rhodes College Physics professor Dr. David Rupke, students have been exploring galaxy evolution by using NASA-sponsored telescopes to collect data. Now Rupke and his team, including Triet Ha ’25, Shane Caraker ‘24, and Jack Harper ’25, have taken images of the massive galaxy Makani using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (Hubble), and have detected ionized oxygen atoms in the galactic wind of Makani that could serve as a benchmark for the next generation of NASA’s ultraviolet telescopes.

Seven Rhodes College students presented research at the annual meeting for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, held Jan. 3-5 in Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Beck Henriksen, visiting assistant professor of religious studies at Rhodes College, is one of 12 participants who have been selected for the 2025 Sacred Writes: Public Scholarship on Religion program. The program is designed for scholars of religion who are interested in improving public religious literacy and working to translate their research for a broader audience.

Rhodes College is among “50 Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States for International Students 2025” published by Study Abroad Aide. Is it the only college in Tennessee that made the list.

The Rhodes College chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) has been named recipient of the 2024-25 Chapter Research Award from the SPS National Office for final work on Rhodes’ 1U cube satellite RHOK-SAT to be launched in space this year.

Johnathan Burch, a sophomore political science major at Rhodes College from Charlotte, NC, has been selected for the 2025 Douglass-O’Connell Global Internship awarded by The Council on International Educational Exchange and the African American Irish Diaspora Network. He will join a diverse cohort of 12 high-achieving students who will participate in an eight-week international internship program in Dublin, Ireland, this summer.

Eric Mathews, entrepreneur-in-residence at Rhodes and a member of the Rhodes Class of 2002, is among winners of the 12th annual Innovation Awards presented by Memphis Magazine. He is chief executive officer of Memphis-based start-up incubator Start Co.

Rhodes College sent a delegation of 10 members to the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature’s (TISL) 55th General Assembly, held Nov. 21-24 in Nashville, and Hunter Rheinfrank ’26 and Sofia Lewis ’28 won individual awards.

Keith Adams ’25 had his heart set on conducting undergraduate research from the outset of his college search—and from fruit fly genetics to environmental field study to infectious disease, the biology major and chemistry minor has fulfilled this goal during his time at Rhodes.