Sean Seymore, associate professor of law, was the inaugural Distinguished Honors Alumnus in Residence hosted by the Chancellor’s Honors Program at the University of Tennessee in April. Seymore, who holds a secondary appointment in Vanderbilt’s chemistry department, engaged in a series of open-ended mentorship and advising workshops and meals with current honors students and delivered a lecture, “Leaving the Lab for Law,” at the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Seymore was also presented with the University of Tennessee Accomplished Alumnus Award at a dinner held in his honor, at which Jeffrey Kovac, professor of chemistry and director of the University of Tennessee’s College Scholars Program, noted Seymore’s research contributions during his senior year to The Ethical Chemist: Professionalism and Ethics in Science, a book authored by Kovac.
Seymore was the University of Tennessee’s first African-American and first out-of-state Tennessee Scholar, then the university’s signature honors program. As an undergraduate, Seymore received a Chancellor’s Citation for Academic Achievement and the American Institute of Chemists Senior Award.
Seymore has also been invited to serve as the keynote speaker at the Chancellor’s Honors Program Graduation on May 10. He will be the first honors program alumnus to serve in that capacity. Recent speakers have included Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, former Congressman Harold Ford Jr., and Sharon G. Lee, former Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Seymore was the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Associate Professor at MIT during spring 2012. At Vanderbilt, he teaches Patent Law, Torts and Advanced Patent Law and Policy.