Grad Gazette

Student and Alumni Spotlight

Researching Teamwork in Antarctica

On January 16th, Andres Käosaar, a doctoral student studying psychology inthe College of Sciences arrived on King George Island, Antarctica, alongside his Swiss colleague, Dr. Monika Maslikowska, to study coordination and collaboration within Antarctic teams, stations, and organizations. Their research focuses on how teams manage tasks and social interactions both within individual research stations and across international stations on the island.

King George Island is home to stations from several countries, including Poland, Chile, Peru, Brazil, the US, Argentina, Uruguay, Korea, China, and Russia. This diversity provides a rich opportunity to examine complex, multilevel operations involving international research and military teams. The broader research team also includes Professors Pedro Marques-Quinteiro (Portugal) and Jan Schmutz (Switzerland).

The goal of this work is to enhance the operations of polar organizations and contribute to Andres’ wider research on teams in Isolated, Confined, and Extreme (ICE) environments. This includes exploring cultural differences, interpersonal relationships, resilience in multiteam systems, and emotion regulation in such challenging settings.

View our social media posts about Andres and the team’s work on Instagram and Facebook.

Support of High Stakes Negotiations at the State Department

Society Nanoscience and Technology Division Graduate Student Award

Digging Deeper: How a UCF Anthropology Graduate Uncovered Her Purpose

First-generation graduate student Melanie Langgle ’24 has unearthed more than artifacts — she’s discovered a deep sense of purpose that has shaped her life and future career.

Initially a history major, Langgle discovered her passion for anthropology while taking courses on the discipline, realizing its critical role in contributing knowledge for historians to write about. Joining UCF’s Hominids Anonymous club, the university’s official undergraduate anthropology club, introduced her to a network of like-minded students and internship opportunities.

“I found a community of peers and mentors who are supportive, uplifting and took me seriously right away — which hasn’t always been the case in my life,” she says. “I had a great foundation with the anthropology department, my advisors and just [UCF] itself.”

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UCF Doctoral Student Awarded National Nuclear Security Administration Program Award for Technical and Higher-Education

Physics Doctoral Student Advances Research to Improve Effectiveness for Scientific Instruments on the Moon’s Surface

Women Supporting Science Event Showcases UCF RESTORES’ Cutting-Edge Technology and Treatment for First Responders

Doctoral clinical psychology student, Kathryn O’Dell, has been working alongside UCF RESTORES Executive Director Deborah Beidel and shared how this mentorship and collaboration has impacted her education.

“At UCF, I have been able to take part in specialized training,” O’Dell says. “Working with veterans and first responders has given me the opportunity to understand trauma and PTSD, and the proper ways to treat it.”

O’Dell says that the research at UCF RESTORES is helping enhance understanding PTSD and the researchers are applying those insights to improve treatments provided to patients.

“At UCF RESTORES, we embody the Scientist Practitioner Model; science directly informs the care we provide our patients,” O’Dell says. “Conversely, the work we do with patients helps us to develop research questions as well as identify problems in the community we can use science to help solve.”

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College of Sciences Connects with Central Florida Community at Spark STEM Fest

The India Center at UCF Celebrates Republic Day with Community Event

UCF Researchers Advance Knowledge About Juvenile Sea Turtles’ Early Life Stage, Informing Conservation Efforts

Biology researchers from the College of Sciences’ UCF Marine Turtle Research Group studied the dispersal movements of four juvenile sea turtle species, revealing that they may be active swimmers, rather than passive drifters, during their early life stage known as the “lost years.”

The study, funded largely in part by Florida RESTORE Act Centers of Excellence Program, was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, representing the largest satellite tracking dataset of wild-caught juvenile sea turtle behavior from the Gulf of Mexico during this life stage, spanning from 2011 to 2022.

“One of the main findings is where these sea turtles are and where they go in this life stage because we haven’t known much about it,” says Katrina Phillips ’22PhD, who led the study alongside Nathan Putman and Kate Mansfield. Phillips says understanding these movement patterns among juvenile sea turtles will help guide conservation efforts to protect critical habitats for these species.

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