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OSIRIS REx Target on Asteroid Bennu Revealed, Next Step – Touch-and-Go in 2020
By ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA The OSIRIS-REx team announced today, the selection of two sites on asteroid Bennu that they will target for sample collection next year. The selection of the two spots nicknamed Nightingale and Osprey sites represents a milestone in NASA’s first mission to collect a sample of an asteroid and bring it back […]
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Physics Education Produces Twelve Teachers in Two Years
Adam LaMee has always had a passion for showing others the wonder of physics. So when UCF recruited him from his small, high school classroom to teach in their Physics Teacher Education (PhysTEC) program, it was a no-brainer. Now on its eighth year, LaMee’s passion has led PhysTEC to hit a major milestone: the 5+ […]
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NASA Funds 2 UCF Projects Focused on Returning to the Moon
By ROBERT WELLS Two new University of Central Florida projects will test innovative technologies designed to help astronauts return safely to the moon. NASA recently funded the projects that will help scientists better understand the nature of lunar dust so that its potentially damaging effects to equipment and spacecraft during lunar landings can be minimized. […]
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UCF Professor Part of Team Awarded the Sir Arthur Clarke Award
By ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA NASA’s New Horizons Mission Team, which includes UCF physics Professor Dan Britt, Thursday was awarded the 2019 Sir Arthur Clarke Award, one of the most prestigious space-exploration awards in the world. The award recognizes teams and individuals that have made notable or outstanding achievements in space activities in the past year. […]
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Achievements Celebrated at 2019 Distinguished Alumni Awards
The College of Sciences recognized 10 alumni for their achievements Thursday at the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Awards. The annual event brings together outstanding alumni from each of the departments and schools within COS for a night of celebration and reflection on another successful year. “Tonight’s awardees were selected for this honor based on their professional […]
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Physics Student Spends Summer Studying Asteroids for OSIRIS-REx
While many students spent their summer break at the beach or working to earn tuition money, UCF physics student Jennifer Nolau spent her break analyzing thousands and thousands of digital images beamed to her from an asteroid millions of miles from Earth. Curled up in her favorite pajamas with her laptop in her off-campus apartment, the […]
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Arecibo Observatory Gets $19 Million NASA Grant to Help Protect Earth from Asteroids
BY ZENAIDA KOTALA Knowledge is power and NASA has just invested $19 million into the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to gain a lot of knowledge about asteroids. NASA awarded the University of Central Florida (which manages the site on behalf of National Science Foundation) the four-year grant to observe and characterize near-Earth objects (NEO) […]
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Summer Commencement Launches Careers of New COS Grads
Rain didn’t dampen the spirits of UCF’s newest College of Sciences graduates on Saturday. Jeremy Ivy, 23, is a psychology graduate, and plans on applying to a master’s program at Florida Institute of Technology for registered behavioral therapy. These therapists are registered to treat children with autism and work with others that may have […]
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Department of Energy Selects UCF Assistant Professor for National Research Program
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA For a second consecutive year, one of UCF’s physics faculty members has been selected for the Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program. Physics Assistant Professor Luca Argenti is one of 73 scientists across the nation and the only one from Florida selected for the program, which includes a $750,000 grant […]
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NASA Awards $7.5 Million to UCF’s Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA NASA today awarded a $7.5 million grant to UCF’s Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), helping secure the next five years of the center’s bright future. “This win goes a long way to ensure UCF leadership in space science for the Space Coast” says Professor Dan Britt, the center’s director, […]
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NASA Spacecraft Crosses Into Uncharted Territory
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA NASA’s New Horizons mission continues to fly toward the outer edges of our solar system, now more than 4.1 billion miles from Earth with a cruising speed of 33,000 mph. The mission has been going for more than 20 years, with its biggest claim to fame being the first close flyby […]
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Mission Reveals New Details About Saturn’s Rings
BY ROBERT WELLS | JUNE 17, 2019 Researchers are offering glimpses into the nature and composition of Saturn’s legendary rings by using data from some of the closest observations ever made of the main rings. Even though NASA’s Cassini spacecraft’s mission to Saturn ended in 2017, scientists are still poring over the copious amounts of data it […]
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Nuclear Sub Visit Opens New Opportunities For Physics, Engineering Students
A recent trip to San Diego by two UCF professors sets up new opportunities for students interested in nuclear physics. Both Physics and Engineering were represented on the visit to the U.S. Navy’s submarine base, with Robert Peale, Ph.D., representing the former, and Sam Richie, Ph.D., bringing the Engineering perspective. The pair headed home to […]
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Arecibo Observatory Debuts New Mascot at Puerto Rico’s Comic Con
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA The University of Central Florida is storming the comic con world this week by participating in MegaCon Orlando and Puerto Rico Comic Con. Both events are geared for fans of science fiction, fantasy, anime and horror. They draw thousands of attendees who attend celebrity panels, shop for their favorite novelties, comics […]
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Three College of Sciences Faculty Receive NSF CAREER Awards
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA College of Sciences faculty represented half of the six grants awarded in the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development’s highly competitive CAREER program. The recipients represent some of the most promising early career scientists and engineers with high promise of leading major advances in their respective fields and who will serve as […]
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Mining the Moon For Ice Focus of UCF Research
BY ROBERT WELLS With space set to be the site of the next “gold rush,” University of Central Florida researchers are helping prospect a spot for a major first step in the upcoming scramble – creating a lunar mining outpost. The work will be funded through a recently announced grant from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts […]
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Spring ’19 Ph.D. Grads Honored At Reception
The Spring ’19 doctorate degree students were recognized Thursday at a special reception. Graduates celebrated their achievement with their faculty advisors, family, College of Sciences Dean Michael Johnson, Ph.D. and a special champagne toast. Click here to see the full gallery of photos. Chemistry Sameer Ezzat, Ph.D. Faculty Advisor: Andres Campiglia, Ph.D. Dissertation: Chemistry and […]
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$750K Awarded To Physics Professor To Improve Online Ed
A UCF assistant professor’s reimagined approach to optimizing online physics education has landed him a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The NSF award to Zhongzhou Chen, Ph.D., lasts for five years. In collaboration with the Center for Distributed Learning at UCF, Chen is developing a series of new online learning modules optimized for […]
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UCF Takes Lead on 5-Year, $7.5M Project for Department of Defense
The University of Central Florida is taking the lead on a five-year, $7.5 million investigation into machines that can operate at trillions of cycles per second for the Department of Defense. The grant award comes from the DoD’s highly competitive multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI), which combines the brainpower of top scientists in their respective fields […]
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COS Faculty and Students Recognized for Outstanding Achievements at Founders’ Day Convocation
The dedication and high quality of instruction provided daily by College of Sciences (COS) faculty was recognized recently at the 2019 Founders’ Day Convocation. COS students were also praised for their outstanding academic work. Multiple faculty received awards for their contributions to teaching and research at UCF. They are: College Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate […]
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UCF Marks 1st Year at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico
BY ZENAIDA KOTALA UCF celebrates its first anniversary this month of operating the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The observatory is the first national research center that UCF has led. It is home to one of the world’s most sensitive Incoherent Scattering Radar systems, which detects microscopic fluctuations due to thermal motions in the […]
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College of Sciences Welcomes New Pegasus Professor and Honors Reach for the Stars Recipient
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA AND ALLISON HURTADO ’12 Two College of Sciences professors were among those honored Wednesday for their dedication to teaching UCF students and their innovation in the classroom. Josh Colwell, Ph.D., was one of four new Pegasus Professors, the highest academic honor a professor can receive at the university. Tim Hawthorne, Ph.D., […]
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Research Unlocks Mystery of Premature Brain Cell Deaths
Certain toxic proteins have long been suspected as the culprits killing off brain cells, a process eventually leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. But exactly how those proteins were prompting the premature death of the cells was, up until recently, a mystery. UCF researchers developed a method by setting up a synthetic reconstitution of the […]
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Attosecond Physics Focus of Upcoming Mini-Workshop
European scientists will be on campus Tuesday, April 2, to discuss the latest developments and future challenges of experimental and theoretical attosecond physics. The mini-workshop, hosted by the Department of Physics, will explore the most current research using attosecond laser techniques to probe the ultrafast electron motion that underlies light-induced chemical reactions in molecular gases, liquids […]
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Asteroid Bennu Gives NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission Team Lots of Surprises
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA Sometimes the unexpected is more exciting than finding exactly what you thought you’d find, and this is indeed the case for the science team involved in NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid-sample mission. This mission, a first for the United States, aims to collect a sample from the near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu and bring […]
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17 College of Sciences Alumni Win 30 Under 30
Seventeen College of Sciences graduates were among the winners of UCF Alumni’s 30 Under 30 Awards. “Our 2019 30 under 30 recipients are extraordinary examples of what it means to represent UCF with pride,” says Jazmine Rodriguez ’10 ’12 , chair of UCF’s Young Alumni Council. “The impact this group has made in the world […]
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UCF Research Laying Groundwork for Off-World Colonies
BY ROBERT WELLS Before civilization can move off world it must make sure its structures work on the extraterrestrial foundations upon which they will be built. University of Central Florida researchers are already laying the groundwork for the off-world jump by creating standards for extraterrestrial surfaces. Their work was detailed recently in a study published in the […]
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Scientists Gather to Discuss Future Objectives of Arecibo Observatory
BY ZENAIDA GONZALEZ KOTALA The Arecibo Observatory and its researchers hosted scientists from around the world this week to discuss the future of research at the Puerto Rican facility under UCF management. Planetary scientists, radio astronomers and atmospheric scientists discussed the status of the facility, what potential upgrades could mean for the future of the […]
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Summer Internship Opportunities
As the temperature gets warmer, we’re all thinking about summer plans. An internship or study abroad program can be a great opportunity for students to gain real-life experience in their field of study and travel to a new place. Here are a few with upcoming deadlines: EEOP Internships Application Due: February 25, 2019 Internship Period: […]
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Physics Assistant Professor Named UCF’s First Sloan Research Fellow
By Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala Xiaofeng Feng has been named a Sloan Research Fellow, the first for the University of Central Florida. The award recognizes early career scientists that demonstrate high promise. Past Sloan Research Fellows have gone on to do big things. Collectively they have received 47 Nobel Prizes, 17 Fields Medals in mathematics, 69 […]