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The Fight for Social Justice – Distinguished Speaker This Monday, 3/10
UCF College of Sciences presents “Courting Social Justice: Social & Economic Rights in the Developing World” Distinguished Speaker Dr. Varun Gauri, Senior Economist with the Development Research Group of the World Bank Monday, 3/10/2014 4:30pm-5:30pm College of Sciences Building (CSB), Room 101 To visit website click here. Dr. Gauri will discuss the approach governments in the […]
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The Gold Knight Rises, Rise to LEAD 2014
College of Sciences Alumna, Lauren Berger, ’06 (aka the Intern Queen) will be the Key Note Speaker on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at the Student Union for Leadership Week 2014: “The Gold Knight Rises, Rise to LEAD 2014”. Leadership Week will take place from February 24th through the 27th in the Student Union and various campus venues. Leadership […]
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UCF Alumnus Earns Prestigious Sagan Fellowship
Kevin Stevenson ’12, graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Ph.D. in physics (planetary sciences track) and the Order of the Pegasus. He is now a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Chicago. In January, Kevin was awarded a 2014 Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship. It is estimated that 7 fellowships will be given out […]
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UCF Students To Ride ‘Vomit Comet’
Flying at zero gravity is usually something reserved for astronauts in training or very wealthy people with cash to burn, but six UCF students will get the chance to do so in June, courtesy of NASA. NASA selected UCF’s team to run an experiment aboard a parabolic flight as part of its Undergraduate Student Instrumentation […]
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Research Suggests Zero Gravity is Dangerous for Human Immune Systems
Finally! Fruit flies have a practical use outside of ruining your fruits. Recently, the scientific jounral “PLOS One” published an article about changes in fruit fly immunity after spending an extended period of time in outer space without gravity. The experiment and article were a collaborative project between researchers at the University of California at […]
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Don’t Miss the Presentation “The Impact Hazard from Small Asteroids”
“The Impact Hazard from Small Asteroids: Lessons From the Chelyabinsk Airburst One Year Later” University of Central Florida, College of Sciences, presents Dr. Peter Brown, Distinguished Research Professor in the Faculty of Science at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. Venue: University of Central Florida Main Campus, Student Union, Pegasus […]
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Close Encounters With Comet ISON
It’s not every day that you get to see a comet, but we may soon get the chance to get a glimpse of Comet ISON, which survived its close encounter with the sun last week. Jackie Brockington sat down with Dr. Yan Fernandez, director of the Robinson Observatory at the University of Central Florida, to go […]
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UCF Lands NASA-Funded Center
Years from now, if astronauts explore the surface of an asteroid or even the moons of Mars, they may have to give a shout-out to UCF scientists for helping them handle cosmic hazards such as clouds of potentially blinding space dust. The first step in that possible future came Tuesday with NASA’s announcement that a […]
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2013 Solar Eclipse on the Horizon
Stargazers across the globe are counting down the hours to Sunday’s big show in the sky. The so-called hybrid solar eclipse early Sunday will dazzle everyone from amateur astronomers to full-time astrophysicists as the moon passes between the earth and the sun. Folks in Florida can catch a glimpse — though not the full show […]
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Our Fair Weathered Sky Creates Jolts of Excitement
“We want more people to become aware of what’s in our night sky, what really interesting things there are to see up there, and what potentially is lost if light pollution is left unchecked,” says UCF Physics Professor, Dr. Yan Fernandez. “And Dr. Fernandez did just that, along with several other members of the Physics […]
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Alumni Publish New Literature
Congratulations to Brian Lackovic, ’94, who recently published his book, The Celestial Connection, a part historical fiction, part cyber espionage thriller. The premise of the book is a mysterious phone cable and an old set of train tracks long forgotten in Jupiter, Fla. connect the lives of two individuals who are separated by 120 years. […]
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Comet in Deep Freeze Thaws as It Approaches Earth; Viewing Planned
What some people are calling the comet of the century will be paying a visit to our part of the solar system in November, but scientists, including UCF’s Yan Fernandez, are already hard at work preparing for its arrival. Comet ISON comes from the Oort Cloud, a refuge for icy debris jettisoned by Jupiter and […]
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Dr. Campins Selected as 2013 Pegasus Professor
Dr. Humberto Campins’ impressive list of accomplishments ranges from discovering water ice and organic molecules on asteroids to being a part of NASA and European Space Agency teams, but he can now add UCF Pegasus Professor to that list. Campins was among seven faculty members who were honored this year with the prestigious Pegasus Professor […]
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UCF Mentor of the Year
Congratulations, Dr. Josh Colwell, Professor Department of Physics Planetary Sciences Group, on your UCF Mentor of the Year Award. Dr. Colwell got his Ph.D. from the Department of Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Colorado in 1989 and remained in Colorado as a Research Associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics until […]
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Graduate Research Forum Winners
Several College of Sciences students won awards this week at the Tenth Annual Graduate Research Forum. The Pegasus Ballroom was packed with a record number of graduate students presenting posters. Part of UCF’s Student Research Week, the Research Forum showcases the latest research from students, including cutting-edge technology and discoveries in arts, education, health and science. Throughout […]
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KSC Open For Business, Looking for Partners
Space research is a part of our everyday life, from microwave food to robotic surgery. “Where do you think robotic surgery came from?” asked Esther Beltran, a medical doctor who’s treated astronauts at Johnson Space Center and an advisor to UCF’s Institute of Simulation and Training. “It came from the robotic arm that Canada developed […]
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Students Launch Space Balloon, Watch on YouTube
More than a dozen University of Central Florida students played at being NASA engineers recently, launching a high-altitude balloon the size of a refrigerator into space. The students, studying a variety of fields from physics to accounting, designed the mission, made all necessary calculations and executed the launch from a public park in Safety Harbor. […]
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Video: Scientists Explain Impacts of Comets
The impact of comets on the surface of Jupiter are a fairly common experience. At the University of Central Florida, astronomers Joseph Harrington and Csaba Palotai are leading a project that studies precisely how these impacts happen, and also provides valuable information about what might happen if such a comet struck Earth. Watch the video […]
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Closest-Ever Asteroid Flyby Thrills Large UCF Crowd
More than 800 people packed the Pegasus Ballroom at the University of Central Florida on Friday to watch a live video feed of an asteroid zip by Earth, coming within 17,500 miles from the planet. It was the closest flyby on record, with the half-city-block sized asteroid squeezing in between the Earth’s surface and orbiting […]
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Asteroid Expert on ABC World News
By Ned Potter, ABC World News It begins to get on your nerves. Every now and then — a few times a year, depending on what you count — an asteroid goes whizzing past Earth at fairly close range, reminding us that sometimes outer space isn’t quite as, well, spacious as we may like to think. This […]
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Asteroid Encounter at UCF
An asteroid, the size of half a city block, will buzz Earth’s surface on Feb. 15, squeezing by communication satellites orbiting the planet. The University of Central Florida will host a free 1 p.m. viewing party for the public to watch this event via feeds from telescopes in Spain, where it will be nighttime. UCF’s Humberto […]
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Graduate Research Forum abstracts due
The Tenth Annual Graduate Research Forum, a part of Student Research Week, is open for submissions! The College of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Student Association invite UCF graduate students to submit your proposals now. Scheduled for Tuesday, April 2, 2013 in the Student Union, the Graduate Research Forum is an excellent opportunity for you to […]
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NASA executive, UCF grad named FSI Director
A veteran NASA executive, most recently director of the John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has been named director of the University of Central Florida’s Florida Space Institute. Ramon “Ray” Lugo III, ’79, is taking over as the space institute begins a new era of positioning Florida and the nation to be leaders in […]
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Founders’ Day Honors Convocation 2013
The annual Founders’ Day Honors Convocation will be held beginning at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, in the Pegasus Ballroom at the Student Union. We will recognize faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, advising, research, professional service, and librarianship. We will also recognize those members of our faculty who have completed […]
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Knights helping knights
As part of UCF’s 50th Anniversary, the College of Sciences is collecting donated items for the Knights Helping Knights Pantry. To date, COS has collected 1,215.52 pounds of donated items! If you would like to donate items, drop them off in the Dean’s Office or any COS departmental office. Learn more about our ongoing and future events […]
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College of Sciences videos
Learn more about the College of Sciences by watching our video playlist below. Further information on each professor is listed below the video screen. College of Sciences Video Playlist Learn more about how to support UCF Sciences here. Learn more about the Asteroid Viewing Party here. Learn more about Drs. Arlen and Diane Chase and […]
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Mayans, asteroids and the end of the world
December – it marks the start of winter and the end of a more than 5,000-year-long calendar used by the Maya. Some say it’s when the world will end. WMFE 90.7’s Mark Simpson talks with an expert on Mayan culture. He also talks with UCF Professor and Asteroid Expert Humberto Campins about whether any asteroids […]
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COS professors win ISS research competition
Professors and researchers from the UCF Physics and Planetary Sciences department are winners of the International Space Station (ISS) Research Competition. Dr. Josh Colwell, Dr. Adrianne Dove and Dr. Todd Bradley made up one of the eight winning teams with their proposal entitled, “Collisional Evolution of Particles and Aggregates in Microgravity”. A team of 15 independent judges […]
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Eradicating space dust and saving sea turtles get boost from space agency
Teams working on a wide range of innovative research and technology development, including work that may lead to new techniques for keeping alien dust from clogging up sensitive space instruments and work on new satellite tracking systems to help track endangered sea turtles recently got a financial boost courtesy of the Florida Space Institute. In […]
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International expert explains asteroids’ ‘real’ threat to Earth
Join space expert Dr. Humberto Campins at the Orlando Science Center on Saturday, Dec. 1 for a hands-on program that delivers the real story when it comes to asteroids that pass near the earth Earth. Campins, a physics professor at the University of Central Florida, will also share exciting details about forthcoming NASA and European […]