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UCF’s Crime Lab Combats Human Trafficking Through Research
UCF Department of Sociology’s “crime lab,” a team of faculty and students, is trying to help police and nonprofit agencies better understand human trafficking in hopes of stopping it. While human trafficking is the latest crime the UCF team is tackling, it has been working with all sorts of crime data. The team works with […]
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NCFS Hosts Laser Ablation Workshop
University of Central Florida researchers Matthieu Baudelet, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry, and Mauro Martinez, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate at the National Center for Forensic Science, presented at a workshop on Laser Ablation for Forensic Science Applications. The event was hosted by UCF’s National Center for Forensic Science on Feb. 8 and 9, 2017. The event, […]
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UCF Health’s Integrated Service Makes Headlines
Two University of Central Florida and UCF Health faculty are making headlines for their work and development of an integrated behavioral health service. News segments on WNDU in Indiana and KIMT in Iowa and Minnesota aired featuring Cerissa Blaney, Ph.D., and Maria Cannarozzi, M.D. The segments highlighted how the integrated system helped one of their […]
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COS Students to Receive University’s Highest Honor
Story by Mark Schlueb, UCF Today UCF has named 21 students as recipients of the Order of Pegasus, the university’s most prestigious student award. Eleven of these recipients are students of the UCF College of Sciences. The 2017 recipients were selected from a pool of 65 nominations. The 2017 class includes eight LEAD Scholars, eight President’s Leadership […]
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Anthropology Student Seeks Degree to Thank Mom, Dig Up Latin American Roots
Story by Rachel Williams, UCF Today Kimberly Batres was too young to remember, but her mother often went hungry. As a single mother living in Guatemala with daughters 7 and 3 years old, Alison Batres earned just enough money working in a family-owned bakery to pay rent and feed her children. Fed up and in […]
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Open Reef Drones Take on Environmental Conservation
Geographic information systems (GIS), and related geospatial technologies like drones, are being used to do wonders for our planet. With the growing issue of climate change and over-development, University of Central Florida researchers have taken the initiative to protect the areas with the greatest risks: islands and coastal areas. UCF Assistant Professor of GIS in […]
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Anthropology Student Aims to Make a Difference
Story by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, UCF Today Elizabeth “Beth” Chance served eight years in the U.S. Army, among many assignments handling classified mail in Iraq. When she came home, she became a classroom teacher. But she’d always dreamed of becoming an archeologist. “I had watched a PBS special on the discovery of ‘Lucy,’” said the […]
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UCF Gets $1.3 million to Fight Zika
University of Central Florida scientists, including three Department of Chemistry faculty members, received a total of nearly $1.3 million in state funds Wednesday to research the Zika virus with the goal of understanding its effects on human health and developing a vaccine for the mosquito-borne illness. The funding was part of Gov. Rick Scott’s authorization of $25 […]
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Pegasus Professor Named Fellow of AVS
University of Central Florida Pegasus Professor in the Department of Physics Talat Rahman, Ph.D., has been named a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). Fellowship is the premier membership recognition for this professional Society and recognizes AVS members who have made sustained and outstanding scientific and technical contributions in areas of interest to AVS. […]
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Physics Graduate Students Conference Bound
Brian Zamarripa Roman and Fernand Eliud Torres-Davila, University of Central Florida physics graduate students, were awarded a travel grant from the American Physical Society (APS) to attend the APS Graduate Education and Bridge Program Conference in College Park, Maryland. “As part of the bridge program, we hope to expand our knowledge of the cutting-edge fields […]
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Fighting Crop Disease
Story by Mark Schlueb, UCF Today An international agricultural company has licensed a formula for fighting crop disease that a UCF scientist spent more than five years perfecting. Gowan Co. recently signed an agreement with the University of Central Florida to obtain exclusive rights to the anti-fungal and anti-bacterial formulation developed by researcher Swadeshmukul Santra, Ph.D. The […]
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Alumnus Holds Key To Big Data
By Jenna Marina In the past, the biggest threat from a data breach was to the individual. But now with the onset of Big Data, there are much bigger threats and even bigger opportunities. Few people, however, understand what Big Data is or how it can be used, said Lee Odess, ’99, vice president of […]
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A Wild Win for UCF Biology Student
Rhett Rautsaw, a master’s student in UCF Department of Biology, won first place for his presentation at the 38th annual Gopher Tortoise Council Meeting in Palatka, Florida held January 13-15, 2017. Rautsaw was representing the university at the meeting where he was awarded first place for his oral presentation on a new method to survey […]
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Physics Professor on Good Day Orlando
University of Central Florida Physics Professor Dan Britt, Ph.D., was a special guest on FOX 35’s morning show, “Good Day Orlando,” on Friday morning, January 13. Britt, director of the Center for Lunar & Asteroid Surface Science at UCF , will help explore some of the oldest asteroids in the solar system thanks to a […]
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The Coordinates of Success
Amanda Ashby, a University of Central Florida senior majoring in sociology, was thrilled when she was awarded a student assistantship for the annual Esri FedGIS Conference. The conference, held this year in Washington, DC, focuses on the high-tech field of geographic information systems, or GIS. GIS is a system that is designed to capture, store, […]
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Professor’s Research Part of First Mission to Trojan Asteroids
Story by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, UCF Today University of Central Florida Physics Professor Dan Britt, Ph.D., will help explore some of the oldest asteroids in the solar system thanks to a new NASA mission. NASA, this month selected the Lucy mission, which will explore Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids for the first-time. The robotic spacecraft will also explore […]
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UCF Chemistry Student Receives National Honor
University of Central Florida undergraduate chemistry student Samantha Mensah won the Winifred Burks-Houck Undergraduate Award scholarship from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. The award is only presented to one undergraduate student in the United States every year. Mensah also attended NOBCChE’s annual conference in November in Raleigh, […]
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Grant to Aid Sexual Assault Investigations
Story courtesy of Gabriel PR Candice Bridge, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF), was awarded a $324,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to develop new forensic science techniques to aid in sexual assault investigations. “This grant will enable us to conduct research into a unique new means of identifying […]
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Sociology Student Maps His Way to Success
Nicholas Altizer from the University of Central Florida’s Department of Sociology has been chosen as a virtual intern for United States Agency for International Development’s Geocenter. The internship lasts from late January to the beginning of May. The internship is with YouthMappers, a program that engages university and high school students by allowing them to […]
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EXCEL Celebrates 10 Years
On Saturday, November 19, 2016, EXCEL at the University of Central Florida hosted an event in honor of its ten year anniversary. A group of 50 faculty, alumni and students celebrated at a special tailgate in the Harris Corporate Engineering Center before UCF’s home game. The EXCEL program at UCF is aimed to increase student […]
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UCF to Host Moon Viewing
Story by Bernard Wilchusky, UCF Today UCF’s Planetary Sciences Group will host a telescopic-viewing night of the moon in a new location Thursday, Dec. 8. For the first time, telescopes will be set up from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in front of Millican Hall near the Reflecting Pond. Hurricane Matthew interfered with the originally scheduled […]
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Psychology Professor Selected as IEEE Fellow
Peter Hancock, Ph.D., a UCF Psychology Pegasus Professor and University Trustee Chair, has been named an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow. His appointment, beginning January 2017, is in recognition of his contributions to adaptive human-systems engineering. Adaptive human-systems use direct information from on-line brain physiological monitoring. The systems adjust and adapt their operations to […]
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Chemistry Student Awarded Presidential Doctoral Fellowship
Chemistry graduate student Riley Gentry has been at UCF for five years – first for his bachelor’s degree and now for his doctorate. He is one of eight recipients of the Presidential Doctoral Fellowship award from the College of Graduate Studies. Gentry was nominated for the scholarship by his advisor Eda Koculi, Ph.D., assistant professor […]
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UCF Hosts Fourth STEM Day
By Julia Anderson On Friday, October 28, the University of Central Florida hosted 1,200 K-12 students on campus for its bi-annual STEM Day event. Students from 33 schools across Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Hernando, Brevard and Sumter counties participated in the event coordinated by the Center for Initiatives in STEM (iSTEM). Several home school groups attended […]
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Award Winning Linguistic Anthropology
University of Central Florida student Christy Box spent six weeks travelling Ireland, Scotland and England this summer, all in pursuit of words. She just won an award for her years of research on the subject. Box is a senior in the Department of Anthropology. She spent this summer conducting research for her honors-in-the-major project about […]
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UCF Team to Receive Revolutionary Microscope
The fastest detecting and most advanced electron microscope in the world is coming to the Department of Physics thanks to researchers at the University of Central Florida. The group researches properties within materials that could be used in a variety of fields from medicine to engineering. There is the potential of discovering novel ways to […]
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Biology Students Shine at ShORE Conference
Five students and three professors from the Department of Biology at the University of Central Florida participated in the Sharing Our Research with Everyone or Sh.O.R.E. conference on Sept. 23 at New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The conference was presented by the Institute of Marine and Environmental Studies at Daytona State College and the New Smyrna […]
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Snakes, Knightro and Yoga — Oh My!
Story by Bernard Wilchusky, UCF Today Snakes, Knightro and yoga — just a few of the animals, mascots and activities one can enjoy during Faculty and Family Fun Sundays, a monthly fall get-together for the UCF faculty in the Arboretum Park. This free event was the idea of Linda Walters, Ph.D., director of the Center for […]
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New Ways to Colonize Mars
Two researchers at the University of Central Florida were featured in an article published by The Atlantic titled ‘The Low-Tech Way to Colonize Mars.” The article focuses on the research conducted by Philip Metzger, Ph.D., an associate in planetary science research at the Florida Space Institute, and his team. Daniel Britt, Ph.D., professor in the Department of […]
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Biology Professor’s Heritage Inspired His Love of Nature
UCF conservation biology professor Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio, Ph.D., grew up with lush forests as his backyard playground. He remembers walking through Veracruz, Mexico, listening to the wind playing in the trees and critters calling to each other all around him. His father would sometimes join him on horseback rides to a nearby river and lake. […]