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The Department of Energy Selects UCF Physicist for Career Award
The Department of Energy has awarded UCF physicist and assistant professor Li Fang a career grant of $785,000. The award is part of the DOE’s Office of Science’s Early Career Research Program, which recognizes researchers for their promising work, early on in their careers. This year, only 76 awards were made to scientists at private […]
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National Asteroid Day: A Celebration of Mysterious Small Bodies
Imagine a celestial body larger than the Statue of Liberty skyrocketing past Earth with enough energy to flatten a city. Since 2011 this has only happened once, and it occurred earlier this month. Asteroids are small bodies, often made up of rock, that exist in the solar system. Where did they come from? Scientists speculate […]
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UCF’s Butterfly-Inspired Nanotech Makes Natural-Looking Pictures on Digital Screens
Taking inspiration from nature’s nanotech that creates the stunning color of butterfly wings, a University of Central Florida researcher is creating technology to make extremely low-power, ultra-high-definition displays and screens that are easier on the eyes. The new technology creates digital displays that are lit by surrounding light and are more natural looking than current […]
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How to Turn Your Lawn Into a Wildflower Garden
Whether you’re searching for an educational activity to do with your children or spending time landscaping while social distancing, UCF’s new Lawn to Wildflowers program out of the College of Sciences can offer a bit of inspiration. The project, spearheaded by UCF associate professor of biology Barbara Sharanowski and postdoctoral fellow Nash Turley, offers a […]
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UCF 1st in Florida, 3rd Nationally for Coveted National Science Foundation CAREER Grants
UCF leads the state and ranks third in the nation for the number of National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipients this year. Nine UCF has 11 confirmed awards as of June 3, and NSF has recommended two more for funding. In Florida, a total of 21 awards have been given so far, including four to […]
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UCF Study Finds Microplastics in Florida’s Birds of Prey for 1st Time
A new study from the University of Central Florida has confirmed and quantified, for the first time, the presence of microplastics in terrestrial and aquatic birds of prey in Florida, including hawks, ospreys and owls. Microplastics are small plastic pieces – less than the size of a pencil tip – that come from larger pieces […]
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Sea Turtle Nesting Season in Full Swing, UCF Researchers Keep Working Despite COVID-19
While uncertainty reigns for Floridians due to COVID-19, there’s one thing they can count on: sea turtles are nesting on our local beaches as nesting season heads into its fourth month this June. More than 2,750 sea turtle nests have already been discovered along the 29 miles of Brevard County beaches surveyed by UCF, and […]
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UCF Grad Earns Pulitzer Prize
International reporting by Michael Schwirtz ’03 recently earned him one of journalism’s top awards, and his journey to this moment started, in part, with a desire to stay close to home. The DeLand native and political science graduate started globe-trotting when he was still in high school, including summers abroad in London and Europe. When […]
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Epic Games, Maker of Fortnite, Awards UCF Professor Grant to Enhance AR and VR Technology
The company responsible for the online video game hit Fortnite has awarded a UCF assistant professor a grant to develop an immersive technology to take virtual experiences to new levels of reality. Epic Games provided UCF information scientist and artist Maria Harrington a $25,000 grant to expand her cutting-edge augmented and virtual reality work, which […]
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UCF Grad and Chef Bakes up Initiative to Support Medical Workers
Sprinkling joy is what chef Tracy Wilk ’10 does best. In light of the world’s COVID-19 pandemic, Wilk has turned the kitchen of her small studio apartment in New York City into a full-blown bake shop. Her inspiration: The brave first responders passionately dedicated to the safety of civilians. The treat: A variety of gooey, […]
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UCF Explores New Way to Mine on the Moon
UCF is taking inspiration from well-established mining techniques on Earth to tackle mining on the moon and asteroids. University of Central Florida planetary scientist Philip Metzger and his team at the Florida Space Institute have received a $125,000 NASA grant to develop a cost-effective and logistically feasible way to mine minerals on the moon. Metzger […]
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151 UCF Faculty Promoted Across All Disciplines
A great university is built by great faculty, and this year’s group of promoted and tenured faculty are the reason behind UCF’s academic excellence. Thirty-three were granted the title professor, a marker of an exceptional career in academia. A university’s excellence hinges on the strength of its faculty as scholars and as teachers. “This class […]
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15 UCF Students Named National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows
Angelina Leary, a student in UCF’s Clinical Psychology doctoral program, is one of 15 students at the university named a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. The NSF program recognizes outstanding students who have demonstrated significant achievements in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The students are either in their senior year of college and plan […]
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Graduating Senior Wins National Wrestling Championship
One UCF graduate is getting more than a degree as he wraps up his career as a Knight. Clay Perry, a member of the UCF Wrestling Club, had the opportunity to do what many collegiate athletes only dream of doing: becoming a national champion. The senior from St. Cloud, Florida, claimed the gold medal in […]
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UCF to Lead Study Exploring Social Media’s Impact on Consumer Behavior when Red Tide Strikes
The University of Central Florida is one of two universities selected to study the social and economic impacts of Florida’s red tide events during 2017-19 that killed fish, stunk up the coastlines and sent tourists packing. Notwithstanding today’s global pandemic, a large chunk of Florida’s economy depends on its beaches and waterways. The red tide […]
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UCF Researcher Helps Improve Accuracy of Storm Surge Analysis
Accurately predicting how many people are at risk due to sea level rise and storm surges has always challenged scientists, but a new method is improving models that account for the impact of these natural occurrences. A new international study published this week in the journal Nature Communications, applied a novel statistical method that — […]
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Student Research: Understanding the Lionfish Invasion in Florida
Biology major Katherine Viehl conducts research focused on the lionfish, one of the state’s most invasive species. Though this species is native to the South Pacific and Indian oceans it has been spreading through the Atlantic Coast since 1985. Their predatorial habits cause damage to the biodiversity destroying native fish and plants of the estuaries […]
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UCF, FAU and Coast Guard Team up to get Endangered Sea Turtles Home
Florida Atlantic University and the University of Central Florida teamed up with the U.S. Coast Guard to take some endangered sea turtles into the ocean where they belong. With the COVID-19 pandemic closing or severely limiting everything from beaches to lab activities at universities, researchers got creative to make sure three six-month old green turtles […]
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UCF Lands $7.5 Million in Grants from Federal Agency
The University of Central Florida is the only university in Florida to be awarded federal 2020 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grants – and it snagged three of them. The Department of Defense announced the recipients of the 26 awards. For UCF, that means more than $7.5 million over the next five years. Two professors will […]
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UCF’s Nicholson School Launches New Website to Promote Open Government
An experiment in promoting open government was launched last week by UCF’s Nicholson School of Communication and Media – and if the project meets with good results in Winter Park, it could be expanded to other Central Florida cities. A new grant-funded website – WinterParkSunshine.org – was set up by the school’s journalism program to […]
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UCF Master’s Programs in Emergency Management, Nonprofit Management Rank Among Top 5 in the Nation
U.S. News & World Report today ranked 27 UCF graduate programs in the top 100 of their fields nationally, according to the publication’s 2021 Best Graduate Schools rankings. Seven of the programs are taught in the College of Community Innovation and Education, including UCF’s highest-ranking program, Emergency and Crisis Management, which was ranked No. 2 […]
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UCF Named No. 1 Graduate School for Video Game Design
UCF’s graduate game design program is No. 1 in North America, according to The Princeton Review and PC Gamer magazine, which today announced their 2020 rankings. This is the second time in the past five years that UCF’s interactive entertainment graduate program at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy has taken the top spot. UCF’s undergraduate […]