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UCF Selected for New NSF Student Research Program in Conservation, Restoration, Communication
Beginning this summer 10 undergraduate students from across the nation will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience working with UCF biologists to see how they conserve, restore, and communicate what they do and why it matters. The U.S. National Science Foundation has recently awarded UCF $369,000 over three years to run the new program. […]
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Pushing the Boundaries
Kathleen Loftin ’89 ’00MS ’09PhD is in her happy place on a Saturday morning: pulling weeds in her garden. The work is peaceful, filthy, and as down to earth as you can possibly be. “Papayas grow without much effort,” Loftin says, sounding more like a wonder-struck gardener than the center chief technologist at Kennedy Space […]
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UCF Researchers Share Their Insights into Innovation and Inspiration
Innovation at UCF is not an exception; It is the expectation. In 2021, U.S. News and World Report ranked the University of Central Florida as the 15th most innovative university in the United States — of the top 30, it was also the youngest. The classification drew from a survey of top college administrators, asking […]
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Associate Provost for UCF Downtown Named
The new associate provost for UCF Downtown is a seasoned academic leader and distinguished criminal justice scholar who helped launch the campus in Fall 2019. The appointment of Ross Wolf ’88 ’91MPA ’98EdD by Michael D. Johnson, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, elevates his role from assistant provost for UCF Downtown that […]
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UCF Student Nanotech Team Designs Space Suit Material for NASA Competition
A group of six University of Central Florida students and alums from a range of fields designed and won the Best Technical Poster award as finalists in NASA’s recent Lunar Dust Challenge. They received the honor after NASA’s 2021 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge Virtual Forum in November 2021. As part of NASA’s […]
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Two Knights Awarded 2022 Foreign Affair Fellowships
For the first time ever, two individuals with UCF affiliations have been awarded the Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship and the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship in the same year. These are both highly coveted fellowships that give the recipients the opportunity to work as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of […]
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UCF Scientist with Stake in James Webb Space Telescope Closely Monitoring Unfolding Mission
Planetary Scientist Noemi Pinilla-Alonso has become addicted to NASA TV because of its live feeds of the James Webb Space Telescope mission. The telescope, more than 20 years in the making and after multiple delays, launched on Dec. 25, 2021. The telescope is traveling quickly to reach its destination — 900,000 miles away from Earth […]
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New Funding Will Help UCF Researcher Develop Nanotech to Detect Animal-Borne Diseases
A University of Central Florida researcher will be leading a new project to use nanotechnology to advance research in the detection and mitigation of emerging animal-borne infectious diseases. The project is funded by a $50,000 grant from national philanthropic foundation Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The funding is part […]
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UCF Research in 60 Seconds: Understanding the Impact of Diversity
Whether it’s solving the world’s biggest problems or investigating the potential of novel discoveries, researchers at UCF are on the edge scientific breakthroughs that aim to make an impact. Through the Research in 60 Seconds series, student and faculty researchers condense their complex studies into bite-sized summaries so you can know how and why Knights […]
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Graduation Marks Major Milestone for Student Veterans
The educational and career journey often looks different for those who chose military service. Meet three student veterans — Bryce Frase, Margarita Figueroa and Craig Plummer — who all served our country and are now preparing to graduate from UCF. Despite their different ages, careers, service branches and learning modalities, they’ve found a home and […]
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UCF Develops the World’s First Optical Oscilloscope
A team from UCF has developed the world’s first optical oscilloscope, an instrument that is able to measure the electric field of light. The device converts light oscillations into electrical signals, much like hospital monitors convert a patient’s heartbeat into electrical oscillation. Until now, reading the electric field of light has been a challenge because […]
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From the ‘Smithsonian’ Magazine to the Tonight Show, UCF Research has a Big Year in the News
UCF research stories were everywhere in 2021 from Smithsonian magazine to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The most popular research stories of 2021 focused on threats to our survival and opportunities to advance our species — from the impact of sea rise to technology that promises to propel our exploration of the solar system. […]
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Graduating UCF Film Student Completes Environmental Documentary
Making people care through the power of filmmaking is Vince Marcucci’s mission. The day after he graduates from UCF with a bachelor’s in film, he’ll show his first documentary series — an 80-minute, four-part feature following a day in the life of four Florida naturalists — during a private showing to cast, crew and local […]
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4 UCF Researchers Named as Highly Cited Researchers for 2021
Four University of Central Florida researchers have been named highly cited researchers in their field for 2021 by analytics company Clarivate, based on data from Web of Science. The annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. […]
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UCF Part of Historic Move to Build Space Ports Around Earth
NASA’s move to develop new destinations in space announced Dec. 2 is an exciting moment in history and UCF is right in the middle of it. UCF is a member of the academic coalition that is supporting Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef project to build a commercially owned and operated space station to reside in low-Earth orbit. […]
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UCF Chemistry Professor Leads Discussion at Chemical Weapon Forensics Symposium in Helsinki, Finland
Chemistry Professor Michael Sigman, director of UCF’s National Center for Forensic Science (NCFS), will be presenting and leading a discussion at an international conference sponsored and hosted by VERIFIN, the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, this week. The symposium is a continuation of a series of meetings held worldwide over the […]
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Self-Assembly Landing Pads for the Moon — UCF Researchers Are Working on It
Imagine hitting a button and instantly creating a landing pad just moments before descending a rocket onto the moon or an asteroid. That’s the concept behind two research projects underway at the Florida Space Institute at UCF. FSI postdoctoral researcher Douglas Fontes worked with planetary scientist Phil Metzger and Masten Space Systems, a private company, […]
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NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission Launching Today Aided by Arecibo Observatory
NASA’s mission to test out a technique to deflect asteroids is headed to a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) that the Arecibo Observatory helped identify. UCF manages the U.S. National Science Foundation facility under a cooperative agreement. Despite the telescope’s collapse in 2020, the data collected from Arecibo has played an invaluable role in past and ongoing […]
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From Foster Care Youth to Community Advocate
Growing up with a single mother who suffered from drug abuse and mental health issues, Diamond Whitley was determined to change her trajectory and pursue a path to a better future. Her motivation to go to college started at a young age. Even though her mother wasn’t always present, Whitley was surrounded by people who […]
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UCF Names Its Microgravity Research Center in Honor of Stephen W. Hawking
The University of Central Florida today is one step closer to becoming the first American university to name a research center after the late, world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen W. Hawking. The UCF’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved on Thursday that UCF’s Center for Microgravity Research, would now be known as the Stephen W. Hawking Center […]
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First-Generation UCF Student Finds Confidence to Pursue Her Dreams
Eileen Zelaya was born in Miami, but she was raised “all over the place” because her father was in the army. From a tiny town in rural Oklahoma to New York and back to bustling Miami, one thing remained consistent: Zelaya’s mother always made room for creativity. She crafted clothes, decorations, tablecloths, pillows, earrings, necklaces […]
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UCF, Leading Research Institutions Receive HPCwire Readers’ Choice Award
Today, a broad coalition of collaborators including UCF received the HPCwire Readers’ Choice award for Best High Performance Computing (HPC) Collaboration across academia, government, and industry. UCF was recognized at the 2021 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis alongside partners Arecibo Observatory, the NSF Cyberinfrastructure the Center of Excellence Pilot (CICoE), […]
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New NSF-Funded Survey Aims to Understand Gender Inequity in STEM Fields
University of Central Florida researchers are starting a U.S. National Science Foundation-funded project to identify systemic gender inequities impacting university STEM faculty so that they can be addressed by the institution. The $300,000, two-year project will focus on UCF. The project will study STEM faculty’s perceptions of departmental culture through the frameworks of organizational justice […]
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UCF is the Place to Be to View the Longest Partial Lunar Eclipse of the Century
Central Floridians will have a chance to see the longest partial lunar eclipse of the century early Friday morning and it promises to put on quite the show. The best viewing opportunity in Orlando — weather permitting — will be between 3 and 4:30 am. The University of Central Florida will have telescopes out on […]
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UCF Physics Professor Named Jefferson Science Fellow
UCF Physics Professor Humberto Campins has been named a Jefferson Science Fellow and will report to Washington D.C. beginning Nov. 21 to spend a year advising the U.S. Department of State. Campins is an international expert on asteroids. He is part of NASA’s historic OSIRIS REx mission, which is headed back to Earth with a […]
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2 UCF Professors Inducted into Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida
A psychology professor and an engineering professor from the University of Central Florida are among 15 honorees to be inducted Nov. 6 to the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEMFL), a group that brings together the nation’s most distinguished scholars who live and work in Florida. The induction of Pegasus Professors Deborah […]
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New Study Shows Impact of Roadkill on World’s Vulnerable Animal Populations
Vehicular collisions are a common cause of death for animals such as the endangered Florida panther and the state’s black bears, and a new international study has quantified how big of a threat roads can be to the survival of animal populations around the world. The study has identified four animal populations globally that are […]
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Knights Do That: PTSD Treatment That Works for Veterans, First Responders
In episode 12 of Knights Do That, we speak with Deborah Beidel, executive director of UCF RESTORES. The Pegasus Professor and Trustee Chair of Clinical Psychology and Medical Education shares her experience and expertise in PTSD treatment, innovative treatments happening at UCF RESTORES, and how we can better acknowledge and support veterans. Produced by UCF, […]
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For the Love of Space – Student Group Hosts Multiple Space Related Events
It’s no secret UCF loves space. From a space-themed football game to its “reach for the stars” motto, space is a part of the university’s fiber. The university was founded in part to support the space industry on the Space Coast. Since then, faculty and students have participated in more than 600 NASA research projects […]
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21 Faculty Members Inducted into UCF Scroll and Quill Society
The 21 new inductees of UCF’s Scroll and Quill Society represent a broad spectrum of academic expertise, such as fiction writing, artificial intelligence, police-community relations, nursing and terrorist recruiting tactics on social media. The Scroll and Quill Society celebrates faculty members who for at least a decade have made scholarly contributions of impact to advance […]