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National Coastal Center Launches at UCF
UCF has launched a national research center focused on finding big-picture solutions to threats facing coastal communities. In 2017, federal and local governments in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico spent more than $284 billion to deal with the impact of hurricanes and flooding, according to NOAA. “There’s a perfect storm coming,” said Graham Worthy, UCF biologist […]
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UCF Chemistry Students Share Skills with Boy Scouts
One group of students was hard at work studying for finals – but also put aside time to share knowledge with the community. Cristina Rinella, president of the Forensic Science Association at UCF, was studying for finals when she received an email from the UCF Chemistry Department asking for volunteers to attend the Boy Scout […]
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Loving People at the Local Level
Kelly Quintero has always had a love for helping people at the local level. Before graduating in 2013 with her bachelor’s degree in political science, Quintero was eagerly involved with the school community. She was the president of the NationalOrganization for Women at UCF. She participated in the UCF College Democrats club. She helped plan, […]
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Nicholson Grad Student Named 40 Under 40
Orlando Business Journal (OBJ) named UCF graduate student Libby Champion one of the community’s 40 Under 40 honorees. She was recognized for her work in bringing school communication into the digital world, particularly in her role as the Director of Communications at Montverde Academy. Champion redesigned the school’s biannual magazine “The Tower” and produced engaging […]
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Sociology Post-Doc Wins STEM Scholars Award
Hannah Torres, Ph.D., came to UCF from the University of South Florida to take part in an exciting and meaningful research project. She completed her doctoral degree in geography and environmental science and policy, and holds a master’s degree in coastal environmental management. The choice to apply for the post-doc position at UCF was an […]
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Anthropology Sets the Path for Med School
Undergraduate anthropology student Shelby Lucia works with John Starbuck, Ph.D., to combine her passions of medicine and anthropology. Her research in his lab focuses on the facial morphology of the brain and skull, particularly in children with Down syndrome. Lucia catalogs CT and MRI image scans provided by Florida Hospital by noting important regions such […]
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Faculty Inducted into the National Academy of Inventors
By Barbara Abney Twenty-seven university faculty members were inducted into the UCF Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors at the second-annual gala on campus Thursday, Nov. 30. The scientists, who represent a cross section of the university, including engineering, optics, biomedical, energy, nanoscience, advanced materials and chemistry, cumulatively hold 127 of the 990 patents […]
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Congratulations, Fall 2017 Ph.D. Graduates
In a reception hosted by Dean Michael Johnson, Ph.D., the College of Sciences celebrated its new Ph.D. graduates in the Physical Sciences building. Thirteen students were recognized with family members and faculty advisors by their side. Associate Dean Teresa Dorman, Ph.D., honored each student by presenting their research and dissertation. A champagne toast followed to […]
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Cuban Immigrant Graduate Living Her Father’s Dream
by Christin Senior Jeanine Garcia was too young to remember the day her father Lazaro set sail from Cuba on a raft made of beer kegs and rope, armed with a parcel of food and a dream for a better life in America. When Garcia walks across the UCF stage Saturday to collect her Bachelor […]
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The India Center at UCF Honors Distinguished Professor
The India Center at UCF hosted an event to honor the retirement of Narsingh Deo, Ph.D., Charles N. Millican Eminent Scholar’s Chair in Computer Science and Director of the Center for Parallel Computation in the College of Computer Science and Engineering. The evening of celebration was made possible by Sharad Mehta, Anil Deshpande and Ajit […]
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Students Shift Goals to Help Others
Milka Derisma and her team, Cynthia Nnagboro and Kelly Merrill Jr., are all completing their master’s degrees in the Nicholson School of Communication, while simultaneously working to enact change in their community—starting with local college students. They created an initiative, BYG (Build Your Goals) Shift, focused on helping students transfer from two-year community colleges to […]
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A Knight’s Journey Sparks Profession and Philanthropy
Robert Aronoff ’92 intended to spend his first night on UCF’s campus in his car. To his surprise, he spent that warm August night sleeping on a couch in the head football coach’s office. Two days prior Aronoff arrived at the University of South Florida in Tampa to register for classes. After two days of […]
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First Confirmed Object From Other Star System
by Zenaida Kotala A cigar-shaped asteroid making its way through our solar system to an unknown destination is capturing the imagination of scientists around the globe. This is this first confirmed object from another star system, which is what got University of Central Florida Associate Professor Yan Fernandez fired up and calling up friends to […]
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The Lost Years of Sea Turtles
by Barbara Abney University of Central Florida biologist whose groundbreaking work tracking the movements of sea turtle yearlings in the North Atlantic Ocean attracted international attention has completed a similar study in the South Atlantic with surprising results. South Atlantic sea turtles do not passively ride prevailing currents as historically assumed, but instead actively swim […]
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Researcher Works to Explain Mars Clay
by Zenaida Kotala A study published today in Nature provides a new explanation for how clay formed on Mars, which could help scientists and engineers figure out how to unlock the early climate history of the planet. “The basic recipe for making clay is you take rock and you add heat and water,” said Kevin […]
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Professor’s Work Highlighted by the Department of Energy
Madhab Neupane, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, uses light to eject electrons out of materials revealing the states of electrons occupy inside the material. He does so by using a technique known as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). He employs very intense (but finely controlled) light beams to illuminate a sample, extract […]
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Team Uses Big Data to Predict Wildfires
Faculty advisor Daoji Li, Ph.D., led a UCF team to a second place finish in the 2017 SAS Analytics Shootout competition which was announced in September in Washington D.C. in the front of over a thousand people. (Watch the announcement video.) This annual competition pits teams from all over the world against each other to […]
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For Math Professor, It All Adds Up
The UCF Mathematics Department welcomed Eduardo Teixeira, Ph.D, as a new professor this fall. Teixeira is a highly-esteemed and recognized mathematician, specializing in partial differential equations, free boundary problems and harmonic analysis. Before accepting a position at UCF, Teixeira was a professor at the Universidade Federal do Ceara in his home country of Brazil for […]
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Determination Leads to Improved Zika Test
Four years ago, Ph.D. candidate Tianyu Zheng arrived in America for the first time. After joining the Ph.D. program in the Department of Chemistry at UCF, he was determined to pursue an upper-level chemistry education. Now, one year out from finishing his doctoral degree at UCF, he’s been awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student award by […]
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Where Turtles Eat Unlocks New Conservation Areas
by Allison Hurtado UCF alumna Simona Ceriani published a new study that finds sea turtles are what they eat – but where they eat may be even more important. Ceriani, who is a tenured research scientist with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, collaborated with three UCF Department of Biology researchers on the study, published […]
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The India Center Sponsors Trip for Students
The India Center at UCF, housed in the Political Science Department in the College of Sciences, co-sponsored four undergraduate students to travel to India during summer 2017. The trip was organized by Phil Peters, Professor of Film and Animation in the College of Arts and Humanities. The four-week long trip to India was part of […]
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The Probability to Lift Off
Jimmy Rudolph ’76 was hired to work at the Kennedy Space Center on NASA’s new Space Shuttle Program right after he graduated from Florida Technological University. In a room full of old-school engineers who didn’t always trust computers, Jimmy made a name for himself after he learned a computer programming language in just one day. […]
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Alumnus Connects With American People
UCF alumnus Michael Taylor ’13 took his degree in international and global studies to the White House, working as the letter writer engagement and events coordinator in the Office of Presidential Correspondence during the Obama administration. His job connected him with Americans on a daily basis, requiring him to read the presidential mail looking for stories […]
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Kurdish Aspirations, Geopolitical Realities
On November 16, the Kurdish Political Studies Program (KPSP) sponsored an event about contemporary Kurdish politics in the Middle East with an audience of more than 30 people. Güneş Murat Tezcür, Ph.D., opened up the event and invited Kerstin Hamann, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Political Science, to present the Dr. Najmaldin Karim Fellowship […]
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UCF Launches Big Data Ph.D. Program
UCF’s Department of Statistics will offer one of the only Big Data Ph.D. programs in the world beginning Fall 2018. The field of big data has recently exploded. As companies continue to collect more and more data about their customers, there is a gap to fill with an industry professional who can interpret it. Big […]
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New Zika Test is Hitting the Market
by Zenaida Kotala A new diagnostic test that can detect a Zika viral infection within 30 minutes could be headed to hospitals in the next year thanks to a partnership between the University of Central Florida and Orlando-based biotechnology startup Nano Discovery Inc. Qun Treen Huo, a faculty member at UCF’s Department of Chemistry and […]
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Another Side of Anthropology: Infants and Children
Not many anthropologists focus on infants and children when they research the past, but UCF bioarchaeologist Sandra Wheeler, Ph.D., does just that. She investigates the burial practices of ancient cultures and the archaeological contexts surrounding death and burial, creating an image of how society treated their youth and infants. She works with skeletal and mortuary […]
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Saudi Crown Prince Bets on Economy
by David Dumke, director of Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd Program This week marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of Bill Clinton’s victory over George H. W. Bush, a notable presidential election that familiarized the political world with the mantra, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Coined by Clinton’s famed political strategist James Carville, it stated the simple truth that […]
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Kids ‘Drone’ Up Interest in Citizen Science GIS
by Rachel Williams More than 350 4th-12th grade students, their teachers and parents Wednesday saw firsthand at UCF how apps, maps and drones are used in geographic information systems, an interdisciplinary field that captures, analyzes and presents geographic data in meaningful ways. Students flew mini drones over a model town to simulate how GIS professionals fly […]
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Conference Grows Interest in Plant Science
The first annual Plants Beyond Limits Conference was held Friday, Nov. 10, at the University of Central Florida. Over 200 UCF students, alumni and visitors from the greater Orlando area attended. Tickets sold out online a week before the event making turnout a success. Many attendees expressed their excitement to be a part of the […]