The University of Central Florida Office of Research has announced the appointment of Joseph Harrington, a Pegasus Professor in the Department of Physics and UCF’s Florida Space Institute, as the interim associate vice president for research and scholarship. In this role, Harrington’s duties will include overseeing UCF’s institutes and centers and research strategy councils; participating […]
A University of Central Florida researcher and multiple alumni are part of a team that has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to identify water vapor in the atmosphere of an ultra-hot gas giant exoplanet and make a thermal map of its atmosphere. Using JWST’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph, the team found multiple […]
A University of Central Florida researcher is part of an international team that has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to capture definitive evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a gas-giant planet orbiting a sun-like star 700 light-years away. The finding was published online today and will appear in the journal Nature. […]
Three UCF students have been awarded the highly competitive Astronaut Scholarships this year — raising the university’s student awards from the organization to 54 since 1989. Each year, over 60 students across the country are awarded up to $15,000 each through the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). ASF awarded its first seven scholarships in 1986, sponsored […]
Catherine Millwater has been dreaming of space long before arriving at UCF. In 2018, the eager 17-year-old reached out to UCF’s Planetary Sciences Group in hopes they had room for a high school student willing to learn how to be a researcher. Spoiler alert: They did. Millwater, who expects to graduate from UCF in May […]
Students and community members got a nice view of the planet Neptune and its biggest moon Triton during one of September’s Knights Under the Stars events hosted at UCF’s Robinson Observatory. It was an early look at the planet, which today celebrates its 175th birthday. “I did a Neptune project all the way back in […]
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 […]
By ALLISON HURTADO ’12, SIMONE ROUSSEAU & ROBERT WELLS Three College of Sciences faculty were recognized Wednesday with the University of Central Florida’s highest awards. Physics Professor Joseph Harrington, Ph.D., was one of four new Pegasus Professors. Luca Argenti, Ph.D., and Jacquelyn “Jackie” Chini, Ph.D., were selected for the Reach for the Stars award, […]
Original story by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala. The University of Central Florida hosts a chapter of an out-of-this-world club, which recently grew by two. Planetary astronomer Noemi Pinilla-Alonso from the Florida Space Institute and UCF alumna Emily Kramer were honored when asteroids were named after them to recognize their contributions to planetary science research. That increases the […]
Eight University of Central Florida College of Sciences faculty were inducted into the Scroll and Quill Society on April 13, 2017. The society honors faculty members who have brought positive national and/or international attention to the university through their scholarly work. The faculty who were recognized have demonstrated sustained scholarly contributions over a period of […]
The discovery of the new exoplanet Proxima Centauri b seems like a story out of a science fiction novel – maybe because it actually is. The plot of science fiction author Stephen Baxter’s 2015 book Proxima is about an expedition to the actual red dwarf star Proxima Centauri and the colonization of an Earth-sized planet […]
The College of Sciences is proud to announce the 2015-2016 winners for the Teaching Incentive Program and Research Incentive Award. Each year, UCF’s Academic Affairs’ Office of Faculty Excellence gives incentive awards to outstanding faculty for their dedication to teaching, research and scholarship. Every award winner, whether holding a nine or 12 month contract, is given […]
Several people from the College of Sciences faculty and staff were honored at the recent Founders’ Day Honors Convocation. This year’s honorees are: The Pegasus Professor Award · Talat Rahman, Physics · Linda Walters, Biology University Awards Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching · Christopher Parkinson, Biology Excellence in Professional Academic Advising · Dena M. Ford, College […]