University of Central Florida faculty members are the foundation of the university. They energize students, academic programs, research and service through academic excellence and innovation.
Fri Jan 14
You’ve been a student – twice – in the UCF College of Nursing. Now you’re a faculty member. What draws you to UCF and the college? The general tenor and tone at UCF is one of support, both for the overall success of the student and the mentoring support provided to faculty members. You have…
Tue Jan 11
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 —…
Mon Jan 10
Congratulations to Division of Physical Therapy assistant professor Carey Rothschild, who was recently elected to serve as the Nominating Committee member of the Pain Special Interest Group in the Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy. In addition to this leadership role, Rothschild currently serves as the Sports Board member of the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties and is…
Mon Jan 10
Nancy McIntyre, an assistant professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, leads the new Reading and Oral Comprehension in Kids & Teens Lab (ROCK&T Lab), where she conducts research and develops targeted interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). McIntyre has been passionate about finding out the hows and whys of the learning…
Fri Jan 7
In October, four units in the UCF College of Arts and Humanities were awarded Greater Good: Humanities in Academia Grants. According to Florida Humanities, the statewide, nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, this grant provides funding to humanities-related departments associated with Florida colleges and universities to support community programming that seeks to broaden…
Mon Dec 13
Eight College of Medicine faculty physicians — including seven who care for patients at UCF Health — have been named Top and Premier Doctors by Orlando Magazine for 2021. This year’s medical school physician awardees and their respective honors are: Abdo Asmar, nephrology, Premier Shazia Beg, rheumatology, Top and Premier Neha Bhanusali, rheumatology, Top and Premier Diane…
Mon Dec 13
Linda I. Rosa-Lugo is retiring in January 2022 after nearly three decades with the University of Central Florida. While this marks the close of an important chapter in her life, the impact of her story at the university is one that will live on in perpetuity through the programs and courses she developed. Despite the…
Tue Dec 7
UCF Professor Greg Welch is one of 164 national faculty members who have been named to the National Academy of Inventors and one of only 10 from Florida this year. Welch is the AdventHealth Endowed Chair in Healthcare Simulation in UCF’s College of Nursing. The computer scientist and engineer is also the co-director of the UCF Synthetic Reality…
Wed Dec 1
With an estimated 37.7 million people worldwide affected by HIV, World AIDS Day serves as a global-health endeavor to end the surrounding stigma and increase awareness. Observed each year on Dec. 1 since 1988, World AIDS Day encourages people to show support for those living with HIV, raise awareness for the disease, unite in the…
Wed Dec 1
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 past five…
Wed Dec 1
In episode 14 of Knights Do That, we speak with Phil Metzger ’00MS’05PhD, a planetary scientist and UCF alum with nearly 30 years of experience at NASA. During this episode, Phil shares stories from his time working on the space shuttle missions, his controversial research on whether Pluto is a planet or not, and what the future…
Mon Nov 22
This year, Chanukah, the Jewish eight-day wintertime “festival of lights” also known as Hanukkah, is observed Nov. 28 – Dec. 6. As of 2021, there are about 15.2 million Jews worldwide, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel. In the United States, about 5.8 million adults are Jewish, with another 2.8 million that identify having…
Fri Nov 19
Professor of history Luis MartÃnez-Fernández is a finalist for a 2021 Don Quijote Excellence Award, an honor that recognizes visionary, courageous Central Floridians who have taken risks to achieve their goals and improve their community. Conceived in 1997 by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando and Prospera, the Don Quijote Awards have honored…
Fri Nov 19
To say Clarence Penn is a prolific jazz drummer would be an understatement. With multiple Grammy Awards under his belt and a discography boasting several hundred studio albums across a wide range of jazz expression, his talents have taken him across the nation and around the world on tour. “At first, I started out as…
Fri Nov 19
The average number of faculty named U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award recipients at UCF has more than quadrupled since the Office of Research launched a mentoring program in 2019. The National Science Foundation CAREER Proposal Mentoring program was created to increase the success rate of faculty who go after the five-year monetary awards. The…
Thu Nov 18
Ray Sturm ’89 ’98MS was not your typical faculty member in the College of Business. The senior finance lecturer and two-time UCF graduate could often be seen on campus — like many of his students — skateboarding to class in a T-shirt and jeans. Sturm, who died Nov. 12 at age 58, taught both finance and…
Wed Nov 17
Associate professor Alla Kourova has taught Russian at UCF for over a decade, earning a reputation as an educator who celebrates culture beyond the classroom. Now, she’s been honored by the Florida Foreign Language Association with the organization’s Most Valuable Teacher Award. Affiliated with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language, the Florida Foreign Language Association…
Wed Nov 17
Al Sattelberger, Ph.D., regularly surprises chemistry students with how readily he can predict the outcome of an inorganic or organometallic reaction. But that’s to be expected with a resume that spans 44 years — including scientific leadership positions at two DOE National Laboratories. Today Sattelberger is technically “retired”, but the pull of lab work was…
Mon Nov 15
In episode 13 of Knights Do That, we speak with Elena Cyrus, an infectious disease epidemiologist at UCF’s College of Medicine. She discusses her expertise and research in infectious diseases, public health and COVID-19 vaccines. Produced by UCF, the podcast highlights students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni who do incredible things on campus, in the community…
Wed Nov 10
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 sample of…