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Departments and Schools:
- Anthropology
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Mathematics
- Nicholson School of Communication and Media
- Physics
- Psychology
Biography
Dr. Joshua Colwell is the interim dean of the College of Sciences (COS) at the University of Central Florida. Colwell received his B.S. in Physics with a minor in Mathematics from Stetson University and a Ph.D. in Astrophysical, Planetary and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has been on the faculty at UCF since 2006 and is a Pegasus Professor. He most recently served as the associate dean for research in the College of Sciences.
Colwell studies the origin and evolution of the solar system and in particular small bodies such as planetary rings, asteroids, comets, dust, and small moons. He served as a co-investigator on the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) on the Cassini spacecraft. He has analyzed observations of Saturn’s rings made by Cassini UVIS and modeled the structure and evolution of the rings. In his work, he has designed, built and operated microgravity experiments to study the early stages of planet formation, the surfaces of small asteroids and moons and the collisional evolution of planetary rings in the Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research and Education. Colwell published a book about the Cassini mission to Saturn called “The Ringed Planet,” now in its 3rd edition.
Colwell joined UCF as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics in 2006 and has previously served as assistant director of the Florida Space Institute and associate chair and chair of the Department of Physics.
Colwell served as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées in Toulouse, France. He is an avid podcaster, leading conversations about space alongside Physics professor Addie Dove and Senior Lecturer in physics at the University of Vermont Jim Cooney on Walkabout the Galaxy. Beyond his work at the university, he is an avid runner and enjoys learning new languages.