University of Florida Homepage

Winter 2018

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Baby Books and Brains

New study shows that certain books can increase infant learning. Parents and pediatricians know that reading to infants is a good thing, but new research shows reading books that clearly name and label people and objects is even better. “When parents label people or characters with names, infants learn quite a bit,” says Lisa Scott, […]

One young teen harasses a second while a third records it.

Safer Schools Through Science

UF bullying expert puts her research to work in Miami-Dade schools. “Boys will be boys” and “sticks and stones” don’t fly with UF Professor of Psychology Dorothy Espelage. As an expert on bullying, sexual harassment, and violence in schools, Espelage knows the truth: “Not all bullies are rejected outcasts; many bully not just because they […]

a group of people standing on the lawn holding cardboard tubes through which they are looking skyward

Stargazing to Siemens

UF professor mentors high schoolers. UF Professor of Astronomy Jian Ge wanted to give high school students a different summer camp experience: the opportunity to learn about astronomy with the help of UF’s 50-inch telescope at Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona. This summer, he did just that, and in October, 14 students placed at the […]

Head shot of Chip Kunde

Alumni Profile — Chip Kunde ’87

A Compelling Advocate Even during his childhood, Chip Kunde ’87 had a love of politics, government, and history. “But little kids don’t think about becoming lobbyists when they grow up,” he says. “Actually, I wanted to be an architect, then I realized it required math.” Chip Kunde urges students to be involved outside of the […]

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Student Profile — Nicole Wang

Global Citizen Nicole Wang ’21 just completed her first semester at UF and is committed to the pre-med track, even though she knows it’s not going to be easy. “During our preview session, we were asked how many people wanted to be doctors, and half of the room raised their hand. It was very intimidating,” […]

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Faculty Profile — Michael Daniels

Filling in the Blanks Imagine a puzzle that appears, at first glance, to be complete but actually has some missing pieces, and it’s not clear what those missing pieces are. Such is the challenge in understanding human environments — in their complexity, the empty spaces can be hard to fill, and even themselves might be […]

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Mock Trial Mavens

UF’s LitiGators win major national tournaments. UF’s Mock Trial team, the LitiGators, celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2017 in grand style — by having its winningest year in the team’s history, placing in several regional meets. In only its second trip to nationals, the LitiGators placed 8th out of the 48 top teams at the […]

portrait of Nick Nyiragongo sitting on a bench in front of a pit of fire

Renaissance Man

This geographer does it all. Nick Dowhaniuk PhD’21 has a shaded illustration of the Virunga Mountains, a chain of volcanoes in East Africa, tattooed on his forearm. “Ever since I went to Africa, I fell in love with it,” he says. He once lived at the base of the mountains and got the tattoo to […]