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Century Tower at night, lit with rainbow colors

What’s in a Name?

Center Makes LGBTQ+ Focus Explicit. UF’s Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research recently affirmed its multifaceted approach to the study of LGBTQ+ issues by announcing a new name: The Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research. President Fuchs’ statement in support of the victims of the Pulse nightclub terrorist attack and the LGBTQ+ […]

Dennis Hays gestures off-camera

Alumni Profile — Dennis Hays

Career Diplomat As a member of the United States Foreign Service for 25 years, Dennis Hays ’76 served in Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. During three of these years, he worked as a presidential advance agent, organizing presidential and vice presidential trips to everywhere from China to Zimbabwe to Panama. In 1996, he was […]

Hector stands in front of bright orange device in physics building

Student Profile — Hector Lacera

How one boy’s love of physics started with a cat. Even as a small child, Hector Lacera ’18 wanted to understand the nature of things. He distinctly remembers the first time he felt the inexorable tug of physics. He was seven years old and living in Bogotá, Colombia. One afternoon, while petting the family cat, […]

Photo of Professor Sharon Austin at her desk.

Faculty Profile — Sharon Austin

Empowering Students In the era of President Obama, Black Lives Matter, and Shondaland, the field of African American Studies is timely and relevant. UF is one of only 232 academic institutions in the U.S. to offer a major in African American Studies, and its program has about 450 undergraduates. Sharon Austin, associate professor of political […]

Photo of Professor Christou holding a molecule model.

Small but Mighty

UF professor discovers the world’s smallest magnet. If you thought electronics couldn’t get any smaller or more powerful, consider this: Distinguished Professor of Chemistry George Christou has discovered the world’s smallest magnet. He recently received acclaim for his discovery of single-molecule magnets and other magnetic metal-oxo compounds — microscopic, long-lasting substances with applications to medical, […]

young woman prepares young boy's arm for vaccination

The Needs of the Many

Health disparities minor reaches out to underrepresented populations. Cathaerina Appadoo ’17 wants a revolution in healthcare. One of many pre-med students in the Health Disparities in Society minor at UF, she’s training to be a leader in “culturally competent” healthcare that’s sensitive to the needs of minority patients. She’s witnessed health providers who are ill-equipped […]

Jim and Susan Wiltshire standing in front of Lake Alice

Making the Most of the Sunset Years

Where you age affects how well you age. Jim ’54 and Susan Wiltshire ’55 met at the University of Florida in 1953, married in 1957 during Jim’s tour of active duty in the Navy, lived in various locations in the eastern United States, and ended up in Hamilton, Mass., where they raised two sons and […]

a Pequot artifact excavated from the banks of the Connecticut River

Story Keeper

Historian receives UF Distinguished Alumnus Award for colonial histories. The Pequot were an indigenous people who inhabited what is now southeastern Connecticut. Much of the tribe was largely lost to war and slavery between the 17th and 19th centuries, and academics have debated the cause of the battle between the Pequot and the Puritans. Historian […]

closeup of dictionary entry for legacy

A Bequest for the Best

French professor donates his estate to further the humanities at UF. After 57 years of teaching — 29 of them at UF — William Calin, Graduate Research Professor of French and Francophone Studies, is not planning to give it up anytime soon. He says he doesn’t plan to retire. “I love teaching and researching too […]

Portrait of Stephanie Abrams

In Any Weather

By Gigi Marino Stephanie Abrams ’99 hasn’t taken a sick day in nearly 14 years. If she’s feeling under-the-weather, she has to put on her TV face because, for many, she is the face of the weather. Co-host of The Weather Channel’s America’s Morning Headquarters, Abrams grew up in West Palm Beach. As a child, […]

Photo of Gabriella Larios at the Harn Museum.

Student Profile — Gabriella Larios

Breaking the Color Barrier Gabriella Larios ’17 enjoys putting the pieces together — literally. This aspiring lawyer discovered jigsaw puzzles for stress relief while studying for the LSAT and now regularly assembles 500-piece puzzles when she’s not leading student government or leadership training. A women’s studies and political science double major from an all-girls Catholic […]

Photo of Tom Bianchi kneeling next to Lake Alice.

Faculty Profile — Thomas S. Bianchi

Delta Blues “Burn and burial,” offers Thomas S. Bianchi, the Jon L. and Beverly A. Thompson Endowed Chair of Geological Sciences, as a central theme of his research. He’s referring to carbon cycling, especially the release of carbon into the atmosphere or its sequestration in flora in “blue carbon” areas, such as wetlands and rivers. […]

Photo of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope against the dusk.

Recent Discovery Questions the Origins of the Universe

Astronomers find the first binary–binary. Everything we know about the formation of solar systems might be wrong, say Professor of Astronomy Jian Ge and postdoc Bo Ma. They’ve discovered the first “binary–binary,” or two massive companions around one star in a close binary system — one so-called giant planet (12 times the mass of Jupiter) […]

photo of bright blue water of Florida springs

Humanities and the Sunshine State

High school students enjoy a different kind of summer camp. Water is Florida’s largest resource. UF’s Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, in collaboration with UF’s Center for Precollegiate Education and Training, has developed a distinctive weeklong program that teaches high schoolers Florida history and culture through the perspective of water use — […]