News

Anthropology 

John Krigbaum is professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology. He received his Ph.D. from New York University in 2001 and has been teaching at UF for 24 years. Krigbaum’s areas of interest include biogeochemistry, bioarcheology, paleodiet, migration and paleoecology. He is the director of UF Quest 2 and serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and Bioarcheology International. 

Chemistry

Ronald Castellano is professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry. He received his Ph.D. in 2000 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has been teaching at UF for 22 years. Castellano was recognized with the 2023-2024 UF Doctoral Dissertation Advising/Mentoring Award. For 18 years his laboratory research has used organic synthesis, physical organic chemistry, spectroscopic methods, and computation to design, prepare, and study novel organic molecules that show unique and useful behavior. 

History

Joe Spillane is professor and chair of the Department of History, a position he previously held from 2006 to 2010. Spillane received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1989, joined the University of Florida in 1995 and served as associate dean for student affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 2012 to 2022. Spillane’s research interests include the development of drug addiction research, and police practice relative to illicit markets. 

Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Alioune Sow is chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. He joined UF in 2004 after receiving his Ph.D. from Universite de Sorbonne, Paris. Sow has a joint appointment in French and African Studies, where he is associate professor, and is director of the France Florida Research Institute. His research interests include democratic transition and cultural forms in francophone West Africa, focusing especially on memoirs, theater and films in Mali, as well as migration and theater practices in France. 

Linguistics

Brent Henderson is chair of the Department of Linguistics, where he is associate professor. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2006 and has been teaching at UF for 18 years. Henderson’s research interests include work that informs syntactic and morphological theory, documentation of endangered languages, and the intersection of collaborative healthcare work and language revitalization. 

Mathematics

Libin Rong is professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2007 and has been a part of the biomathematics group at UF since 2017. Rong earned the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2014 and currently serves on the editorial boards for multiple publications including the Journal of Biological Systems, the Journal of Data and Dynamic Systems, and the PLoS (Public Library of Science) Complex Systems. Rong’s areas of research include mathematical biology, virus dynamics, theoretical immunology and epidemiology. 

Philosophy

Gene Witmer is associate professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy, a position he previously held from 2009 to 2017. Witmer received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1997 and has been teaching at UF for 27 years. He was recognized as Teacher of the Year in CLAS for the 2003-2004 academic year and specializes on metaphysics and philosophy of mind.  

Political Science

Ben Smith is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2002 and teaches courses in comparative politics and research methods. Smith is the author of two books, “Hard Times in the Lands of Plenty: Oil Politics in Iran and Indonesia” (Cornell 2007) and “Rethinking the Resource Curse” (Cambridge 2021). His research focuses on the politics of resource wealth and on ethnic politics. From 2002 to 2004, Smith was an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. 

Religion

Mario Poceski is chair of the Department of Religion. He received his Ph.D. in East Asian Languages & Cultures from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2000. Poceski’s numerous publications most recently include “Communities of Memory and Interpretation: Reimagining and Reinventing the Past in East Asian Buddhism” (Hamburg 2018, ed.) and “The Records of Mazu and the Making of Classical Chan Literature” (Oxford 2015). A professor of Buddhist studies and Chinese religions, Poceski’s research focuses mainly on Chinese Buddhist history, literature, and doctrine, especially during the Tang era (618-907).  

University Writing Program

Alison Reynolds is program director for the University Writing Program. She received her Ph.D. from Texas Woman’s University in 2009 and is an instructional professor at UF. Reynolds’ interests include composition pedagogy, assessment, multi-modal teaching, design thinking, innovation and creativity.