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Tag: College News Press Releases

Zeta Phi Alumni Foundation honors legacy of leadership with $50,000 gift to UF African American Studies program

A generous gift from the Zeta Phi Alumni Foundation will empower students in the University of Florida’s African American Studies program to expand their horizons through international study.

UF Election Lab students making an impact beyond the classroom

UF students and alumni apply their experience in working with The UF Election Lab to campaign and voter awareness efforts across the country.

Fullerene database provides researchers a path toward a more perfect match

UF researchers, led by Mingjie Liu, assistant professor of chemistry, create the most comprehensive dataset of C20 to C60 fullerenes to date.

Photo collage of three new interim cognizant associate deans.

Three interim associate deans appointed within College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The start of the academic year has brought three UF faculty members into new roles as interim cognizant associate deans for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The appointments were announced recently by Interim Dean Mary Watt.

Photo of Eduardo Linardi

UF student awarded Obama Foundation public service scholarship

Eduardo Linardi, a University of Florida third-year student, is one of 100 students nationally selected to receive the Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholarship for Public Service.

The yellow-bellied sea snake is the only pelagic species in the order Squamata (snakes and lizards).

Sea Snake Skin More Resembles Elephant Skin Than Snake Skin

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — New research led by University of Florida Professor of Biology Harvey Lillywhite uncovers an odd similarity between elephant skin and the skin of the yellow-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis platurus) — namely, its ability to create a water sheath around the animal. In addition, sea snake skin has evolved to permit the animal […]

Sahara Desert Sunset

Writing Across the Sahara

UF professor receives NEH fellowship to research under-studied African writing traditions

Professor Gayle Zachmann Is a Producer of a New Film on French Jew Who Survived the Occupation

The University of Florida Center for Jewish Studies and the Jewish Council of North Central Florida will host a special rough-cut preview of Cojot, a feature-length documentary that follows the life of Michel Cojot-Goldberg, a Nazi hunter, Entebbe hostage, and ultimately, a Klaus Barbie trial witness.

SPOHP Announces New African American Oral History Symposium

November 4, 2018: For Immediate Release The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida announces: From Segregation to Black Lives Matter. A Symposium and Celebration of the Opening of the Joel Buchanan Archive of African American Oral History at the University of Florida Contact: Tamarra Jenkins, (352-392-7168), aahpsymposium@gmail.com Organized by the Samuel […]

Ancient Mayan deforestation had long-term effects on watershed carbon cycles

Researchers: Mark Brenner, brenner@ufl.edu, 352-392-7226, Jason Curtis, curtisj@ufl.edu PIO: Rachel Wayne, 352-872-2620 The lowlands of Mexico and Guatemala experienced widespread deforestation by the Maya beginning about 4,000 years ago. The region has never fully recovered. Ancient Maya environmental impact provides a case study for the long-term effects of deforestation, and according to a new Nature […]

young man in white lab coat holding clipboard

Goldwater Scholars

University of Florida student Aaron Sandoval, a sophomore, has been awarded a Goldwater Scholarship for the 2018-2019 academic year. Andrew Sack, a junior, was recognized with an Honorable Mention. Both are members of the UF Honors Program. Sandoval is a biology major and plans to earn an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Stem Cell and […]

ADMX announces breakthrough in axion dark matter detection technology

Forty years ago, scientists theorized a new kind of low-mass particle that could solve one of the enduring mysteries of nature: what dark matter is made of. Now the search for that particle has begun in earnest.

birds sitting in trees

The Starving Snakes of Seahorse Key

Mysteriously vanished waterbirds. Cannibalistic snakes. An island with no freshwater except for rainfall. It may sound like a Crichton novel or SyFy original movie, but it’s the reality of Seahorse Key, part of the Gulf Coast Cedar Keys that University of Florida biologists have been researching since the 1930s, when the renowned late zoologist Archie Carr first began studying the unusually large cottonmouth population there.

The artist's rendering (left) of GRB 050709 depicts a gamma-ray burst that was discovered on 9 July, 2005 by NASA's High-Energy Transient Explorer. The burst radiated an enormous amount of energy in gamma-rays for half a second, then faded away. Three days later, Chandra's detection of the X-ray afterglow (inset) established its position with high accuracy. A Hubble Space Telescope image showed that the burst occurred in the outskirts of a spiral galaxy. This location is outside the star-forming regions of the galaxy and evidence that the burst was not produced by the explosion of an extremely massive star. The most likely explanation for the burst is that it was produced by a collision of two neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole.

Solving Cosmic Puzzles

Neutron stars are dead stars collapsed into the densest form of matter known to humans, with a teaspoon of neutron star matter weighing a billion tons, and their collision creates a swath of galactic debris. Decades ago, stargazing scientists formed plans to detect signals from this debris. Now, in the new era of aptly named “multi-messenger astronomy,” two international projects have achieved this goal: On August 17 of this year, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)’s two U.S.-based interferometers and the Virgo Collaboration’s Italy-based interferometer detected for the first time gravitational waves — ripples in space-time traveling at the speed of light — from the collision and subsequent merger of two neutron stars. The detection occurred just three days after yet another “chirp” from colliding black holes.

illustration of neurons interacting

A Route to Recovery

UF psychologist Lori Knackstedt studies an antibiotic that may cure cocaine addiction. Lori Knackstedt, professor of psychology, is seven years deep into research that’s yielded some surprising results: in cocaine-addicted rats, an antibiotic reduces their drug-seeking behavior and may prevent relapse. The drug Ceftriaxone appears to increase reuptake of glutamate, a neurotransmitter that regulates dopamine, […]

red eyed frog sitting on flower

From K–T to Kermit

Among UF’s renowned team of extinction experts is David Blackburn, whose appreciation for frogs has led to his work on a groundbreaking new study. A paper published in July in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that although frogs have been around for longer than dinosaurs, most of the world’s 6,700-plus living species of frogs evolved after a mass extinction 66 million years ago made way for new biodiversity.

pair of two black holes

Third Time’s a Charm

LIGO detects third set of gravitational waves from colliding black holes. UF physicists have played a key role in these detections.

fish swim over coral reef

Makin’ Waves

Marine biologist and UF Biology alumnus Mike Gil PhD’15 has been named a TED Fellow and is one of 21 international experts who will attend and speak at this year’s TEDGlobal, TED’s annual conference, which will take place in Arusha, Tanzania in August. “I'm truly honored by the distinction,” says Gil.

blue and green Rorschach image

You May Recycle, But You’re Still Not Cool

UF researchers conduct first implicit bias research on environmentalist attitudes and behaviors.