Welcome to the Spring 2025 semester from the College of Sciences! As we kick off the new year, we are excited to share incredible stories about student success, innovative research grants, the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, and much more. Together, we are reaching for the stars!   

UCF is committed to unleashing the potential of every individual and community we serve, but this important mission takes the work of many. Through the generosity and support of Knight Nation champions like yourself, we can support opportunities for students, advance innovative research and creative work, and address challenges facing our world. Visit UCF's new planned giving website to find more information about types of planned gifts, the ways in which donors can benefit from them, how to make your gift, and stories from individuals who've built their own philanthropic legacy with UCF. Connect with our Office of Gift Planning to discuss how you can make a difference.

Every fall semester fifteen new and returning students who apply are selected to be a part of the College of Sciences (COS) Student Ambassadors. Through this program, selected students represent the Knights who make up the largest college at UCF. These students take part in leadership and student engagement opportunities, helping to plan events and providing insight to the Dean’s office on student life within COS.  

Michelle Dusseau, Senior Lecturer at the Nicholson School of Communications and Media and COS Faculty Fellow for Student Engagement, guides and supports the student ambassadors. She shares the impact of the program on the COS community.   

“The student ambassadors are filling a critical need for the College of Sciences’ students. Today’s students can struggle with peer-to-peer engagement and building community,” Dusseau says. “At every single event, I have witnessed the power of the interpersonal and small group connections that develop as friendships grow, and supportive circles are fostered.” 

Jared Long-Fox, a doctoral student in the Planetary Science Track in the Department of Physics within the College of Sciences, is advancing research supported by the NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities Fellowship (NSTGRO), a prestigious award for graduate students who show major potential to contributing new technology to NASA’s research, which funds his research, tuition, and travel expenses for up to four years.   

“We (NASA) want to excavate the moon for many of the same reasons we do excavation here on earth; to gather resources and for infrastructure development,” he says. “This excavation research will allow us to design equipment to more efficiently and safely excavate regolith for resource extraction, building, and provide new opportunistic science measurements.”  

First-generation graduate Melanie Langgle ’24 has unearthed more than artifacts — she’s discovered a deep sense of purpose that has shaped her life and future career. 

Her most transformative experience came through the Cape Canaveral Archaeological Mitigation Project, a for-credit internship in collaboration with the U.S. Space Force, where she helped excavate artifacts on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s property.

This experience unexpectedly allowed Langgle to find purpose in her past, deepening her connection to her family’s history as homesteaders from Cape Canaveral, Florida

“I found a community of peers and mentors who are supportive, uplifting and took me seriously right away — which hasn’t always been the case in my life,” she says. “I had a great foundation with the anthropology department, my advisors and just [UCF] itself.”

Zachary Murphy, a doctoral chemistry student in the College of Sciences, has been awarded the National Nuclear Security Administration Program Award for Technical and Higher-Education (PATH) for his research focusing on nuclear waste management during his internship at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).  

“I am extremely grateful for the PATH scholarship; more than just the financial benefit, the scholarship provides an invaluable connection to the NNSA,” Murphy says. “As part of the scholarship, we have learned more about the mission directorates and available careers at the NNSA and NSE, while also providing a point of contact that can point us in the right direction to pursue these careers.”  

Drawing on his life experiences, UCF College of Sciences alumnus Dick Batchelor wrote Building Bridges in Toxic Political Times: A Road Map for Community Leaders, to share his belief that there is more that unites us than divides us. Batchelor remains optimistic that Americans across party lines can put aside their differences and find common ground, and his hopes are in UCF students. 

Batchelor is establishing an endowed scholarship at UCF, which he hopes will inspire future generations of political science majors to become exceptional leaders determined to build communities, learn from one another and affirm political stability. 

“The local level is where we can find issues that we can agree on,” says Batchelor, who, following graduation from UCF with a bachelor’s degree in political science in December 1971, was elected to the Florida Legislature three years later at the ripe age of 26. “Let’s sit down, take a deep breath, and work together — that’s why I want to encourage young people.” 

NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace as the lander and rover provider to deliver UCF’s Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) payload to the Moon’s Gruithuisen Domes to investigate how these mysterious silica-rich volcanic features formed. 

“I’m very proud of our Lunar-VISE team in developing, building, and testing our payload instruments and getting us ready for integration onto Firefly’s Ghost lunar lander and rover,” says Principal Investigator Kerri Donaldson Hanna, an associate professor in UCF’s Department of Physics. “The Lunar-VISE team is excited to work with Firefly to plan our science and exploration operations at the Gruithuisen Domes in 2028.” 

UCF recently joined the consortium of universities comprising the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), one of 15 U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) designated University Affiliated Research Centers (UARC) in the country. 

“UCF’s inclusion into the Systems Engineering Research Center UARC speaks volumes about the quality of our engineering research, and our commitment to supporting key DoD research objectives,” says Winston V. Schoenfeld, UCF vice president for research and innovation. “Our faculty will greatly benefit from the resources and collaboration the SERC UARC brings, enabling us to produce meaningful advancements in systems engineering of high value to the DoD.” 

Biology researchers in the College of Sciences and UCF Coastal have received two awards from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) totaling more than $2.3 million. One of these awards was from NOAA’s Marine Debris Challenge Competition, a “highly competitive process” according to Pegasus Professor of Biology Linda Walters, who leads Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab (CEELAB). Walters says that marine debris — which includes microplastics and nanoplastics — is affecting every habitat around the globe. 

“Our take on this was to focus on coastal restoration. We are evaluating novel non-plastic materials used for oyster reef restoration to ensure that there aren’t negative impacts in surrounding marine habitats, including communities that live in the sediment or to larger animals, such as crabs, which call the oyster reefs home.” says Walters.

Over the course of his 35-year career at the University of Central Florida, broadcast technician James McCully has seen and supported the remarkable innovation that has taken place and how those changes enhance the work and lives of faculty, students, and staff. 

“I have seen students start out with few skills in radio and television and within a few months of being in the program their growth is remarkable. The greatest success comes from a willingness to learn, and I’ve enjoyed being a part of that,” said McCully.

UCF is known for its innovation and breadth and depth of program offerings for a diverse student population. One of those online degree programs contributing to UCF’s overall ranking as a top university to learn online is Psychology, recognized as the fourth best in the nation, tied with Loyola University, by the U.S. News & World Report.

Dr. Florian Jentsch, Psychology Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department, attributes the department’s success in part to the seamless integration of online courses into its operations.

“The same top-notch faculty that teach our in-person courses also teach our online course offerings,” Dr. Jentsch says. “Our faculty are available to all students, providing office hours for both those in online courses and those who may want to meet in person. Regardless of how students choose to learn, the course expectations and assessments are the same and result in high-quality experiences.”

The Charge | Written by: Makayla Gray

Around 1 a.m. in a crowded library, someone calls out, “Get away from the window.” As UCF alumnus Sage Kehr turned to look out the large window, he watched as flames engulfed trees directly outside… Kehr, a spring 2024 political science graduate, moved to California in the fall of last year to attend Pepperdine’s law school. 

“There was fire truck after fire truck all the way around the street," Kehr said. "Kind of similar to UCF, our main road of our campus kind of goes in a big circle. And it was literally truck after truck around the entire campus, just basically making a border protecting all of the structures.” 

The Charge | Written by: Justice Covert 

NASA wants to land on the moon for the first time in over five decades, but delays have pushed back liftoff once again. 

"With Artemis, the whole point of going back to the moon is to go there and have a sustained presence," Dr. Kerri Donaldson Hanna, associate physics professor, said. "If we can figure out how to adapt long term at the lunar surface, then that certainly makes it more achievable or obtainable to think about exploring, for longer periods of time, to the outer portions of the solar system."

The Charge | Written by: Matthew Feldman 

UCF’s very own sports show, 'Hitting the Field Network' (HTFN), is partnering with ESPN+ to bring Knight Nation a pregame show on Saturday for the men’s basketball matchup against the No. 10 ranked Houston Cougars. 

HTFN is a UCF sports talk show that is hosted, written and produced by UCF students. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the network here at UCF. 

The pregame show on Saturday represents the fourth time that HTFN has partnered with ESPN+ to produce a pregame show, but the first that will preview a UCF basketball game. 

Florida Politics 

Out of all the UCF programs getting kudos, UCF’s online bachelor’s psychology program earned the highest mark, ranked at No. 4 in the country. 

“UCF continually pushes boundaries to deliver exceptional learning experiences,” President Alexander Cartwright said in a statement. “Our world-class faculty — leaders in both academia and industry — ensure our programs remain at the forefront of innovation. We remain focused on growing our reputation as a national leader in online education, preparing students to thrive and advance in their current careers and seize opportunities in the future.” 

Wiley Industry News

University of Central Florida (UCF) researcher Debashis Chanda has developed a new technique to detect long wave infrared (LWIR) photons of different wavelengths. The new detection and imaging technique will have applications in analyzing materials by their spectral properties, or spectroscopic imaging, as well as thermal imaging applications. 

NBC News

Traditional DNA analysis was largely limited to samples that contained genetic material from a couple of people, said Monica Ghannam, a forensic scientist. Using STRmix, she testified, analysts can evaluate mixtures with DNA from four people, the newspaper reported. 

Developed by scientists in New Zealand and Australia, the technology is one of a handful of forensic tools that use “probabilistic genotyping” to try to remedy that problem, said Jack Ballantyne, a professor of chemistry at the University of Central Florida and associate director of research at the National Center for Forensic Science.

WFTV

The University of Central Florida’s Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) payload is hitching a ride with Firefly Aerospace in 2028 for a science and exploration operation aimed at analyzing the Gruithuisen Domes on the near side of the moon. 

Lunar-VISE consists of two stationary and three mobile instruments used to study rocks and regolith on the summit of one of the domes. The payload is expected to undergo a system integration and acceptance reviews check in August as a final step in ensuring “all components are suitable and safe for intended operations.

New Scientist 

Planetary physicist Philip Metzger at the University of Central Florida is the king of moon dirt, or regolith. In 2013, he cofounded a group of research labs at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where research teams spend their days working with artificial lunar regolith, like the sample pictured below, to learn how it behaves and what we will be able to do with it. With NASA’s Artemis programme aiming to put humans back on the surface of the moon in 2027 and eventually set up a permanent base there, that knowledge is becoming increasingly important. 

Science Mag, Morning News 

Biology researchers at the University of Central Florida (UCF), hailing from the College of Sciences and the UCF Coastal program, have been awarded over $2.3 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This funding supports significant projects geared toward addressing the pervasive issue of marine debris, particularly plastic pollution, in coastal ecosystems. As a pressing global concern, plastic waste poses substantial threats to biodiversity and ecological integrity, prompting researchers to seek innovative solutions through this funding initiative. 

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