Dear Graduate Students,

To our new graduates, congratulations on your outstanding accomplishments! Graduate school is an impressive endeavor, filled with both challenges and opportunities.

Despite these challenges, you have persevered to unleash your full potential. We cannot wait to see the profound impact that I know you'll have on your communities and areas of study.

To our continuing students, congratulations on completing another semester. That is a significant step toward completing your goals and something to be very proud of.

I hope that you take this time to recharge—you certainly deserve it.  

Sincerely,

Congratulations to our 26 Ph.D. graduates, 100 master’s graduates and 7 certificate graduates. We are so proud of your accomplishments and academic excellence. We know that you’ll go far, and we cannot wait to see where you go next!  

Submissions for the 2024 Graduate Awards of Excellence are now being accepted! Awards are in the following categories:

More information about the eligibility and application criteria for each award can be found here.

UCF will be closed for winter break starting December 20, 2023 and will reopen for business on January 2, 2024. Please remember to register for classes and submit all registration forms prior to the break if at all possible!

Political Science Student Makes her Mark on National Security at Lockheed Martin  

Ph.D. student Alanna Reynolds is making her mark on national security at Lockheed Martin—and still finds the time to give back to UCF. Alanna graduated with her MA in Political Science and Government and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Security Studies. Her passion for national security and continual learning shines through as she continues charging on. 

Research on Ancient Pottery Equips Grad Student for Future in Anthropology 

Discovering and analyzing ancient pottery in Cape Canaveral has provided invaluable experience for Anthropology MA student Emily Tyler that will help her in her career. 

Cranberries and Chemistry Came Together with Ocean Spray Internship 

A transformative journey at Ocean Spray equipped Chemistry doctoral student Edwin Davidson Barahona with unique industry experience on their Research and Development team. Edwin shared, “Undoubtedly, this experience has influenced and cemented my planned professional goals towards a career in industry after my Ph.D." 

Biology Ph.D. Students Awarded at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting  

Congratulations to Integrative and Conservation Biology Ph.D. candidates Davide Dal Pos and Alessandra Pandolfi for winning first place awards for their presentations at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting! 

Physics Fellowship Fuels Graduate Student’s Attosecond Science Research  

Congratulations to Physics Ph.D. student Alphonse Marra on earning the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship! The fellowship will help Alphonse push the limits of knowledge and unleash his potential in attosecond science research. 

Statistics and Data Science Team Wins Third Consecutive First Place in Competition 

An important project from the Department of Statistics and Data Science uses data to predict political events—by discovering patterns amid seeming randomness. Congratulations to Statistics Ph.D. candidates Bill Hayden and Chandra Kundu and Associate Professor Hsin-Hsiung "Bill" Huang for their third consecutive first place finish in the Algorithms for Threat Detection Challenge for their prediction model. 

We wish you a peaceful and enjoyable break, and we look forward to seeing you back in January 2024!

UCF College of Sciences | sciences.ucf.edu | cosmarketing@ucf.edu