Briefs
Heavenly View
Leos Pohl, a planetary science doctoral student, was one of only 25 people worldwide selected to study at the Vatican Observatory this summer. He joined students from more than 20 nations to examine the role of water in the solar system.
3,000,000,000 miles from Earth to the orbit of Pluto, which is in the Kuiper Belt
UCF professor Daniel Britt was named to NASA’s New Horizons mission team, which made history last year when it flew past Pluto. He joins the team as they begin the next leg of their momentous journey exploring the Kuiper belt, a region of the solar system that extends billions of miles beyond Neptune.
“This is a great opportunity. It demonstrates that UCF is the place to go for expertise in asteroid and comet geology.”
Physics professor Daniel Britt, New Horizons mission team
Spacing Out
NASA awarded UCF researchers Stephen Fiore and Shawn Burke $900,000 to study the effects of long-term space missions on astronauts’ memory and attention span. The grant is part of a larger study, being conducted at institutions around the country, to learn more about space travel’s impact on the human body.
Fueling Discovery
Leigh Nash ’14 was one of 10 graduate students in the U.S. to be awarded a highly competitive NASA two-year fellowship where she will work on new methods to test jet fuels. In addition to conducting her research at UCF, the Advanced STEM Training and Research Fellowship will partner Nash, a mechanical engineering graduate student, with a NASA researcher during a two-month summer program at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
New Leaders
Katie Abrahamson-Henderson
Women’s head basketball coach
Coach Abrahamson-Henderson led the University at Albany-SUNY to six winning seasons as head coach, including their first NCAA Tournament victory.
Johnny Dawkins
Men’s head basketball coach
Dawkins comes to UCF after an eight-year stint at Stanford University that included five postseason appearances.
Elizabeth Klonoff
Vice President for Research and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies
Klonoff was previously co-director of the joint doctoral program in clinical psychology at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. She has received more than $23 million in state and federal funding for her research into tobacco control and psychosocial issues related to cancer.
John Roddick
Director of Tennis
Roddick joins UCF Athletics after seven seasons as the men’s head tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma, which included three consecutive national runner-up finishes.
Shining Stars
For student-athlete graduation success rate among public universities in the nation
View more of the awards, rankings and recognition UCF has received in the past few years.