Category: Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Erika Moore, Ph.D., holder of the Rhines Rising Star Larry Hench Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, has received the prestigious National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Dr. Moore and her team will use the five-year, $1.85 million award to address critical gaps in understanding the relationship between ancestry and cell responses in wound healing. In the long term, this research will lead to biomaterial models of health disparities for the improved identification of wound healing risks and outcomes.

by Shawn Jenkins – Ben Botic’s long road to freedom and opportunity yields an indestructible legacy for future generations of UF engineers. Along with Hella, his wife of 54 years, son, Bryan (UF BS Building Construction ’93) and daughter, Michelle Botic Hughes (UF BS Business Administration ’92), he established the Botic Family Scholars Professional Pathways Fund to provide experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE).

Florida is among the first states to adopt a K-12 artificial intelligence, or AI, education program designed to prepare its youth for the growing global demand for an AI-enabled workforce. The framework for the public school coursework was designed with help from UF faculty, including Christina Gardner-McCune, who modeled it after the Artificial Intelligence for K-12 Initiative, or AI4K12.

Erika Moore, Ph.D., the Rhines Rising Star Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, shares her experiences with student debt and why she believes students should have more training in financial literacy.

Nancy Ruzycki, Ph.D., instructional associate professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, is leading multiple K-12 engineering education initiatives to develop the teachers and the students to help fill prospective job openings in AI related fields.

As a veteran educator, inspiring, empowering and charting a pathway to success for students is something Nancy Ruzycki, Ph.D., instructional associate professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, has been doing for decades. Now, on the heels of her EQuIPD Grant success, Dr. Ruzycki is launching a middle school summer camp geared toward expanding the presence of underrepresented students in engineering and computer science.

The University Term Professorship was established in 2016 and is presented to 250 eligible faculty members annually. Selection of the professorships is based on an assessment of academic accomplishment by either a faculty advisory committee and/or the department chair and approved by the dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

The National Academy of Engineering has elected MSE professor and department chair Michele Manuel, Ph.D., to join the organization’s ranks, among the highest professional honors in engineering for those who have distinguished themselves in academia, private industry or government agencies.

Juan Claudio Nino, Ph.D., a professor of Materials Science and Engineering, is collaborating with psychiatry and neuroscience assistant professor Marcelo Febo on a means of using AI to detect the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Ryan Need, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), about their research, experience as a new UF faculty member, and their work with students, staff, and faculty to build a culture representative of the entire community.