Category: Spotlight

UF engineers named 2026 NAI Senior Members

Two headshots, Doctor Curtis Taylor on the right and Doctor Hamed Dalir on the left.

UF College of Engineering’s Curtis Taylor, Ph.D., and Hamed Dalir, Ph.D., have been named Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors.

Finding a lifelong passion in pediatric cardiology

Registered Nurse Connie Nixon on the right, laughing, with a child using a toy stethoscope on a smiling doctor to the left. All three are sitting on a patient table, with the child in the middle.

Connie Nixon’s relationships with patients span decades, and her impact has reached past operating rooms and clinics — into birthdays, graduations and weddings.

From physics to farming

U F IFAS animal welfare scientist Emily Miller-Cushon crouching down and petting a calf

UF/IFAS Associate Professor Emily Miller-Cushon, Ph.D., took a path far from agriculture, into physics and math, but looped back in a way that melded her two passions: data and animal welfare.

These couples have major chemistry — Meet the marrieds from CHE.

Raise your beaker in a Valentine’s Day toast and say, “Awww.” There are sweet love stories afoot in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Out of nearly 30 faculty members, there are three married couples, and two others have spouses who work elsewhere at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.

So what gives? Something in the lab water? Pheromones brewing in the beakers? Read on to find out.

Meet the UF Croc Docs

These women capture alligators, track invasive pythons and stop the spread of destructive species, protecting some of Florida’s most fragile ecosystems.

Aline Fares selected for international lung cancer program

Thoracic oncologist Aline Fares, M.D., has been selected for the highly competitive 2026 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Academy.

Finding a Gator family in medicine

Heather Holcom has built a career at the UF College of Medicine centered on connection, collaboration and community.

Ji-Hyun Lee reflects on her year as ASA president

While her presidency has ended, UF PHHP biostatistics professor Ji-Hyun Lee, DrPH, has no plans to stop leading or serving her community.

Cup o’ Joe: The ambush interview

UF Vice President Kurt Dudas finds himself the unsuspecting subject of an interview about UF Jacksonville with Joe Glover — as you’ve never seen him before. It’s time to watch the all-new Cup o’ Joe. Don’t forget to look busy if the boss comes by!

Leading with the heart

Juan Aranda, M.D., UF Health’s chief of cardiovascular medicine, has put his heart into working with the heart for over 30 years.