2004 Awardees

With Florida’s unpredictable climate and sometimes treacherous weather, citrus-growers are constantly looking for better, more efficient ways to harvest crops. Jackie Burns often comes to their rescue. Burns, an IFAS professor of ...

Colin Chapman spends as much time as possible in the jungles and swamps of Uganda. Although his primary research interests are in primates, his field research is much broader. “The primates ...

Nasser Chegini is a member of the UF Wound Institute who studies the basic cellular changes that take place during wound healing, with a particular emphasis on the role of ...

Florida is the only state in the U.S. that reports consistent annual outbreaks of mosquito-borne encephalitis viruses. The more than 12,000 United States cases of West Nile in 2002-03 show ...

David Dilcher is in search of Earth’s first flower. His 40-year hunt has lead him all over the world-China, Brazil, Australia and the United States-to find fossils of the earliest flowering ...

Mountain belts, fault zones and continental rifts make up David Foster’s daily vernacular. Foster, an associate professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, studies these geological structures to better understand the ...

Diabetes-associated vision loss is the most common cause of blindness among working-age people. It is caused when the formation of new blood vessels in the eye leak into the light-sensing ...

Arthur Hebard came to UF in 1996, after spending most of his professional career as a member of the technical staff at AT&T Laboratories. Hebard, a professor of physics, specializes in ...

Julie Johnson, a professor of pharmacy and cardiology, researches pharmacogenomics-the study of how people’s genes plays into their responses to certain drugs. “The goal of pharmacogenomics is that a person’s drug ...

Any crop grower knows that climate can make or break a season’s yield. Climate variability creates a lot of uncertainty in crop production, not to mention economic risks to producers. James ...

Christiaan Leeuwenburgh is trying to stop free radicals from leaking and making us age. As an international researcher in the mechanisms of aging, Leeuwenburgh tackles aging from a scientific standpoint. “I’m very ...

Heart disease in women has long been pushed to the back burner of medical research. But women’s heart disease is now a growing area of research for many doctors, including Marian ...

University of Florida pathobiology Professor Ayalew Mergia is out to change the negative stereotype of viruses. Mergia studies the molecular virology of simian (monkey) foamy virus than may be able to ...

While other researchers are in the lab, testing on practice devices, Ivar Mjor focuses on patients in general dental practice. Mjor, who practices operative dentistry, has received much attention for his ...

When P.K. Nair arrived in Gainesville in 1987, he noticed that UF lacked a program in his specialty of agroforestry. Nair, a pioneer and professor of agroforestry, quickly solved the ...

Radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC) are helping to revolutionize the ways people communicate and use information. Kenneth O, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is a leading ...

Understanding a child’s temperament is important to his or her development, and is vital information for parents and teachers. Temperament, the manner of thinking or behaving, impacts the way we acquire ...

Bananas, avocados and mangos grow prevalently in South Florida, are also vulnerable to a number of agricultural diseases. Randy Ploetz is an authority on diseases that affect tropical and subtropical fruit ...

Flagellum was a buzzword for most people in 9th grade biology. But Reuben Ramphal, a professor of medicine, keeps this bacterial organ at the forefront of his research. Flagella are known for ...

Chemical engineering Professor Fan Ren’s research focuses on the potential for gallium nitride, or GaN, as a chemical sensor and as the basis for next-generation semiconductors. “Increasing regulations on the release ...

As a fine arts professor, Celeste Roberge combines geological processes and human objects to compare the geothermal dynamics of the earth and human activities. The results are refreshing: a chaise lounge ...

For patients awaiting and receiving organ transplants, physical health usually takes precedence over mental health. But James Rodrigue’s research is proving that mental health can play a large part in the ...

Although he’s an economics professor, Richard Romano’s academic interests focus on the state of public education. “I’m looking at how colleges can modify their admission and financial aid policies in a ...

The effects of hurricanes like Frances and Charlie can uproot Florida’s natural environment. Fortunately, the state has Y. Peter Sheng to pick up the pieces. Sheng, a professor civil and coastal ...

In the world of environmental habitats, grasslands play an important role as wetlands, groundwater recharge areas, wildlife habitats and sources of nutrients for animals. Lynn Sollenberger, a professor of agronomy in ...

Maurice Swanson has been described as, “a serious scientist who is not afraid to go where the scientific trail of investigation leads him.” Luckily, the scientific trail led the professor of ...

Bioanalytical chemistry, biophysics and biomedical engineering make up Weihong Tan’s world of research. “The overall objectives of our research program are to study single living cells and their subcellular structures, and ...

Minority groups who were denied access to the mainstream press during the Civil War era has always intrigued Bernell Tripp, an associate professor in the College of Journalism and Communications. “My ...

Thousands of children in the United States are challenged with behavioral disorders like Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Conduct disorder. Timothy Vollmer, a professor in the ...

As a historian of southern Africa, Luise White’s work spans, and often integrates the politics, and social and cultural history of the area. White, a professor in the UF history department, ...

Florida schools, libraries, planning agencies and private corporations all rely on the Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL) for geographic information system (GIS) data. And for the past five years, the FGDL ...