News

FSU student-athlete Garrett Johnson wins Rhodes Scholarship

Florida State University student-athlete Garrett Johnson already had accrued an impressive list of accomplishments during his college career. Now he can add an academic award that represents the pinnacle of scholarly achievement: He has been named a Rhodes Scholar. Johnson, 21, a Tampa native and a graduate student studying public administration at FSU, was selected […]

Online learning’s frontier: Researcher gives computers a ‘human’ face

The friendly facial expressions, the soothing hand gestures, the coolly intelligent voice: Put them all together, and she is both disarmingly lifelike and surprisingly persuasive. And while she can’t actually shake your hand in greeting, the unnamed, computer-generated character and her troupe of animated friends can be judiciously designed for online learning—at least if one […]

FSU professor documents Christianity’s history of healing

The concept of healing, both physical and spiritual, has been a central theme of Christianity going all the way back to the time of Jesus Christ. In her new book, "Healing in the History of Christianity," Florida State University religion Professor Amanda Porterfield examines the ways in which this theme of healing has evolved over […]

FSU Film School wins top student awards for Latino, women filmmakers

The Directors Guild of America has announced its 2005 Student Filmmakers Awards for African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and women—and Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts will take home half of them. Chosen from among emerging filmmakers at select universities nationwide, two recent FSU graduates and one current undergraduate of […]

FSU researcher’s device provides a major boost to adult stem cell research

A single cell with the potential to repair damaged heart muscle tissue…regenerate injured bone…create new cartilage or skin…even reverse nerve damage. Human stem cells offer tremendous hope for the development of revolutionary medical treatments for these and a variety of other human health problems. Up until now, however, stem cell research has been slowed by […]

What does ‘almost nothing’ weigh? FSU physicist aims to find out

If subatomic particles had personalities, neutrinos would be the ultimate wallflowers. One of the most basic particles of matter in the universe, they’ve been around for 14 billion years and permeate every inch of space, but they’re so inconceivably tiny that they’ve been called "almost nothing" and pass straight through things—for example, the Earth—without a […]

FSU research center receives $2.3 million award to promote reading

A Florida State University research center that works to create programs to improve schoolchildren’s reading comprehension, vocabulary and fluency has received a major boost from the federal government. The Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR), a research group under FSU’s Learning Systems Institute, has been awarded a five-year, $2.3-million contract by the U.S. Department of […]

FSU researcher working to make medicine “smarter”

As much as patients would like for the word "doctor" to mean "all-knowing," unfortunately, this will never be the case. Human fallibility on the part of medical professionals sometimes leads to devastating misdiagnoses that can result in additional suffering, or even death, for their patients. But there is hope for better, more accurate medical diagnoses […]

FSU alumnus killed in Iraq is promoted posthumously, becomes highest-ranking casualty of war

A Florida State University alumnus killed last month by a roadside bomb in Baghdad was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel, making Col. William W. Wood, 44, of Panama City, the highest-ranking American casualty of the Iraq conflict, according to the Pentagon. Wood died Oct. 27 as he was directing security operations in response […]

Two FSU chemists receive prestigious academic honor

Two professors in FSU’s department of chemistry and biochemistry—Michael S. Chapman and Joseph B. Schlenoff—have been elevated to the rank of Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In bestowing the honor, which was announced in the Oct. 28 issue of Science, the AAAS recognized Chapman "for fundamental studies of the […]

Magnet Lab hosts international photomicrography competition

It’s a small world, after all. A really, really small world. And much of what we know about it is learned through the ever-advancing technology of microscopes. That microscopic world was celebrated this month when Nikon announced the winners of its "Small World Competition," which recognizes excellence in photography though the microscope. The National High […]

Seven Days of Opening Nights 2006 offers kaleidoscope of artists, performers

From country to jazz, from Napoleon to Nelson, the eighth season of Seven Days of Opening Nights, Feb. 16-28, 2006, offers a spectacular array of world-renowned artists and performers. The annual festival is produced by Florida State University and sponsored by a host of educational and community partners. Live music performances include American icon Willie […]