Accomplishments: College of Sciences

Arya Udry and Chris DeFelice (both Geoscience), along with Zoe Wilbur, '18 BS Geology; Rachel Rahib, '15 BS Geology and '18 MS Geoscience; and Logan Combs, '18 MS Geoscience, co-authored the manuscript "Reclassification of Four Aubrites as Enstatite Chondrite Impact Melts: Potential Geochemical Analogs for Mercury" in the Meteoritics and…
Brian Hedlund (Life Sciences) was part of an international team that recently published an article in Nature Communications titled "Genomic Inference of the Metabolism and Evolution of the Archaeal Phylum Aigarchaeota" describing several new genomes of the archaeal group Aigarchaeota. The Aigarchaeota inhabit terrestrial geothermal springs and…
Five College of Sciences faculty exhibited posters at the UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo Jan. 29.  Gabriel Judkins (Geosciences) and Rex Suba: "Embedding Accessibility in Course Development" Elana Paladino (Sciences): "Mentoring meetings increase student performance on 'high stakes' projects in STEM" Viktoria Savatorova…
Numerous UNLV Students won awards at the Media Innovation Hackathon sponsored by the Beasley Media Group in collaboration with UNLV at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month. Student teams aimed to generate potential commercial products. Winners include: First Place: Converting Radio Waves to Energy. Matias Allieti (Mechanical…
Jun Yong Kang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has been selected as one of the Thieme Chemistry Journals Awardees for 2019. The Thieme Chemistry Journals Award is presented every year to up-and-coming researchers worldwide who are in the early stages of their independent academic career as assistant or junior professors. The awardees…
Arya Udry (Geoscience) co-authored the manuscript "Martian Magmatism from Plume Metasomatized Mantle," which was recently published in Nature Communications. This study shows that the two main types of Martian meteorites (shergottites and nakhlites) could have formed from the same volcanic processes that create volcanoes in Hawaii as…
Daniel Proga (Physics and Astronomy) has been awarded a three-year grant for $464,618 from NASA to study radiation-magnetohydrodynamics of clouds in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Proga and his collaborators will continue their quest to develop a comprehensive and quantitative theory for cloud formation, destruction, and acceleration based on…
Jun Kang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has been awarded a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the invention “Methods and Compositions for Substituted Alpha-Aminophosphonate Analogues.” This synthetic method would enable a rapid synthesis of bioactive phosphorus-containing compounds and pharmaceuticals under…
Mary Blankenship (Sciences and Brookings Institute) was featured as a guest columnist in the Las Vegas Sun for her opinion editorial, "Lincoln Memorial Reminds Us Who We Are and Can Still Be."  She is a student with a double major in chemistry and math as well as a Brookings public policy minor. 
Alexis Billings, Katherine Schultz, Eddy Hernandez, W. Elizabeth Jones, and Donald Price (all Life Sciences) had a paper, "Male Courtship Behaviors and Female Choice Reduced during Experimental Starvation Stress," published in Behavioral Ecology this month. The paper stems from work done in Price's laboratory. Billings, a postdoctoral researcher…
Bernard Zygelman (Physics and Astronomy) has published A First Introduction to Quantum Computing and Information. This book addresses and introduces new developments in the field of quantum information and computing (QIC) for a primary audience of undergraduate students.  Developments over the past few decades have spurred the need…
Mandy Mountain and Dan Thompson (both Life Sciences) earlier this month were awarded the Faculty Award for the UNLV Image of Research for their image entitled Caterpillar of the Endangered Mount Charleston Blue Butterfly Attracting an Ant Mutualist.