Student holding test tubes and examining their content

College of Sciences News

The School of Life Sciences offers programs that meet the needs of students intending to enter the workforce or pursue advanced training in the sciences, medicine, and other professional and technical fields. We provide a well-rounded foundation in natural, physical, and mathematical sciences that can set students up for successful careers and professional programs.

Current Sciences News

female student using lab equipment
People |

Motivated by the challenge of understanding the human body, Stephanie Yang is studying potential cures for C. diff infections.

A rear view of UNLV students, dressed in red caps and gowns, filtering into the Thomas & Mack Center with the stage in the background
Campus News |

An enduring UNLV end-of-semester tradition is to highlight exceptional students who embody the academic, research, and community impact of the graduating class.

man in sweater and glasses in front of shelves inside lab
Research |

Life Sciences professor Prasun Guha has the 'guts' to explore the connections between gastrointestinal health and disease.

UNLV XMAS
Campus News |

This month’s frosty headlines and highlights from the students and faculty of UNLV.

Satish Bhatnagar wearing graduation robes and holding ceremonial mallet
People |

UNLV math sciences professor Satish Bhatnagar will be honored for his half-century of contributions to the university during the annual Faculty Length of Service Program. 

UNLV red flag banner against green leaves of tree
Campus News |

Engelstad Scholars celebrate 15 years of leadership, scholarship, and service to the community.

Sciences In The News

KSNV-TV: News 3

The devastating wildfires tearing across Southern California are being exacerbated by climate change, according to Drew Peltier, an assistant professor of ecology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Simply Recipes

You dry pots with it, wipe your hands on it, and use it to swab the counter, but when you’re done—if you’re like me—you probably hang your trusty kitchen towel right back on the oven or dishwasher door handle. And this cycle repeats for days, weeks, maybe even months with a single dish rag.

Nature

In Hidden in the Heavens, Jason Steffen tells the tale of the Kepler mission: from its conception in the early 1980s, through its long road to approval in 2001, to the drama of its launch in 2009, to its bounty of early science results, to its heartbreaking demise in 2014, to its miraculous second life as the K2 mission through 2018. During its lifetime, Kepler detected some 5,000 planets. Those of us who worked on it were blessed to be part of a revolution in astronomy. The book is, at turns, a popular science survey of exoplanet discovery, an oral history of the Kepler mission, and Steffen’s own personal memoir.

Earth Notes

Bullfrog removal at Pakoon Springs, by multiple parties including the University of Arizona and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, began in 2010 and was completed in 2019, when the last bullfrogs were removed. After repeated surveys confirmed the bullfrogs were gone, Relict Leopard Frogs, raised in a captive breeding program at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, were finally released at Pakoon Springs in 2022. Follow-up surveys confirm that a self-sustaining population now thrives at Pakoon Springs.

Space.com

On Episode 137 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dr. Jason Steffen, a professor of physics at UNLV and a member of the science team for the Kepler Space Telescope mission. This mission finally ended in 2018, but the discoveries keep coming. Kepler returned so much data that it was like "drinking from a firehose," Jason tells us.

CDN

The process of boarding an airplane,often perceived as a simple routine, has been the subject of study and discussion for years. Airlines, always looking to optimize their operations and improve the passenger experience, have explored different strategies to streamline this process. In this context, American Airlines, one of the world's leading airlines, took a step forward by implementing an innovative boarding system, designed to transform the way travelers begin their journey.

Sciences Experts

An expert in geology, paleoecology, paleontology, and the history of geology.
An expert in conservation biology, phylogeography, and ecology.  
Lachniet is an expert in paleoclimatology, quaternary geology, climate change and stable isotope geochemistry.
A physics professor, whose specialties include high pressure science, explosives, and high radiation flux.
An expert in research infrastructure, electrochemistry, chemistry, and radiochemistry.   
An expert on bacterial gene regulation and bacterial pathogens, including E. coli, Shigella, and Salmonella. 

Recent Sciences Accomplishments

Łukasz J. Sznajder (Biochemistry) participated in a large study led by the group at the Hospital for Sick Children in Canada. Their research focused on the hyper-unstable Chr9p21 locus associated with multiple diseases, including C9orf72-linked amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). They showed that GGGGCC tandem…
  The First-Gen Essay Competition is part of the annual campus-wide First-Generation Celebration held each year in November. The contest allows first-generation undergraduate and graduate students to share personal stories about their first-generation journeys at UNLV. Nearly 40 students participated in this year's…
Radiochemistry Ph.D. candidate, Nicholas Cicchetti (Chemistry and Biochemistry) was recently published in the ACS Publication, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. The article titled, "A Rapid Microfluidic Neptunium Extraction Using a Supported Liquid Membrane Module," is the result of work supported by the Research…
Frederic Poineau (Chemistry and Biochemistry) was published in Communication Chemistry, an open access journal from the Nature Portfolio. The article titled "Pivotal role of 99Tc NMR spectroscopy in solid-state and molecular chemistry" is the result of an international collaboration examining the continued use of 99Tc NMR…
Donald Price (Life Sciences) was part of a team including scientists from Stanford University, Yale University, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, University of North Carolina, University of California Davis, Bangor University, Case Western Reserve University, Syracuse University, Syracuse, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Czech Academy of Sciences,…
Kelly Tseng (Life Sciences) was an invited speaker for the XXVIth International Society for Eye Research Biennial Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her talk was titled "Mechanisms regulating plasticity during embryonic eye regrowth." She presented her research group's findings on the molecular pathways that control eye stem cells and…