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31 unusual facts about University of Florida


Bill Peterson

Peterson became the first Seminole coach to beat the University of Florida, a 16–7 win at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Bryan Nelson

Nelson was born in Orlando and attended the University of Florida, where he graduated with a degree in ornamental horticulture in 1979.

C. Andrew Salzberg

He graduated from the University of Florida School of Medicine with his Medical Doctorate in 1981.

Dave Kerner

Afterwards, he moved to Gainesville, where he attended the University of Florida, graduating with a degree in political science in 2006.

Direct conversion

In the late nineties research was undertaken by Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, The University of Florida, Texas A&M University and General Atomics to use direct conversion to extract energy from fission reactions.

Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

A graduate of the University of Florida (B.A., 1965; J.D., 1969) Wilkes became Professor of Law at the University of Georgia in 1971, a post he has held ever since.

Dong Kim

He completed his residency at UCSF and went on to a fellowship at the University of Florida.

Frank Karel

He graduated from the University of Florida in 1961 and later received a master’s degree in public administration from New York University in 1983.

Göran Hydén

Göran Hydén (Born 1938) is a noted Africanist and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida.

Henry Fillmore

His march Men of Florida was composed for the bands at the University of Florida.

Jake Raburn

Raburn was born in Plant City and graduated from Plant City High School, after which he attended the University of Florida, where he graduated with a degree in agricultural communication in 2007.

James B. Twitchell

Twitchell was a widely published, widely quoted tenured professor at the University of Florida

Jerry Schmidt

Schmidt has coached at Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Florida, and Oklahoma as an assistant, director, coordinator, and director of sports enhancement.

Jim Tozzi

Jim Tozzi got his Ph.D. in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Florida.

Jim Waldman

Waldman was born in Washington, D.C. and attended the University of Connecticut for a few years before moving to Florida in 1977 transferring to the University of Florida in 1978, where he graduated with a degree in finance in 1980.

Joel S. Demski

Currently the Frederick E. Fisher Eminent Scholar at University of Florida, he

Laura Sjoberg

Dr. Sjoberg is an Associate Professor of Political Science and affiliate faculty in Women's Studies at the University of Florida.

Mike Marcinkiewicz

Mike Marcinkiewicz (born January 26, 1966) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player and is the current head coach of the University of Florida's ice hockey team.

Mischer Neuroscience Institute

His internship at Harvard University was followed by residency at UCSF and fellowship in cerebrovascular surgery and skull base tumors at University of Florida.

Pair bond

A University of Florida scientist reports that male sand gobies work harder at building nests and taking care of eggs when females are present – the first time such "courtship parental care" has been documented in any species.

Presidents and Prophets

Political figures, such as Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (a member of the LDS Church), as well as academics, such as the University of Florida's Kenneth Wald, have praised it.

Rebecca's Revival

Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World (2005, ISBN 0-674-01689-0) is a biography written by Jon F. Sensbach, a professor of history at the University of Florida.

Seth McKeel

McKeel attended the University of Florida, where he graduated in 1997 with a degree in political science.

Stanley Drucker

In 2010, Stanley Drucker received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Florida.

Steve Precourt

Precourt attended the University of Florida, where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1983.

The Bellrays

"Revolution Get Down" was also used as a fade-to-commercial song during the 2006 NCAA Tournament in the George Mason-Florida semifinal on CBS Sports.

Thomas Kilduff

Kilduff obtained a B.S. from the University of Florida and earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Stanford University, where he was also awarded fellowships from the Danforth Foundation, the Grass Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Thomas Lyle Martin, Jr.

Prior to joining the IIT administration, he served as Dean of Engineering at the University of Arizona, the University of Florida and Southern Methodist University.

Todd Hasak-Lowy

Todd Hasak-Lowy is a writer and Assistant Professor of Hebrew Literature at the University of Florida that has a PHD from Berkeley.

William Woodruff

He was a Graduate Research Professor at the University of Florida from 1966 to his retirement in 1996, when he became a Professor Emeritus.

Yvonne Sapia

After working as a newspaper reporter and technical writer, she returned to academia, receiving an MFA in creative writing from the University of Florida in Gainesville.


A. H. de Oliveira Marques

He left for the United States where he taught history at a number of universities (Auburn, Florida, Columbia, Minnesota and Chicago) between 1965 and 1970.

Adriana Leon

After her sophomore season, Leon transferred to the University of Florida, where she played for coach Becky Burleigh's Florida Gators women's soccer team in 2012.

Andrew Nelson Lytle

Lytle taught literature and creative writing at the University of Florida, where he had Merrill Joan Gerber and Harry Crews as students.

Atrocity story

Danny Jorgensen, Professor at the Department of Religious Studies of the University of Florida, in his book The Social Construction and Interpretation of Deviance: Jonestown and the Mass Media argues that the role of the media in constructing and reflecting reality is particularly apparent in its coverage of cults.

Center for Detectors

Some presenters include Dr. Donald Hall of the University of Hawaii, Dr. Chris Packham of the University of Florida, Dr. Joss Bland-Hawthorn of the University of Sydney, Bruce Tromberg, of the University of California, Irvine, and Dr. Shouleh Nikzad, Dr. Michael Hoenk, and Bedabrata Pain of the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Citra, Florida

It is home to a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences plant research facility, being expanded with a donation from Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach.

Concrete canoe

Typically, frontrunners include University of Alabama, Huntsville, University of Nevada, Reno, University of Florida, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, the University of California at Berkeley, Clemson University, École de technologie supérieure, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dana Shires

In 1965, Dana Shires was a research fellow at the University of Florida working in the nephrology lab under Dr. Robert Cade.

Dance marathon

Dance Marathon at the University of Florida, commonly referred to as DM at UF, is an annual 26.2-hour Dance Marathon that takes place every April benefiting the patients of University of Florida Health Shands Children's Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, United States.

Education in Florida

During Florida's 2007 legislative session, Governor Charlie Crist signed into law SB-1710, which allowed the Board of Governors to allow a tuition differential for the University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida.

Edward L. Bowen

In 1960 he attended the University of Florida to study journalism then in 1963 transferred to the University of Kentucky, a move that allowed him to also write for the Lexington-basedThe Blood-Horse magazine.

Edward Walton Wilcox

Originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, Wilcox earned a BFA in Painting with high honors from the University of Florida, where he also received the Presidential Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Esther Olavarria

She graduated cum laude from the University of Florida in 1983 and received her law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 1986.

Glenn Cameron

Cameron played college football for the University of Florida, and thereafter, he played professionally for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL.

Guy Fulton

Beginning in 1945, Fulton served as Architect to the Florida Board of Control, designing and supervising construction of University of Florida buildings, as well as those at Florida State University and Florida A&M University.

Howard T. Odum

Odum's students have carried on his work at institutions around the world, most notably Mark Brown at the University of Florida, David Tilley and Patrick Kangas at the University of Maryland, Daniel Campbell at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Enrique Ortega at the UNICAMP in Brazil, and Sergio Ulgiati at the University of Siena.

Jazmyne Avant

Avant accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida, where she played for coach Becky Burleigh's Florida Gators women's soccer team from 2008 to 2011.

Joseph Abruzzo

Additionally, Abruzzo worked with State Representative Joe Saunders to propose the Competitive Workforce Act, which would "update the state's Civil Rights Act of 1992 to include protections against discrimination for reasons of sexual orientation and gender identity," which a University of Florida poll suggested that 73 percent of Floridians supported.

Maximilian Kieffer

He played college golf briefly in the United States at the University of Florida.

Melanie Booth

Booth attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she played for coach Becky Burleigh's Florida Gators women's soccer team from 2003 to 2005, before sitting out the 2006 season due to national team commitments.

Mr. Two Bits

Before the beginning of University of Florida home football games (at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium), Mr. Two Bits comes to midfield wearing his signature yellow shirt with a blue and orange tie to lead the crowd in the "two bits" cheer.

Pierre Capretz

A graduate of the University of Paris, he began teaching French in 1949 at the University of Florida and joined the faculty of Yale University in 1956, eventually becoming Director of the Language Laboratory and then Director of the Language Development Studio.

Rembert W. Patrick

Rembert Wallace Patrick (1909–1967) was a historian, longtime University of Florida history professor, and prolific author of works on Florida's history, particularly the Reconstruction Era.

Reuben Rose

He has spent periods as a visiting scientist at the Animal Health Trust, Newmarket United Kingdom and as a Visiting Professor at Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.

Robert de Beaugrande

He served as professor of English in the University of Florida from 1978 to 1991, of English Linguistics at the University of Vienna from 1991 to 1997, Professor of English Language at the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Professor of English and English Linguistics at the University of Florida at Gainesville, and later as visiting professor in several universities in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

Robinson Rams

Landstown featured stand out offensive and defensive player Percy Harvin who has since gone on to stardom at the University of Florida and with the Minnesota Vikings.

Sandy D'Alemberte

In 1962, he received his juris doctor with honors from the University of Florida where he was named to the Order of the Coif, served as president of the Student Bar Association, was captain of the moot court team, served as articles editor of the University of Florida Law Review, and received the J. Hillis Miller Award as the outstanding law graduate.

Sarah Spiegel

She subsequently graduated from The New World School of the Arts in Miami, and has also received a “Bachelor of Fine Arts” diploma from the University of Florida.

Shoulder pads

Researchers at the University of Florida's College of Medicine have developed a way to air condition shoulder pads that is designed to regulate players' body temperatures during games and practices.

Universidade Federal de Viçosa

The programs send a Brazilian student to the University of Florida or the University of Georgia for each U.S. student sent to the Universidade Federal de Viçosa.