Across the University of Florida, our 16 colleges, numerous institutes, and health care facilities embrace our shared mission of outreach and service to improve and enrich our community, nation, and the world. UF in the Community spotlights the impact of UF in our region.

Although UF has students and employees throughout the state, North Central Florida is home to much of our faculty and staff and to our 50,000+ students. Like all area residents, we want a vibrant, safe, healthy, and equitable place in which to live and thrive. Here are some of the ways in which we are enhancing our shared community.​

While most of the attention during the July 11 launch of Virgin Galactic’s Unity spaceship was on billionaire company founder Richard Branson, University of Florida researchers were focused on some other passengers – three small tubes of experimental plants. 

The UF project, funded by NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, was the only science experiment on the mission, meant to study the impact the transition to and from zero gravity has on gene expression in cells, and, more broadly, to develop protocols for “human-tended” suborbital flights. 

UF, in partnership with IBM, invites innovators of all experience levels to join the IBM Data Science Community by participating in the Florida Hacks with IBM hackathon, an event where students will be asked to help combat the significant observable effects occurring in the environment. 

Registration for the hackathon is restricted to U.S. residents and opened Wednesday, June 30. See restrictions at the link below. The ideation phase, when teams work on developing their ideas, runs Aug. 25 through Sept. 10. The deadline to submit final presentation videos and projects is Oct. 22.

Experts at the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and IBM will support participants by offering mentorship throughout the competition and giving access to courses in IBM’s AI technologies. 

Can taking a statin a day keep heart disease and dementia away in seniors ages 75 and older? Researchers at UF Health and the OneFlorida Clinical Research Consortium have joined a nationwide clinical trial to find out whether taking a drug commonly used to lower cholesterol, can help prevent dementia, disability and heart disease in older adults who haven’t already been diagnosed with those ailments.

The UF College of Medicine’s Mobile Outreach Clinic is stationed at Gainesville Technology Entrepreneurship Center (GTEC - 2153 SE Hawthorne Road) from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. every Friday.

The clinic offers free primary care medical services and will have a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccinations. An appointment is required for health care services.

For more information, call 352-273-5329, or to make an appointment, call 352-273-6591 or visit outreach.med.ufl.edu.

FFS hosts monthly events (March through November) that provide families the opportunity to fish together in a safe and fun setting in our 6 “catching ponds” on the grounds of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Anglers can expect to catch bream (bluegill, red-ear sunfish, warmouth), largemouth bass, and channel catfish up to 10 lbs. Family Fishing Days are free, open to the public, and catch-and-release. Volunteers are on hand to help. We encourage folks with little or no fishing experience to attend. Our volunteers enjoy showing novices the ropes.

Located in the Reitz Union Food Court, where Croutons used to be, Restaurant Row features five local restaurants: Mi Apá Latin Cafe, Big Island Bowls, Fat G’s Barbecue, The Little Sombrero and BZ Gelati.

“Gainesville is a unique community with diverse demographics, but many students haven’t stepped beyond campus,” said Jenn Moyer, Business Services marketing and communications specialist. “Restaurant Row is a way to bring that diverse community into campus for a true Gainesville experience.”

Faculty and staff across the Warrington College of Business selected their recommendations for books to read this summer. See their selections and what you’ll get out of reading each in the list below.

As summer approaches, we need to do our best to keep our skin healthy. That means protecting it from harmful ultraviolet, or UV, radiation. If your skin gets too much sun, it begins to be damaged, sometimes leading to unwanted spots on the skin. In some cases, these spots can be cancerous.

When in the sun, experts strongly recommend applying facial and body sunblock to exposed areas every two hours, especially if you are doing something active.