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

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

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

David Hatchett in a science lab
People |

From growing the university’s research infrastructure to prioritizing personal passions, David Hatchett makes time to do it all.

cutouts and signs that say we belong first gen strong
Campus News |

Outreach programs, personalized resources, and interactive activities create a welcoming campus culture.

unlv pumpkins
Campus News |

A monthly roundup of the top news stories at UNLV, featuring the presidential election, gaming partnerships, and much more.

unlv pumpkins
Campus News |

A monthly roundup of the top news stories at UNLV, featuring the presidential election, gaming partnerships, and much more.

Undergrad researcher Benjamin Sabir helps H. Jeremy Cho examine an atmospheric water harvesting device. (Jeff Scheid/UNLV)
Campus News |

A monthly roundup of the top news stories featuring UNLV staff and students.

Sciences In The News

Las Vegas Review Journal

That’s good news, especially considering the traction tree planting has gotten across Nevada. Nonprofit Impact NV has committed to planting 100,000 trees in Nevada over 10 years; UNLV’s Las Vegas Urban Forest Center will put in 3,000 trees in the next five years and train local aborists; and the city of Las Vegas has committed to installing 60,000 trees by 2050.

KVVU-TV: Fox 5

Neighbors in the East Las Vegas Valley say a proposal to build hundreds of homes on the edge of the desert is in direct conflict with the push to protect the area and stop any future development. For years now, there’s been an effort to bring a national monument to the area.

Live Science

The darkest time of the year is the winter solstice, the day with the least sunlight and the longest night. However, the coldest time of the year is typically about one month after the winter solstice. So why isn't the darkest time of the year also the coldest?

Adevarul.ro

Although you may not believe it, boarding passengers on a plane is one of the most difficult operational processes of airlines. It may seem simple and predictable to passengers, but " boarding " is a complex stage with rigorous logistics behind it, designed to reduce the time spent on the ground and ensure maximum efficiency. Romania, through its major airports, Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca and Iași, could implement on a large scale internationally tested methods to improve this stage and reduce unnecessary waiting and flight delays, thus gaining customer respect and higher competitiveness in the regional market.

Financiarul

Major change in airports. Efficient passenger boarding is an ongoing challenge for airlines and is essential to reduce delays and optimize the flight experience. In Romania, where air transport has become more and more accessible, the implementation of new rules could significantly improve this process. Following successful international strategies and adapting them to local airports could have a positive impact on passengers and airlines alike.

Coast to Coast AM

Jason Steffen is associate professor of physics at the Ê×Ò³| Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­. A longtime science team member of NASA's Kepler mission, he has contributed to the discovery and characterization of thousands of exoplanets that orbit distant stars. In the first half, he shared insights into the journey of the Kepler mission and its groundbreaking discoveries. Launched in 2009, Kepler operated for about four years and then was repurposed in what was known as the K2 mission, providing an additional five years of data. He explained the distinctions between Kepler and the Hubble Space Telescope-- Kepler was designed to be very precise at making measurements of stars, which allowed it to identify over 2,700 new planets, while Hubble was more adept at taking stunning photos.

Sciences Experts

An expert in insect physiology and evolution.
An expert on mutagenesis, DNA repair, and bacterial genetics.
An expert in conservation biology, phylogeography, and ecology.  
An internationally recognized expert in astrophysics.
An expert on hibernation, pupfish, evolution, and cellular biology.
An expert on the evolution of bird, bat, and insect species.

Recent Sciences Accomplishments

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…
Steve Rowland (Geoscience) published "The Cambrian of the Grand Canyon: Refinement of a Classic Stratigraphic Model" in GSA Today with Carol Dehler, professor at Utah State University; James Hagadorn of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science; Frederick Sundberg, Karl Karlstrom and Laura Crossey of the University of New Mexico; and…
Thomas Lamont (Geology) had a paper titled, "Porphyry copper formation driven by water fluxed crustal anatexis during flat-slab subduction," published on Nov. 4 in Nature Geoscience. It has long been recognized that many of the worlds largest porphyry copper deposits (copper ore formed by magmatic-hydrothermal fluids associated with granitic…
Jason Steffen (Physics and Astronomy) published a book, Hidden in the Heavens, with Princeton University Press. The book is about the NASA Kepler mission, which was instrumental in the discovery of over 5000 planets that orbit distant stars. Steffen was a member of the science team for that mission and was co-chair of one of the working groups.
A recent study from Chandra Bhattacharya's (Chemistry and Biochemistry) laboratory developed ionizable lipids with a tetrahydropyrimidine (THP) backbone for RNA delivery, utilizing a one-pot multicomponent reaction. This work was published in ACS Nano, titled "Tetrahydropyrimidine Ionizable Lipids for Efficient mRNA Delivery." Abstract Lipid…
Han-fen Hu (Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology) and Alisa Watjara, (Sciences) are the recipients of the 2024-2025 UNLV Academic Advisor Awards. The UNLV Academic Advisor awards recognize individuals with an exceptional record of advising and supporting students. Their award applications have been forwarded on to the NSHE level Academic…