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

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.

UNLV professor Alison Sloat in a blue dress outdoors underneath a tree with bright sun in the background
People |

From her classroom to her community outreach initiatives, the UNLV professor and Sciences Alumna of the Year tends to the next generation of environmental difference makers.

graphic with eight spokes to represent research areas
Campus News |

Through UNLV's interdisciplinary research areas, faculty are cooking up solutions to large-scale problems impacting Las Vegas, the Southwest, and beyond.

blue recycle bins stacked together
Campus News |

The university becomes the first NSHE institution to introduce a comprehensive plan for tackling climate change.

group at table during a marketing presentation and "inspiration" is written on the wall
Campus News |

Week-long program uncovers the 'hidden curriculum' in graduate education for students in STEM disciplines.

Students pass by Lied Library as they walk campus on the first day of Fall 2024 semester classes
Campus News |

A collection of news highlights featuring students and faculty.

Sciences In The News

USA Today

Travelers have spent many years proving the honor system doesn't make for an orderly airplane boarding process, so now American Airlines is testing a way to make sure people actually board with their assigned group.

Las Vegas Sun

Although it’s hard to spot without a decent telescope, the mini moon is here through Nov. 25. The only similarity between the mini moon and Earth’s moon is they are both made of rocks, said Jason Steffen, an astrophysicist at UNLV.

Archyworldys

Our Milky Way has a strange, monstrous black hole at its center, which is spinning extremely fast and out of direction with respect to the rest of the galaxy. An international research team has just discovered why the monster black hole Sagittarius A* (Sagittarius A*) appears to be “lost” compared to the rest of the Milky Way.

NPR

It’s an important week for Southwest Airlines, as the carrier prepares to announce more details about its move away from the open seating model that’s long been its trademark. That's a major change for the Dallas-based carrier — one that Southwest has been considering since at least 2006.

Daily Passport

You’d be forgiven for thinking you need an advanced degree to understand airplane boarding. In fact, even scientists have tried to crack the mystery of why boarding a plane can take so long. As airlines experiment with different methods, carriers have introduced processes so complex that they include as many as 10 different boarding groups — and even those in “Group 1” might find themselves boarding behind others. If you’re curious about this often-dreaded part of the air travel experience, take a closer look at how airlines determine how to board a plane.

The Economic Times

A new theory by Michael Pravica, a professor of physics at the ҳ| 鶹ýӳ, suggests that human consciousness might originate from hidden dimensions of the universe rather than solely from brain activity. Pravica claims that during moments of heightened awareness—like making art, practicing science, or even dreaming—our consciousness could transcend the limitations of our physical dimension and tap into these invisible realms.a

Sciences Experts

An expert in insect physiology and evolution.
An expert in earthquakes, structural geology, tectonics, and neotectonics.
Brian Hedlund in an expert in microbial ecology at high temperatures, biofuels and genomics. 
An expert in conservation biology, phylogeography, and ecology.  
An expert in physics and chemistry.
An expert on the evolution of bird, bat, and insect species.

Recent Sciences Accomplishments

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…
Zhaohuan Zhu (Physics and Astronomy) has been awarded two grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and one from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), serving as Principal Investigator for all three. These grants will support his cutting-edge research in astrophysics and planetary science. The NSF Astronomy and…
Alexander Barzilov, Woosoon Yim (both Mechanical Engineering), Artem Gelis (Radiochemistry), and Ke-Xun Sun (Electrical and Computer Engineering) were awarded a five-year, $5,000,000 renewal grant from the National Nuclear Security Administration through the Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP) to continue research projects of…
Jichun Li (Mathematical Sciences) and his collaborators recently established a time-dependent Maxwell’s equation model for simulating wave propagation in hyperbolic metamaterials. They proposed effective numerical algorithms to demonstrate the applications for designing hyperbolic superlenses. The results are published in the Computational…
A peer reviewed manuscript by authors professor Frederic Poineau (Radiochemistry) and Ph.D. candidate Harry Jang has been accepted for publication by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The article titled, "Revealing Uranium Tetrafluoride Microrods," represents the first time uranium tetrafluoride microrods were prepared by chemical…
Hal Berghel (Computer Science) and Douglas Jones from the University of Iowa published an article entitled "Election Integrity in the United States: How Will 2024 compare to 2020" in the current issue of IEEE Computer.  This is the latest in their series of articles on election integrity since 2014 that coincide with U.S. presidential…