“I have a passion for assisting children in becoming physically active and healthy for a lifetime. USF has provided me with an opportunity to pursue a unique research interest that, in return, has affected many children and contributed to desirable growth in the field of physical education.”
–Lisa Hansen, Co-Director
USF XRKade Research Lab
USF was founded as a regional university charged with a mission to educate and serve people in Tampa Bay. Instead of letting that designation define us, we recruited talented and productive faculty members for whom teaching and research were paramount. Over time, we built an enviable research program and were classified in the Carnegie Foundation’s highest tier—a Research University with Very High Research Activity (RU/VH). And we have never looked back.
In 2008, we attracted $366 million in research funding, nearly 10 times the amount we garnered just 20 years ago. We established a research park to foster partnerships with area industries—dramatically contributing to the economic health of the area and shaping tomorrow’s educated workforce. Based on our commitment to global innovation, we designated strategic areas for research—integrated neurosciences, diabetes and autoimmune disorders, healthy and sustainable communities, national defense solutions and alternative energies—while also encouraging exceptional research contributions in teacher education, the humanities, the arts, business, and the behavioral and community sciences.
The key to our research success, however, is interdisciplinary collaboration. USF scholars believe finding innovative solutions to society’s problems requires great thinkers who approach problems from different perspectives. That’s the nature of our research engine and the reason USF is internationally recognized as the source for important discoveries and new knowledge in virtually every field. Clearly, the unstoppable nature of USF is captured in our labs, classrooms and libraries, where world-class scholars—and the students they inspire—are committed to improving life through multidisciplinary efforts.
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Altering Cancer Cells and Outcomes
USF Professor of Engineering Richard Gilbert is part of an interdisciplinary team of doctors and scientists studying electromagnetic fields as they relate to interrupting the structure of cancer cells to make them recognizable to the immune system. USF was the first in the United States to conduct a clinical trial for electric field mediated drug delivery and the first in the world to conduct a clinical trial for electric field mediated gene delivery.
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Depend on MOM
Though metal-organic materials (MOMs) do not exist in nature, they have become one of the hottest areas of research in chemistry. An internationally recognized team of USF physicists, polymers scientists, engineers and chemists are working together to harness the power of MOMs. It is clear that MOMs, which are synthesized by chemical processes and have important properties, will have ground-breaking applications for energy, health and the environment.
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Healthier Children
The Childhood Obesity Research Center at USF is a joint program between the Colleges of Education and Public Health. Researchers in the Center are testing ways to promote activity among 8- to 10-year-old children. Area schools as well as several youth-based community programs are joining in the effort to reduce childhood obesity by making exercise fun and appealing.
