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Thursday, March 28, 2024

In hopes of boosting its ranking from a top-10 public university into the top 5, UF hired nearly 230 professors and lecturers this Fall. 

The Florida Legislature allocated $52 million to UF in 2017 for new hires and pay increases, UF spokesperson Steve Orlando said.

The new hires are “spread across the spectrum” of the university but are focused in science, technology, engineering and mathematics departments, Orlando said.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences brought in 70 new faculty members this Fall, a 10 percent increase in total staff. Orlando said of the 70, 13 belong to the mathematics department.

Dana Bartosova - College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Mathematics 

One of the new hires, assistant logic professor Dana Bartosova, said the mathematics department may see a foreign exchange program in the future inspired by her international experience. She has studied in Germany and Brazil.

Bartosova said the opportunity to have a permanent position at UF persuaded her to leave Carnegie Mellon University, where she taught a year earlier.

She said the department suffered in previous years when faculty diminished across the university. Bartosova said one of her main goals is to revive the logic addition of the department.

“The main thing is to get connected with students and hopefully get them more interested in my area,” she said.

Ashley Robertson Preston - College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, African American Studies

The 50-year history of the African American Studies department at UF is one of the reasons Ashley Robertson Preston accepted the position.

Preston will head the courses “Key Issues of Black Atlantic Thought” and “Mary McLeod Bethune: Black Women and Social Activism.”

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“I think that not just this first semester but every semester, my goal is for the student to walk away with something that they can take back from my class, that they can take back to their lives and go out and change the world,” she said.

Students taking Preston’s classes can expect to think more critically and challenge everyday thoughts and beliefs, she said.

“I want this class to be a class that you say, ‘Wow, Dr. Preston really made me think about that,’” she said.

Ted Bridis - College of Journalism and Communications, Journalism

The College of Journalism and Communications received 15 new full-time faculty across the advertising, public relations, journalism and telecommunications departments. The 28 percent staff growth is unprecedented in the field, Orlando said.

Orlando said with the new hires, the College of Journalism and Communications expanded from 53 to 68 full-time employees. He said after budget cuts at UF during the recession from 2007 to 2009, the college only had about 48 full-time faculty.

“It’s really an extraordinary number of new hires for the college,” Orlando said.

Ted Bridis, the Rob Hiaasen lecturer in investigative reporting, led the investigative team at the Associated Press in Washington, D.C., since 2017 before coming to UF. The college created Bridis’ position to honor alumnus Hiaasen, who was shot and killed in the Capital Gazette shooting June 28.

Bridis said he always enjoyed working with the younger reporters at the AP and planned to become a college professor later in his career.

Bridis said one of his goals is to be a resource for students in the college and to focus on real life application. He hopes to work with students on covering news in the Gainesville and Florida communities as well as national news.

“They want to make Florida a destination journalism program for investigative reporting, and I think that’s a fantastic thing,” he said. 

Jeffrey Rudolf - College of Engineering, Chemical Biology

The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering received the majority of the new hires, Orlando said. Among the dozens of new hires, there are three professors in the materials science and engineering department, four in the industrial and systems engineering department and one in the chemistry department.

Jeffrey Rudolf, a chemical biology assistant professor, said he brings a three-year grant with him to the university, which he believes made him an attractive candidate. 

Rudolf will teach graduate students in organic chemistry of biomolecules, as well as run his own research lab. His research focuses on discovering how to use the chemicals that organisms make in nature.

“I can have money coming in to help get me set up in terms of buying equipment and recruiting people and to build a strong foundation for the lab when I first arrive,” he said. “Departments always like to see that if possible.”

Rudolf said he hopes to recruit students for his lab and to get the first few experiments started during the Fall semester. The collaborative research across departments at UF is one of the reasons it is set apart from other high-ranking universities, he said.

“Because the University of Florida is a top-10 school, the quality of students that we get, both undergraduates and graduates, is much higher than a lot of other places around the country,” Rudolf said.

Contact Angela DiMichele at adimichele@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @angdimi

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