Spectrum Magazine
The Alumni Magazine of Florida State University's College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty

Florida State University professor Igor Alabugin’s enthusiasm for chemistry is rivaled only by his enthusiasm for his students’ success

Florida State University Distinguished Research Professor Igor Alabugin is always on the go. While it’s easy to spot him in the halls of the Chemical Sciences Laboratory building, keeping pace with his purposeful stride — and his travel calendar — requires stamina.

Chemistry and Biochemistry | Spectrum Winter 2023
FSU’s Children’s Learning Clinic conducts groundbreaking research alongside compassionate, no-cost treatment

Millions of children each year are diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, due to difficulties with executive functions, neurological activities supported by the prefrontal and frontal area of the brain.

Psychology | Spectrum Winter 2023
Vandana Tripathi brings Florida State’s nuclear physics prowess to the international stage

Have you seen our newest addition to the lab?” assistant professor of physics Vandana Tripathi asks. Tripathi knows the equipment inside Florida State University’s John D. Fox Superconducting Linear Accelerator Laboratory as intimately as the lines of her hand.

Physics | Spectrum Winter 2023
There’s an old joke that goes something like this: A tourist asks a musician, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The musician answers, “Practice, practice, practice!”

Researchers in Florida State University’s Cognitive Psychology Program would add the word “deliberate” to that punchline and tell you the role deliberate practice plays in developing world-class expertise is no laughing matter.

Psychology | Spectrum Winter 2021
Florida State University reacts to tensions of race, diversity in America

As citizens across the U.S. took to the streets this summer, marching for social justice, equality, and police reform, students, faculty and staff from Florida State University joined the movement and grappled with how to address systemic racism not just in the nation, but also within the institutions of academia.

Florida State News, College News | Spectrum Winter 2021
FSU-led team earns NSF grant to study effects of heat waves on sea urchins

Sea urchins are like a canary in a coal mine. They give scientists an early warning for the future impact of rapid and extreme warming events, and their reactions to events like El Niño and to climate change are immediate and dramatic.

Biological Science, OSTA | Spectrum Winter 2021
Florida State unveils new home for Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science

A new edifice has overtaken Doak Campbell Stadium in providing the loftiest views on campus. The recently completed Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science building towers over Florida State University’s Woodward Avenue entrance, its brick exterior complemented by an enormous glass-and-metal window installation by the Master Craftsman Studio featuring the FSU torches.

Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science | Spectrum Summer 2020
Assistant professors Rachel Yohay and Ted Kolberg are partners in research and life

On the border between France and Switzerland, nestled in a massive tunnel 300 feet underground, lies an astonishing piece of physics technology. Stretching more than 16 miles, the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

Physics | Spectrum Summer 2020
Florida State's behavior analysis master's program serves generations coast to coast

Sometimes you just have to seize the moment. In the late 1990s, a movement in the field of psychology aimed to serve people with developmental disabilities and autism. Around the same time, Florida State University’s Department of Psychology ended its Panama City-based graduate program in applied psychology.

Psychology | Spectrum Summer 2020
Longstanding collaboration drives duo's diabetes research

The islets of Langerhans sounds like an exotic destination — a South Sea archipelago with swaying palm trees, white sands and pristine waters. Though they have nothing to do with geography, the islets of Langerhans are indeed exotic and mysterious, scientifically speaking.

Mathematics, Chemistry and Biochemistry, IMB | Spectrum Summer 2020
In the face of fear and uncertainty, Florida State rises to the challenge

When Florida State University President John Thrasher addressed the university family about the COVID-19 novel coronavirus Feb. 28, the disease already held a suffocating grip on portions of the globe, but still seemed a distant threat.

Florida State News | Spectrum Summer 2020
Michael McVicar connects the dots between religion and the surveillance state

Sept. 11, 2001 was a pivotal day for many, but for Michael McVicar, associate professor of religion at Florida State University, it was a catalyst for his academic career.

Religion | Spectrum Winter 2020