The faculty will help strengthen university research initiatives starting Fall 2024 through Summer 2025.
Three UCF faculty members have been awarded fellowships by the UCF Office of Research to advance the university’s research efforts over the coming year.
The selected fellows — Vladimir Boginski, Nichole Lighthall and Dinender Singla — will develop and implement programs that can help improve faculty grant success and accelerate the growth of the research enterprise.
Topics the fellows will focus on include research infrastructure, proposal development and specific research awards.
The fellowship begins in Fall 2024 and will continue through Summer 2025.
Meet the new Research Faculty Fellows:
Vladimir Boginski
Professor of industrial engineering and management systems and co-director of UCF’s Applied Operations Research Laboratory
How does it feel to be selected as a faculty fellow?
I am honored to be selected by the Office of Research as one of the faculty fellows this academic year. I am looking forward to the opportunity to use my experience in conducting interdisciplinary research and participating in large multi principal investigator grants to help UCF reach its strategic goals in terms of research funding and expenditures.
How do you hope to use this fellowship to further your research?
I hope that my experience in this role will be beneficial to my own research program development. I view this fellowship as a “two-way” opportunity. On one hand, I will be happy to offer my experience with various aspects of large grants and use it to the benefit of UCF achieving strategic funding goals. On the other hand, I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the high-level strategic and administrative aspects of sponsored research that the UCF Office of Research deals with. In addition, it would be very interesting to learn about UCF faculty research in various fields and potentially identify new opportunities for interdisciplinary research. Therefore, I believe that this fellowship would be beneficial both to my own academic research career and to UCF.
What is your background in research and what does your work focus on?
My research background and interests are in the broad area of network science and engineering. Networks are everywhere in the modern world: application areas are abundant and diverse, spanning the domains of big data and physical/virtual complex systems. Examples of real-world networked systems include communication networks, interdependent infrastructure networks, social networks, biological networks, financial networks and many others. Because everything is connected in one way or another, my research spans a multitude of disciplines. Although specific details of my research may vary depending on the field, the underlying broad goals are often the same: to identify nodes and links that are critical for the integrity of a network, and to optimize the connections so that each system functions more efficiently.
What else should Knight Nation know about you?
Prior to joining UCF, I was a faculty member at the University of Florida, and during my academic career I have served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on multiple grants for over $16 million. I have always valued the exposure to research disciplines different from my own background, and I was honored be nominated to participate in the Frontiers of Engineering program administered by the National Academy of Engineering, which connects and facilitates collaborations between engineers across different fields. In this fellowship role, I hope to participate in initiatives to promote interdisciplinary research collaborations between UCF faculty.
Nichole Lighthall
Associate professor of psychology, lab director of UCF’s Adult Development and Decision Lab and associate program director of UCF’s Human Factors and Cognitive Psychology Ph.D. Program
How does it feel to be selected as a faculty fellow?
I feel honored to be selected — and excited to have the opportunity to train in university leadership. The primary feeling has been joy over getting to work with UCF faculty who want to gain more skills and success in grant development. I’ve already gotten involved in the Office of Research’s Grant Writing Academy and the faculty in that program are so motivated and excited about their research. It’s going to be very fulfilling to help them achieve their goals.
How do you hope to use this fellowship to further your research?
My primary goal for the fellowship is to enhance UCF’s success in securing funding from The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and generally expand its health-related research portfolio. As a cognitive neuroscientist working in cognitive aging, I depend on NIH funding to conduct my research. So, any success toward my fellowship goal will help my research program grow as well.
What is your background in research and what does your work focus on?
I have been studying cognitive aging since I was an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley over 20 years ago. Over time, my research interest came to focus on how decision-making changes in healthy aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Most recently, my lab has been trying to understand risk factors for financial exploitation in older adults, and how we can better protect seniors from scams and fraud. To address these questions, we use behavioral and neuroimaging approaches, but also consider social, cultural, and health factors that might make some seniors more vulnerable.
What else should Knight Nation know about you?If you want help with developing your own NIH grants or have ideas for initiatives that we should develop to support NIH-funded research at UCF — please reach out to me. I’m here to help you!
Dinender Singla
Professor of medicine, UCF cardiovascular division leader and Florida Hospital chair in cardiovascular science
How does it feel to be selected as a faculty fellow?
Being selected as a faculty fellow is an extraordinary accomplishment, and I am deeply grateful for this opportunity. I feel a profound sense of pride in this achievement and am eager to contribute to the institution and its faculty.
How do you hope to use this fellowship to further your research?
This fellowship will enhance my in-depth research knowledge as I meet different faculty members, unit chairs, and deans. I took this position primarily because I want to serve the faculty at large, and I am keen to see their growth. This role allows me to mentor and guide other unit faculty, inspiring them to reach their full potential. The faculty growth is essential and will positively impact the lives of countless postdoctoral fellows and students. These insights and expertise will be highly valuable and will carry weight in shaping the future direction of different colleges, and university, which will ultimately support our community.
What is your background in research and what does your work focus on?
I have over 25 years of research experience in basic and translational research in cardiovascular sciences. I have brought more than $12 million in NIH grant funding to UCF. My major research area is stem cells and their derived exosomes for treating diabetes and anti-cancer drugs-induced cardiotoxicity. We have recently prepared specialized exosomes which can target tumors and kill them. Additionally, we have prepared exosomes to deliver drugs in the heart. This new research will lead to treat cancer patients more precisely. I am head of the Division of Metabolic and Cardiovascular Sciences in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, which is part of UCF’s College of Medicine.