Gateway to the final frontier.
Florida is deeply invested
in supporting discovery, innovation, and creativity
in outer space.
Since the 1960s, the state of Florida has been an unquestioned global leader in the study and exploration of outer space. Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center represent the most active space launch complex on the planet, with commercial, civil, and military missions being continually launched into the cosmos from its facilities. Meanwhile, our universities are deeply invested in supporting space research innovation and boast partnerships with NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and private corporations. Through space research, Floridian scholars probe the mysteries of the universe, and make astonishing scientific discoveries that help advance engineering, technology, medicine, and more. Still, challenges abound— researchers confront issues of aging equipment and infrastructure; environmental hazards; limitations to existing scientific and mathematical models; and much more. In order for Florida to keep expanding its space research enterprise, and to push into ever more distant realms of knowledge, we will need scholars from a broad range of disciplines to begin working together in new ways. In interdisciplinary teams of researchers with vastly different areas of expertise, scholars will be well positioned to begin taking on the challenges ahead and help Florida space research unlock its fullest potential.
Collaborate FL-RDA: Space (held on 11/15/22) featured presentations by researchers from 9 Florida institutions, who introduced themselves and their research in short, 2-minute presentations—encouraging the discovery of individual researchers’ skills, interest, and assets, as well as their values, expectations, and interest in collaboration.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Julie Brisset holds two MSc. in Aerospace Engineering from Universities in Toulouse, France, and Munich, Germany. After working as a payload operations engineer for the German aerospace agency (DLR) for several years, she earned her PhD in Physics at the University of Braunschweig, Germany, in 2014. Dr. Brisset’s research interests are focused around the behavior of dust and ice grains in microgravity conditions with applications to the early stages of planet formation and the structure and surfaces of small bodies in the Solar System. She is currently the interim director of the Florida Space Institute of the University of Central Florida. Her goal is to grow the institute’s research and technology development portfolio, while providing exceptional training opportunities for students.
Research Profiles
