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The changes employees elect during open enrollment will take effect Jan. 1, 2010, which is the start of the new benefits plan year.

In conjunction with open enrollment, UF also hosts an annual Benefits Fair, which will be held at the Touchdown Terrace from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Insurance and retirement vendors will be available to discuss plan details and answer any specific questions employees may have. Food and prizes will be part of the event, and a shuttle running at certain campus locations will be available for transportation to and from the fair.

This year’s open enrollment changes will not have a major impact on the existing plan designs affecting the state health or supplemental plans. In addition, full-time employee health premiums have not increased.

A few notable changes to expect this year:

 Health coverage enhancements related to 2009 legislation affecting all plans; please review plan documents for details on changes
 Increased contribution limits on the state Health Savings Account
 State HMO options have expanded to several counties in Florida: Calhoun, Dixie, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Glades, Gulf, Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry, Holmes, Jackson, Lafayette, Levy, Liberty, Martin, St. Lucie, Sumter and Washington
 Some dental rates have increased; review supplemental dental brochures for the premiums
 The Lincoln Financial UF Term Life and Personal Accident plans have expanded dependent eligibility requirements
 Long Term Care participants already enrolled in the plan will have a buy-up option to increase their daily benefit coverage

UF Academic Personnel, TEAMS, and USPS employees will receive a benefits statement from the People First Service Center summarizing only their “state” benefits. It will also provide a People First User ID. Open enrollment changes to these benefit plans can be made any one of three ways:

• Enroll online via People First
• Call the People First Service Center at 1-866-663-4735 to make changes by phone
• Return enrollment/change forms to the People First Service Center

In addition to the state plans, UF offers a number of supplemental plans that are managed locally. Please note that these plans will not be found as an option on the People First Web site. To sign up for UF plans, employees need to complete appropriate enrollment forms found on the HRS Web site and return them to University Benefits and Retirement or an HRS satellite office.

All open enrollment changes to state- and UF-sponsored plans must be completed by 5:30 p.m. Oct. 9.

For more information about 2009 open enrollment, visit www.hr.ufl.edu/benefits/openenrollment or contact University Benefits and Retirement at 352-392-2HRS or benefits@ufl.edu.

For many of these soon-to-be graduates, the undergraduate experience included the usual experiences of college life, as well as hectic schedules and life-changing experiences.

“The nursing program at the University of Florida is very intense,” said Karen Miles, clinical associate professor and associate dean for academic and student affairs at the UF College of Nursing.

Unlike most undergraduate students who spend the first semester of their program in traditional classroom settings, BSN (bachelor of science in nursing) students begin their education with not only a regular course load of classes, but also clinical labs to develop basic skills, such as measuring blood pressure and body temperature.

Additionally, students complete a clinical nursing practicum during their final semester by working alongside a practicing nurse.

“The student works with the nurse during their regular shift, which may be eight or 12 hours,” Miles said.

Holly Williamsen, a fourth-year nursing student, works from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., three to four days per week.

“This is my first time working a 12-hour shift,” she said. “I’ve never pushed myself to work this long.”

Williamsen said she believes it is necessary for students to experience life and death while learning about nursing.

“As nurses, we are going to see a lot of life and death,” she said. “I feel like I’m ready, and I’m really excited to get started.”

Her fondest memory occurred last semester when she saw a baby delivered at North Florida Regional Medical Center, Williamsen said.

“I just hope for more special moments like that,” she said.

As a student at a college ranked in the top 10 percent of nursing schools in the U.S., Williamsen should have no trouble getting a job. The program is one of the state’s largest providers of new baccalaureate-prepared nurses, and its graduates regularly achieve excellent pass rates on the NCLEX-RN licensing exam.

Although both her practicum and undergraduate experience end May 1, this Gator nurse is able to look forward to building many special moments during her nursing career. Just like 195 fellow UF nursing BSN graduates, she’s just begun.

UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension researcher Pierce Jones is working with North Carolina-based companies Progress Energy, Advanced Energy and Duke Energy to test a Toyota Prius modified to use electricity delivered through a regular household electrical outlet.

“This isn’t a new idea, but it is one that now has to be closely examined because it’s likely to be a reality in just a few years,” said Jones, who is participating in the research as part of UF’s Program for Resource Efficient Communities. “There are a lot of questions to be asked and a lot of details that have to be ironed out beforehand.”

The UF car is one of 12 that have been deployed throughout Florida and North Carolina. The researchers involved are charting basic use patterns, such as how much gasoline and electricity is consumed. Similar vehicles are able to travel more than 100 miles on a gallon of gas.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the project also seeks to show that electric cars won’t overburden local electrical grids. For years, the largely unspoken concern about electric cars is that they could become a victim of their own success. Too many electric cars plugged in at the same time, some worry, could cause power failures.

The hybrid is equipped with smart-charging hardware that moderates the time and pacing of the charging. Additionally, the car will be tested with a technology-dubbed Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) functionality.

V2G allows the car’s charging system to synch with the local electrical grid. Not only does this stop the car from drawing on an overtaxed grid it also could contribute small amounts of electricity (for which the operator would be reimbursed) back in — thus helping the entire electrical grid become more reliable.

The project also will document drivers’ patterns to help determine how charging stations and billing should be implemented.

“It used to be that electric vehicles were rare, but I think they’re going to be here before we know it,” Jones said. “That means that we’ve got to figure out the tricky details of how they’re really going to work so we can make the best use of this new technology.”

In addition to practice and attending class, University of Florida football players visit the UF Biomechanics and Motion Analysis Laboratory to sharpen and evaluate their top-notch skills.

Bryan Conrad, a UF department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation senior engineer, and other lab engineers use innovative technologies to perfect human movement. From assisting quarterbacks to working with cerebral palsy and other patients referred by Shands at UF physicians, the engineers touch many lives in extraordinary ways.

The engineers’ ground-breaking “Florida Quarterback Model,” a database of UF football athletic-performance measurements, benchmarks athletic success, Conrad said.

Chris Leak, former Gators quarterback, visited the lab numerous times while attending UF. Leak is one of five quarterbacks featured in the model.

“Before we developed this report, people would look at a player and say, ‘It looks like he is fast,’ but now we can quantify speed and other data,” Conrad said.

“The Biomechanics and Motion Analysis Lab is a tremendous resource for our trainers, strength staff and coaching staff. It allows our trainers and strength staff to analyze motion deficiencies that might cause future injuries and allows the coaching staff to evaluate an athlete’s technique,” said Urban Meyer, UF football coach.

The lab began operation in January 2005. Located at 3450 Hull Road, off 34th Street, the 2,500-square-foot room within the UF & Shands Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute hosts 14 video cameras, two recently UF-patented robots and force plates that detect the power of motion.

The robots, developed by UF Mechanical and Aerospace Engineer Scott Banks, take X-rays of a subject’s bones while he or she is in motion, providing a more accurate analysis of the bone system in action, Conrad said.

“There is nothing like those robots anywhere in the world,” he said.

The lab is open to the public for analysis of any physical movement. For information on costs and appointment procedures, visit http://www.ortho.ufl.edu/index.shtml.

The fountain was demolished to make way for the William R. Hough Hall of the Warrington College of Business. Construction is scheduled to be completed during fall 2010.

The building will be equipped with classrooms, meeting space, an open-air atrium, a fast-food center, student lounges and locker rooms with showers, along with other amenities, according to Tracey Johnson, director of publications.

“We are bursting at the seams,” Johnson said. The college needs more space to accommodate its numerous events, such as conferences, luncheons and seminars.

The building has been designed to earn a high-level — silver or gold — LEED certification, in support of the University of Florida’s promotion of environmental quality and sustainability.

LEED’s third-party certification (http://www.usgbc.org/Default.aspx) is awarded by a LEED official after construction is complete. UF currently has two gold-certified buildings, Rinker Hall and Library West, as well as eight buildings certified at the basic level.

Although the new building will be an innovative, state-of-the-art student resource, some Gators may be concerned about the loss of the well-known fountain.

“I personally have not received any complaints about the fountain,” said Johnson, “but others have heard remarks.”

UF senior Brittny Lambert said she was shocked when she noticed that the fountain was gone.

“When I turned onto Union Drive from 13th Street, I thought I went down the wrong road,” she said.

Ed Poppell, vice president of Business Affairs, said although there are no current plans to construct a new fountain, the Art in State Buildings Program soon will announce an opportunity for artists to design the building’s art.

The program places remarkable artwork in public spaces, according to UF’s Art in State Buildings Web site, http://www.arts.ufl.edu/asb/?p=2.

“The building will have art as required by law,” Poppell said. “Where and what has not been determined. That will occur closer to when the building is complete.”

From on-campus programs to conferences held in Japan, the division’s reach is infinite both geographically and academically.

“The Division of Continuing Education is the University of Florida’s best-kept secret,” said Eileen Oliver, interim dean of DCE.

DCE caters to the interests of certificate-seeking professionals, college students, faculty and researchers from all over the globe.

“Our mission is to provide access to quality education for traditional and nontraditional students,” said Oliver.

The division’s 31 online Flexible Learning courses are taught by UF faculty.

“Our new online courses mirror the quality of those taught on campus,” said Oliver. “We are very proud of them.”

This year 38,500 students from around the world are enrolled in DCE programs, including 3,500 students in Flexible Learning courses.

Students work independently and may complete courses in 32 weeks, or as few as eight weeks with instructor permission.

Several departments, including Continuing Medical Education, Allied Health, Conferences, Leadership Development Institute (LDI), Training, and various affiliates make up the division.

“We have everything from brain surgery to waste water,” said Oliver.

The department is involved with all UF colleges and hundreds of universities around the world. In April the department will partner with the American Nuclear Society for a conference featuring international nuclear industry leaders.

Rebecca Johnson, Conferences director, said she enjoys bringing researchers from all over the world to Gainesville because “you can come and hear some of the world’s experts on leading-edge topics.”

Assistance is available to faculty applying for VisitGainesville’s 2009 Spring Conference Grant Program. The program will award $75,000 to meeting planners who help generate lodging revenue. Visit http://visitgainesville.com/grants for more details.

For more information on DCE courses and conferences, visit http://dce.ufl.edu.

A team of geologists studying the Vindhyan basin of India has dated the area to be about 1,073 million years old. Fossil organisms in these basins are also significantly older than previously thought.

Until this discovery last July, the basins of Central India were believed to have formed 500 million to 700 million years ago during the Ediacaran and Cambrian period.

“The possibility that organisms in this basin are much older than originally thought was the most interesting implication of the study,” said Joe Meert, a University of Florida geology professor and leader of the team who made the discovery.

The geologists were able to establish a date of origin of the basin through a combination of dating methods using kimberlite, a volcanic rock containing diamonds, and zircon minerals found within the sandstones in the basin.

The 500-million-year discrepancy is controversial in the science world.

The findings could alter aspects of the theory of evolution. Scientists have always believed in a Cambrian explosion resulting in a rapid appearance of most major groups of complex, multi-cellular animals, Meert explained.

Yet multi-cellular life, in the form of soft-bodied Ediacaran organisms, was discovered in the Vindhyan basin, leading Meert and co-authors to suggest that the explosion may have been more of a slow burn.

The study also helped reconcile an inconsistency in the Snowball Earth hypothesis that states the Earth was covered in snow and ice from 635 million to 700 million years ago.

A major roadblock for this hypothesis had been that the Vindhyan and other Purana basins did not have signs that glaciers existed during that period. Now that the origins of these basins have been pushed back to before Snowball Earth, the lack of glacial evidence is no longer problematic.

Information from the study appeared in the online and print editions of the journal Precambrian Research, as well as in National Geographic and The Christian Science Monitor.

“In modern geology, a 500-million-year revision in age is pretty unique,” Meert said.

“I like to get where I’m going,” she said.

Going places seems to be a theme of Hyland’s life. Before beginning at UF, she traveled around the United States – New York City, Los Angeles and Miami Beach – with only her dog.

Keegan, a black Labrador, has been her guide dog for two and a half years. He responds to “voice, touch and ESP,” according to Hyland.

The public relations major from Melbourne Royal Institute of Technology is one of a handful of international students who have a severe disability. In addition, she is believed to be the first legally blind exchange student at UF.

“In eight years of working with incoming exchange students, I have never had any declared impaired students until this semester with Kristy and another wheelchair-bound student from the Netherlands,” said Lyn Straka, exchange program adviser at the UF International Center. “Kristy is unique in many ways and an inspiration to all of us.”

Hyland is one of two legally blind students currently enrolled in “Leisure Services for People with Disabilities” in the College of Health and Human Performance. The class prepares students to work with the disabled through a curriculum that includes topics that range from nutrition to humor therapy, said Robert Beland, associate professor.

“We want all students to have an understanding of working with people with disabilities,” Beland said. “Not because they are going to have jobs in this field specifically, but because people with disabilities are part of the fabric of our everyday lives.”

On one particular day in the “Leisure Services for People with Disabilities” class, Keegan seemed to focus on the “leisure” aspect, choosing to nap on the carpeted floor.

Hyland, however, rarely slows down. During the last several minutes of class, Professor Beland asked students to write down their favorite leisure activities.

The moment he gave the instruction, Hyland’s fingers began flicking over the keys of her laptop to write down No. 1: Walking with the dog.

Green or sustainability jobs, in which professionals work to solve problems like energy use and urbanization, are popping up in practically every business, government and nonprofit sector — under job titles such as sustainability officer, sustainable design professional, resource manager and energy engineer.

Apart from those in the energy sector, the sustainability jobs in highest demand lie in the design and construction industries — where sustainable action can be a part of the organization’s main business function.
Environmental design and green interior design are cited among Kaplan’s recent 10 hot green careers list, and U.S. News and World Report has chosen architects and construction managers as careers with bright futures.
To meet the demand for “green skills,” the University of Florida has created the Bachelor of Science in Sustainability and the Built Environment in the College of Design, Construction and Planning.

“We are delighted to be able to offer this innovative degree program at a time when the need for sustainable solutions to land use, housing and urban infrastructure is so evident. Our degree program is flexible yet substantive, and will prepare students for very interesting careers,” said Peggy Carr, the college’s associate dean for undergraduate students and academic affairs. The college also offers five graduate certificate programs in sustainability.

In addition to the bachelor’s degree, UF recently added an undergraduate sustainability minor and a post-juris doctor degree in environmental and land-use law.

As the high demand for green jobs illustrates, sustainability is becoming a standard business practice across industries. The Green Building Certification Institute reports that approximately 63,000 builders and designers already have earned the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) professional accreditation.
Maybe in the future, all jobs will be green jobs.

10 Hot Sustainability Jobs
(U.S. News and World Report, October 2008)
• Agriculture of forestry supervisors
• Architects
• Construction managers
• Consultants
• Social responsibility officers
• Database specialists
• Engineers
• Electricians
• Scientific researchers
• Transportation supervisors and dispatchers

10 Hot Green Careers
(Kaplan College Guide 2009, August 2008)
• Environmental conservation
• Environmental design
• Environmental engineering
• Environmental science
• Geothermal development
• Green interior design
• Hydrology
• Organic agriculture
• Solar energy engineering
• Transportation systems planning

The new campaign is based on the theme “When did you become a Florida Gator?” and the television commercial captures inspirational answers to that question.

“The new theme is an extension of the original campaign,” commented Dan Williams, director of marketing for University Relations. “It builds upon the success the campaign has enjoyed and takes it to the next level.”

“Gators feel tremendous pride in their connection with UF,” Williams said. “We want to encourage and reward that feeling with our advertising.”

A major component of the campaign is an invitation for Gators to share their own stories in written or video form. More than 60 written stories and 150 videos already have been uploaded to the Web site, www.insidethegatornation.com. The stories range from reminiscent and inspiring to humorous and entertaining.

For Gators without access to a video camera, a traveling recording studio* will be available at select football games and other UF events. The studio, manned by student-run public relations firm Alpha PRoductions, will capture the stories and post them to the newly redesigned Web site.

A few videos will air on the jumbo screens at upcoming games at Florida Field and the O’Connell Center.

The new campaign not only will be featured in television commercials, but also in magazines and through various online media.

“Gators are extremely proud of their connection to UF,” Williams said. “That sense of pride and the lifelong bond we all share is what the campaign is all about.”

* NOTE: The mobile studio will be at the stadium’s north entrance before and after the Nov. 15 game.

“It’s going to be a close race,” Dr. David Colburn, an emeritus professor of history and past provost for UF, said. “It will probably be comparable to the 2000 election.”

Colburn believes the Republican Party has a more solid political base in Florida but that the Democrats have succeeded in registering many new voters this year. Whether these newly registered voters come out to vote could be the deciding factor, according to Colburn.

Colburn finished writing his 13th book, “From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans: Florida and Its Politics since 1940,” in November. The book, published by the University Press of Florida, explains how Florida changed from a strong Democratic state in the 1940s to a Republican state in the 21st century.

Three groups moving to Florida from 1970 to 2000 led state voters to switch from Democratic to Republican.

The first group moving to Florida was senior citizens. Seniors largely voted Democratic until the late 1970s after the rampant inflation of the President Carter years threatened their retirement incomes.

Following senior citizens, a Cuban population started to form in Florida in the 1960s. Cubans mostly voted Republican because they believed that the Republicans took a stronger stance against communism and, in particular, Fidel Castro.

Third, evangelicals helped initiate the change. In the late 1970s, large, fundamental churches provided a community setting for an ever-growing population. People flocked to the church to gain a sense of community that they had known growing up but could not find elsewhere in Florida. These new evangelicals favored Republicans because of their opposition of abortion and homosexuality.

By 1996, the collective weight of these three groups was obvious as the Republican Party took control of both houses of the state Legislature in Florida.

Although the Republican Party has dominated the polls in Florida for more than 10 years now, 2008 could be the
year that Democrats become competitive once again.

Seeing the way Florida politics has changed since 1940, and explaining it to Floridians, was Colburn’s favorite part of writing the book.

More explanation may be necessary in November because Florida’s political history may need a new chapter.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Rachel Nates, a UF alumna, wrote on her Web site, “It is my hope that my story will both inspire and change your life.”

Inspiration is defined by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary as “the act of drawing in air into the lungs.” This act was difficult for Rachel.

Rachel was diagnosed with Lymphangioleiomyomatosis in May 2007.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (pronounced lim-fan-gee-o-lyo-myo-ma-toe-sis) or LAM is a rare lung disease that results in the progressive destruction of healthy lung tissue. It prevents the lungs from providing oxygen to the rest of the body, making breathing a daily battle.

Rachel described how it felt in her own words: “Run around the room until you get out of breath. Then put a plastic bag over your head and try to breathe. That’s what I feel like every day.”

After two years of breathing problems and a handful of doctors telling her she had anything from asthma to a blood clot, an emergency CT scan finally showed the real diagnosis.

“My face turned white and I almost fell over. The nurse grabbed me and put me in a chair as shock set in… I started shaking…My mom was with me…We both started to cry,” Rachel wrote on her Web site.
Almost one year later, on June 3, Rachel was put on the lung transplant list at Shands at UF.

As the days turned into weeks, Rachel was put on more oxygen and everyday things, such as making dinner or walking Harley, her long-haired Chihuahua, became exhausting.

Rachel passed away on July 21 at 4:15 p.m. Friends and family held a celebration of her life in place of a funeral.
“There was absolutely no room for negativity in her life and any challenge that crossed her path was viewed as a learning experience,” said Alexis Southcott, Rachel’s best friend. “She truly found the good in everything.”
Rachel documented her struggle through her Web site, www.rachelnates.com, blogging about her feelings and experiences in hopes to help other transplant patients. She also created the Rachel Nates Breath of Hope Foundation to, originally, raise money for her transplant. To help raise funds, Rachel created T-shirts, bags and postage stamps with sayings like “Recycle yourself. Be an organ donor.” Now, the foundation is run by family and friends, with proceeds going towards various organizations supporting the research and awareness of LAM and organ donation.

Rachel had many goals she wanted to accomplish during her life. One of her main goals was to raise awareness of LAM and organ donation, according to Southcott.

More than 250,000 women worldwide have LAM and don’t even know, according to the LAM Foundation’s Web site. The disease exclusively affects women, usually of child-bearing age and only about 1,500 cases have been identified. There is no treatment or cure for LAM.

Patients suffering from LAM hope for a transplant to make them healthy again. While 90 percent of Americans say they support donation, only 30 percent know the essential steps to take to be a donor, according to Donate Life America, an organization dedicated to educating the public about organ, eye and tissue transplants. An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.

Rachel Nates wanted to change these numbers by sharing her story with the world. Her friends and family have now taken on this responsibility and are determined to carry out her dream.

People from all over the world have contacted Brian, Rachel’s husband, since her death. They share stories with him about the inspiration Rachel’s story has left in their lives.

Southcott, Rachel’s best friend, understands how easy it is for someone to be inspired by hearing Rachel’s story.
“It was hard not to fall in love with the girl she was. She was just so genuine. Her smile was contagious,” Southcott said. “I feel so lucky to have met her.”

Rachel was diagnosed with Lymphangioleiomyomatosis in May 2007, at the age of 27.

Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (pronounced lim-fan-gee-o-lyo-myo-ma-toe-sis) or LAM is a rare lung disease that results in the progressive destruction of healthy lung tissue. It prevents the lungs from providing oxygen to the rest of the body, making breathing a daily battle.

Rachel described how it felt in her own blog: “Run around the room until you get out of breath. Then put a plastic bag over your head and try to breathe. That’s what I feel like every day.”

Rachel died on July 21 at 4:15 p.m. after waiting for almost two months on the transplant list. An average of 18 Americans die each day from a lack of available organs.

One of Rachel’s main goals was to raise awareness of LAM and organ donation, according to Southcott.

More than 250,000 women worldwide have LAM while only about 1,500 cases have been identified, according to the LAM Foundation’s Web site. The disease exclusively affects women, usually of child-bearing age. There is no treatment or cure for LAM, although scientists are working to find one.

Shands at UF is one of the sites participating in the first clinical trial, named the Multicenter International LAM Efficacy of Sirolimus, or MILES, trial. The UF clinical trial officially began in June and will last for two years, according to Angeline Leong, the principal investigator for the Shands at UF trial. If the trial is successful, Sirolimus, the drug being tested, would slow or halt the growth of abnormal muscle cells. The abnormal growth is the reason it is so hard for people with LAM to breathe.

Rachel documented her struggle through her Web site, www.rachelnates.com. She blogged about her own experience, in hopes of helping other transplant patients. She also created the Rachel Nates Breath of Hope Foundation to raise money for her transplant. Rachel created T-shirts, bags and postage stamps with sayings like “Recycle yourself. Be an organ donor.”

Today the Web site continues to provide Rachel’s story, and the foundation is run by family and friends. Proceeds go toward various organizations that support the research and awareness of LAM and organ donation.

Rachel’s dream lives on as she continues to be a constant inspiration to her friends and family.

“I feel so lucky to have met her,” Southcott said. “She is truly a sister of my soul.”

If interested in becoming an organ donor, visit www.donatelifeflorida.org or the national organization, www.donatelife.net.

Note: For more of this story, read the accompanying article, ‘It is my hope that my story will both inspire and change your life.’

Following your dreams may be more of a myth than reality to most Americans these days. But for some, the dream lives on.

For Robert Stout, a well-accomplished American artist, the American dream became the Italian dream when he followed his passion and moved to Ravenna, Italy, to study and create mosaics.

“I was nearly 50 and I said if I didn’t challenge myself, I never will,” he said.

Stout began his art education at the San Francisco Art Institute as a fine arts undergraduate student.

As a fine arts major, he studied history and humanities, but Stout was always interested in science. “I read a lot of science – it’s mind-blowing! The stuff in science is imaginative descriptions of nature and how phenomenal tools can help humans view things that have never been seen before.”

After Stout graduated, he experienced a hodgepodge of paid works; he said he would take whatever work he could find.

Alaska was the next big move for him. He worked on public art projects and met his wife, a fellow artist. When they later moved back to the San Francisco Bay area, he decided to complete his undergraduate and masters degrees in art and architecture. Stout said he intended on teaching but realized that it was not for him. “I just wanted to make art and do stuff.”

Stout’s first experience with mosaics was when he was given the opportunity to assist a mosaic artist in creating a commissioned 2,200- square-foot mosaic project in the Albuquerque Museum in New Mexico. During the creation of the artwork, two other large areas were offered by the museum for commissioned mosaics, and the original artist asked Stout to create his own art for the space. “I got two beautiful sites where I could do whatever art I wanted to.”

He said creating and installing the art took six months, but “it made a light go off in my head.”

The more Stout created public art, the more he wanted to learn about mosaics from the traditional mosaic styles of ancient Roman and Byzantine artists. So in 1990, he moved with his wife and two sons to Ravenna.
Stout and his wife, Stephanie Jurs, now work together in their business named Twin Dolphin Mosaics. Their work combines elements of broken-tile mosaics with traditional Roman techniques.

“One of the things I like about Roman technique is to create patterns through the medium of mosaics. There is a tremendous potential to do motifs from the past and from today, like nanotechnology and things from mathematics and physics patterns from the 16th Century Venetian artists,” Stout said.

Stout said, “I want people to get excited (by my art), and say ‘Ah, cool!’ Then each time they look at it, find something neater, and cooler about it.”

He is a passionate and caring man with a unique talent for art. This was apparent when he spoke about what made the mosaic in the Nanoscale Research Facility special. From his wallet, he pulled a sparkling marble-sized 24-karat Venetian-gold glass piece that had been tucked away in tissue paper. It would be the last piece of the artwork – to be placed in the very center of the mosaic.

Still holding the glass, he asked, “How big is a nanometer?” and then answered his own question with, “ There’s an analogy. If a nanometer is a unit of measurement, and if a nano is the size of a marble, then a meter would be the diameter of the earth.” The gold, glass piece represents the nano in the entire spectrum of the world.”

To view more of Stout’s artwork visit http://www.twindolphinmosaics.com/.

—————————————————————————————-

(NOTE: The below story appeared in the Sept. 9 print edition of InsideUF.)

Italian mosaic brings art fo Nanoscale Research Facility

Take a step into the new Nanoscale Technology Research Facility’s lobby to enter a world where science and art coalesce. A beautiful mosaic floor is the centerpiece of attention – providing a place where visitors are welcomed, new ideas receive inspiration and research blossoms.

If you had walked into the building this past summer, you would have found artist Robert Stout hard at work. The American-born artist, who now lives in Italy, spent six weeks in July and August piecing together thousands of intricate Italian tiles to create his mosaic masterpiece, “Nanotube Fullerenes.”

Wearing ripped, worn jeans and a paint-sprinkled shirt while working on the mosaic that measures 14.5 feet by 15.5 feet, Stout said nanoscientists who saw him installing the art commented that they immediately recognized the science images contained within.

Stout said when he first heard about the new University of Florida public art project, he thought it would be exciting to integrate appropriate science images. He studied nanoscience on the Internet and in books, and then sketched three images to incorporate into the mosaic.

“The science inspired me,” he said. “It’s utilitarian – they (the tiles)… create a whole lot of practicality and beauty behind the meaning of the piece.”

Stout described the mixture between art and architecture “like jazz.” He said there is a structure to the melody, but the artist does not have to follow each note in order to create a masterpiece out of disorder, chance and randomness.

This was Stout’s second commissioning at UF. Several years ago, he created mosaics for the terrace between the Harn Museum of Art and the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Such projects are made possible through Florida State Statue 255.043, also known as the Art in State Buildings Program. More than 100 pieces of art have been created on the University of Florida’s campus since the program began in 1979. According to the law, each state-funded building must set aside up to .05 percent of the total cost of the project – but not exceeding $100,000 – to create an original piece of art.

Stout wants people to get excited when they look at his artwork. He said that while nanoscientists may recognize specific designs in the installation, no one needs to be a scientist to appreciate the beauty of the mosaic.