FIU College of Arts, Sciences & Education

🏖️ The highly anticipated 2026 Top 10 Beaches list is here.

Released every year ahead of Memorial Day weekend, the rankings shine a spotlight on America’s most picturesque and environmentally thriving beaches. 🌊☀️

FIU coastal scientist Stephen Leatherman — known as “Dr. Beach” — has spent more than 30 years evaluating beaches using his 50 criteria, including water quality, sand softness, wave action, safety, management and environmental conditions.

See who claimed the top spot this year at the link in our bio.

Happy National Orchid Day! 🌸

Today we’re celebrating the incredible work of “Orchid Hunter” Dr. Pankaj Kumar. For 25 years, he has hiked through Asia’s deepest forests to identify rare species. To date, he has discovered and named over 38 species!

He once waited 10 months for a single bloom “smaller than a fingernail” to reveal its identity, but he has also seen a species he discovered go extinct after its only known mountain habitat was destroyed.
 
A true scientist and artist, Dr. Kumar hand-draws illustrations of all his finds! He continues this research alongside experts in our Department of Earth and Environment and at Fairchild Tropical Garden. 🎨🥾

As he reminds us: “You cannot protect something which you do not know.” We’re so inspired by the researchers racing against the clock to keep our world blooming.

They trained beneath the ocean. Today, they returned to the water. Welcome back to Earth, !
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Before heading to the Moon, Artemis Commander Reid Wiseman and astronaut Jeremy Hansen lived and worked underwater at FIU’s Aquarius Reef Base as part of NASA’s NEEMO program — preparing for the isolation, pressure and precision of space. Aquarius is located 60 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida Keys. Now, after orbiting the Moon, the astronauts’ journey ends with a splashdown in the Pacific.

From the ocean floor to the moon … and back again.
🌊🌑🌊
Picture 1 - Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen (far left) swims with the rest of the NEEMO 18 crew outside FIU Aquarius in 2014.
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Picture 2 - NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman joins NEEMO 20 (lower left).

❄️ Ever had your hand plunged into ice‑cold water? That shock isn’t just physical — it’s a powerful stress signal that revs up your nervous system. In a recent FIU study, that moment was more than a challenge — it was a window into how our brains handle pressure.

People who embraced the chill didn’t just push through — they adapted: shifting focus, adjusting breath, and reframing the moment instead of trying to force control. The real difference wasn’t how much stress they felt — it was how they worked with it.

Stress resilience isn’t a flatline. It’s a flex.

Two new labs are now up and running at BBC, focused on restoration, water quality and advanced tech like robotics and environmental sensors. With $11.5 million in federal support researchers are working to better understand and protect coastlines and oceans. Faculty, staff and students celebrated alongside U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson and FIU President Jeanette Nuñez.

When you support FIU Scholarships, you help students explore what’s possible. A gift today keeps them in class, on track and moving closer toward their future.

Be the first to be All In for FIU Scholarships this Give Day. Give now. 💙💛

https://share.give.fiu.edu/s/BFvKqm8y

17 critically endangered mountain bongo antelopes boarded a DHL Express plane at Palm Beach International Airport last year. Bound for Kenya, they included 5 males and 12 females, some pregnant. More than cargo, these bongos are the last, best hope for their species.

They know nothing of the statistics — that fewer than 100 of their kind remain in the wild — or the years of planning that led to this moment. But for FIU research professor Paul Reillo, he knows these bongos represent a second chance. Reillo is director of FIU’s Tropical Conservation Institute and founding director of the nonprofit Rare Species Conservatory Foundation (RSCF), which operates the facility where the 17 bongos were raised. The RSCF team includes FIU alumnus Matt Morris, operations director and mountain bongo team lead. The largest forest antelope native only to Kenya, the bongo has experienced a devastating population decline in the past 80 years. They are listed by as critically endangered. The 17 bongos successfully made their journey from Florida to a sanctuary on the slopes of Mt. Kenya. They are thriving. The work is in collaboration with the Meru County Government, Ntimaka and Kamulu Community Forest Associations, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Service and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. The Meru Bongo and Rhino Conservation Trust oversees the sanctuary. The plan is to send more bongos in the coming year to aid in rebuilding the population.