Henry Daniell does more than dream about eradicating the world’s top 10 diseases.

He has spent the last 20 years genetically splicing tobacco and lettuce plants to grow vaccines that are cheaper and easier to make than traditional vaccines to treat diseases like polio. He is also tirelessly working on cures for Type I diabetes and hemophilia.

His work has captured the attention of others who share his goals, like leaders at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which awarded him a grant to continue his groundbreaking research in needle-free vaccines. 

Daniell is one of many researchers at UCF who are unlocking secrets not only in the medical field, but also in optics and lasers, simulation and training, computer science, alternative energy and education, to name a few. From 2000 through 2010, researchers at UCF contributed more than $1 billion to the regional economy.

In 2010, UCF joined universities such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Stanford in the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s top tier as a university with “very high research activity,” and much of that research is becoming commercial reality. In one of the highest-profile examples of UCF’s growth in commercializing technology, the strength and economic impact of the university’s patents were ranked third in the nation by IEEE, the world’s leading association for the advancement of technology.