UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER NEWS

As Voyager 1 nears edge of solar system, CU scientists look back (Click Here to View) In 1977, Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president, Elvis died, Virginia park ranger Roy Sullivan was hit by lightning a record seventh time and two NASA space probes destined to turn planetary science on its head launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

 

OTHER UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER NEWS

New CU findings have implications for increasing morphine effectiveness, decreasing drug abuse
  A University of Colorado Boulder-led research team has discovered that two protein receptors in the central nervous system team up to respond to morphine and cause unwanted neuroinflammation, a finding with implications for improving the efficacy of the widely used painkiller while decreasing its abuse potential. Scientists have known that a particular protein receptor known as toll-like receptor 4, or TLR4, helps to activate inflammation-signaling pathways to attack foreign substances like bacteria and viruses, said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Hang “Hubert” Yin of the chemistry and biochemistry department.  The new study showed opiod analgesics like morphine also trigger such neuroinflammation by first binding to an accessory protein receptor known as a myeloid differentiation protein receptor 2, or MD-2, which then works in concert with TLR4 to respond to morphine in the central nervous system, said Yin, who led the study. The new findings should help researchers develop new drugs not only to increase the effectiveness of medical opiates like morphine by preventing neuroinflammation that enhances pain by increasing the excitability of neurons in the pain pathway, but also to influence the TLR4/MD-2 protein complex in a way that may help prevent drug abuse.  Such pharmaceuticals could be designed to decrease side effects like tolerance, dependence and addiction not only in opiates, but in methamphetamines, cocaine and even alcohol, said Yin, also a faculty member at CU’s BioFrontiers Institute. “While inflammation is part of the body’s natural defense system to protect it after injury or infection, too much inflammation is unhealthy,” said Yin. “We hope our new findings on how this particular protein complex works can help us to understand morphine-induced inflammation and eventually lead to therapeutics to make morphine work more efficiently with fewer side effects.” A paper on the subject is being published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-authors include CU-Boulder researchers Xiaohui Wang, Lisa Loram, Khara Ramos, Armando de Jesus, Kui Cheng and Annireddy Reddy and Linda Watkins, as well as Jacob Thomas, Andrew Somogyi and Mark Hutchison of Australia’s University of Adelaide. The National Institutes of Health funded the study.  MD-2 is a receptor found on human immune cells in the central nervous system known as glial cells and appears to be left over from millions of years of evolution, said Watkins, a distinguished professor in CU-Boulder’s psychology department. When MD-2 bound to morphine in the study, the glial cells -- which normally act as “housekeeper cells” to clean up debris and support proper neuron function -- excited the neurons that transmit pain signals and hindered the ability of morphine to suppress pain. The heightened excitement of glia cells by opiates and other drugs appears to amplify the rewarding qualities of several commonly abused drugs, according to the research team. Glial cells, which originally were thought by scientists to hold neurons in the brain together somewhat like glue, outnumber neurons by up to 50 to one. The team members used a multidisciplinary approach that included biochemistry, biophysics and cellular biology to investigate the TLR4/MD-2 protein complex and to pinpoint the relationship between MD-2 and morphine.  As part of the study the team used laboratory “knock-out mice” -- genetically engineered mice in which existing genes or proteins are inactivated -- to infer the function of TLR4 and its relationship with morphine-induced analgesia, said Yin. “The exciting thing about this research is that we have discovered that there is not just one receptor that detects morphine, there is a second one that nobody knew about before, namely MD-2/TLR4,” said Watkins. “We have shown this protein complex essentially cuts morphine off at the knees, preventing it from doing its job in controlling pain.” As part of the study, several “small molecule inhibitors” developed and tested by the research team to target and deactivate TLR4/MD-2 demonstrated that the morphine-induced inflammation is exclusively tied to the protein complex, said Yin. Millions of Americans suffer from chronic, debilitating pain that makes it extremely painful to perform even the simplest activities like showering and dressing, and which differs from pain associated with injuries, which generally heal.  Chronic pain sufferers include victims of cancer and AIDS who have nerve damage. It is estimated that four out of every 10 people in the United States are likely to be in chronic pain, costing the nation as much as $635 billion annually in lost productivity and health care expenses. The United States is one of the world’s highest users of morphine, which has been around since the 1850s and which ironically was first marketed as a cure for opium and alcohol addiction.   Yin said the CU-Boulder researchers have been working with the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office, or TTO, and have filed a group of related patents on potential therapeutics for optimizing current pain management therapies. Several of the small molecule inhibitors used in the study to target and inactivate the TLR4/MD-2 protein complex have been exclusively optioned to BioLineRX, a publicly traded drug development company in Israel, through CU’s TTO. Directed by CU Nobel laureate Tom Cech, the Biofrontiers Institute was created to advance human health and welfare by exploring critical frontiers of unknown biology and translating new knowledge into practical applications. The institute was designed to educate a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists and expand Colorado’s leadership in biotechnology. “Using interdisciplinary approaches to look for unconventional drug targets is a central theme in my work,” said Yin. “Even in graduate school, I was attracted to the idea of ‘rational design’ -- using computer simulation and synthetic chemistry to design something useful like cancer drugs. Working across disciplines is where the future of science lies.” For more information visit Yin’s home page at http://www.colorado.edu/chem/yinlab/, Watkins’ home page at http://www.colorado.edu/neuroscienceprogram/watkins.html, the BioFrontiers Institute home page at http://cimb.colorado.edu/ and CU’s TTO home page at https://www.cu.edu/techtransfer/. Contact: Hang “Hubert” Yin, 303-492-6786Hubert.Yin@colorado.edu Linda Watkins, 303-492-7034Linda.Watkins@colorado.edu Jim Scott, CU media relations, 303-492-3114Jim.Scott@colorado.edu“While inflammation is part of the body’s natural defense system to protect it after injury or infection, too much inflammation is unhealthy,” said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Hang “Hubert” Yin of the chemistry and biochemistry department. “We hope our new findings on how this particular protein complex works can help us to understand morphine-induced inflammation and eventually lead to therapeutics to make morphine work more efficiently with fewer side effects.”Natural Sciences, Biotechnology, InstitutesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Hang "Hubert" Yin


CU-Boulder Police investigating two arsons over spring break
  The University of Colorado Police Department is investigating two arsons that occurred on campus over spring break. The first fire happened on March 27 at about 5:45 a.m. in the ATLAS (Alliance for Technology, Learning And Society) Building. A custodial crew discovered a burnt newspaper on the carpet just inside the northeast entrance of the building. No damage occurred to the carpet or the building. The second fire occurred on April 1 at about 5:45 a.m. outside of the Education Building. A Police Department community safety official noticed flames were traveling up the side of the building. He quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher and doused the flames, but saw debris still smoldering. The Boulder Fire Department extinguished the remainder of the smoldering debris. The burnt debris consisted of charred newspapers, bottles and magazines in an area approximately 10 feet long by 4 feet wide. The east wall of the Education Building had black char marks from the ground to the roof more than 8 feet wide. A window was covered in black soot and had multiple cracks in the glass. A preliminary estimate of damage comes to $800. The Police Department asks that anyone with information on these crimes contact Detective Brian Jordan at 303-492-8168. Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted via the Crime Stoppers website athttp://www.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers. Contact: Ryan Huff, Police Department communications manager, 303-492-7581ryan.huff@colorado.edu  var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Social media a key tool for people entering today’s job market
  Many of today’s college students use social media as their main form of communication, but getting them to use it in a professional manner can sometimes be a challenge, according to Lisa Severy, director of the University of Colorado Boulder Office of Career Services. With many employers using social media and conducting Google searches as part of their employee screening process, creating a positive and professional online presence can go a long way in helping students land a job out of school, according to Severy. “The easiest way to do this is through free tools like LinkedIn where you can create a profile and have your job experience information and references for potential employers to see,” Severy said. “I’ve also had students create web pages that are basically their ultimate resume. Employers that want just a little more information don’t have to search for it randomly but they’re provided with that information up front.” However, simply building a professional online appearance is not the only thing students should worry about, says Severy. Minimizing a negative online presence can be just as important. A first step for many students includes not posting anything that could be viewed as unprofessional or embarrassing. “When you’re job searching, your primary social media audience needs to be employers,” Severy said. “Some career counselors talk about it being the ‘grandma test.’ If you don’t want your grandma to see it you probably don’t want an employer to see it.” Many colleges and companies around the globe are teaching students how to enhance a professional online image while minimizing anything negative, said Severy. “I think having a resume in and of itself is not enough anymore,” Severy said. “Certainly you’re going to need a resume, but that can’t be the end-all, be-all.” For more information on how to leverage social media as part a job search strategy visit http://careerservices.colorado.edu/students/LeverageSocialMedia.aspx.  Contact: Lisa Severy, Career Services, 303-492-4104 Greg Swenson, CU media relations, 303-492-3113“When you’re job searching, your primary social media audience needs to be employers,” Severy said. “Some career counselors talk about it being the ‘grandma test.’ If you don’t want your grandma to see it you probably don’t want an employer to see it.” Students, jobs and social media Community & Culturevar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU Energy Club conference to explore ‘energy frontiers’ with government, industry
  University of Colorado Boulder students, along with experts from government and industry, will focus on student research and the natural gas boom during the third annual Energy Frontiers conference April 5. The event, organized by the CU Energy Club, is free and open to the public and will be held from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom of the University Memorial Center. The conference includes a poster session, panel discussion, catered lunch and a career fair. The CU Energy Club is a student alliance supported by CU-Boulder’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, or RASEI -- a joint venture with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Its members range from undergraduate students to postdoctoral researchers. “The CU Energy Club draws students of interdisciplinary fields, from science and engineering to business, public policy and beyond,” said Jeremy Halperin, club president and a CU-Boulder junior in chemical engineering. “Our diverse underpinnings are the strength of the club and they’ll be reflected at Energy Frontiers, making the conference a huge opportunity to showcase a variety of great work and ideas.” Oklahoma Secretary of Energy Mike Ming will be among panel speakers, discussing “The Changing Landscape of Our Energy Future: What Does a Natural Gas Boom Mean for Renewables?” from 1 to 3 p.m. Joining Ming will be NREL Energy Analyst Jeffrey Logan, Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association Executive Director Neal Lurie, RES Americas Vice President of Strategy and Transactions Seth McIntosh and CU law Professor William Boyd, who will moderate the panel. The conference also will include an energy research poster session from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CU-Boulder faculty and NREL scientists, as well as conference attendees, will be invited to select poster presenters for several cash prizes of $250 and one grand prize of $500. About 20 to 30 companies are expected to host tables during the career fair from 3 to 4:30 p.m. “CU Energy does a terrific job of putting on this annual event,” said Carl Koval, club mentor and RASEI co-director. “I encourage everyone on campus who is interested in sustainable energy issues to attend.” Previous events coordinated by the CU Energy Club include a public forum on Boulder’s potential to form a municipal utility as voters weighed the option last fall. The club also facilitated a visit from William Brinkman, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For a complete schedule of Energy Frontiers events and to register, which is not required but is requested, visit http://cuenergyclub.org/energyfrontiers/. For more information on the CU Energy Club visit http://cuenergyclub.org/.“The CU Energy Club draws students of interdisciplinary fields, from science and engineering to business, public policy and beyond,” said Jeremy Halperin, club president and a CU-Boulder junior in chemical engineering. “Our diverse underpinnings are the strength of the club and they’ll be reflected at Energy Frontiers, making the conference a huge opportunity to showcase a variety of great work and ideas.”Community Outreach, Energy, InstitutesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborations, Student Achievements, Student Researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU’s Accountability Data Center provides figures, facts in one spot
CU System news release DENVER – The University of Colorado today launched its Accountability Data Center, a convenient, central access point for details on the institution’s finances, academic practices, personnel and more. The website (www.cu.edu/accountability) assembles data that previously was distributed among several CU websites. “Accountability and transparency are among the university’s most important guiding principles as articulated by the Board of Regents,” said board chairman Kyle Hybl. “The CU Accountability Data Center provides our constituents with one website where they can review budget, academic and general information about the operations of the entire CU system.” As a public university, CU has provided information on its operations since the university’s inception in 1876. In June 2010, the Board of Regents unanimously approved the University of Colorado’s Guiding Principles. The third of these, Regent Policy 1.B.3, states: “Consistent with the legal obligations and responsibilities of the University of Colorado community, the university will promote and uphold the principles of ethics, integrity, transparency and accountability.” The university has been developing the site over the past several months. The CU Accountability Data Center is organized into three information categories: -          Financial, including details on CU’s annual budget, tuition and fees, salaries and debt obligations. -          Academic, covering accreditation, tenure policy, teaching loads, academic rigor and more. -          General, with employment totals and annual performance metrics such as number of degrees awarded and amount of research funding received. The collection of reports and documents was compiled by the University of Colorado for the CU Board of Regents, the Colorado Department of Higher Education, the Office of the State Auditor and the general public. The University of Colorado is a premier public research university with four campuses: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Some 60,000 students are pursuing academic degrees at CU. The National Science Foundation ranks CU seventh among public institutions in federal research expenditures in engineering and science. Academic prestige is marked by the university’s four Nobel laureates, seven MacArthur “genius” Fellows, 18 alumni astronauts and 19 Rhodes Scholars. For more information about the entire CU system, and to access campus resources, go to www.cu.edu. Contact: Jay Dedrick, 303.860.5707 or jay.dedrick@cu.edu    var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-Boulder to test campus text-messaging system on April 3
The University of Colorado Boulder will test the Campus Alerts text-messaging system on Tuesday, April 3, at noon in coordination with the annual flood siren testing, which begins Monday, April 2. “We’re raising awareness that the city of Boulder has the highest risk of flash flooding in Colorado because of its location at the mouth of Boulder Canyon, the number of people who live and work within the Boulder Creek floodplain, and the numerous other drainage basins running through the city,” said Lacey Croco, CU-Boulder emergency manager. At noon on Tuesday, emergency management staff will send an alert by text-message and email to all individuals signed up through CU-Boulder’s Campus Alerts, and post test alert messages on http://www.colorado.edu and the Emergency Information Line at 303-492-4636 (INFO). In addition to distributing educational materials on flood safety, volunteers with laptops will be available in the University Memorial Center on April 3 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to help students, faculty and staff sign up for the Campus Alerts system. Campus community members with a colorado.edu, cu.edu or cufund.org email address can sign up to receive an alert by text message, email or both at http://www.colorado.edu/alerts. The Boulder Office of Emergency Management begins testing of the countywide emergency sirens on April 2. The siren tests will occur the first Monday of each month from April through August. “Flash flooding can occur in the city of Boulder rain or shine,” Croco said. “Thunderstorms and heavy rainfall are a good sign of flash flooding potential, but what people may not realize is that it can be a sunny day in the city and storming up in Boulder Canyon.” During an emergency, the sirens are used to alert residents to potential danger from a flood or other immediate threat. Siren tests ensure that all systems and procedures are working properly during the season of peak flood danger. The tests also promote public awareness of the warning sirens located throughout Boulder County. The CU-Boulder Campus Alerts system has more than 29,380 subscribers including students, faculty and staff members. The campus conducts at least two tests of the text-messaging system each year. After they receive the test message, users are encouraged to add Campus Alerts to their phone contacts so that in the case of an emergency the alert will display as received from the university. Users who have changed phone numbers or switched carriers since signing up should log in to the system to update their contact information. They can log in by going to http://www.colorado.edu/alerts. Answers to frequently asked questions and support information also are available on the site. For information about the text-messaging system go to the CU-Boulder website at http://www.colorado.edu/alerts. Any user who expected to receive an alert and didn’t, or who needs help signing up for the system, should call the IT Service Center at 303-735-HELP or email help@colorado.edu. Contact: Malinda Miller-Huey, CU media relations, 303-492-3115 Lacey Croco, Emergency Management, 303-492-6820“We’re raising awareness that the city of Boulder has the highest risk of flash flooding in Colorado because of its location at the mouth of Boulder Canyon, the number of people who live and work within the Boulder Creek floodplain, and the numerous other drainage basins running through the city,” said Lacey Croco, CU-Boulder emergency manager.Serving Colorado. Engaged in the World., Campus, Community, Outreachvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU flash flood safety tips
It is important to know the difference between a flood watch and a flood warning. This flash flood safety tips video will help you to understand the difference and to know what to do in case a flood watch or flood warning is issued by the National Weather Service. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


CU’s Conference on World Affairs offers political dialogue ‘as it should be’
The University of Colorado Boulder’s annual Conference on World Affairs returns to campus for the 64th time April 9-13, with 200 events including panel discussions, performances and plenaries. More than 100 participants from around the country and the globe will pay their own way to travel to Boulder to participate in what Roger Ebert termed “the Conference on Everything Conceivable.” All events are free and open to the public. “The Conference on World Affairs is one of the few events in the country where both sides of the political spectrum can come together to have wide-ranging bipartisan discussion,” said Juli Steinhauer, CWA co-chair. “It’s dialogue as it should be.” Mike Franc, vice president of government studies at the Heritage Foundation, echoes Steinhauer’s words, “As conferences go, the Conference on World Affairs is entirely unique. Conferences that address the major issues of the day are a dime a dozen, as are conferences that sort the like-minded into windowless hotel ballrooms or exclusive resorts to preach their shared perspectives to one another. The organizers of the CWA, in contrast, work overtime to invite participants with a variety of opinions.” The 2012 keynote address will be delivered by Alice Rivlin, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and founding director of the independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Her address “Can the Center Hold: Democracy and Governance in a Polarized America” will take place in Macky Auditorium on Monday, April 9, at 11:30 a.m. Rivlin will be introduced by CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. The keynote address will be preceded by the CWA’s colorful annual opening procession. Led by Rivlin and DiStefano at 11:10 a.m., the procession will advance through the avenue of international flags on display in Norlin Quad and into Macky Auditorium. Leading Republican strategist Mark McKinnon will deliver a talk titled “The Architecture of a Successful Message” on Wednesday, April 11, at 11:30 a.m. in Macky Auditorium. McKinnon is the global vice chair of Hill+Knowlton Strategies and is the co-founder of No Labels, a political organization made up of Republicans, Democrats and independents whose mission is to address the politics of problem solving. New York Times columnist Drew Westen will deliver a plenary talk on “How Politics Lost the American People” on Monday, April 9, at 1:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium. Westen is a leading voice on the psychology of politics and is the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.” He has been a political adviser for a range of candidates and organizations, from presidential and congressional campaigns to Fortune 500 companies. “Particularly in a presidential election year, when so many issues will be bubbling to the surface, I’m really looking forward to this year’s Conference on World Affairs,” said Westen. “It will be a pleasure to be in an environment where thinkers left, right and center can have a civil conversation without all the posturing and venom that comes out in a political season.” As always, the CWA will offer not just political sessions, but a broad range of subjects and speakers. Conference panels and performances encompass everything from music and literature to environment and science, journalism, visual arts, diplomacy, technology, film, business, medicine and human rights. Some additional highlights from the 2012 schedule include: --Bill Reinert, the national manager of advanced technology for Toyota who leads efforts on research, design and marketing of alternative-fueled vehicles and emerging technologies, will deliver a plenary address on the topic “Peak Oil” in Macky Auditorium on Wednesday, April 11, at 10:30 a.m. --Chicago Sun-Times technology columnist and longtime CWA favorite Andy Ihnatko will give a plenary talk on Steve Jobs and Apple on Wednesday, April 11, at 12:30 p.m. in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom. Ihnatko also is a longtime columnist for Macworld magazine and one of the most in-demand commentators on Apple. --Grammy-winning pianists, composers and brothers Dave and Don Grusin will close the week with a talking and piano-playing duet at Macky Auditorium on Friday, April 13, at 2:30 p.m. Members of the public attending CWA are encouraged to use public transportation, as there will be no event parking on campus. Free parking is offered on the third level of the Macy’s parking structure at the Twenty Ninth Street shopping mall in Boulder, located at the southwest corner of 30th Street and Walnut Street, from which a free HOP bus ride is available to campus during CWA week. The HOP will run on its normal route arriving every 7 to 10 minutes between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. The two stops nearest the Macy’s parking structure are at 29th Street and Walnut Street and 30th Street and Walnut Street. For a complete schedule and more information visit the Conference on World Affairs website at http://www.colorado.edu/cwa. Contact: Bryan New, 3032-492-2515 cwapress@colorado.edu“The Conference on World Affairs is one of the few events in the country where both sides of the political spectrum can come together to have wide-ranging bipartisan discussion,” said Juli Steinhauer, CWA co-chair. “It’s dialogue as it should be.”Community & Culture, Arts & Culture, Campus Events, Conference of World affairs, Community Outreachvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Several Conference on World Affairs events will be held in Macky Auditorium April 9-13.


CU law professor takes high school students to Washington for moot court competition
Ten high school students from Denver, Thornton and Lyons are likely in for an experience of a lifetime when a University of Colorado Boulder law professor takes them to Washington, D.C., for a moot court competition March 29-April 1. While there, they also will meet with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and tour the Supreme Court, meet with U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado and tour the Capitol, in addition to visiting several national monuments and museums. Associate Professor Melissa Hart, director of the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law at the CU Law School, will lead the students on the trip to participate in the National Marshall-Brennan Moot Court Competition. Eighteen of Hart’s law students have worked with 250 students at seven high schools since last September as part of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. The group going to Washington consists of three students from Lyons High School (Sean Flynn, Isabella Solman and Marcos Rodriguez); three from Bruce Randolph High School in Denver (Cierra Conner, Alfonso Espino and Rene Garcia); two from Mapleton Early College in Thornton (Loren Tenorio and Cipriano Marrujo); and two from York International in Thornton (Navil Perez and Viviana Andazola). They were selected after a regional competition at the CU Law School. The literacy project, part of a national program, leads high school students through highlights of 39 of the most important Supreme Court cases affecting the rights and responsibilities of students. The second- and third-year law students also coached the students as they prepared for a moot court competition. The moot court will consider the question of whether the sentence of life without the possibility of parole for juveniles under the age of 18 who commit felony murder violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. “It is a really interesting question, very similar to two cases the Supreme Court actually heard arguments on last week,” Hart said. Isabella Solman, a senior at Lyons High School, said she has met with CU law students every Friday since September as part of her Advanced Placement government class. “They went through the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and different court cases that apply to students, that apply to our lives,” she said. The moot court case involves a hypothetical situation in which a student brings a gun to school, where it accidentally goes off and kills another student. “You have to be ready to argue either side,” Solman said. “You get really into your side, so either one is interesting, after you study the facts enough.” Solmon said the competition has improved her public speaking and that she also has visited with law students on the CU-Boulder campus in order to practice. And while she has long been interested in going to graduate school, “I’d definitely consider going to law school now,” she added. Of the 10 students, six will compete in the national moot court competition and the other four are alternates. Funding for the trip came from private fundraising. Six CU law students also will be in Washington for the competition, some of whom paid their own way because they wanted to be there to support the students. Next year’s Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project and moot court program will expand into additional high schools, Hart said. For more information on the National Marshall-Brennan Moot Court Competition visit http://www.wcl.american.edu/marshallbrennan/nat_competition.cfm. For more information on the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law visit http://www.colorado.edu/law/centers/byronwhite/marshall-brennan.htm.K-12 OutreachLearning & Teaching, Serving Colorado. Engaged in the World.Melissa Hart, 303-229-5323melissa.hart@colorado.edu Peter Caughey, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-4007caughey@colorado.eduvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Associate Professor Melissa Hart (second from right), director of the Byron R. White Center at the CU-Boulder Law School, is taking 10 high school students from the Denver area to Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Marshall-Brennan Moot Court Competition and to tour the U.S. Supreme Court and meet with Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Also pictured are CU Law students Kira Robinson (left), Johanna Blumenthal (center) and Joseph Cash (right), with York International School students Vivianna Andazola (second from left), Navil Perez (third from left) and Cierra Connor (third from right). (Photo by Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado)  


Rose Heaphy -- My trip to the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M.
My trip to the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M. Even though the Buffs fell short of advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on March 17 by losing the second game of the first round to the Baylor Bears, as CU-Boulder student Rose Heaphy shows us, the Buffs were never short of fan support, even if that meant getting up in the wee hours of the morning and driving to Albuquerque, N.M. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


Warm winters mean more pine beetles, tree damage
Some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations of tree-killing offspring annually, dramatically increasing the potential for bugs to kill lodgepole and ponderosa pine trees, CU-Boulder researchers have found. Because of the extra annual generation of beetles, there could be up to 60 times as many beetles attacking trees in any given year, the study found. And in response to warmer temperatures at high elevations, pine beetles also are better able to survive and attack trees that haven't previously developed defenses. This exponential increase in the beetle population might help explain the scope of the current beetle epidemic, which is the largest in history and extends from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico to the Yukon Territory near Alaska, according to Professor Jeffry Mitton and graduate student Scott Ferrenberg, both of the ecology and evolutionary biology department. "This thing is immense," Mitton said. The duo's research, conducted in 2009 and 2010 at CU's Mountain Research Station, located about 25 miles west of Boulder, helps explain why. "We followed them through the summer, and we saw something that had never been seen before," Mitton said. "Adults that were newly laid eggs two months before were going out and attacking trees" -- in the same year. Normally, mountain pine beetles spend a winter as larvae in trees before emerging as adults the following summer. These effects may be particularly pronounced at higher elevations, where warmer temperatures have facilitated beetle attacks. In the last two decades at the Mountain Research Station, mean annual temperatures were 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they were in the previous two decades. Warmer temperatures gave the beetle larvae more spring days to grow to adulthood. The number of spring days above freezing temperatures increased by 15.1 in the last two decades, according to Mitton and Ferrenberg. Also, the number of days that were warm enough for the beetles to grow increased by 44 percent since 1970. The Mountain Research Station site is about 10,000 feet in elevation, 1,000 feet higher than the beetles have historically thrived. "While our study is limited in area, it was completed in a site that was characterized as climatically unsuitable for (mountain pine beetle) development by the U.S. Forest Service only three decades ago," they wrote in the study. But in 25 years, the beetles have expanded their range 2,000 feet higher in elevation and 240 miles north in latitude in Canada, Mitton said.Natural SciencesDiscoveries & Achievements, Research & Creative Works, Serving Colorado. Engaged in the World., CU Museum of Natural Historyvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Rose Heaphy -- My trip to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M.
Even though the Buffs fell short of advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on March 17 by losing to the Baylor Bears, as CU-Boulder student Rose Heaphy shows us, the Buffs were never short of fan support, even if that meant getting up in the wee hours of the morning and driving to Albuquerque, N.M. Rose Heaphy -- My trip to the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M. My trip to the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M. Even though the Buffs fell short of advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on March 17 by losing the second game of the first round to the Baylor Bears, as CU-Boulder student Rose Heaphy shows us, the Buffs were never short of fan support, even if that meant getting up in the wee hours of the morning and driving to Albuquerque, N.M.Topic:  var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU's club Freestyle Ski Team brings home national collegiate championship
The University of Colorado Boulder club Freestyle Ski Team brought home the United States Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Association national championship after a week of tough competition in early March.  "I'm very proud, and excited for everyone," said Head Coach Palmer Hoyt. "Each of us shares in this great accomplishment, but we have a huge thanks and congratulations to give to our fearless athletes and coaches who fought to bring home the title." Scott Szawlowski, Ian Simpson, Ben Hitchcock, Nick Pease, David Lilja, Lauren Ladley, William Baum and Jeremy Brown all fought for the 2012 title. The team of coaches that led the athletes to their victory is Mike Suleiman and Jon Peot. Brown won the slope style competition and was announced the first team all-American individual champion. "It was great seeing all of the different schools out there throwing down their best for the title," said Pease. "There is always a heightened intensity when it comes to competing because you need to make sure you land a good enough run to qualify for finals, but at the same time it has to be a run you are comfortable enough with so you won't fall." Skier cross country was the first event that Colorado competed in where the team went head-to-head with other freestyle athletes. Brown took the lead in this race, qualifying to continue on to time trials. Colorado continued on to the slope style competition where they competed against Liberty University, the University of Southern California, Western State College and Sierra Nevada College. Brown cleaned up this event, coming in first place. Simpson trailed behind, picking up fifth and placing CU first on the point boards. The last event of the week was the half pipe. Each of the players excelled in this event, all qualifying for a second running, avoiding elimination. Brown placed number two in this event with Hitchcock coming in close behind at number three. The Buffaloes picked up the most points of the week, finishing in first place winning the title of the 2012 USCA Freestyle Skiing National Champions. "It was an amazing weekend and we finished with the title we were all hoping for," said Lilja. "It was the best way I could think of to finish my senior season." During the 2010-11 season Colorado placed second at the USCSA National Championship behind the University of Southern California. For more information on the CU club Freestyle Ski Team visit http://www.cufst.com/.  CU-Boulder has 32 club sports ranging from field hockey to snowboarding. For more information about club sports at CU visit http://www.colorado.edu/rec-center/clubsports/. AthleticsSupport CU Athletics


Two CU-Boulder faculty members recognized as exceptional educators
CU System news release Two University of Colorado professors who have skillfully integrated teaching and research at a high level throughout their careers at CU-Boulder have been designated as 2012 President’s Teaching Scholars. The title of CU President’s Teaching Scholar signifies the university system’s highest recognition of excellence in and commitment to learning and teaching, as well as active, substantial contributions to scholarly work. Each year, CU President Bruce D. Benson solicits nominations of faculty for the designation, which is a lifetime appointment. The newly named scholars are: Noah Finkelstein, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder (left) Harihar Rajaram, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, CU-Boulder (right) Finkelstein has published more than 75 peer-reviewed articles since coming to CU in 2003. His previous accolades include the Outstanding Faculty Graduate Faculty Advising Award (2010), the Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching Award (2007), first place in the National Science Foundation (NSF)/Science Magazine’s International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge (2007), an NSF CAREER Award (2005), and a current NSF award to build a Center for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Learning at CU. “Professor Finkelstein is an award-winning classroom teacher and graduate mentor, a transformative scholar in science teaching and learning, and a tireless campus and national servant promoting research-based best practices in STEM education,” wrote Paul D. Beale, professor and chair of the physics department, in the nominating letter. Finkelstein said he’s honored to join the prestigious group of scholars. “It speaks volumes that one of the highest level awards in the University of Colorado system focuses on education and scholarship in teaching,” Finkelstein said. “It honors our roots, state charter, and commitment to serving the state and the nation through fundamental investment in education. “I am deeply indebted to the wonderful community that is so committed to education -- to my research group in physics education, to the physics department, and to the campus and university as a whole for being such a supportive and engaged culture. Particularly, I thank the many students who have enriched – and will continue to enrich – my life and all of our efforts at Colorado.” Finkelstein, a winner of CU’s Diversity and Excellence Award, leads an annual delegation of students at the National Association of Black and Hispanic Physicists conference. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Yale University; his doctorate in applied physics from Princeton University. Rajaram has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal publications, and his research has been cited nearly 1,000 times, according to the Web of Science. In a letter supporting Rajaram’s nomination, Keith R. Molenaar, chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, wrote: “He is simply our best teacher, and his model of excellence has inspired faculty throughout the department.” Rajaram’s previous awards include the NSF CAREER award for integrating research and education in 1998 and the Charles Hutchinson Memorial College of Engineering Teaching Award from CU in 1999. Rajaram said he’s dedicating his newest honor to his mother, an elementary and middle school mathematics teacher, and his father, a chemistry professor; both retired in the early 1990s after 30-year teaching careers. “I am deeply honored and humbled by this recognition of 18 years of effort toward improving the clarity and effectiveness of my teaching,” Rajaram said. “I also am grateful for the feedback, appreciation and constructive criticism I have received from students and colleagues at CU over these years, which have helped me grow in many ways, both as a teacher and as a person. “I hope that as a President's Teaching Scholar, I will be in a position to give something back to CU in return for these wonderful years. I hope to help mentor younger faculty members in the early stages of their careers, to help them discover their teaching personas and develop effective and efficient approaches to preparing their courses and lectures.” Rajaram earned a bachelor’s degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India, and a master’s degree in science, civil and environmental research from the University of Iowa. He completed his doctorate in civil engineering at MIT. Contact: Jay Dedrick, 303-860-5707, Jay.Dedrick@cu.eduNatural Sciences, Engineering, Natural SciencesLearning & Teaching, Faculty Excellence, Research & Creative Works, Teaching Innovationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Noah Finkelstein Photo: Caption: Harihar Rajaram


CU's Freestyle Ski Team brings home national collegiate championship
The University of Colorado Boulder Freestyle Ski Team brought home the United States Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Association national championship after a week of tough competition in early March.  "I'm very proud, and excited for everyone," said Head Coach Palmer Hoyt. "Each of us shares in this great accomplishment, but we have a huge thanks and congratulations to give to our fearless athletes and coaches who fought to bring home the title." Scott Szawlowski, Ian Simpson, Ben Hitchcock, Nick Pease, David Lilja, Lauren Ladley, William Baum and Jeremy Brown all fought for the 2012 title. The team of coaches that led the athletes to their victory is Mike Suleiman and Jon Peot. Brown won the slope style competition and was announced the first team all-American individual champion. "It was great seeing all of the different schools out there throwing down their best for the title," said Pease. "There is always a heightened intensity when it comes to competing because you need to make sure you land a good enough run to qualify for finals, but at the same time it has to be a run you are comfortable enough with so you won't fall." Skier cross country was the first event that Colorado competed in where the team went head-to-head with other freestyle athletes. Brown took the lead in this race, qualifying to continue on to time trials. Colorado continued on to the slope style competition where they competed against Liberty University, the University of Southern California, Western State College and Sierra Nevada College. Brown cleaned up this event, coming in first place. Simpson trailed behind, picking up fifth and placing CU first on the point boards. The last event of the week was the half pipe. Each of the players excelled in this event, all qualifying for a second running, avoiding elimination. Brown placed number two in this event with Hitchcock coming in close behind at number three. The Buffaloes picked up the most points of the week, finishing in first place winning the title of the 2012 USCA Freestyle Skiing National Champions. "It was an amazing weekend and we finished with the title we were all hoping for," said Lilja. "It was the best way I could think of to finish my senior season." During the 2010-11 season Colorado placed second at the USCSA National Championship behind the University of Southern California. For more information on the CU Freestyle Ski Team visit http://www.cufst.com/. AthleticsSupport CU Athletics


March 20 chemical spill in Engineering Center
CU Police Department news release At 11:04 a.m. today, University of Colorado students accidentally spilled a chemical in the Engineering Center’s Chemical Wing. A student dropped a 100-milliliter glass bottle containing acryloyl chloride, a chemical substance that acts like hydrochloric acid when exposed to the air. The students suffered from irritations to their eyes and immediately activated a fire alarm. At 11:34 a.m., emergency responders decided to evacuate the Engineering Center. Agencies that responded to the scene were: the University of Colorado Police Department, CU Environmental Health & Safety Department, Boulder Police, Boulder Fire, American Medical Response and the Boulder County Hazardous Materials Team. The Hazardous Materials Team entered the building around 2:30 p.m. and deemed there was no public health threat, except for inside the Chemical Wing. The building was reopened around 3 p.m. CU Environmental Health & Safety officials cleaned up the spill and reopened the Chemical Wing around 3:45 p.m. The four students were evaluated by medical staff at the scene and determined to be OK. One female CU student, who was in the Engineering Center but not part of the original incident, reported she had a headache. She was taken to Boulder Community Hospital. Throughout the incident, the CU Police Department worked with students and instructors with critical experiments inside to safely access the Engineering Center. Contact:    Ryan Huff, Communications Manager, Police Department                         303-492-7581 / ryan.huff@colorado.edu  var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Spring Break: Be Safe Wherever You Are
With visions of ski resorts and warm beaches on the minds of many students, CU-Boulder is urging students to be safe whether they remain in Colorado, travel elsewhere in the country or go abroad for spring break. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


Ultracold matter technology from CU and SRI International licensed to Boulder’s ColdQuanta
  ColdQuanta Inc. of Boulder and the University of Colorado have finalized an agreement allowing ColdQuanta to commercialize cutting-edge physics research developed by CU-Boulder and SRI International. The licensed technology centers on Bose-Einstein Condensate, or BEC, a new form of matter created just above absolute zero.  Ultracold matter such as BEC can be used to dramatically increase the performance of devices such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, gravimeters and magnetometers because of its strong interaction with gravity and magnetic fields as compared with laser-based devices. BEC also has potential applications in a wide range of research and commercial settings, ranging from atomic clocks to improved navigation of submarines and spacecraft, and even quantum computing.   “We are delighted that this license agreement has been finalized,” said ColdQuanta CEO Rainer Kunz. “It’s a great example of the university’s strong support for commercializing BEC and cold atom technology born out of CU and SRI International, and will ultimately boost advances in the ultracold applications field.” “Cold atom research has great potential for fields such as instrumentation and cryptography,” added Chris Lantman, senior director of business development at SRI International of Menlo Park, Calif. “We are pleased that ColdQuanta will commercialize this important technology and look forward to new applications of our physics R&D.” Initially theorized by Satyendra Bose and Albert Einstein in the 1920s, BEC was achieved for the first time at JILA -- a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology -- by Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman, who received a Nobel Prize in 2001 for their work. ColdQuanta was founded in 2007 to commercialize work by CU-Boulder physics professor and JILA Fellow Dana Anderson to develop streamlined devices for BEC experiments. “Startup companies like ColdQuanta play a pivotal part in the transition of an entirely new scientific domain into the realm of practical applications,” said Anderson. “By now we have come full circle, so that they contribute to our scientific progress here at CU as much as our academic research advances their R&D progress.”  “We’re glad to see this forward-looking technology achieve commercial penetration, in addition to the strong academic interest,” added Ted Weverka, a licensing manager at CU. “ColdQuanta is just the adventurous company to make this happen.” After optioning the technology in 2007, ColdQuanta received a $100,000 Proof of Concept investment from the CU Technology Transfer Office to help bring it to market. Since then, the company has been awarded contracts from the Army, Navy, NASA and the National Science Foundation, which have helped expand its array of products and core competencies beyond ultra-high vacuum, or UHV, design and opto-mechanical and atom chip design, to include UHV processing, systems controls, and diverse glass and silicon bonding expertise. The company sells to research labs and industry nationally and overseas. The company also has partnered with CU-Boulder and SRI International to provide critical UHV components for a major quantum computing project led by the University of Wisconsin. The CU Technology Transfer Office, or TTO, pursues, protects, packages, and licenses to business the intellectual property generated from research at CU. The TTO provides assistance to faculty, staff and students, as well as to businesses looking to license or invest in CU technology. For more information about technology transfer at CU visit http://www.cu.edu/techtransfer.  ColdQuanta focuses on the development of BEC and cold atom generating devices and systems, allowing them to be accessible to a wide range of research, educational, and industrial institutions. Its products are intended for use in scientific and industrial applications requiring high performance and reliability. ColdQuanta’s products now include the miniMOT range developed for educational institutes and researchers working on cold atoms as well as the RuBECi designed for BEC and ultracold atom labs. The company also provides custom engineering solutions to the cold atom and ultracold atom community. For more information visit http://www.coldquanta.com. Silicon Valley-based SRI International, a nonprofit research and development organization, performs sponsored R&D for governments, businesses and foundations. SRI brings its innovations to the marketplace through technology licensing, new products, and spinoff ventures. SRI is known for world-changing innovations in computing, health and pharmaceuticals, chemistry and materials, sensing, energy, education, national defense and more. For more information visit http://www.sri.com/. Contact: Lindsay Lennox, CU Technology Transfer Office, 303-735-5518lindsay.lennox@cu.edu Seema Hess, ColdQuanta Inc., 303-440-1284seema.hess@coldquanta.com Dina Basin, SRI International, 650-859-3845dina.basin@sri.com -CU- The project or effort depicted was or is sponsored by the Department of the Army, U.S. Army Research Office.  The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.“Startup companies like ColdQuanta play a pivotal part in the transition of an entirely new scientific domain into the realm of practical applications,” said CU-Boulder physics professor and JILA Fellow Dana Anderson. “By now we have come full circle, so that they contribute to our scientific progress here at CU as much as our academic research advances their R&D progress.” Natural Sciences, Institutes, Natural SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Campus Innovations, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborations, Student Researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: CU-Boulder physics professor and JILA Fellow Dana Anderson, center, in his JILA laboratory with research assistants Kai Hudek, left, and Seth Caliga. (Photo by Patrick Campbell/University of Colorado)


CU-Boulder to host Military Student Day March 21
    The University of Colorado Boulder will host Military Student Day on March 21 to assist military service members interested in transitioning from military service to life as a college student. Co-sponsored by CU-Boulder’s Office of Admissions and the Office of Veteran Services, the daylong event is aimed at supporting Colorado’s service members who are interested in pursuing college degrees, specifically those who are close to military retirement and separation, according to Michael Roberts, program manager of CU’s Veteran Services office. “Military Student Day is designed to allow service members the opportunity to ask questions of current CU-Boulder staff and student veterans about the admissions process and what it is like to be a CU Buff,” Roberts said. “We’re committed to supporting Colorado’s military community and are excited about this inaugural event to assist service members in making an informed decision about their educational pursuits.” The event will include specific information sessions on veteran educational benefits and veteran services, provide personalized counseling advice on how to transition to a college environment, and offer advice on admission, academics and transferring to CU-Boulder. In addition, participants are invited to take a guided campus tour and attend a sample lecture. In the afternoon there will be breakout sessions with campus faculty, staff and student veterans to discuss specific questions about transitioning to campus life. Service members interested in attending the event should contact Jack Kroll in CU-Boulder’s Office of Admissions at jack.kroll@colorado.edu or Michael Roberts in CU-Boulder’s Office of Veteran Services atmichael.roberts@colorado.edu. Contact: Jack Kroll, CU Office of Admissions, 303-735-3110 Michael Roberts, CU Veteran Services, 303-735-3028 Greg Swenson, CU media relations, 303-492-3113  “Military Student Day is designed to allow service members the opportunity to ask questions of current CU-Boulder staff and student veterans about the admissions process and what it is like to be a CU Buff,” said Michael Roberts, program manager of CU’s Veteran Services office. “We’re committed to supporting Colorado’s military community and are excited about this inaugural event to assist service members in making an informed decision about their educational pursuits.”Community Outreach, Civic EngagementCommunity & Culture, Visit Programs, Community Outreachvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Spring break: be safe wherever you are
With visions of ski resorts and warm beaches on the minds of many students, CU-Boulder is urging students to exercise caution whether they remain in Colorado, travel elsewhere in the country or go abroad for spring break. Students planning to travel abroad need to be aware of travel warnings issued by the U.S. Department of State, including recent warnings for those planning to visit Mexico. For information on security conditions in specific regions of Mexico visit http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_5665.html. Those planning to go to Mexico also can view general travel tips at http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html. In general, students are reminded to practice the same safety protocols they follow in Boulder, which includes traveling in groups, looking out for friends, keeping hydrated, knowing their limits and complying with the law. “We want our students to have a great break, but also want to remind them to be safe and look out for one another wherever they are during spring break,” said Karen Raforth, interim dean of students and associate vice chancellor for student affairs. Students who are of age and choose to drink alcohol should do so safely and keep an eye on their friends before, during and after parties. “I always encourage students to step back and think through their use of alcohol to avoid related problems,” said Matthew Tomatz, counselor and substance abuse coordinator with CU-Boulder’s Counseling and Psychological Services office. “Since drinking can be risky and lead to poor decision-making, it is wise to establish sensible limits before drinking and strategize ways to maintain these boundaries.” Students planning to drive to an out-of-town destination should drive in shifts and get plenty of sleep before driving. Those planning to travel to the high country should check road conditions and take winter survival kits in their cars. Winter driving tips are available at http://www.coloradodot.info/travel/winter-driving. This winter, the high country has experienced more avalanches than normal, so students who plan to ski, snowboard or snowshoe need to be extremely careful. Students should check the site they are going to visit for advisories before they go. Information about avalanches, including special advisories, is available at http://avalanche.state.co.us/index.php. Students also need to remember that the Student Code of Conduct follows them wherever they go. For more information on the Student Code of Conduct visit http://www.colorado.edu/studentaffairs/studentconduct/code.html. Before leaving for break, students planning to travel internationally should visit the U.S. Department of State’s travel information page, which includes international safety resources and warnings and alerts, at http://travel.state.gov/travel/. General international travel tips are posted at http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html. Spring Break: Be Safe Wherever You Are With visions of ski resorts and warm beaches on the minds of many students, CU-Boulder is urging students to be safe whether they remain in Colorado, travel elsewhere in the country or go abroad for spring break.Topic:  var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU 3D super-resolution imaging technology to be developed by Boulder’s Double Helix
  Double Helix LLC of Boulder and the University of Colorado have completed an exclusive option agreement to allow Double Helix to develop a novel technique for 3D super-resolution imaging. The technology was developed by CU-Boulder Professor Rafael Piestun of the electrical and computer engineering department.  Super-resolution -- techniques to enhance the resolution of an imaging system beyond the limitations set by the diffraction of light -- is key to the development of next-generation microscopes and other optical instruments. The Double Helix optical technology combines 3D optics and a unique signal post-processing technique used for quality improvement in image processing. The optical technology offers a major opportunity to provide multifunctional 3D super-resolution imaging capability to thousands of cellular, molecular biology and biophysics laboratories in the United States and around the world. The Double Helix technology platform is applicable to a variety of scientific, industrial and consumer applications, including microscopy, metrology and computational digital photography, said Piestun. Piestun also is the director of Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging, a National Science Foundation-funded program for education and research training. “We are looking forward to bringing this leading-edge technology to the market, initially in microscopy and later to more markets including metrology and digital optics, a stronghold of the Boulder entrepreneurial community,” said Double Helix founding partner Leslie Kimerling. “We are excited to see this company launch with our broad fundamental patents,” said Ted Weverka, a licensing manager at the CU Technology Transfer Office. “The cost savings and superior technology will give Double Helix a strong lead.” Piestun founded Double Helix LLC in 2011. The company works in close collaboration with scientists at CU-Boulder to develop and commercialize computational optical-digital technologies used in range estimation, super-resolution and 3D imaging. The company designs products that integrate micro-and nano-technologies with computational algorithms to offer improved performance in conjunction with reductions in cost, size and complexity. Double Helix focuses on product development while exploring licensing opportunities based on ongoing technological advances. The CU Technology Transfer Office, or TTO, pursues, protects, packages and licenses the intellectual property generated from research at CU to business. The TTO provides assistance to faculty, staff and students as well as to businesses looking to license or invest in CU technology. For more information about technology transfer at CU, visit http://www.cu.edu/techtransfer.  Contact: Lindsay Lennox, CU Technology Transfer Office, 303-735-5518Lindsay.Lennox@cu.edu Leslie Kimerling, Double Helix LLC, 720-479-8660leslie@doublehelixoptics.com“We are excited to see this company launch with our broad fundamental patents,” said Ted Weverka, a licensing manager at the CU Technology Transfer Office. “The cost savings and superior technology will give Double Helix a strong lead.”EngineeringDiscovery & Innovation, Campus Innovations, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: 


Hundreds advocate for CU at Capitol
More than 200 attendees filled the Capitol hallways with enthusiasm and campus colors at today’s CU Advocacy Day, an annual event that brings friends and members of the CU community together with state leadership under the gold dome. University leadership from throughout the system was represented, along with faculty, staff, alumni, donors, CU Advocates and students, including the University of Colorado Denver’s 9th Street Singers, who provided a vocal soundtrack to the government engagement. Colorado leadership at the event, presented by the Office of Government Relations and the CU Advocates, included Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia, who acknowledged University of Colorado Colorado Springs Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak as one of his mentors. In a brief speech, he stressed the need for state investment in all the state’s higher education institutions, including CU. “CU is our flagship and we’re very proud of it and its multiple campuses,” Garcia said to an audience gathered in the Old Supreme Court Chambers. He acknowledged the challenging financial climate and related diminishment of state funding for CU and other institutions – at a time when student needs are increasing. “We have students who need more financial and academic assistance, and yet higher education is getting less funding,” he said. “We know that state investment in higher education is a public good. So keep fighting for higher education and keep fighting for CU.” CU President Bruce Benson and Board of Regents Chair Kyle Hybl introduced attending dignitaries Marcy Benson, who chairs the Creating Futures campaign with her husband, Bruce; CU Regents Michael Carrigan and Joe Neguse; CU Denver’s Jerry Wartgow (outgoing chancellor) and Don Elliman (incoming chancellor); University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano; Lilly Marks, vice president for health affairs, CU Anschutz Medical Campus; UCCS’ Shockley-Zalabak; and Henri Jupille, who represented the CU student body. Attendees visited the galleries of the House and Senate Chambers to hear a joint resolution honoring CU; it was sponsored by Sen. Rollie Heath and Rep. Mark Waller. They and several other lawmakers took part in the morning breakfast, hearing CU stories from many in attendance. Even CU mascots Chip (CU-Boulder) and Clyde (UCCS) managed to join in the mingling. The morning event concluded with presentations offering multiple perspectives on the budget challenges facing CU. “I never come down here (to the Capitol) to whine and cry about money,” President Benson said earlier in the day. “We have to be entrepreneurial.” Kelly Fox, vice president for budget and finance, noted how the university has shown such entrepreneurial spirit, achieving $12 million to $13 million in efficiency savings in business processes. She also pointed out that, when adjusted for inflation, the current level of state support for the university is at its lowest level in history. Fox was followed by Henry Sobanet, director of the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budget, who couldn’t offer a sneak preview of Monday’s expected revenue forecast (“I haven’t told the governor yet”), but did stress his ties as a CU alumnus and the need for members of the CU community to be engaged with CU and to continue sharing the university’s story. “What really needs to be stressed is the university’s connection to economic development and employment in the community,” Sobanet said. He said that the recently launched TBD Colorado effort will include town meetings where residents can speak out in favor of support for higher education. Finally, Frank Waterous, senior policy analyst from the Bell Policy Center (and another CU-Boulder alumnus), offered detailed data indicating Colorado’s markedly low support of higher education (lowest in the country on spending per four-year research institution student). He also encouraged attendees to be vocal advocates of CU and higher education. “It’s important to let your friends and family know how higher education is not only a public treasure, but a public necessity,” he said. Shannon Fender, a CU Denver senior in political science and member of CU Advocates, seemed ready to do just such outreach. “It’s important for students to make people aware of how much CU means to the state, the country and the world,” she said after the event. “We need to make our voices heard. We want to make big changes for higher education, but we need the support of legislators. It was important to be here at CU Advocacy Day right before budget setting.”Photo Gallery: CU Advocacy DayServing Colorado. Engaged in the World.var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU and NIST scientists reveal inner workings of magnets, a finding that could lead to faster computers
  Using the world’s fastest light source -- specialized X-ray lasers -- scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have revealed the secret inner life of magnets, a finding that could lead to faster and “smarter” computers. Using a light source that creates X-ray pulses only one quadrillionth of a second in duration, the Boulder team was able to observe how magnetism in nickel and iron atoms works, and they found that each metal behaves differently. One quadrillionth of a second is a million times faster than one billionth of a second. The results of the study were published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Six of the study’s 19 co-authors are located at CU-Boulder. Many technology experts believe that next-generation computer disk drives will use optically-assisted magnetic recording to achieve much higher drive capacities, according to NIST scientist Tom Silva, who worked with CU-Boulder physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn on the research. However, many questions remain about how the delivery of optical energy to the magnetic system can be optimized for maximum drive performance. And this finding could help researchers answer some of their questions. “The discovery that iron and nickel are fundamentally different in their interaction with light at ultrafast time scales suggests that the magnetic alloys in hard drives could be engineered to enhance the delivery of the optical energy to the spin system,” Silva said. Magnetism exists because all of the “spins” in a magnet -- each of which is like a very small bar magnet with a north and south pole -- are lined up to point in the same direction, much like members of a marching band who are moving in unison, explained Murnane, who also is a fellow of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NIST. “The powerful laser pulse scrambles the magnetic spins in the metal, as if the members of the marching band started moving in different directions across the football field, causing the magnetization to rapidly disappear within a mere fifty quadrillionths of a second, a process known as ultrafast demagnetization,” Murnane said. While ultrafast demagnetization has been a well-known phenomenon since its discovery in 1996, the CU and NIST researchers saw for the first time that different kinds of spins in metal scramble on different time scales. Until now, it was assumed that all the spins in a metal alloy behaved in the same way due to a powerful quantum mechanical effect known as the exchange interaction, which lines up all the individual spins in the same direction. “What we have seen for the first time is that the iron spins and the nickel spins react to light in different ways, with the iron spins being mixed up by light much more readily than the nickel spins,” said Silva. “In the end, the exchange interaction still pulls the two spin systems back into synchronization after a few quadrillionths of a second. Seeing such a difference was only possible by taking advantage of the extremely fast X-ray technology developed at the University of Colorado and elsewhere.” The laser technology used in the experiment, known as “high harmonic generation,” can generate laser-like beams of X-rays that span a wide portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, including the spectral region where nickel and iron interact very strongly with X-rays. The study was a collaboration between CU-Boulder, NIST and the University of Kaiserslautern and the Jeulich Research Center, both in Germany. Funding was provided by NIST and the U.S. Department of Energy. Contact: Margaret Murnane, CU-Bouldermurnane@jila.colorado.edu Greg Swenson, CU media relations, 303-492-3113“The discovery that iron and nickel are fundamentally different in their interaction with light at ultrafast time scales suggests that the magnetic alloys in hard drives could be engineered to enhance the delivery of the optical energy to the spin system,” according to NIST scientist Tom Silva, who worked with CU-Boulder physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn on the research.Natural Sciences, Research, Natural SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Nobel laureate Adam Riess to give Gamow Memorial Lecture at CU-Boulder March 22
  Johns Hopkins University Professor Adam Riess, who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics for uncovering evidence that the universe is expanding, will give the 2012 George Gamow Memorial Lecture at the University of Colorado Boulder on Thursday, March 22. Free and open to the public, the talk is titled “Supernovae and the Discovery of the Accelerating Universe.”  The talk will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium and is intended for a general audience. Riess, a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, also is a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope. He shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics with Brian Schmidt of Australian National University in Weston Creek, Australia, and Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. In 1998, a team led by Riess and Schmidt found evidence for the expansion of the universe by analyzing light from distant supernovas, as did Perlmutter, who led a second independent study. The Nobel winners found the light emitted by targeted, distant supernovas was weaker than expected, a sign that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate. “For almost a century the universe has been known to be expanding as a consequence of the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago,” read the Nobel citation. “However, the discovery that this expansion is accelerating is astounding. If the expansion will continue to speed up, the universe will end in ice.” The $1 million Shaw Prize in Astronomy was awarded to Riess, Schmidt and Perlmutter in 2004 for their universe expansion research. The findings have essentially settled one of the biggest questions in science -- the ultimate fate of the universe. It is now believed that billions of years from now as galaxies continue to pull apart from one another, the ever-enlarging universe will turn black and cold. Riess earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate in astrophysics from Harvard University. As a research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1996 to 1999, Riess and his colleagues conducted the research that was to win him a share of the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics. Riess has taught at Johns Hopkins since 2006. He won a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2008, which carried a cash prize of $500,000. The George Gamow Memorial Lecture Series began in 1971 and honors the late CU-Boulder physics professor who was pivotal in developing the “Big Bang” theory of the creation of the universe. Gamow also was recognized for his many books popularizing science for nonscientific audiences. For more information about the lecture series visit http://www.colorado.edu/physics/Web/Gamow/index.html. Contact: Nancy Miller, 303-579-7468nlmiller@colorado.edu Jim Scott, CU media relations, 303-492-3114Natural Sciences, Community Outreach, Natural SciencesCommunity & Culture, Lectures & Seminars, Campus Eventsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Nobel laureate Adam Riess (Photo courtesy Johns Hopkins University)


Discovery of pine beetles breeding twice in a year helps explain increasing damage, CU researchers say
  Long thought to produce only one generation of tree-killing offspring annually, some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically increasing the potential for the bugs to kill lodgepole and ponderosa pine trees, University of Colorado Boulder researchers have found. Because of the extra annual generation of beetles, there could be up to 60 times as many beetles attacking trees in any given year, their study found. And in response to warmer temperatures at high elevations, pine beetles also are better able to survive and attack trees that haven’t previously developed defenses. These are among the key findings of Jeffry Mitton, a CU-Boulder professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Scott Ferrenberg, a graduate student in that department. The study is being published this month in The American Naturalist. This exponential increase in the beetle population might help to explain the scope of the current beetle epidemic, which is the largest in history and extends from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico to the Yukon Territory near Alaska. “This thing is immense,” Mitton said. The duo’s research, conducted in 2009 and 2010 at CU’s Mountain Research Station, located about 25 miles west of Boulder, helps explain why. “We followed them through the summer, and we saw something that had never been seen before,” Mitton said. “Adults that were newly laid eggs two months before were going out and attacking trees” -- in the same year. Normally, mountain pine beetles spend a winter as larvae in trees before emerging as adults the following summer. These effects may be particularly pronounced at higher elevations, where warmer temperatures have facilitated beetle attacks. In the last two decades at the Mountain Research Station, mean annual temperatures were 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they were in the previous two decades. Warmer temperatures gave the beetle larvae more spring days to grow to adulthood. The number of spring days above freezing temperatures increased by 15.1 in the last two decades, Mitton and Ferrenberg report. Also, the number of days that were warm enough for the beetles to grow increased by 44 percent since 1970. The Mountain Research Station site is about 10,000 feet in elevation, 1,000 feet higher than the beetles have historically thrived. In their study, Mitton and Ferrenberg emphasize this anomaly. “While our study is limited in area, it was completed in a site that was characterized as climatically unsuitable for (mountain pine beetle) development by the U.S. Forest Service only three decades ago,” they write. But in 25 years, the beetles have expanded their range 2,000 feet higher in elevation and 240 miles north in latitude in Canada, Mitton said. Ferrenberg had the idea to monitor the beetles at higher elevations partly because trees at lower elevations have been attacked by beetles for centuries and have developed some defenses. Lodgepole pines at higher elevations tended to have a lower density of resin ducts, which transport resin, the sole defense against beetles. The number of resin ducts in a tree can be a “marker” for whether a tree has a higher or lower resistance to a beetle attack, Ferrenberg said. The trees at higher elevations had not faced the same intensity of beetle attacks as those at lower elevations until temperatures warmed, and they have not faced pressures of natural selection exerted by attacking beetles. “The trees in that area are somewhat naïve in their response,” Ferrenberg said. These data help explain why westbound motorists emerging from the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 can look up, from 11,000 feet in elevation, and see beetle-killed trees. “We think we see some of the reason for the fact that this epidemic is so widespread,” Mitton said. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. More on this story will appear in the next edition of Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine at http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/ Contact: Jeffry Mitton, 303-492-8956mitton@colorado.edu Scott Ferrenberg, 303-492-8956scott.ferrenberg@colorado.edu Clint Talbott, 303-492-6111“We followed them through the summer, and we saw something that had never been seen before,” said Jeffry Mitton, a CU-Boulder professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. “Adults that were newly laid eggs two months before were going out and attacking trees”Natural Sciences, Environment, Natural SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Graduate Education, Student Achievements, Student Researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: CU-Boulder Professor Jeffry Mitton at CU's Mountain Research Station. (Photo courtesy Jeffry Mitton). Photo: Caption: Scott Ferrenberg (Photo courtesy Jeffry Mitton)


CU students’ work makes it to the big screen
The work of a talented group of University of Colorado Boulder students and staff will be making it to the big screen this weekend. The really big screen -- in fact, a 30-meter dome. When Kiki Lathrop started at Fiske Planetarium her freshman year, she knew that one day she might be involved in the production of shows for the facility. Little did she know that her senior year would see her working on the national premiere of the new planetarium show “Max Goes to the Moon,” based on the award-winning children’s book by local author and former CU-Boulder faculty member Jeffrey Bennett. The film will have its public premiere on Saturday, March 17, at 2 p.m. at CU-Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Tickets range from $3.50 to $6. Lathrop, an anthropology major, was responsible for processing and gathering the images for the new planetarium show. The “Max” series of books are known for their combination of engaging science education, storytelling and visuals. In “Max Goes to the Moon,” the series’ dog hero Max the Rottweiler inspires the first manned moon mission since the Apollo era. His adventures inspire the Earth, leading to the development of a moon colony. Space-science rich, the film is particularly suited to a planetarium environment and is designed for a kindergarten through fifth grade audience. Carson McDonough, another of the CU students on the production team, was the head video editor and animator on the project. A senior film major with a minor in technology, arts and media, McDonough was excited to find an on-campus job that directly reflected his career interests. “I’m very excited to have a professional-level movie under my belt,” McDonough said. “Being able to work on campus for a job in my degree field is awesome.” Funded in part by NASA through the NASA Lunar Science Institute and the Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research, the goal of the project was to bring the science and story to life for planetarium audiences. At a preview screening for the administration at the NASA Ames Research Center earlier this month, reviews were enthusiastic. “This project is in step with NASA’s directive to educate and excite the next generation of scientists and explorers,” said Doug Duncan, director of Fiske Planetarium. “I am so proud and excited for the team that has brought this book to life for planetarium audiences.” The new planetarium program will be ready for free distribution to planetariums around the world after its Boulder premiere. Facilities in states including Alabama, Indiana, Wisconsin and Virginia already have made arrangements to show the new program, which also has been picked up by a planetarium in Israel. Jeffrey Bennett, the author of “Max Goes to the Moon,” is a Colorado-based astrophysicist and former NASA scientist. He is well-known for the scientifically accurate “Max” series, and has also written college textbooks on mathematics, statistics, astronomy and astrobiology. Bennett will attend the premiere and will be on hand to sign copies of the book. NASA astronaut Alvin Drew will attend the premiere as a special guest and will host a meet and greet and autograph session as part of the festivities. Tickets for the event can be purchased by calling the Fiske Planetarium box office at 303-492-5002. Contact: Matthew Benjamin, 303-492-4073 Matthew.Benjamin@colorado.edu Douglas Duncan, 303-735-6141dduncan@colorado.edu Erin Frazier, 303-492-8384 Erin.Frazier@colorado.edu“I’m very excited to have a professional-level movie under my belt,” said Carson McDonough, another of the CU students on the production team. “Being able to work on campus for a job in my degree field is awesome.”Natural SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Student Achievements, Student Research, Undergraduate Research, Fiske Planetariumvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Images from 'Max Goes to the Moon' used with permission of author, Jeffrey O. Bennett.


CU-Boulder hosts ‘Rock Your Body’ event on March 14
  “I love my legs,” “I rock my freckles” and “I love my ‘ba-donk-a-donk,’ ” are just a few of the positive things that University of Colorado Boulder students have to say about their bodies in preparation for the second annual “Rock Your Body” event on March 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom. Hosted by Community Health, a division of the Wardenburg Health Center, the free event is meant to celebrate bodies of all different shapes, sizes and colors, according to Anne Schuster, professional coordinator of the Community Health program. CU students will be able to participate in a variety of activities including a body-positive photo project in which students can have their pictures taken with their own body-positive message. The photos will be posted on the CU Health Buffs Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/healthbuffs following the event. Some student groups already have participated in this part of the event and their pictures are available on the Facebook page. The CU Interactive Theater Project will offer a performance on body image at noon. Interactive Theater gives students the opportunity to directly engage with the characters as they grapple with real-life solutions and challenges in this unique format. Students also will have the opportunity to play Dance Central, talk to a dietitian from Wardenburg Health Center, take a body health screening to better understand their relationship with food, eating and their self-image, and have a one-on-one consultation with a professional from CU’s Counseling and Psychological Services. A variety of community resources and free food also will be available at the event. For more information visit http://healthcenter.colorado.edu/communityhealth/services/events/. Contact: Anne Schuster, 303-492-5113anne.schuster@colorado.eduCommunity & Culture, Campus Eventsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-Boulder graduate programs earn high marks in national report
CU System news release DENVER – Graduate programs across the University of Colorado system continue to earn national prominence based on the latest annual rankings from U.S. News & World Report. Schools and programs at the four CU campuses notch 28 mentions in the 2013 edition of Best Graduate Schools (U.S. News Media Group), including 10 ranked in the top 10 of their fields. CU’s 2013 rankings are: University of Colorado Boulder No. 1: CU-Boulder retains top honors for the atomic/molecular/optical physics program, tied with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Top 10: Other CU-Boulder programs ranking in the top 10 nationally are environmental sciences (fifth), quantum physics (fifth), environmental law (fifth) and physical chemistry (eighth). Some 11 other CU-Boulder schools and programs land on the national rankings within their fields: clinical psychology (18), physics (19), earth sciences (23), chemistry (26),  psychology (29), biological sciences (30), College of Engineering and Applied Science (35), School of Education (38), computer science (39), School of Law (44) and Leeds School of Business (47 for part-time MBA schools). University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus School of Medicine Top 10: The school ranks fifth nationally for primary care, with the specialties of family medicine (third), pediatrics (fifth) and rural medicine (seventh) also ranking high. Within the nursing program (15th), the pediatric nurse practitioner program ranks fifth; family nurse practitioner, 16th. Nursing also made the top five honor roll list of online options. The School of Medicine ranks 35th overall for research. The physician assistant program ranks at 11. University of Colorado Denver The School of Public Affairs, with programs at CU Denver and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, is listed at 29 nationally. CU Denver also notches recognition for its School of Education (100). University of Colorado Colorado Springs UCCS shares the School of Public Affairs (29) honor with CU Denver. The 2013 Best Graduate Schools includes essential, detailed statistical information on more than 1,200 programs nationwide, with rankings in five of the largest professional graduate school disciplines (business, law, education, engineering, and medicine). Highlights of the rankings will be published in the Best Graduate Schools 2013 edition guidebook, available April 3, 2012. Rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program quality, and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research and students. These data come from surveys of more than 1,200 programs and some 12,400 academics and professionals. The publication aims to provide a tool to students and parents who are comparing college programs at accredited public and private universities in the United States. The University of Colorado is a premier public research university with four campuses: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Some 60,000 students are pursuing academic degrees at CU. The National Science Foundation ranks CU seventh among public institutions in federal research expenditures in engineering and science. Academic prestige is marked by the university’s four Nobel laureates, seven MacArthur “genius” Fellows, 18 alumni astronauts and 19 Rhodes Scholars. For more information about the entire CU system, and to access campus resources, go to www.cu.edu.   Contact: Jay Dedrick, 303-860-5707, JayDedrick@cu.eduNo. 1: CU-Boulder retains top honors for the atomic/molecular/optical physics program, tied with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Top 10: Other CU-Boulder programs ranking in the top 10 nationally are environmental sciences (fifth), quantum physics (fifth), environmental law (fifth) and physical chemistry (eighth). Graduate Education, Learning & Teachingvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: CU-Boulder adjoint physics professors Deborah Jin, foreground at right, and Jun Ye, second from right, with their graduate student team in their cold molecule lab at JILA on the CU-Boulder campus. (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado)


CU-Boulder's graduate programs consistently ranked among the nation's best
For more than 125 years the University of Colorado Boulder has provided an array of opportunities for students to pursue graduate-level education. CU graduate students conduct research on topics ranging from designing simple water purification systems in developing nations like Thailand to studying Roman imperial architecture in Italy and the national reputation of CU's graduate education is stellar, with numerous programs consistently ranking among the nation's best. In U.S. News & World Report's 2013 edition of America's Best Graduate Schools five CU-Boulder graduate programs were ranked in the top 10 nationally and numerous programs placed in the top 50 nationally: No. 1: CU-Boulder retains top honors for the atomic/molecular/optical physics program, tied with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Top 10: Other CU-Boulder programs ranking in the top 10 nationally are environmental sciences (fifth), quantum physics (fifth), environmental law (fifth) and physical chemistry (eighth). Some 18 other CU-Boulder schools and programs land on the national rankings within their fields: aerospace engineering (13), chemical engineering (17), clinical psychology (18), physics (19), civil engineering (20), earth sciences (23), chemistry (26), environmental engineering (26), psychology (29), biological sciences (30), mechanical engineering (32), electrical engineeering (32), College of Engineering and Applied Science (35), computer engineering (35), School of Education (38), computer science (39), School of Law (44) and Leeds School of Business (47 for part-time MBA schools) In another ranking, twenty CU-Boulder doctoral programs were in the top 20 in a National Research Council study in 2011. The long-awaited findings from the NRC's national study of doctoral programs at more than 200 universities were based on a comprehensive assessment of doctoral programs and are widely viewed as useful indicators of excellence. CU-Boulder established its first graduate program in 1883 when it began offering the degrees Master of Arts and Master of Science. Today the university is redefining learning and discovery in a global context. CU graduate students work on groundbreaking research alongside Nobel laureates, former astronauts, trend-setting artists and musicians, climatologists, educators, civic leaders and many others.   Grad Student Proflie: MFA Artist Linda Lopez Topic: Academics, Arts & Humanities, Art, Admissions Graduate Educationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Green on the Screen
Green on the Screen is a student-developed digital media contest. The CU Environmental Center, with sponsorship from Ball Corporation, is coordinating the competition to find and incorporate some of the most effective forms of sustainability outreach in the digital media world. Entries are slated to showcase the finest in student creativity and cutting-edge skills in videography, stop-motion animation, image sequencing and more. The main theme of the contest is zero-waste messaging related to aluminum. The pieces also will focus on the CU-Boulder zero-waste goal of reaching a 90-percent diversion rate by 2020.  As peoples’ exposure to green marketing increases, so too does the need to develop messages that are concise, credible and convenient to act on, said contest organizers. The proliferation of competing green marketing claims can complicate and confuse people, underscoring the need to simplify and unite messaging in ways that inform and inspire people to act, they said.  Submissions of varying types of digital media are allowed, but some must be pre-approved. Cash awards ranging from $200 to $1000 dollars will be awarded to the top five entries.  Winning entries will be integrated into CU-Boulder's zero-waste outreach programs. Each finalist will receive a letter of commendation.   Through the use of digital media, this contest enables students to educate each other and make a difference, supporting zero-waste on campus. Last year's winning entries can be viewed at http://ecenter.colorado.edu/recycling/green-on-the-screen/winning-videos. For contest details visit http://ecenter.colorado.edu/component/content/article/429-green-on-the-screen.   OutreachSustainabilityvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-NIST 'star comb' joins quest for Earth-like planets
If there is life on other planets, a laser frequency comb developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, may help find it. Such a comb -- a tool for precisely measuring frequencies, or colors, of light -- has for the first time been used to calibrate measurements of starlight from stars other than the Sun. The good results suggest combs will eventually fulfill their potential to boost the search for Earth-like planets to a new level. As described in Optics Express, the comb was transported to the Texas hills to calibrate a light analyzing instrument called a spectrograph at the Hobby-Eberly telescope. A University of Colorado Boulder astronomer and Pennsylvania State University students and astronomers collaborated on the project. “The comb worked great,” said NIST physicist Scott Diddams. “In a few days, it enabled measurement precision comparable to the very best achieved in the same wavelength range with much more established techniques -- and we hope the comb will do much better as the new technique is perfected.” The NIST comb calibrated measurements of infrared starlight. This type of light is predominantly emitted by M dwarf stars, which are plentiful in Earth’s part of the galaxy and might have orbiting planets suitable to life. To search for planets orbiting distant stars, astronomers look for periodic variations in the apparent colors of starlight over time. A star’s nuclear furnace emits white light, which is modified by elements in the star’s and the Earth’s atmosphere that absorb certain narrow bands of color. Periodic changes in this characteristic “fingerprint” can be caused by the star wobbling from the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. More than 600 planets have been discovered using star wobble analysis, but a planet analogous to the Earth, with low mass and orbiting at just the right distance from a star -- in the so-called “Goldilocks zone”-- is hard to detect with conventional technology. The wobbling effect is very subtle. Astronomers are limited by the precision of techniques used to measure the starlight, and infrared frequencies in particular can be challenging to measure precisely with conventional tools. But the NIST comb, which spans an infrared wavelength range of 1450 to 1700 nanometers, provides strong signals at narrowly defined target frequencies and is traceable to international measurement standards. Used with a spectrograph, the frequency comb can act like a very precise ruler to calibrate and track the exact colors in the star’s fingerprint and detect any periodic variations. The NIST comb measured radial velocity -- star wobble -- with a precision of about 10 meters per second, comparable to the best ever achieved in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The first field results are limited by the short observation time and technical issues associated with the newly developed experimental approach. The team hopes to soon improve precision to 1 meter per second, roughly the limit to date for measuring visible light from the Sun -- which would put the technique at the cutting edge of infrared astronomy. The NIST comb has the inherent capability to measure star wobble of just a few centimeters per second, 100 times better, although limitations in the spectrograph and in the stability of the star itself may constrain the ultimate precision. CU-Boulder graduate student Gabe Ycas, along with Diddams and CU-Boulder astronomer Steve Osterman, created the frequency comb, which has widely spaced “teeth,” or calibration points, tailored to the reading capability of spectrographs. This work was supported by NIST and the National Science Foundation. Penn State is a partner in the telescope and spectrograph. For more information visit http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/comb-030612.cfm. Discovery & Innovation, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


DiStefano announces new steps in filling key administrative posts
University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano announced today new steps in filling two key administrative posts on the Boulder campus: senior vice chancellor for budget and finance and chief financial officer, and chief of staff for the Office of the Chancellor. DiStefano said that next week he intends to name Kelly Fox, currently serving as vice president for budget and finance and chief financial officer for the University of Colorado system administration, as senior vice chancellor for budget and finance and chief financial officer for CU-Boulder. The appointment would be effective July 1, 2012, pending approval of the Board of Regents to waive the requirement for a search for this position. Fox replaces current Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Ric Porreca, who retired last year but agreed to return to campus until a successor could be identified.  DiStefano said the plan to appoint Fox “has been in the works since last year with the support of President Benson.” Fox’s effective date, July 1, 2012, allows President Benson to plan for the transition. “We are excited to have Kelly, who brings vast and vital experience to her new post,” DiStefano said. “Ric Porreca has also graciously agreed to stay on temporarily to work with Kelly in transitioning to her role.” Fox currently serves as vice president and chief financial officer in the Office of the President and university system administration overseeing capital and operating budgets, as well as the controller’s office, treasurer’s office, risk management and the CU Procurement Service Center. She has been at CU since 2006, although she also worked at the university as system budget director from 2001 to 2004. Previously, she was director of policy, planning and analysis at the Colorado School of Mines, and held budget, policy and planning posts with the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting and the National Conference of State Legislatures. Fox earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Nebraska and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado Denver. “Kelly has distinguished herself with her skill, diplomacy, and candor with constituents that include CU faculty, staff and students, the regents, elected officials and finance experts in the Legislature and the governor’s office,” said DiStefano. “She will be a marvelous addition to my cabinet and to the leadership of the CU-Boulder campus.” DiStefano also announced that he intends within the next few weeks to begin the process for filling an administrative position now held by Chief of Staff Joey White by July 1, 2012. The position would manage the flow of work that comes to the Office of the Chancellor from both the Boulder campus and from the president’s office and the Board of Regents. White and Porreca have a combined 61 years of service to the Boulder campus and have, together, served five CU-Boulder chancellors. “Ric and Joey have been vital to the success, expansion and current reputation of the CU-Boulder campus,” said DiStefano. “Their caliber and tenure of service have helped a succession of leaders over the last three decades build CU-Boulder into a world-class research university that serves Colorado and is engaged in the world. I thank them for their assistance to me and to generations of students, faculty, staff, administrators and CU stakeholders.” Contact:        Bronson Hilliard, CU-Boulder spokesperson 303-735-6183“Kelly Fox has distinguished herself with her skill, diplomacy, and candor with constituents that include CU faculty, staff and students, the regents, elected officials and finance experts in the Legislature and the governor’s office,” said University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “She will be a marvelous addition to my cabinet and to the leadership of the CU-Boulder campus.”Community & Culturevar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Kelly Fox


Offbeat math professor Edward Burger to speak at CU-Boulder March 15
If you despise math and the sight of an equation makes you physically ill, Professor Edward Burger of Baylor University and Williams College may be able to heal you during a talk at the University of Colorado Boulder on Thursday, March 15. Burger’s talk, titled “Zero to Infinity: Great Moments in the History of Number,” will be held at 6 p.m. in the Mathematics Building room 100. The talk is free and open to the public and pizza and refreshments will be served afterward. Burger plans to answer a number of questions in his lecture, including whether humans are the only animals that can count, how the desire to count made it possible for William Shakespeare to write his plays, and whether negative numbers were invented to explain Burger’s own checking account balance. Burger, who is on the record as saying “no one in their right mind would ever go to a math talk,” is not your run-of-the mill math educator. He has worked as a stand-up comedian, wrote jokes for Jay Leno in the late 1980s, starred in an episode of NBC’s “Science of the Winter Olympics” in 2010 that won him a prestigious Telly Award, and most recently is being featured in “The Science of NHL Hockey” on NBC News. “The talk is intended as whirlwind tour of the history of numbers and watch them grow from practical tools used by ancient shepherds to practical tools used to drive the digital age,” said Burger, who was named was named Vice-Provost of Strategic Educational Initiatives at Baylor University in 2011.  “If you love the humanities, sciences, social sciences, medical science, business, engineering or anything involving human thought, this talk is for you.”  Burger is considered by many to be the nation’s leader in math education. In 2006 Reader’s Digest named him “America’s Best Math Teacher.” In 2010 he was named the winner of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching by Baylor University, an award that carried a $250,000 prize and is believed to be the largest and most prestigious award in higher education teaching in the nation across all disciplines.   In 2010 the Huffington Post named Burger as one of the world’s 100 “Game-Changers,” a list that included “innovators, visionaries, mavericks and leaders who are re-shaping their fields and changing the world.” He also is an associate editor of the American Mathematical Monthly and of Math Horizons Magazine. In a 2005 Boston Public Library lecture on topology -- the study of the properties of geometric figures or solids that remain unchanged during stretching or bending -- he demonstrated that it was possible to tie a six-foot rope snugly around his right ankle and then his left ankle, take off his pants, turn them inside out and put them back on without ever cutting the rope. He once had 600 beach balls poured from the balcony of a packed auditorium at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. onto the heads of audience members to demonstrate a math principle. Burger’s deep passion for math is founded on the premise that it should be made lively, fun and educational. “The idea is to entertain and enlighten,” he said. “My goal is get people to have fun thinking, have a better feeling about math, and to look at things in a slightly different way.” Burger is the author of more than 35 research articles, 12 books and 15 video series.  He has delivered more than 400 lectures and appeared on more than 40 radio and TV programs, including ABC News Now and National Public Radio.  He has been a visiting mathematics professor at CU-Boulder three times. His upcoming book, “The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking,” offers students, teachers, business people and life-long learners ways of being more creative and innovative.  It is being published this summer by Princeton University Press. Contact: Jim Scott, 303-492-3114Jim.Scott@colorado.edu“The talk is intended as whirlwind tour of the history of numbers and watch them grow from practical tools used by ancient shepherds to practical tools used to drive the digital age,” said Edward Burger, who was named was named Vice-Provost of Strategic Educational Initiatives at Baylor University in 2011. “If you love the humanities, sciences, social sciences, medical science, business, engineering or anything involving human thought, this talk is for you.”Community Outreach, Natural SciencesCommunity & Culture, Lectures & Seminars, Outreachvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Edward Burger


Response from CU-Boulder leadership to Forum members
Following a demonstration on March 8 by Forum members and the group known as Take Back Our Campus, the CU-Boulder leadership team has provided the official response below to the group's demands.   Dear Forum Members: On behalf of Chancellor DiStefano and the leadership team of CU-Boulder, I want to thank you for your commitment and passion around the issues you articulated yesterday (Thursday, March 8, 2011) in your demonstration at the chancellor’s office.  Please consider this an official response to your demands. First, the university cannot arrive at any thoughtful or comprehensive solutions to problems as complex as the ones you outline in just 36 hours. Solutions to these important and complex issues require discussion, coalition building, sharing with communities who have a stake in their success, votes and/or approvals, and revenue streams where needed.   Second, we feel we have been on a productive course of permanent engagement with you and other students, faculty and staff on many of the 18 issues you’ve listed, and on a host of others. We are sorry that you don’t feel that way, but we have been impressed nonetheless by your commitment, focus and desire on each of these issues. We know your patience is wearing thin, but we respectfully remind you that long-standing challenges cannot be resolved overnight by administrative decrees. Justice, change, and transformation aren’t declared – they are cultivated – carefully and purposefully over time. Quite simply, we need more time on these important issues. With this in mind, our counter-offer to you is to appoint a small group of 10 or so leaders from your movement to begin to work with us immediately. We believe this group should include representatives from CUSG beyond those who have joined the protest in order to represent the larger student voice on campus. We can begin, as early as next week, an accelerated, focused effort to transform as many of your demands as possible into realities, setting specific timelines of action on those things that are possible, and developing blueprints and roadmaps for other goals that are not yet on your list. There are some things you ask for that are outside of our control and that fall under state law, CUSG control, or that require regent approval, but we would be happy to work with you to better understand these structures to enable you to create change within them. In doing all this, we pledge to you, as we have previously, to be good faith partners in this process. Sincerely, Philip P. DiStefano, chancellor and Russell Moore, Robert Boswell, Deb Coffin  Stein Sture, Jeff Lipton, Ric Porreca, Frances Draper, John Sleeman and Joey White  var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU symposium focuses on public media, education
Experts will focus on the growing influence of public radio and television media in the digital age at a University of Colorado Boulder symposium, which is free and open to the public, March 13-14. Journalism and Mass Communication at CU-Boulder is sponsoring “The Content and Context of Digital Culture.” The symposium will be held at various sites across campus and a complete schedule is available at http://icjmtsymposium.org/schedule. “Public media have become leaders, both locally and nationally, in the convergence of multiple platforms for delivering news and opinion in the digital age,” said symposium organizer Andrew Calabrese, a professor of journalism and mass communication. In some cases, that expansion includes reaching out to the community both as an audience and as content creators, said Calabrese. Among the speakers will be Jessica Clark, a scholar in residence at the American University’s School of Communication and a Knight Fellow in media policy. She is spearheading a Washington, D.C. experiment called “The Public Media Corps,” which places young people into schools, media outlets and community centers to collaborate on media projects. Wick Rowland, Colorado Public Television CEO, and Michael Tracey, an author and CU-Boulder professor of journalism and mass communication, will join Clark on March 13 from 5:15 to 6:45 p.m. in room 150 of the Eaton Humanities Building. On March 14 from 11 a.m. to noon in the Old Main Chapel, public media expert Barbara Cochran will offer her view of how public media can become more local and interactive with their communities. Cochran is a professor and the Curtis B. Hurley chair in public affairs reporting at the University of Missouri. A portion of the symposium will focus on the creative industries’ influence on university research and teaching. Speaker Terry Flew is a professor of media and communication at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and an expert on innovations in digital media. Also scheduled to speak on the subject of creativity and “design thinking” across all disciplines is Warren Berger, author of the influential book, “Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the World.” The symposium runs in conjunction with an effort to create a new interdisciplinary school or college at CU-Boulder that may include studies in communication, technology, multimedia journalism, commercial design and the digital arts and humanities. The effort is called the Information, Communication, Journalism, Media and Technology, or ICJMT, initiative. CU Journalism and Mass Communication is sponsoring the symposium in support of the ICJMT initiative, with additional support from the Advertising A2B certificate program. For more information including speakers and event locations visit http://www.icjmtsymposium.org/. JournalismCampus EventsContact: Andrew Calabrese, 303-666-5051andrew.calabrese@colorado.edu Elizabeth Lock, CU media relations, 303-492-3117elizabeth.lock@colorado.eduvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: A radio console (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado Boulder)


President Benson’s statement on the Colorado Supreme Court ruling on concealed weapons on campus
We are disappointed the Colorado Supreme Court determined that the Board of Regents does not, in this instance, have the constitutional and statutory authority to determine what policies will best promote the health and welfare of the university’s students, faculty, staff and visitors, whose safety is our top priority. The Board of Regents is in the best position to determine how we meet that imperative. We will abide by the ruling and determine how it affects our campuses.Community & Culturevar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Gasoline worse than diesel when it comes to some types of air pollution
The exhaust fumes from gasoline vehicles contribute more to the production of a specific type of air pollution -- secondary organic aerosols -- than those from diesel vehicles, according to a new study by scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory and other colleagues. “The surprising result we found was that it wasn’t diesel engines that were contributing the most to the organic aerosols in L.A.,” said CIRES research scientist Roya Bahreini who led the study and also works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ESRL. “This was contrary to what the scientific community expected.” SOAs are tiny particles that are formed in air and make up typically 40-60 percent of the aerosol mass in urban environments. This is important because fine-particle pollution can cause human health effects, such as heart or respiratory problems. Due to the harmful nature of these particles and the fact that they can also impact the climate and can reduce visibility, scientists want to understand how they form, Bahreini said. Researchers had already established that SOAs could be formed from gases released by gasoline engines, diesel engines and natural sources -- biogenic agents from plants and trees -- but they had not determined which of these sources were the most important, she said. “We needed to do the study in a location where we could separate the contribution from vehicles from that of natural emissions from vegetation,” Bahreini said. Los Angeles proved to be an ideal location. Flanked by an ocean on one side and by mountains to the north and the east, it is, in terms of air circulation, relatively isolated, Bahreini said. At this location, the scientists made three weekday and three weekend flights with the NOAA P3 research aircraft, which hosted an arsenal of instruments designed to measure different aspects of air pollution.  “Each instrument tells a story about one piece of the puzzle,” Bahreini said. “Where do the particles come from? How are they different from weekday to weekend, and are the sources of vehicle emissions different from weekday to weekend?” From their measurements, the scientists were able to confirm, as expected, that diesel trucks were used less during weekends, while the use of gasoline vehicles remained nearly constant throughout the week. The team then expected that the weekend levels of SOAs would take a dive from their weekday levels, Bahreini said.  But that was not what they found. Instead, the levels of SOA particles remained relatively unchanged from their weekday levels. Because the scientists knew that the only two sources for SOA production in this location were gasoline and diesel fumes, the study’s result pointed directly to gasoline as the key source.  “The contribution of diesel to SOA is almost negligible,” Bahreini said.  “Even being conservative, we could deduce from our results that the maximum upper limit of contribution to SOA would be 20 percent.” That leaves gasoline contributing the other 80 percent or more of the SOA, Bahreini said. The finding was published online March 1 in Geophysical Research Letters. “While diesel engines emit other pollutants such as soot and nitrogen oxides, for organic aerosol pollution they are not the primary culprit,” Bahreini said. If the scientists were to apply their findings from the L.A. study to the rest of the world, a decrease in the emission of organic species from gasoline engines may significantly reduce SOA concentrations on a global scale as well. This suggests future research aimed at understanding ways to reduce gasoline emissions would be valuable. The study was funded by NOAA’s Climate Change and Air Quality Programs, the California Air Resources Board and the National Science Foundation. CIRES coauthors on the team include Joost de Gouw, Carsten Warneke, Harald Stark, William Dube, Jessica Gilman, Katherine Hall, John Holloway, Anne Perring, Joshua Schwarz, Ryan Spackman and Nicholas Wagner.“The surprising result we found was that it wasn’t diesel engines that were contributing the most to the organic aerosols in L.A.,” said CIRES research scientist Roya Bahreini. “This was contrary to what the scientific community expected.”EnvironmentResearch CollaborationsRoya Bahreini, 303-497-4804Roya.Bahreini@noaa.gov Kristin Bjornsen, CIRES assistant science writer, 303-492-1790Kristin.Bjornsen@colorado.edu Jane Palmer, CIRES science writer, 303-492-6289Jane.Palmer@colorado.edu Elizabeth Lock, CU media relations, 303-492-3117Elizabeth.Lock@colorado.eduvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: L.A. traffic (Photo courtesy of CIRES)


Fast track freshman Cooper MacNeil
To say University of Colorado Boulder freshman Cooper MacNeil lives life in the fast lane would be an understatement. Not only does he live the hectic life of a college freshman, but also that of a professional sports car driver. He currently races for WeatherTech, an automotive accessories company, and with the Alex Job Racing team, one of the most successful teams in sports car racing with 39 wins. Still a teenager, and with only two years of professional racing under his belt, MacNeil is making a name for himself in the motor racing world.  “The kind of racing I do requires a lot of experience,” MacNeil said. “The guys I race against are veterans. They have 20 years of experience. Here I am, 19-years-old, racing these guys and competing really well.” In his young career, MacNeil has already won the National Sports Car Club of America, or SCCA, Touring 2 Points Championship and placed in the SCCA Runoffs at the NACAR sanctioned Road America track. He most recently raced at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in Jan. After sustaining a broken axle in the last few hours of the race, his car fell in the standings, but MacNeil is already looking ahead. “I would eventually like to run in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France,” said MacNeil. “That’s considered the most important endurance race in the world. I think right behind that is the Rolex 24 at Daytona. I’ve already done that one so I’ve got one more to check off the list.” For as much as Cooper loves racing, he also loves CU-Boulder. “When it came time to look at colleges, there was no better look than here in Boulder,” MacNeil said. “To be honest, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” The Hinsdale, Ill. native followed his older brother to Boulder and began his collegiate studies as an open-option major before switching to business with a focus on business administration. In Boulder, he splits his time between training at the local racetrack, High Plains Raceway, and the classroom. Since he’s been doing this balancing act since high school, MacNeil said he is used to the busy lifestyle. In order to stay on top of his game in both school and racing, MacNeil said he gives each his undivided attention. “I basically differentiate between racing and academics pretty well,” MacNeil said. “When I’m at the racetrack I focus on the racetrack. Here in Boulder I focus on school. I think that’s worked well for me the past couple of years because I don’t get them mixed.” MacNeil said he hopes to graduate in four years, take what he learns to help him in the work force, and maintain a professional racing career. “I hope to continue racing for a long time. If that means ten years balancing work with racing then that’s what it is,” MacNeil said. “I definitely want to continue racing and continue my education at CU.” For more information about MacNeil and his life of racing click on to http://coopermacneil.com/2012/01/ajr-ready-for-rolex-24/ and http://coopermacneil.com/bio/. -CU- Cooper MacNeil fast track freshman   To say University of Colorado Boulder freshman Cooper MacNeil lives life in the fast lane would be an understatement. Not only does he live the hectic life of a college freshman, but also that of a professional sports car driver. He currently races for WeatherTech, an automotive accessories company, and with the Alex Job Racing team, one of the most successful teams in sports car racing with 39 wins. Still a teenager, and with only two years of professional racing under his belt, MacNeil is making a name for himself in the motor racing world.  “The kind of racing I do requires a lot of experience,” MacNeil said. “The guys I race against are veterans. They have 20 years of experience. Here I am, 19-years-old, racing these guys and competing really well.” In his young career, MacNeil has already won the National Sports Car Club of America, or SCCA, Touring 2 Points Championship and placed in the SCCA Runoffs at the NACAR sanctioned Road America track. He most recently raced at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in Jan. After sustaining a broken axle in the last few hours of the race, his car fell in the standings, but MacNeil is already looking ahead. “I would eventually like to run in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France,” said MacNeil. “That’s considered the most important endurance race in the world. I think right behind that is the Rolex 24 at Daytona. I’ve already done that one so I’ve got one more to check off the list.” For as much as Cooper loves racing, he also loves CU-Boulder. “When it came time to look at colleges, there was no better look than here in Boulder,” MacNeil said. “To be honest, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” The Hinsdale, Ill. native followed his older brother to Boulder and began his collegiate studies as an open-option major before switching to business with a focus on business administration. In Boulder, he splits his time between training at the local racetrack, High Plains Raceway, and the classroom. Since he’s been doing this balancing act since high school, MacNeil said he is used to the busy lifestyle. In order to stay on top of his game in both school and racing, MacNeil said he gives each his undivided attention. “I basically differentiate between racing and academics pretty well,” MacNeil said. “When I’m at the racetrack I focus on the racetrack. Here in Boulder I focus on school. I think that’s worked well for me the past couple of years because I don’t get them mixed.” MacNeil said he hopes to graduate in four years, take what he learns to help him in the work force, and maintain a professional racing career. “I hope to continue racing for a long time. If that means ten years balancing work with racing then that’s what it is,” MacNeil said. “I definitely want to continue racing and continue my education at CU.” For more information about MacNeil and his life of racing click on to http://coopermacneil.com/2012/01/ajr-ready-for-rolex-24/ and http://coopermacneil.com/bio/. -CU-Topic:  Student Achievementsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Cooper MacNeil fast track freshman
  To say University of Colorado Boulder freshman Cooper MacNeil lives life in the fast lane would be an understatement. Not only does he live the hectic life of a college freshman, but also that of a professional sports car driver. He currently races for WeatherTech, an automotive accessories company, and with the Alex Job Racing team, one of the most successful teams in sports car racing with 39 wins. Still a teenager, and with only two years of professional racing under his belt, MacNeil is making a name for himself in the motor racing world.  “The kind of racing I do requires a lot of experience,” MacNeil said. “The guys I race against are veterans. They have 20 years of experience. Here I am, 19-years-old, racing these guys and competing really well.” In his young career, MacNeil has already won the National Sports Car Club of America, or SCCA, Touring 2 Points Championship and placed in the SCCA Runoffs at the NACAR sanctioned Road America track. He most recently raced at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in Jan. After sustaining a broken axle in the last few hours of the race, his car fell in the standings, but MacNeil is already looking ahead. “I would eventually like to run in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France,” said MacNeil. “That’s considered the most important endurance race in the world. I think right behind that is the Rolex 24 at Daytona. I’ve already done that one so I’ve got one more to check off the list.” For as much as Cooper loves racing, he also loves CU-Boulder. “When it came time to look at colleges, there was no better look than here in Boulder,” MacNeil said. “To be honest, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” The Hinsdale, Ill. native followed his older brother to Boulder and began his collegiate studies as an open-option major before switching to business with a focus on business administration. In Boulder, he splits his time between training at the local racetrack, High Plains Raceway, and the classroom. Since he’s been doing this balancing act since high school, MacNeil said he is used to the busy lifestyle. In order to stay on top of his game in both school and racing, MacNeil said he gives each his undivided attention. “I basically differentiate between racing and academics pretty well,” MacNeil said. “When I’m at the racetrack I focus on the racetrack. Here in Boulder I focus on school. I think that’s worked well for me the past couple of years because I don’t get them mixed.” MacNeil said he hopes to graduate in four years, take what he learns to help him in the work force, and maintain a professional racing career. “I hope to continue racing for a long time. If that means ten years balancing work with racing then that’s what it is,” MacNeil said. “I definitely want to continue racing and continue my education at CU.” For more information about MacNeil and his life of racing click on to http://coopermacneil.com/2012/01/ajr-ready-for-rolex-24/ and http://coopermacneil.com/bio/. -CU- brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


School violence can be prevented, University of Colorado expert says
The tragic school shooting that occurred Feb. 27 at a suburban Cleveland high school is another reminder that communities can and must take action to prevent school violence, according to Delbert Elliott, a nationally renowned authority on school safety and juvenile violence at the University of Colorado Boulder. “A key prevention strategy is good surveillance and good intelligence,” said Elliott, founding director of the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.  “We need to enlist our students, our teachers and our adults in the community to help us and ask them to notify the police or the sheriff if they see something unusual or have heard that something is about to happen.” In 80 percent of the school shootings examined by the U.S. Secret Service, someone knew the event was going to take place, Elliott said.  “Nationally, we know right now of a dozen or more events for which we got a tip and were able to intervene early so the planned event actually never took place, which is, I think, our very, very best security.”  Some of these plans were on the same level of violence as the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, he said. In Colorado, there’s a toll-free Safe2Tell reporting system for students and others to call in anonymous tips about safety concerns, the result of collaboration between the CU-Boulder center and the Colorado Attorney General’s office. All tips are treated seriously, and when combined with other sources of information, often result in some kind of intervention.  Since 2004, Safe2Tell has received almost 10,000 calls. From 2004 through 2010, follow-up data indicate that 83 percent of all Safe2Tell incidents resulted in a positive intervention or action. These tips resulted in 415 formal investigations, 359 counseling referrals, 298 prevention/intervention plans, 324 potential suicide interventions, 312 school disciplinary actions, 74 arrests and 28 prevented school attacks. “An equally critical key to security is to create a welcoming environment in which all students feel that they’re respected, that the rules are applied uniformly to all students, and students feel safe,” Elliott said.  “When students feel that some children can get away with bad behavior and others can’t, and there’s bullying going on, that’s when kids feel like they have to take a weapon to school to protect themselves.” After Columbine raised awareness of the need to prepare for school crises, school safety has improved nationally, Elliott said.  In Colorado, the Legislature changed the law to allow schools, law enforcement and social services agencies to legally share information and every school in the state is now required to have a bullying prevention plan. Any parent in the state can now go into their child’s school and ask to see what the bullying prevention plan is for that school and make sure that the school is following through with it, he said. Every school, even those in rural areas, needs an “all-hazards” approach to crises that works for a variety of threats: fires, natural hazards, terrorist attacks, chemical spills, a shooter in the building or a hostage takeover, Elliott said.  But most schools haven’t practiced these plans with a full response by police, SWAT, fire, victims’ services, mental health services and ambulances -- all coordinated by a single command post. As the responses to both Columbine and Sept. 11 showed, such drills are important because they reveal communications and other crucial response issues between agencies, he said.  Such practices could be held on weekends without students being present, he noted. Elliott also is concerned when school officials tell him that school safety is a lower priority for them than academic performance, that there is no space in their curriculum for an anti-bullying program. “These two things should not be in competition with each other,” he said.  “If you’ve got a problem with students feeling unsafe at school, you’re not going to improve academic performance because school safety is a necessary precondition for students to be able to concentrate and even to be willing to come to school. “We argue that being safe at school and improving academic performance go hand in hand.” Six percent of schoolchildren reported that they had not come to school on occasion because they were afraid of being threatened or assaulted according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control survey, Elliott said. “Nevertheless, students are more likely to be a victim of violence away from school than at school by a huge margin,” said Elliott, who was the senior scientific editor of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence issued in 2001. The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence is part of the CU-Boulder Institute of Behavioral Science.  For more information about the center visit http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/. Contact: Beverly Kingston, CSPV director, 303-492-9046beverly.kingston@colorado.edu Delbert Elliott, CSPV founding director, 303-492-1032delbert.elliott@colorado.edu Peter Caughey, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-4007caughey@colorado.edu“A key prevention strategy is good surveillance and good intelligence,” said Delbert Elliott, founding director of the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. “We need to enlist our students, our teachers and our adults in the community to help us and ask them to notify the police or the sheriff if they see something unusual or have heard that something is about to happen.”Social Sciences, Community Outreach, K-12 Outreach, Civic Engagement, Social SciencesServing Colorado. Engaged in the World., Community, Outreach, Research & Creative Worksvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Four CU-Boulder faculty members elected American Geophysical Union Fellows in 2012
  Four University of Colorado Boulder faculty members have been elected American Geophysical Union Fellows for 2012, the most from any institution in the world. The newly elected AGU Fellows are Professor William Emery of the aerospace engineering sciences department, Professor Bruce Jakosky of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, Professor Cora Randall of the atmospheric and oceanic sciences department and Professor Mark Williams of the geography department. The four CU-Boulder faculty members join 57 other AGU Fellows elected from around the world in 2012, including 41 from U.S. institutions. Only one other person in Colorado, Daniel Murphy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was elected an AGU Fellow for 2012. Established in 1919 to further advance the science of geophysics both on Earth and on other planets, the international, nonprofit organization now has more than 60,000 members worldwide. Elected AGU Fellows, who make up no more than 0.1 percent of AGU members in any given year, are honored for their exceptional scientific contributions in the fields of earth and space sciences. Trailing CU-Boulder in the number of AGU Fellows elected for 2012 were eight universities with two each: the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Irvine, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Michigan, Penn State, Texas A&M University, the University of Tokyo and the University of Durham in England. “This is a great honor for the University of Colorado Boulder and shows once again our faculty are working and teaching at the frontiers of science,” said CU-Boulder Vice Chancellor for Research Stein Sture. “To lead the world in the number of fellows elected by the American Geophysical Union in 2012 is indicative of the quality and depth of CU-Boulder’s research and education in both earth sciences and space sciences.” Emery, of the Center for Astrodynamics Research in the aerospace engineering sciences department, was cited for advances in the remote sensing of ocean surface phenomena, including sea surface temperature variations and ocean surface currents. He also helped develop processing hardware for weather satellites and studies high-resolution satellite imagery for detecting urban change and mapping disaster effects.  Emery also has applied high and moderate resolution satellite imagery to the study of terrestrial vegetation. Jakosky, associate director for science at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, was cited for his illuminating studies of the climate of Mars, and of life in the solar system. Jakosky is the principal investigator on NASA’s $670 million Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN, the first mission devoted to understanding the upper atmosphere of Mars and which is slated to launch next year. His studies include the geology of planetary surfaces, the evolution of the Martian atmosphere and climate and the potential for life beyond Earth. Randall, who also is affiliated with LASP, was cited for her contributions to our understanding of the impact of energetic particles on the atmosphere.  Randall is principal investigator for the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size experiment on NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere satellite, or AIM, which is studying long-term changes in ice crystal clouds in the mesosphere and their relationship to global climate change. LASP designed and built two of the three instruments for AIM, which is controlled by a team, primarily undergraduates, from CU-Boulder. Williams, who is affiliated with CU’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, was cited for outstanding research that has made fundamental advances in mountain hydrology and biogeochemistry. He has worked in the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Himalayas, the Andes and the Alps and is the principal investigator on a $5.9 million grant to CU from the National Science Foundation to continue intensive studies of long-term ecological changes in Colorado’s high mountains, both natural and human-caused, over decades and centuries. Contact: Jim Scott, 303-492-6431“This is a great honor for the University of Colorado Boulder and shows once again our faculty are working and teaching at the frontiers of science,” said CU-Boulder Vice Chancellor for Research Stein Sture. “To lead the world in the number of fellows elected by the American Geophysical Union in 2012 is indicative of the quality and depth of CU-Boulder’s research and education in both earth sciences and space sciences.”Natural Sciences, Engineering, InstitutesLearning & Teaching, Faculty Excellence, Graduate Education, Research & Creative Works, Undergraduate Educationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: William Emery Photo: Caption: Bruce Jakosky Photo: Caption: Cora Randall Photo: Caption: Mark Williams


CU-Boulder urges spring break safety for students traveling or staying put
  With visions of ski resorts and warm beaches on the minds of many students, the University of Colorado Boulder is urging students to exercise caution whether they remain in Colorado, travel elsewhere in the country or go abroad for spring break. CU-Boulder’s spring break is March 26-30. Students planning to travel abroad need to be aware of travel warnings issued by the U.S. Department of State, including recent warnings for those planning to visit Mexico. For information on security conditions in specific regions of Mexico visit http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_5665.html. Those planning to go to Mexico also can view general travel tips at http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html. “The advice I give to students traveling internationally is similar to what I would tell students locally,” said Larry Bell, director of international education at CU-Boulder. “Stay aware of your surroundings and exercise caution in places with which you are not familiar. When abroad be alert to the differences of customs, traditions and social situations as those differences may result in significant consequences -- sometimes negative.” In general, students are reminded to practice the same safety protocols they follow in Boulder, which includes traveling in groups, looking out for friends, keeping hydrated, knowing their limits and complying with the law. “We want our students to have a great break, but also want to remind them to be safe and look out for one another wherever they are during spring break,” said Karen Raforth, interim dean of students and associate vice chancellor for student affairs. Students who are of age and choose to drink alcohol should do so safely and keep an eye on their friends before, during and after parties. “I always encourage students to step back and think through their use of alcohol to avoid related problems,” said Matthew Tomatz, counselor and substance abuse coordinator with CU-Boulder’s Counseling and Psychological Services office. “Since drinking can be risky and lead to poor decision-making, it is wise to establish sensible limits before drinking and strategize ways to maintain these boundaries.” Students planning to drive to an out-of-town destination should drive in shifts and get plenty of sleep before driving. Those planning to travel to the high country should check road conditions and take winter survival kits in their cars. Winter driving tips are available at http://www.coloradodot.info/travel/winter-driving. This winter, the high country has experienced more avalanches than normal, so students who plan to ski, snowboard or snowshoe need to be extremely careful. Students should check the site they are going to visit for advisories before they go. Information about avalanches, including special advisories, is available at http://avalanche.state.co.us/index.php. Students also need to remember that the Student Code of Conduct follows them wherever they go. For more information on the Student Code of Conduct visit http://www.colorado.edu/studentaffairs/studentconduct/code.html. Before leaving for break, students planning to travel internationally should visit the U.S. Department of State’s travel information page, which includes international safety resources and warnings and alerts, at http://travel.state.gov/travel/. General international travel tips are posted at http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html. Contact: Larry Bell, International Education, 303-492-8058 Matthew Tomatz, Counseling and Psychological Services, 303-492-1397 Greg Swenson, CU media relations, 303-492-3113“We want our students to have a great break, but also want to remind them to be safe and look out for one another wherever they are during spring break,” said Karen Raforth, interim dean of students and associate vice chancellor for student affairs.Community & Culture, Civic Engagement, Global engagementvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Engineering Sporting Equipment for Visually Impaired Children
Professor Seth Murray gives his Engineering, Marketing and Entrepreneurhsip class eight days to create sports equipment for visually impaired elementary students.  Two visually impaired children were invited to evalute the equipment. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


CU team’s efficient unmanned aircraft jetting toward commercialization
Propulsion by a novel jet engine is the crux of the innovation behind a University of Colorado Boulder-developed aircraft that’s accelerating toward commercialization. Jet engine technology can be small, fuel-efficient and cost-effective, at least with Assistant Professor Ryan Starkey’s design. The CU-Boulder aerospace engineer, with a team of students, has developed a first-of-its-kind supersonic unmanned aircraft vehicle, or UAV. The UAV, which is currently in a prototype state, is expected to fly farther and faster -- using less fuel -- than anything remotely similar to date. The fuel efficiency of the engine that powers the 50-kilogram UAV is already double that of similar-scale engines, and Starkey says he hopes to double that efficiency again through further engineering.  Starkey says his UAV could be used for everything from penetrating and analyzing storms to military reconnaissance missions -- both expeditions that can require the long-distance, high-speed travel his UAV will deliver -- without placing human pilots in danger. The UAV also could be used for testing low-sonic-boom supersonic transport aircraft technology, which his team is working toward designing. The UAV is intended to shape the next generation of flight experimentation after post-World War II rocket-powered research aircraft, like the legendary North American X-15, have long been retired. “I believe that what we’re going to do is reinvigorate the testing world, and that’s what we’re pushing to do,” said Starkey. “The group of students who are working on this are very excited because we’re not just creeping into something with incremental change, we’re creeping in with monumental change and trying to shake up the ground.” Its thrust capacity makes the aircraft capable of reaching Mach 1.4, which is slightly faster than the speed of sound. Starkey says that regardless of the speed reached by the UAV, the aircraft will break the world record for speed in its weight class. Its compact airframe is about 5 feet wide and 6 feet long. The aircraft costs between $50,000 and $100,000 -- a relatively small price tag in a field that can advance only through testing, which sometimes means equipment loss. Starkey’s technology -- three years in the making at CU-Boulder -- is transitioning into a business venture through his weeks-old Starkey Aerospace Corp., called Starcor for short. The company was incubated by eSpace, which is a CU-affiliated nonprofit organization that supports entrepreneurial space companies. Starkey’s UAV already has garnered interest from the U.S. Army, Navy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and NASA. The acclaimed Aviation Week publication also has highlighted Starkey’s UAV. Starkey says technology transfer is important because it parlays university research into real-life applications that advance societies and contribute to local and global economies. It also can provide job tracks for undergraduate and graduate students, says Starkey who’s bringing some of the roughly 50 students involved in UAV development into his budding Starcor. “There are great students everywhere, but one of the reasons why I came to CU was because of how the students are trained. We definitely make sure they understand everything from circuit board wiring to going into the shop and building something,” said Starkey. “It makes them very effective and powerful even as fresh engineers with bachelor’s degrees. They’re very good students to hire. That’s a piece that I’m interested in embracing -- finding the really good talent that we have right here in Colorado and pulling it into the company.” Starkey and his students are currently creating a fully integrated and functioning engineering test unit of the UAV, which will be followed by a critical design review after resolving any problems. The building of the aircraft and process of applying for FAA approval to test it in the air will carry into next year. Starkey’s continuing fascination with speed first began to burn inside of him when he visited Kennedy Space Center at the age of 5. “When I teach I tell my class, ‘If it goes fast and gets hot, I’m in it.’ That’s what I want to do. There needs to be fire involved somewhere.”  Contact: Ryan Starkey, 303-492-0871rstarkey@colorado.edu Elizabeth Lock, CU media relations, 303-492-3117elizabeth.lock@colorado.edu“I believe that what we’re going to do is reinvigorate the testing world, and that’s what we’re pushing to do,” said CU-Boulder aerospace engineer Ryan Starkey. “The group of students who are working on this are very excited because we’re not just creeping into something with incremental change, we’re creeping in with monumental change and trying to shake up the ground.”Discovery & Innovation, Student Researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Ryan Starkey, left, with some members of his team, looks over engine model nozzles for a first-of-its-kind supersonic unmanned aircraft vehicle, visible in the rendering on the computer screen. From left are Starkey; Sibylle Walter, doctoral degree student; Josh Fromm, master's degree graduate; and Greg Rancourt, master's degree student. (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado) Photo: Caption: A rendering, created by master's degree student Greg Rancourt, of the UAV. (Courtesy Ryan Starkey)


Bringing feminist perspective to contemporary philosophy
Alison Jaggar, a CU-Boulder Professor of Distinction in philosophy and women and gender studies, is a pioneer in introducing feminist concerns into philosophy and in establishing the discipline of women and gender studies. Professor Jaggar’s recent work introduces gender as a category of analysis in the philosophical debate on global justice. Currently, Jaggar is a member of "Fempov," a multidisciplinary and international research project whose aim is to produce a new poverty standard or metric capable of revealing the gendered dimensions of global poverty. In addition, she is exploring the potential of a naturalized approach to moral epistemology for addressing moral disputes in contexts of inequality and cultural difference. As a founding member of the Society for Women in Philosophy and a member of the American Philosophical Association, Jaggar has taken a lead role in working to improve the global status of women. She works in the areas of contemporary social, moral and political philosophy, often from a feminist perspective. Jaggar’s recent and forthcoming books include Just Methods: An Interdisciplinary Feminist Reader (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press, 2008), Abortion: Three Perspectives, with Michael Tooley, Philip E. Devine and Celia Wolf-Devine (Oxford University Press, 2009); Pogge and his Critics (Polity 2010); and Gender and Global Justice (forthcoming; Polity 2013). She is also planning a co-authored book on Ethics Across Borders. In recognition of her distinguished service, Jaggar is this year’s winner of the university’s Elizabeth D. Gee Memorial Lectureship Award. The award honors an outstanding faculty member for efforts to advance women in academia, interdisciplinary scholarly contributions and distinguished teaching. It is the only award across the University of Colorado System that specifically recognizes outstanding work on women’s issues and efforts to advance women in the academy, and is conferred yearly by the CU Faculty Council’s Women’s Committee. Professor Jaggar will receive the award at CU Women Succeeding: The 10th Annual Professional Development Symposium, set for Feb. 23-24 at CU-Boulder. During the Feb. 24 symposium luncheon, Jaggar will present her scholarly work in an address titled, “The Feminization of Global Poverty: How Can Philosophy Help?” Due to high demand, registration for the symposium already has reached capacity.Arts & HumanitiesCommunity & Culture, Lectures & Seminars, Discovery & Innovation, Learning & Teaching, Faculty Excellence, Research & Creative Works, Research & Creative WorksSupport CU PhilosophySupport CU Women and Gender Studiesvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU undergrads design toys for children who are blind
A small smile appeared on the young girl’s face as she listened to the high-pitched sound coming from the whiffle ball. The sound helped the elementary student locate the ball after her classmate hit it from a specially designed baseball tee. Both of the students are blind. On a recent afternoon, they were in a classroom at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Integrated Teaching and Learning Program and Laboratory testing toys designed by first-year engineering students. The students are enrolled in CU engineering instructor Seth Murray’s freshman projects class. “It’s a great experience for the students because they learn a lot about basic engineering design and testing, how to manufacture prototypes and they get to work with clients,” Murray said. This particular project required student teams to design playground toys for children who are blind. Each team had eight days to complete the task, which includes having a test model for the children to try out during the demonstration in the lab. “This project originated because it is needed by physical education teachers and kids,” Murray said. “PE is something that a lot of blind students in the country get excluded from more than they should. As engineers, we’re trying to develop solutions that help people and this project is a great fit.” Rachel Gudenzi and Katherine Powers’ team worked to design a tether ball that would be safe for blind children. Powers learned a lot about the difficulty of taking a product from the lab to real life. “It’s really different when you’re thinking about what someone is going to do with your product, and then when you watch them play with the toy you developed you see that they might do things differently than you expected,” Powers said. Murray said he enjoys teaching the class because it gives students a good example of what engineering is really like. “Engineering is building prototypes and testing them, and working with customers to figure out what they need and then meeting those requirements,” Murray said. “These are freshman engineers so they don’t have a lot of experience in design yet, but this project gives them a big dose of it.” Overall, the project also shows the students the value of teamwork. “One of the things I learned was that you have to work together to solve problems,” Gudenzi said. “Through out the rest of our entire careers we’re going to be working with other people to solve different problems and taking everybody’s ideas into consideration is the biggest thing that I have taken from this class.” Murray directs the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Undergraduate Engineering Management and Entrepreneurship program. The program, which works in partnership with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship in the Leeds School of Business, helps undergraduate engineering students leverage their technical knowledge for business success in today’s highly competitive global marketplace.Engineering, Community OutreachCommunity Outreach, Serving ColoradoSupport CU Engineeringvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU undergrads design toys for blind children
A small smile appeared on the young girl’s face as she listened to the high-pitched sound coming from the whiffle ball. The sound helped the elementary student locate the ball after her classmate hit it from a specially designed baseball tee. Both of the students are blind. On a recent afternoon, they were in a classroom at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Integrated Teaching and Learning Program and Laboratory testing toys designed by first year engineering students. The students are enrolled in CU engineering instructor Seth Murray’s freshman projects class. “It’s a great experience for the students because they learn a lot about basic engineering design and testing, how to manufacture prototypes and they get to work with clients,” Murray said. This particular project required student teams to design playground toys for blind children. Each team had eight days to complete the task, which includes having a test model for the children to try out during the demonstration in the lab. “This project originated because it is needed by physical education teachers and kids,” Murray said. “PE is something that a lot of blind students in the country get excluded from more than they should. As engineers, we’re trying to develop solutions that help people and this project is a great fit.” Rachel Gudenzi and Katherine Powers’ team worked to design a tether ball that would be safe for blind children. Powers learned a lot about the difficulty of taking a product from the lab to real life. “It’s really different when you’re thinking about what someone is going to do with your product, and then when you watch them play with the toy you developed you see that they might do things differently than you expected,” Powers said. Murray said he enjoys teaching the class because it gives students a good example of what engineering is really like. “Engineering is building prototypes and testing them, and working with customers to figure out what they need and then meeting those requirements,” Murray said. “These are freshman engineers so they don’t have a lot of experience in design yet, but this project gives them a big dose of it.” Overall, the project also shows the students the value of teamwork. “One of the things I learned was that you have to work together to solve problems,” Gudenzi said. “Through out the rest of our entire careers we’re going to be working with other people to solve different problems and taking everybody’s ideas into consideration is the biggest thing that I have taken from this class.” Murray directs the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Undergraduate Engineering Management and Entrepreneurship program. The program, which works in partnership with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship in the Leeds School of Business, helps undergraduate engineering students leverage their technical knowledge for business success in today’s highly competitive global marketplace.Engineering, Community OutreachCommunity Outreach, Serving ColoradoSupport CU Engineeringvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU and NREL get 10 more Toyota hybrids to plug into smart grid study
Ten plug-in hybrid vehicles, or PHVs, have been added to a University of Colorado Boulder study that has been examining user experiences and system interactions since September 2010 in the local smart-grid environment. The increase will allow researchers from CU-Boulder’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, or RASEI -- a joint venture with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory -- to gather data from a broader base of participants. The loan of Prius cars from Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. will expand the originally supplied fleet to a total of 28. “RASEI’S expertise in analyzing trends in consumer use of energy gives us an opportunity for research at this critical nexus of the electric utility and transportation industries as they transition to the future,” said Michael Knotek, RASEI director. “We are delighted that this project is valuable to Toyota.” The Boulder location presents the opportunity for study participants to track their household electricity use through smart-grid technology, and for researchers to monitor the performance of Toyota’s first-generation lithium-ion drive battery at high altitudes, in cold weather and in mountainous terrain. The cars are circulated in nine-week intervals among randomly selected households. Participants receive a “smart plug” -- a device installed in home garages -- from Xcel Energy that allows online monitoring of their car’s electricity use and their home’s energy consumption. There also are numerous dashboard displays in the PHVs that show gas mileage when driving in electric mode and hybrid mode. The PHV demonstration vehicles can be fully charged in approximately three hours using a standard 110-volt electrical outlet and can cruise in electric-only mode for about 14 miles. For longer distances, the PHVs revert to hybrid mode and operate like regular Prius cars. “One of RASEI’s goals is to establish public-private partnerships that bring together academic, industry and government lab research,” said Knotek. “The PHV study, supported by Toyota with the integral participation of Xcel Energy, is the first of many RASEI projects that reflects this type of comprehensive and valuable collaboration.” The study’s principal investigator is Barbara Farhar, RASEI’s senior research associate. The co-principal investigator is Dragan Maksimovic, CU-Boulder professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering. For more information on RASEI visit http://rasei.colorado.edu. For more information on Toyota’s plug-in hybrid demonstration and research program visit http://www.toyota.com/esq/.  Contact: Janet Braccio, 303-499-9031janetbraccio@comcast.net Alison Peters, 303-492-3490alison.peters@colorado.edu Elizabeth Lock, CU media relations, 303-492-3117elizabeth.lock@colorado.edu“RASEI’S expertise in analyzing trends in consumer use of energy gives us an opportunity for research at this critical nexus of the electric utility and transportation industries as they transition to the future,” said Michael Knotek, RASEI director. “We are delighted that this project is valuable to Toyota.”Natural SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: 


CU-Boulder symposium explores digital media impact on politics, journalism and historical preservation
  A University of Colorado Boulder symposium Feb. 27-29 will examine how the revolution in digital media is changing global politics, journalism and the way history is preserved. Journalism and Mass Communication at CU-Boulder is sponsoring “The Content and Context of Digital Culture” symposium, which is free and open to the public. It will be held at various sites across campus and a complete schedule is available at http://www.icjmtsymposium.org/schedule/. “This symposium provides the CU community with an excellent opportunity to explore new political and cultural terrain opened up by digital media,” said symposium organizer Andrew Calabrese, a professor of journalism and mass communication. Among the speakers will be Columbia University Professor Todd Gitlin, who will present “Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street: Why 2011 Was Not 1968” on Feb. 27 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in room 150 of the Eaton Humanities Building. Gitlin’s upcoming e-book, “Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street,” looks at how that movement differs from the uprisings of previous eras. Mark Briggs, who coined the term “Journalism 2.0,” will talk about a new breed of ‘journopreneurs’ who are launching startups that break from traditional advertising models to find new sources of revenue for delivering news and information. Briggs is the director of digital media for KING-5 TV in Seattle and the Ford Fellow in Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Poynter Institute. His session is on Feb. 29 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in room 150 of the Eaton Humanities Building. Experts at the conference also will discuss new ways of archiving digital records and how these collections are being used in places such as libraries and museums. Librarians and archivists are looking for new ways to preserve such records, according to symposium organizers. The symposium runs in conjunction with an effort to create a new interdisciplinary school or college at CU-Boulder that may include studies in communication, technology, multimedia storytelling, commercial design and the digital arts and humanities. The effort is called the Information, Communication, Journalism, Media and Technology, or ICJMT, initiative. Journalism and Mass Communication is sponsoring the symposium in support of the ICJMT initiative, with additional support from CU’s Keller Center for the Study of the First Amendment, the Department of Political Science, the English department, the Film Studies Program, the Center for the Humanities and the Arts, CU Libraries and the Advertising A2B certificate program. For more information including speakers and event locations visit http://www.icjmtsymposium.org/.    Contact: Andrew Calabrese, 303-492-5374andrew.calabrese@colorado.edu Elizabeth Lock, CU media relations, 303-492-3117elizabeth.lock@colorado.edu“This symposium provides the CU community with an excellent opportunity to explore new political and cultural terrain opened up by digital media,” said symposium organizer Andrew Calabrese, a professor of journalism and mass communication.Journalism, Community Outreach, Arts & HumanitiesLearning & Teaching, Research & Creative Works, Teaching Innovation, Undergraduate Educationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-Boulder nets $1.5 million NSF grant to continue video game design research
  The University of Colorado Boulder exceeded its own researchers’ expectations with its iDREAMS Scalable Game Design Summer Institute, and that success has been rewarded with a new $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. CU-Boulder researchers are tracking how video game design engages students in computational thinking and STEM simulation design. STEM simulations are computer programs that model natural and social phenomena, such as how a forest fire spreads from tree to tree. Students design these simulations to learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM. The new NSF-funded Computational Thinking for Teaching Computing grant to computer science Professor Alexander Repenning and co-investigators Kris Gutiérrez and David Webb from the School of Education, will build on previous work the team did on video game design as a motivational tool for computer science education.   That project, called iDREAMS, involved more than 100 teachers and over 8,000 students producing more than 10,000 games and STEM simulations. The project started in Colorado but quickly expanded to Alaska, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming where it gave teachers the tools and support needed to take the video game design curriculum into their classrooms.  Participation far exceeded initial projections for the iDREAMS research project of about 40 teachers and 1,200 students over three years. The curriculum, as taught through the Scalable Game Design Summer Institute on the CU-Boulder campus during the past three summers, was found to be highly effective across a wide spectrum of communities, including technology hubs, urban/inner city, rural and remote Native American communities.   The research team was encouraged by the extraordinarily high levels of participation and motivation, especially for girls and underrepresented students: 45 percent of participants were girls and 56 percent were underrepresented minorities. Motivation, expressed by a willingness to take more game design classes, was determined to be 74 percent for boys, 64 percent for girls, 71 percent for white participants and 69 percent for minority students. In the new project, student performance data using measures of computational thinking will be integrated to further analyze how video game design helps students reason and learn STEM content. The performance data will be used to enhance the Scalable Game Design curriculum and professional development opportunities for teachers. “I am extremely excited to see the enormous energy of students and teachers involved in the Scalable Game Design project,” said Repenning. “They have shown that it really is possible to bring computer science education to public schools and integrate it into the curriculum. The Scalable Game Design curriculum includes problem solving, logical thinking skills and sophisticated math and science concepts highly relevant to STEM and computer science education.” CU-Boulder will again host its popular Scalable Game Design Summer Institute for K-12 teachers this summer, June 4-10, as part of its long-term efforts to improve and broaden participation in computer science education. “We now want to analyze the impact of the research on students’ motivation and what they are learning, continuing the success of the iDREAMS project,” said Webb. “With the new grant, we can build up more robust research instruments that can be used for computer science education. We will continue to be very intentional regarding our research of particular populations and will be broadening the scope of groups studied.” Project partners include AgentSheets Inc., the Computer Science Teachers Association, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, the Shodor Foundation and SRI International. For more information visit http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu.   Contact: Alexander Repenning, 303-492-1349alexander.repenning@colorado.edu David Webb, 303-492-0306dcwebb@colorado.edu Carol Rowe, 303-492-7426carol.rowe@colorado.edu  “I am extremely excited to see the enormous energy of students and teachers involved in the Scalable Game Design project,” said computer science Professor Alexander Repenning. “They have shown that it really is possible to bring computer science education to public schools and integrate it into the curriculum. The Scalable Game Design curriculum includes problem solving, logical thinking skills and sophisticated math and science concepts highly relevant to STEM and computer science education.”Education, K-12 Outreach, Computational Science & EngineeringLearning & Teaching, Faculty Excellence, Research & Creative Works, Teaching Innovationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: K-12 teachers and instructors work together at CU-Boulder's 2011 Scalable Game Design Summer Institute.


Brazilian ‘Science Without Borders’ undergraduates study at CU-Boulder
  The University of Colorado Boulder welcomed 19 students from Brazil this semester as part of the new Science Without Borders Program and Brazil’s initiative to place and fully fund outstanding students abroad to supplement their studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM. The students are among approximately 650 Brazilian undergraduates who have been selected to study on U.S. campuses with funding for their tuition, fees and housing from the Brazilian government’s Science Without Borders Program. The program, announced last year, provides scholarships to Brazilian undergraduate students for one year of study at one of more than 100 host colleges and universities, including CU-Boulder. Scholarships are given primarily to students in the STEM fields. After two semesters and an on- or off-campus internship, the students will return to Brazil to complete their degrees. “Science Without Borders interested me because I wanted to know what it was like to study and live on campus and to learn in a different environment,” said Victor Sabioni, an aerospace engineering student from the Universidade de Federal de minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte. “I am taking two classes that are not offered at home, and everything is great so far. “The campus is amazingly beautiful and everyone has been so welcoming and polite. CU couldn’t be better. It’s like heaven with homework.” The Science Without Borders Program at CU-Boulder is offered through a partnership between the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the Division of Continuing Education. “The students are studying with their peers, living in university housing and experiencing life in Colorado and the U.S.,” said Anne Heinz, dean of Continuing Education and associate vice chancellor for outreach and engagement. “Several of the students already have indicated an interest in returning to CU-Boulder for graduate school. “CU-Boulder students, whether they’re from the San Luis Valley, San Francisco or São Paulo, will benefit from the enriched classroom conversations and experiences enabled by these programs,” she said. “These collaborations foster our future as a global society, and we look forward to CU-Boulder’s continued participation in this program.” An additional cohort of students is scheduled to arrive later this year for programs beginning in the summer and fall. The Science Without Borders Program is part of a larger Brazilian government initiative to grant 100,000 scholarships to Brazil’s best students to study abroad at the world’s best universities. The program is sponsored by the scholarship foundation of Brazil’s Ministry of Education, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior. The program is administered by the Institute of International Education, an independent nonprofit specializing in international exchange. The institute has been working closely with the ministry and with CU-Boulder and other U.S. universities to place the students in study programs that best meet their academic needs. “We are pleased to be partnering with the government of Brazil and with the U.S. host campuses to implement this important program,” said Allan E. Goodman, Institute of International Education president and CEO. “At a time when Brazil’s economy is expanding rapidly, and Brazil and the United States are forging unprecedented ties in trade, energy and scientific development, we look to higher education as another area where our two countries should seek much stronger cooperation.”   Contact: Carol Drake, Continuing Education, 303-492-3963carol.drake@colorado.edu Hannah Fletcher, Continuing Education media relations, 303-492-3949Hannah.fletcher@colorado.edu“Science Without Borders interested me because I wanted to know what it was like to study and live on campus and to learn in a different environment,” said Victor Sabioni, an aerospace engineering student from the Universidade de Federal de minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte. “I am taking two classes that are not offered at home, and everything is great so far. “The campus is amazingly beautiful and everyone has been so welcoming and polite. CU couldn’t be better. It’s like heaven with homework.”Engineering, Research, Outreach, Global EngagementLearning & Teaching, Global Education, Research & Creative Works, Teaching Innovationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Finalists announced for CU-Boulder College of Arts and Sciences dean
University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore announced today that four finalists have been named for the position of dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The finalists for the position are Paul Beale, CU-Boulder; Antonio Cepeda-Benito, Texas A&M University; Jeffrey Cox, CU-Boulder; and Steven Leigh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, according to John Stevenson, dean of the Graduate School and chair of the search committee. “I am grateful to the committee and its chair, Dean John Stevenson, for arriving at four quality candidates to lead CU-Boulder’s largest college,” said Moore. “I am looking forward to interviewing the candidates at their campus visits, and to hearing their individual visions and ideas for taking our outstanding College of Arts and Sciences to new levels of success.” Stevenson said the committee’s task of arriving at four finalists was a challenge, given the size and quality of the pool of applicants for the post. “The search committee was gratified by the quality of the candidates who applied. Initially, we received over 100 applications, which I believe underscores the desirability of CU-Boulder as a national destination for talented faculty, students and administrators,” Stevenson said. “After intensive deliberations the committee came to consensus on the four candidates.” The College of Arts and Sciences is CU-Boulder’s largest academic unit, with 19,295 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,982 faculty and staff and a general fund budget of $133.5 million.  The post is expected to be filled by July 1. The following finalists will visit the campus for interviews during late February and March at times to be announced soon. Paul Beale is a professor and chair of the Department of Physics at CU-Boulder. His research field is theoretical condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics. Beale was a postdoctoral research associate in the department of theoretical physics at Oxford University from 1982-1984, and he joined the CU physics faculty in 1984. He earned a B.S. in physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1977 and a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University in 1982. Antonio Cepeda-Benito is a professor of psychology and dean of faculties and associate provost at Texas A&M University. His research areas of specialization are in behavioral and cellular neuroscience and clinical psychology. He has been on the faculty at Texas A&M since 1994 and prior to his current position he was associate dean of faculties. He earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1988, a M.S. in psychology from Purdue University in 1991 and a Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1994. Jeffrey Cox is a professor of English literature and the associate vice chancellor for faculty affairs at CU-Boulder. Cox specializes in English and European Romantic literature, cultural theory and cultural studies. He joined the faculty at CU-Boulder in 1998 as the director of the Center for the Humanities and the Arts, where he served until 2006.  He was on the faculty of Texas A&M from 1981 until 1998. He received a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1975 and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1981.  Steven Leigh is an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Leigh is a biological anthropologist and his research focuses on the evolution of primate life histories, with special attention to human life history evolution. He has been on the faculty at the University of Illinois since 1994 and previously held appointments at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and at Northwestern University. He received his B.A. in anthropology from Northwestern University in 1980, his M.A. in anthropology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1985 and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1992. The current dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Todd Gleeson, will complete his 10th year in that position at the end of June. Gleeson announced his resignation last August and he will return to the faculty in the Department of Integrative Physiology. Contact: Malinda Miller-Huey, 303-492-3115 John Stevenson, 303-492-5629    var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Two CU-Boulder faculty win National Science Foundation CAREER Awards
  Two University of Colorado Boulder faculty members, both from the ecology and evolutionary biology department, have received prestigious National Science Foundation Early Career Development, or CAREER, awards. The awards, which went to assistant professors Pieter Johnson and Rebecca Safran, are made to outstanding faculty in the early stages of their careers who effectively integrate innovative research and educational outreach.  Johnson was awarded $700,000 over five years to study how ecological diversity in natural communities can affect disease risk for amphibians, which are the most threatened class of vertebrates worldwide.  One significant reason for the decline of amphibians is their vulnerability to infections by parasitic flatworms called trematodes, which burrow into tadpoles and larval salamanders and cause limb malformations in adults, increasing mortality rates. Johnson hopes to identify the factors that control disease in natural ecosystems and better understand the role of parasites in ecosystem processes. The complex life cycle of the parasitic trematodes allows them to move from snails into larval amphibians, which causes malformed legs in adult amphibians. These adult amphibians then are often eaten by predatory birds like herons, which pass eggs of the trematodes back into the aquatic environment where they hatch and enter snails to repeal the cycle. Johnson will be collaborating with National Geographic to enhance a “Citizen Science” program that involves members of the public reporting on deformed amphibians they encounter. In addition, he will work with several other organizations to develop a documentary to promote awareness of the issue, and will team up with a biology textbook publisher to design an educational module that is expected to reach tens of thousands of students annually in classrooms and through online learning programs. Safran was awarded $850,000 over five years to study genetic differences in barn swallow populations to gain a greater understanding of how new species are formed. The goal of the effort is to measure the genetic variation and gene flow related to the adaptive evolutionary changes within swallow populations -- including different combinations of sexual signaling traits -- as well as changes due to geographic isolation among different populations. Safran and her team will use cutting-edge molecular approaches using genomics and stable isotope analysis in their research efforts.  The team hopes to understand how migratory behavior, climate change, sexual selection and geographic distance between swallow populations relate to genetic divergence and speciation, which is the evolutionary process by which new species are created. The study will allow “evolution in action” to be carefully documented and studied, Safran said. The research effort will include international collaborators from 35 Northern Hemisphere countries and will provide training for students at various levels of education and involve extensive interdisciplinary research. Her grant also includes a number of public outreach efforts including a “Citizen Science” program and a project in collaboration with EcoArts Connections of Boulder in which people are encouraged to ride Boulder County buses and to chart and report on various bird species seen from the vehicles. Johnson also was awarded a five-year, $875,000 David and Lucille Packard Fellowship in 2008 to support his studies of emerging diseases in changing environments. Contact: Pieter Johnson, 303-492-5623Pieter.Johnson@colorado.edu Rebecca Safran, 303-735-1495Rebecca.Safran@colorado.edu Jim Scott, 303-492-3114Natural Sciences, EnvironmentResearch Collaborations, Learning & Teaching, Faculty Excellence, Research & Creative Worksvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Pieter Johnson Photo: Caption: Rebecca Safran


CU-Boulder student government facilities reach carbon neutrality
The University of Colorado Student Government has reduced the net emissions of greenhouse gases, or GHGs, from its student-run facilities to zero after committing in 2007 to reach carbon neutrality. CUSG operates three large CU-Boulder facilities including the University Memorial Center, Student Recreation Center and Wardenburg Health Center. “We are very proud of this accomplishment,” said CUSG Vice President Carly Robinson. “It’s a reflection of our sustainability-minded campus community and the impressive resources we have on hand to be more environmentally friendly, and even save money, by implementing green strategies.” CU-Boulder students will gather for a “Getting to Carbon Neutrality” forum on Friday, Feb. 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Aspen Room of the University Memorial Center. They will discuss the campus’s carbon neutrality achievements and remaining challenges with input from a panel of CU staff. The event is open to CU students but requires pre-registration at http://ecenter.colorado.edu/carbonneutrality. More than 9,000 metric tons of GHG emissions attributed to operating the student-run buildings have been eliminated through renewable energy generation, energy conservation measures and carbon-offset strategies implemented by CUSG. Carbon neutrality was reached even as square footage and usage of the facilities increased in recent years. CUSG partnered with Facilities Management to install additional solar panels on CU facilities that contribute roughly 72,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per month to the electricity grid -- enough to power about 80 houses. This renewable energy generation replaces a portion of the energy generated by traditional systems that emit GHGs. CUSG buildings also have been renovated with better insulation and sealing technologies, more efficient lighting and windows. These upgrades reduced the buildings’ total energy consumption by nearly 15 percent over the last five years. CUSG also has worked with Colorado communities on carbon reduction projects as a way to offset GHG emissions from CUSG buildings. The projects provide educational, economic development and social equity benefits for the state. One of the projects includes solar thermal system installations, used to heat water, for low-income housing in Loveland, Colo. Two years ago, the CUSG helped support the installation of a system that converts methane gas from the Larimer County Landfill in Fort Collins, Colo., into energy. Methane gas is a potent GHG emission. Recently, CUSG contracted with Native Energy -- a carbon offsets program provider -- to support a novel kiln system used by Commercial Brick Corp., an Oklahoma brick manufacturer. The kiln system is powered by methane gas captured from a nearby landfill. It prevents methane emissions and replaces fossil fuel use. The company, which will participate in the Feb. 17 forum, provides 200 jobs and produces 144 million bricks per year sold in 15 states. The CU Environmental Center coordinated the carbon neutrality effort. The center administers grants and loan programs within CUSG facilities that have helped fund energy conservation projects, delivering over $1.6 million in energy cost savings for CUSG over the last five years while driving down GHG emissions. For more information on CUSG visit http://cusg.colorado.edu/. For more information on the CU Environmental Center’s Energy and Climate program visit http://ecenter.colorado.edu/energy-climate.   Contact: Dave Newport, 303-492-8309dave.newport@colorado.edu Elizabeth Lock, 303-492-3117elizabeth.lock@colorado.edu“We are very proud of this accomplishment,” said CUSG Vice President Carly Robinson. “It’s a reflection of our sustainability-minded campus community and the impressive resources we have on hand to be more environmentally friendly, and even save money, by implementing green strategies.”Campus SustainabilityCommunity & Culture, Campus Events, Sustainability, Campus Innovations, Outreachvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: The University Memorial Center is one of CUSG's three carbon-neutral facilities on campus. (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado Boulder)


Scientists deploy lasers, GPS technology to improve snow measurements
NCAR news release Equipped with specialized lasers and GPS technology, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research are working with institutions including the University of Colorado Boulder to solve a critical wintertime weather mystery: how to accurately measure the amount of snow on the ground. Transportation crews, water managers, and others who make vital safety decisions need precise measurements of how snow depth varies across wide areas. But traditional measuring devices such as snow gauges or yardsticks often are inadequate for capturing snow totals that can vary even within a single field or neighborhood. Now scientists are finding that prototype devices that use light pulses, satellite signals, and other technologies offer the potential to almost instantly measure large areas of snow. In time, such devices might even provide a global picture of snow depth. “We’ve been measuring rain accurately for centuries, but snow is much harder because of the way it’s affected by wind and sun and other factors,” says NCAR scientist Ethan Gutmann. “It looks like new technology will finally give us the ability to say exactly how much snow is on the ground.” NCAR is conducting the research with several collaborating organizations, including CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The work is supported by NCAR’s sponsor, the National Science Foundation. Emergency managers rely on snowfall measurements when mobilizing snow plows or deciding whether to shut down highways and airports during major storms. They also use snow totals when determining whether a region qualifies for disaster assistance. In mountainous areas, officials need accurate reports of snowpack depth to assess the threat of avalanches or floods, and to anticipate the amount of water available from spring and summer runoff. More accurate measurements can also help meteorologists and hydrologists better understand snow physics and hydrological processes. But traditional approaches to measuring snow can greatly underreport or overreport snow totals, especially in severe conditions. Snow gauges may miss almost a third of the snow in a windy storm, even when they are protected by specialized fencing designed to cut down on the wind’s impacts. Snow probes or yardsticks can reveal snow depth within limited areas. But such tools require numerous in-person measurements at different locations, a method that may not keep up with totals during heavy snowfalls. Weather experts also sometimes monitor the amount of snow that collects on flat, white pieces of wood known as snow boards, but this is a time-intensive approach that requires people to check the boards and clear them off every few hours. The nation’s two largest volunteer efforts—The National Weather Service’s Cooperative Observer Program and the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network—each involve thousands of participants nationwide using snow boards, but their reports are usually filed just once a day. More recently, ultrasonic devices have been deployed in some of the world’s most wintry regions. Much like radar, these devices measure the length of time needed for a pulse of ultrasonic energy to bounce off the surface of the snow and return to the transmitter. However, the signal can be affected by shifting atmospheric conditions, including temperature, humidity, and winds. The specialized laser instruments under development at NCAR can correct for such problems. Once set up at a location, they can automatically measure snow depth across large areas. Unlike ultrasonic instruments, lasers rely on light pulses that are not affected by atmospheric conditions. New tests by Gutmann indicate that a laser instrument installed high above treeline in the Rocky Mountains west of Boulder can measure 10 feet or more of snow with an accuracy as fine as half an inch or better. The instrument, in a little over an hour,  measures snow at more than 1,000 points across an area almost the size of a football field to produce a three-dimensional image of the snowpack and its variations in depth. Gutmann’s next step, if he can secure the needed funding, will be to build and test a laser instrument that can measure snow over several square miles. Measuring such a large area would require a new instrument capable of taking over 12,000 measurements per second. “If we’re successful, all of a sudden these types of instruments will reveal a continually updated picture of snow across an entire basin,” he says. One limitation for the lasers, however, is the light pulses cannot penetrate through objects such as trees and buildings. This could require development of networks of low-cost laser installations that would each record snow depths within a confined area. Alternatively, future satellites equipped with such lasers might be capable of mapping the entire world from above. Gutmann and Kristine Larson, a colleague at CU-Boulder, are also exploring how to use GPS sensors for snowfall measurements. GPS sensors record both satellite signals that reach them directly and signals that bounce off the ground. When there is snow on the ground, the GPS signal bounces off the snow with a different frequency than when it is bare soil, enabling scientists to determine how high the surface of the snow is above the ground. Such units could be a cost-efficient way of measuring snow totals because meteorologists could tap into the existing global network of ground-based GPS receivers. However, researchers are seeking to fully understand how both the density of the snow and the roughness of its surface alter GPS signals. “Our hope is to develop a set of high-tech tools that will enable officials to continually monitor snow depth, even during an intense storm,” Larson says. “While we still have our work cut out for us, the technology is very promising.” “I think this technology has great potential to benefit emergency managers and other decision makers, as well as forecasters, “ Gutmann says. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Scientific contacts: Ethan Gutmann, NCAR Scientist 303-497-8283 gutmann@ucar.edu Kristine Larson, CU Scientist 303-492-6583 kristinem.larson@gmail.com Media Contacts: David Hosansky, NCAR/UCAR Media Relations 303-497-8611 hosansky@ucar.edu Zhenya Gallon, NCAR/UCAR Media Relations 303-497-8607 zhenya@ucar.edu        “We’ve been measuring rain accurately for centuries, but snow is much harder because of the way it’s affected by wind and sun and other factors,” says NCAR scientist Ethan Gutmann. “It looks like new technology will finally give us the ability to say exactly how much snow is on the ground.”Discovery & Innovationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


To perform with less effort, practice beyond perfection, says new CU study
Whether you are an athlete, a musician or a stroke patient learning to walk again, practice can make perfect, but more practice may make you more efficient, according to a surprising new University of Colorado Boulder study. The study, led by CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Alaa Ahmed, looked at how test subjects learned particular arm-reaching movements using a robotic arm. The results showed that even after a reaching task had been learned and the corresponding decrease in muscle activity had reached a stable state, the overall energy costs to the test subjects continued to decrease. By the end of the task, the net metabolic cost as measured by oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide exhalation had decreased by about 20 percent, she said. “The message from this study is that in order to perform with less effort, keep on practicing, even after it seems as if the task has been learned,” said Ahmed of CU-Boulder’s integrative physiology department. “We have shown there is an advantage to continued practice beyond any visible changes in performance.” A paper on the subject was published in the Feb. 8 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Co-authors on the study include postdoctoral fellow Helen J. Huang and Professor Rodger Kram, both in CU-Boulder’s integrative physiology department. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study involved 15 right-handed test subjects who used a handle on a robotic arm, similar to a joystick, to control a cursor on a computer screen.  The tasks involved starting from a set position to reach for a target on the screen and involved both inward and outward arm movements, Ahmed said.   As part of the study, test subjects had to exert more energy in some reaching movements when the robotic arm created a force field, making subjects “push back” as they steered the cursor toward the target.  With repeated practice of moving the robotic arm against the force fields, the subjects learned the task by not only cutting down on errors, but effort as well, according to Ahmed. The test subjects first performed a series of 200 reaching trials with no force field to push against, then two sets of 250 trials each when pushing back against the force field.  The experiment ended with another 200 trials with no force field, said Ahmed. A metronome was used to signal the test subjects to move the robotic arm every two seconds toward the target during the trials. Each of the test subjects wore a nose clip and breathed through a mouthpiece to chart the rates of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production, a measure of metabolism. The research team also collected surface electromyographic data by placing electrodes on the six upper limb muscles used during reaching tasks: the pectoralis major, the posterior deltoid, the biceps brachii, the triceps long head, the triceps lateral head and the brachioradialis.   “What is unique about our study is that we are the first group to measure metabolic cost in addition to muscle activity while performing a physical reaching task,” said Huang, who performed most of the research and was first author on the Journal of Neuroscience paper. “The results are very surprising and challenge the widely held assumption that muscle activity entirely explains changes in metabolic cost.” The study suggests that efficient movements ultimately involve both efficient biomechanics and efficient neural processing, or thinking. “We suspect that the decrease in metabolic cost may involve more efficient brain activity,” Ahmed said.  “The brain could be modulating subtle features of arm muscle activity, recruiting other muscles or reducing its own activity to make the movements more efficiently.” The results could be applicable, for example, to stroke patients who have to re-learn to walk, Ahmed said. “The rehabilitation process should not necessarily stop if the patient reaches a plateau in performance,” Ahmed said.  Continued practice reduces the metabolic cost of the task, an indication the brain still may be learning something,” she said. “Using the robotic system, we can understand the principles underlying the control of human movement and can apply those ideas to design rehabilitation programs that may allow stroke patients to re-learn their movements faster, to retain that learning and to transfer that learning to other tasks as well,” she said. So whether it is playing a musical piece over and over again even after you have the notes and timing down cold, or throwing a ball or swinging a racket after your coach tells you things look great, there appears to still be a benefit to practicing, Ahmed said.  “Just because someone can perform the task well doesn’t mean there is not added benefit to continued practice.” For more information on CU-Boulder’s integrative physiology department visit http://www.colorado.edu/intphys/welcome/index.html.   Contact: Alaa Ahmed, 303-492-6063Alaa.Ahmed@colorado.edu Jim Scott, 303-492-3114Jim.scott@colorado.edu“The message from this study is that in order to perform with less effort, keep on practicing, even after it seems as if the task has been learned,” said Alaa Ahmed of CU-Boulder’s integrative physiology department. “We have shown there is an advantage to continued practice beyond any visible changes in performance.”Discovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-Boulder professor elected to National Academy of Engineering
Diane McKnight, professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering and a fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. McKnight is among 66 new members and 10 foreign associates of the academy announced today. She joins 16 other faculty from the campus who have been elected since the academy’s formation in 1962. Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer.  Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice or education” and to the “pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.” McKnight was recognized for making clear the interrelationship between natural organic matter and heavy metals in streams and lakes. Her research expertise is in the interactions between freshwater biota, trace metals, and natural organic material in diverse freshwater environments, including lakes and streams in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica. In the Rocky Mountains, she has focused on the impact of metal contamination in acid mine drainage streams and the influence of climate change and nitrogen deposition on alpine lakes and wetlands. McKnight has interacted with many state and local groups involved in mine drainage and watershed issues in the Rocky Mountains. “Diane is a worldwide leader in the interactive effect of metals in our water system with natural organic matter,” said Professor Ross Corotis, who was dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science when McKnight joined the faculty and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research in 1996.  “In addition to her advanced research for protecting environments from the Antarctic to the Rocky Mountains, she is a leader in developing books for children to help them learn about the water cycle.” McKnight has been working in Antarctica since 1987, and is a leading investigator studying extreme life at the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research site funded by the National Science Foundation. In the harsh polar environment, stream channels flow only a few weeks out of the year and the only life forms inhabiting the area are microorganisms, mosses, lichens and a few groups of invertebrates. She wrote and published a children’s book, “The Lost Seal,” in 2006, that tells the true story of a wayward seal discovered near the research camp in 1990 and its eventual rescue. The story gives children an understanding of Antarctica’s extreme environment and the work of scientists there. She earned three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1975, a master’s degree in civil engineering in 1978 and a doctorate in environmental engineering in 1979. She was a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Research Program for 17 years before she came to CU-Boulder. She was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2004 and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009. She is a former member of the National Research Council’s Water Science and Technology Board and Polar Research Board, and she received a Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Geological Survey in 1995. Other CU-Boulder faculty who have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and their years of election, are: Bernard Amadei, 2008; George Born and Kaspar Willam, 2004; Ross Corotis and Fred Glover, 2002; Frank Barnes, 2001; Delores Etter, 2000; Martin Mikulas, 1999; Valerian Tatarskii, elected a foreign associate in 1994; Earl Gossard, 1990; Don Hearth and Richard Strauch, 1989; Jacques Pankove, 1986; Richard Seebass (deceased), 1985; Klaus Timmerhaus (deceased), 1975; and Max Peters (deceased), 1969.    Contact: Carol Rowe, 303-492-7426Other CU-Boulder faculty who have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and their years of election, are: Bernard Amadei, 2008; George Born and Kaspar Willam, 2004; Ross Corotis and Fred Glover, 2002; Frank Barnes, 2001; Delores Etter, 2000; Martin Mikulas, 1999; Valerian Tatarskii, elected a foreign associate in 1994; Earl Gossard, 1990; Don Hearth and Richard Strauch, 1989; Jacques Pankove, 1986; Richard Seebass (deceased), 1985; Klaus Timmerhaus (deceased), 1975; and Max Peters (deceased), 1969. “Diane is a worldwide leader in the interactive effect of metals in our water system with natural organic matter,” said Professor Ross Corotis, who was dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science when McKnight joined the faculty and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research in 1996. “In addition to her advanced research for protecting environments from the Antarctic to the Rocky Mountains, she is a leader in developing books for children to help them learn about the water cycle.”Engineering, EnvironmentDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Faculty Excellencevar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Diane McKnight (Photo by the University of Colorado)


CU-Boulder study shows global glaciers, ice caps shedding billions of tons of mass annually
Earth’s glaciers and ice caps outside of the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The research effort is the first comprehensive satellite study of the contribution of the world’s melting glaciers and ice caps to global sea level rise and indicates they are adding roughly 0.4 millimeters annually, said CU-Boulder physics Professor John Wahr, who helped lead the study. The measurements are important because the melting of the world’s glaciers and ice caps, along with Greenland and Antarctica, pose the greatest threat to sea level increases in the future, Wahr said. The researchers used satellite measurements taken with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, a joint effort of NASA and Germany, to calculate that the world’s glaciers and ice caps had lost about 148 billion tons, or about 39 cubic miles of ice annually from 2003 to 2010.  The total does not count the mass from individual glacier and ice caps on the fringes of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets -- roughly an additional 80 billion tons. “This is the first time anyone has looked at all of the mass loss from all of Earth’s glaciers and ice caps with GRACE,” said Wahr.  “The Earth is losing an incredible amount of ice to the oceans annually, and these new results will help us answer important questions in terms of both sea rise and how the planet’s cold regions are responding to global change.” A paper on the subject is being published in the Feb. 9 online edition of the journal Nature.  The first author, Thomas Jacob, did his research at CU-Boulder and is now at the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, in Orléans, France.  Other paper co-authors include Professor Tad Pfeffer of CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and Sean Swenson, a former CU-Boulder physics doctoral student who is now a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. “The strength of GRACE is that it sees everything in the system,” said Wahr. “Even though we don’t have the resolution to look at individual glaciers, GRACE has proven to be an exceptional tool.”  Traditional estimates of Earth’s ice caps and glaciers have been made using ground-based measurements from relatively few glaciers to infer what all of the unmonitored glaciers around the world were doing, he said. Only a few hundred of the roughly 200,000 glaciers worldwide have been monitored for a decade or more. Launched in 2002, two GRACE satellites whip around Earth in tandem 16 times a day at an altitude of about 300 miles, sensing subtle variations in Earth’s mass and gravitational pull. Separated by roughly 135 miles, the satellites measure changes in Earth’s gravity field caused by regional changes in the planet’s mass, including ice sheets, oceans and water stored in the soil and in underground aquifers. A positive change in gravity during a satellite approach over Greenland, for example, tugs the lead GRACE satellite away from the trailing satellite, speeding it up and increasing the distance between the two. As the satellites straddle Greenland, the front satellite slows down and the trailing satellite speeds up. A sensitive ranging system allows researchers to measure the distance of the two satellites down to as small as 1 micron -- about 1/100 the width of a human hair -- and to calculate ice and water amounts from particular regions of interest around the globe using their gravity fields. For the global glaciers and ice cap measurements, the study authors created separate “mascons,” large, ice-covered regions of Earth of various ovate-type shapes. Jacob and Wahr blanketed 20 regions of Earth with 175 mascons and calculated the estimated mass balance for each mascon. The CU-led team also used GRACE data to calculate that the ice loss from both Greenland and Antarctica, including their peripheral ice caps and glaciers, was roughly 385 billion tons of ice annually. The total mass ice loss from Greenland, Antarctica and all Earth’s glaciers and ice caps from 2003 to 2010 was about 1,000 cubic miles, about eight times the water volume of Lake Erie, said Wahr. “The total amount of ice lost to Earth’s oceans from 2003 to 2010 would cover the entire United States in about 1 and one-half feet of water,” said Wahr, also a fellow at the CU-headquartered Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. The vast majority of climate scientists agree that human activities like pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is warming the planet, an effect that is most pronounced in the polar regions. One unexpected study result from GRACE was that the estimated ice loss from high Asia mountains -- including ranges like the Himalaya, the Pamir and the Tien Shan -- was only about 4 billion tons of ice annually.  Some previous ground-based estimates of ice loss in the high Asia mountains have ranged up to 50 billion tons annually, Wahr said. “The GRACE results in this region really were a surprise,” said Wahr.  “One possible explanation is that previous estimates were based on measurements taken primarily from some of the lower, more accessible glaciers in Asia and were extrapolated to infer the behavior of higher glaciers.  But unlike the lower glaciers, many of the high glaciers would still be too cold to lose mass even in the presence of atmospheric warming.” “What is still not clear is how these rates of melt may increase and how rapidly glaciers may shrink in the coming decades,” said Pfeffer, also a professor in CU-Boulder’s civil, environmental and architectural engineering department. “That makes it hard to project into the future.” According to the GRACE data, total sea level rise from all land-based ice on Earth including Greenland and Antarctica was roughly 1.5 millimeters per year annually or about 12 millimeters, or one-half inch, from 2003 to 2010, said Wahr. The sea rise amount does not include the expansion of water due to warming, which is the second key sea-rise component and is roughly equal to melt totals, he said. “One big question is how sea level rise is going to change in this century,” said Pfeffer. “If we could understand the physics more completely and perfect numerical models to simulate all of the processes controlling sea level -- especially glacier and ice sheet changes -- we would have a much better means to make predictions. But we are not quite there yet.”   Contact: John Wahr, 303-492-8349John.Wahr@colorado.edu Tad Pfeffer, 303-492-3480Tad.Pfeffer@colorado.edu Jim Scott, CU media relations, 303-492-3114Jim.Scott@colorado.edu“The Earth is losing an incredible amount of ice to the oceans annually, and these new results will help us answer important questions in terms of both sea rise and how the planet’s cold regions are responding to global change,” said CU-Boulder physics Professor John Wahr, who helped lead the study. Natural Sciences, Engineering, Environment, Institutes GRACE mission measures global ice mass changes Discovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborations, Student Researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


GRACE mission measures global ice mass changes
An animation shows the location of mountain glaciers and ice caps around the world with data from the GRACE mission to show recent trends in ice mass loss or gain. (Courtesy NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)   Topic: Academics, Natural Sciences, Engineering, Environment, InstitutesRelated stories: CU-Boulder study shows global glaciers, ice caps shedding billions of tons of mass annually


CU-Boulder Sources on Feb. 7 Colorado Republican Caucus
TIP SHEET Jan. 30, 2012 CU-Boulder Sources on Feb. 7 Colorado Republican Caucus Ken Bickers, professor and chair of the University of Colorado Boulder political science department, can comment on the U.S. presidential race in Colorado and nationally. He can be reached at 303-492-2363 or bickers@colorado.edu. Scott Adler, associate professor of political science, can comment on the U.S. presidential race in Colorado and nationally. He is best reached by email at e.scott.adler@colorado.edu. His office number is 303-492-6659. Leaf Van Boven, professor of psychology, can discuss how Americans generally overestimate the degree of polarization between Democrats and Republicans, and what influences that overestimation. He is best reached by email at vanboven@colorado.edu. His office number is 303-735-5238. Elizabeth Skewes, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, can speak about media coverage of the candidates this electoral season. Skewes can be reached at 303-735-1096 or elizabeth.skewes@colorado.edu. Mike McDevitt, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, is available to comment on the role of media, schools, peer groups and families in the campaign engagement of youth and young adults. McDevitt can be reached at 303-735-0460 or mike.mcdevitt@colorado.edu.  Or for assistance contact Peter Caughey in the CU-Boulder Office of Media Relations and News Services at 303-492-4007 or caughey@colorado.edu. -CU-  var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Americans overestimate political polarization
With the presidential election right around the corner and politically charged TV and radio ads hammering away at the major differences between the parties, Americans these days appear to see the nation as divided between Red and Blue. But new research from Professor Leaf Van Boven shows that many people overestimate the degree of polarization between Democrats and Republicans, and this misconception is associated with citizens’ voting behavior and their involvement in political activities. “It is clear that Americans see themselves as very sharply polarized,” Van Boven said. “And that the degree of perceived polarization dramatically overstates the actual degree of polarization.” Van Boven of CU-Boulder’s psychology and neuroscience department and Professor John Chambers of the University of Florida recently presented findings of two studies on political polarization at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. In one study, which included a nationally representative sample of 1,000 voting age respondents during the 2008 presidential campaign, Van Boven and his colleagues found that individuals with more extreme partisan attitudes perceived greater polarization than those with less extreme partisan attitudes. For example, in the 2008 presidential election, people who strongly supported either Obama or McCain perceived Americans as more divided than did those whose support of either candidate was more moderate. In another study, which included an analysis using a subset of 26,000 respondents from three decades of surveys of Americans, the researchers determined that the gap between Republicans and Democrats on five-point scales regarding different issues such as the death penalty and abortion was approximately three-quarters of a point. However, people believe there is a scale difference of two points or more between the two parties. And it’s not just politics, it’s also the case with other issues such as the death penalty or the abortion issue. “The more strongly people feel about an issue, the more divided they see other Americans,” Van Boven said. The misperception of American political polarization The misperception of American political polarization Feb. 6, 2012                                                Leaf Van Boven            The American flag is red, white and blue but when it comes to politics Americans see the nation as Red and Blue. News outlets such as CNN and The New Yorker describe the growing political polarization between Republicans and Democrats. But according to Leaf Van Boven, a psychologist at CU-Boulder who just completed a study on polarization, data shows Americans are much less polarized politically then many people believe.Topic: Academics, Social Sciences, Psychology, Political science, Research & Creative Works, Social Sciences Social Sciences, Social SciencesDiscovery & Innovationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Americans overestimate political polarization, according to new CU-Boulder research
  Many Americans overestimate the degree of polarization between Democrats and Republicans, and this misconception is associated with citizens’ voting behavior and their involvement in political activities, according to new findings from the University of Colorado Boulder. “It is clear that Americans see themselves as very sharply polarized,” said Professor Leaf Van Boven, who led the research efforts. “And that the extent of perceived polarization dramatically overstates the actual degree of polarization.” Van Boven of CU-Boulder’s psychology and neuroscience department and Professor John Chambers of the University of Florida presented findings of two studies on political polarization last month at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in San Diego. In one study, which included a nationally representative sample of 1,000 voting age respondents during the 2008 presidential campaign, Van Boven and his colleagues found that individuals with more extreme partisan attitudes perceived greater polarization than those with less extreme partisan attitudes. For example, in the 2008 presidential election, people who strongly supported either Obama or McCain perceived Americans as more divided than did those whose support of either candidate was more moderate. In another study, which included an analysis using a subset of 26,000 respondents from three decades of surveys of Americans, the researchers determined that the average gap between Republicans and Democrats on five-point scales regarding different issues such as the death penalty and abortion was approximately three-quarters of a point. However, people believed there was a scale difference of two points or more between the two parties. “The more strongly people feel about an issue, the more divided they see other Americans,” Van Boven said. The data also suggest that the people who perceive the most division among Americans are also the most likely to vote in elections. “It seems that the people who see the most polarization are also more likely to engage in various kinds of political activities, including joining campaigns, persuading other people and contributing to PACs,” Van Boven said. He expects that both major political parties may try to benefit from the perceived polarization of voters during the current presidential election year. “If I were a strategist and I saw that maybe I could get a 5 percent increase in turnout on my side by increasing people’s perceptions of polarization, I know exactly what I would do,” he said. “I would push toward increased perceptions of polarization. “There certainly is a sound scientific basis for the strategy of making the other side seem very strong, very extreme and very active,” he said. “If I think the other side is really fired up and they are going to turn out the vote, that becomes a threat to me. So that might motivate me to vote.” CU-Boulder Professor Charles Judd of the psychology and neuroscience department and Professor David Sherman of the University of California, Santa Barbara, were co-authors with Van Boven on the paper titled “False polarization of the American electorate.” Van Boven, CU-Boulder doctoral candidate Jacob Westfall and Professor John Chambers of the University of Florida co-authored the other paper titled “Political polarization projection.” Contact: Leaf Van Boven, 303-735-5238vanboven@colorado.edu Greg Swenson, CU media relations, 303-492-3113“The more strongly people feel about an issue, the more divided they see other Americans,” said Leaf Van Boven of CU-Boulder’s psychology and neuroscience department.Social Sciences The misperception of American political polarization Discovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Graduate Education, Research Collaborations, Student Researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


The misperception of American political polarization
The misperception of American political polarization Feb. 6, 2012                                                Leaf Van Boven            The American flag is red, white and blue but when it comes to politics Americans see the nation as Red and Blue. News outlets such as CNN and The New Yorker describe the growing political polarization between Republicans and Democrats. But according to Leaf Van Boven, a psychologist at CU-Boulder who just completed a study on polarization, data shows Americans are much less polarized politically then many people believe. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: Academics, Social Sciences, Psychology, Political science


CU-Boulder facilities and programs reopen following "snow day"
Following a one-day closure due to a winter snowstorm, the University of Colorado Boulder is reopening Saturday, Feb. 4 with the majority of facilities and programs on normal operating weekend hours. The CU Recreation Center will be on a delayed opening time of 9 a.m. and then will resume regular hours. The Office of Admissions daily tour for today has been cancelled. See http://admissions.colorado.edu for upcoming visit opportunities. The CU Men's Basketball game, the CU Museum Family Day, performances in the University Theatre and the ATLAS black box theatre and other events planned for this afternoon and evening are scheduled to proceed. Visit www.colorado.edu/events for more information.var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-Boulder to be closed Friday, Feb. 3
The University of Colorado Boulder campus will be closed on Friday, Feb. 3, for all but essential employees due to hazardous weather conditions. All on-campus housing and dining facilities currently are open as usual. The CU Buff Bus is running until midnight. It is operating with fewer buses, however, so users may experience some delays. According to the campus closure policy, "essential services" are those functions and personnel required to maintain or protect the health, safety, or physical well being of campus personnel (students, staff, and faculty), academic mission, and facilities (including research projects). Employees should contact their supervisors if they have questions about whether or not they are considered "essential services" personnel. The policy on Campus Closing Procedures During Emergencies is located at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/campus-closing-procedures-during-emergencies. Changes in information will be on the CU-Boulder Web site at www.colorado.edu and updated on the Emergency Information Line at 303-492-INFO (4636). For updates on scheduled campus events check the Web site at http://www.colorado.edu/events/. For media inquiries contact: Malinda Miller-Huey, 303-999-7808var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-Boulder-led effort to reduce youth violence in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood kicks off Feb. 16-17
  A five-year project to improve the lives of youth in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood will kick off Feb. 16-17 with public meetings on the Evie Garrett Dennis Campus. Community members and key leaders will gather in the community room at 4800 Telluride St. in Denver to discuss efforts to reduce youth violence to be led by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. The public is invited to attend. Two boards will be launched at the meeting. The Key Leader Board, consisting of influential community leaders, will convene on Feb. 16 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Community Board, a coalition of community stakeholders, will also attend the meeting with the Key Leader Board from 8:30 to 12:30 on Feb. 16. The Community Board will continue to meet the afternoon of Feb. 16 until 4:15 p.m., and on Feb. 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Breakfast and lunch will be served both days. The CU-Boulder center will work closely with the two boards and residents of Montbello to reduce levels of youth violence among those aged 10 to 24. The project aims to reduce rates of serious violent crime and gang-related violence, in addition to rates of drug and alcohol abuse, gang participation, fighting, and bullying or being bullied in schools. Partnering with CU-Boulder on the project are the Lowry Family Center, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado, The Foundation for Educational Excellence, the Denver Crime Control and Prevention Commission, Denver Police Department and the Denver Safe City Office. The project is funded by a $6.5 million cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The principal investigator on the project is Delbert Elliott, director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and a nationally recognized expert on juvenile violence and school safety. Dr. Eric Sigel, an associate professor of pediatrics at the CU School of Medicine, and fellowship director of Children’s Hospital Adolescent Medicine Clinic, will serve as a co-investigator. In addition to reducing juvenile violence, the project will work with the CU School of Medicine to train future youth violence prevention researchers in the areas of behavioral science, public health and adolescent medicine. In the first year of the project researchers will collect baseline data in the Montbello community and in the comparison neighborhood of Northeast Park Hill. After data collection, the Montbello Community Board will create a community action plan. Montbello has more than 30,000 residents and is located northeast of I-70 and Peoria Street and south of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. The second through fifth years will involve implementing evidence-based programs and strategies chosen by the community board, monitoring the programs’ implementation and evaluating impacts. The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence is part of CU-Boulder’s Institute of Behavioral Science. The center provides information on the causes, consequences and prevention of youth violence in addition to conducting research and providing technical assistance. CDC has designated CU-Boulder’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence a National Academic Center for Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention. For more information on the CU-Boulder center visit http://www.colorado.edu/cspv or call 303-492-1032.   Contact: Delbert Elliott, CU-Boulder, 303-735-2146delbert.elliott@colorado.edu Dr. Eric Sigel, CU School of Medicine, 720-777-6133 Peter Caughey, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-4007caughey@colorado.edu  Social Sciences, Civic EngagementServing Colorado. Engaged in the World., Community, Outreach, Research & Creative Worksvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Did the Little Ice Age start with a big bang?
Scientists have disagreed for many years over the precise cause for a period of cooling global temperatures that began after the Middle Ages and lasted into the late 19th century, commonly known as the Little Ice Age.  Now, a new study led by CU-Boulder Professor and Institute for Alpine and Arctic Research (INSTAAR) Fellow Gifford Miller indicates that the Little Ice Age began abruptly between A.D. 1275 and 1300, triggered by repeated, explosive volcanism and sustained by a self-perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback system in the North Atlantic Ocean. “This is the first time anyone has clearly identified the specific onset of the cold times marking the start of the Little Ice Age,” said Miller.  “We also have provided an understandable climate feedback system that explains how this cold period could be sustained for a long period of time.  If the climate system is hit again and again by cold conditions over a relatively short period—in this case, from volcanic eruptions—there appears to be a cumulative cooling effect.”   Most scientists believed the Little Ice Age was caused either by decreased summer solar radiation, erupting volcanoes that cooled the planet by ejecting shiny aerosol particles that reflected sunlight back into space, or a combination of both, said Miller.  The new study, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Icelandic Science Foundation, suggests that the onset of the Little Ice Age was caused by an unusual, 50-year-long episode of four massive tropical volcanic eruptions. Climate models used in the new study showed that the persistence of cold summers following the eruptions is best explained by a sea ice-ocean feedback system originating in the North Atlantic Ocean. "Our simulations showed that the volcanic eruptions may have had a profound cooling effect,” says NCAR scientist Bette Otto-Bliesner, a co-author of the study. “The eruptions could have triggered a chain reaction, affecting sea ice and ocean currents in a way that lowered temperatures for centuries." The researchers set the solar radiation at a constant level in the climate models, and Miller said the Little Ice Age likely would have occurred without decreased summer solar radiation at the time. “Estimates of the sun’s variability over time are getting smaller, it’s now thought by some scientists to have varied little more in the last millennia than during a standard 11-year solar cycle,” he said. One of the primary questions pertaining to the Little Ice Age is how unusual the warming of Earth is today, he said.  A previous study led by Miller in 2008 on Baffin Island indicated temperatures today are the warmest in at least 2,000 years.Photo Gallery: Little Ice AgeNatural Sciences, Research, Environment, Institutes, Natural SciencesDiscovery & InnovationSupport INSTAARvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU Board of Regents expands in-state tuition status for military families
CU System news release The University of Colorado Board of Regents today authorized a new systemwide program that will offer in-state tuition to dependents of military veterans, students who have attended at least two years of high school in Colorado while their families lived in the state. The pilot program expands on 2009’s Colorado House Bill 1039, which established in-state tuition status at state higher education institutions for honorably discharged veterans, but did not require the same status be granted to dependents of those veterans. The state law also did not allow for students whose families are transferred out of state for military service before completing the final year of high school. The resolution passed unanimously at today’s board meeting at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs also asks university leadership to pursue state legislation that would expand in-state tuition status to include students in similar situations who are dependents of active duty service members. Regent Sue Sharkey said she proposed the action because the transitory nature of military service makes it difficult for Colorado military families to establish resident status during their time living here. “The University of Colorado demonstrates strong support of our nation’s military through various programs within the university campuses,” Sharkey said. “CU, as well as the citizens of Colorado, recognize and appreciate the sacrifice of our military personnel and their families, and the significant contributions they bring to our state and nation.” CU campuses in Boulder, Colorado Springs and Denver all ranked on the 2012 list of Military Friendly Schools compiled by GI Jobs magazine, which recognizes the top 20 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that do the most for service members and veterans. The Board of Regents consists of nine members serving staggered six-year terms, one elected from each of Colorado's seven congressional districts and two from the state at-large. The board is charged constitutionally with the general supervision of the university and the exclusive control and direction of all funds of and appropriations to the university, unless otherwise provided by law. The University of Colorado is a premier public research university with four campuses: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Some 60,000 students are pursuing academic degrees at CU. Academic prestige is marked by the university’s four Nobel laureates, seven MacArthur “genius” Fellows, 18 alumni astronauts and 19 Rhodes Scholars. For more information about the CU system and to access campus resources, go to www.cu.edu.  “The University of Colorado demonstrates strong support of our nation’s military through various programs within the university campuses,” said Regent Sue Sharkey. “CU, as well as the citizens of Colorado, recognize and appreciate the sacrifice of our military personnel and their families, and the significant contributions they bring to our state and nation.”Serving Colorado. Engaged in the World.var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Alumni Profile: Judd Rogers
Alternative energy in Chile? That's the unique focus of Judd Rogers' work after a diverse set of experiences at CU-Boulder. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: Academics, Business, International Business, Admissions, Global Engagement, Research & Creative Works, Energy, Wind electricity, Sustainable transportation & fuels


Student Profile: Kathleen Majewski
Kathleen Majewski values her CU journalism mentors and the fun she's had on the track and field team, but she says there's one event on campus when she always feels the most Buff pride. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


Student Profile: Dustin Farivar
Dustin Farivar found many leadership opportunities at CU-Boulder. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


Alumni Profile: Judge Christine Arguello
Years before she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Federal Judge Christine Arguello got her start in education at CU-Boulder. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


Alumni Profile: Astronaut/Instructor Jim Voss
Jim Voss is one of 18 NASA astronauts who've attended CU-Boulder. Now he shares his experiences as an instructor on campus. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


Finding compounds that can help fight cancer
SuviCa Inc. of Boulder and CU-Boulder completed an exclusive license agreement for a CU drug screening technology to identify novel therapies for cancer.  The patented drug discovery tool, developed by Professor Tin Tin Su of the molecular, cellular, and developmental biology (MCDB) department, uses a genetically modified Drosophila fruit fly model to screen for compounds effective against various types of cancer, either alone or in combination with existing therapies.  The screening technique will be used to identify new clinical candidates using a methodology that is both time efficient and cost effective. Because it uses a whole-animal screening model, the technique can more easily eliminate drug candidates with undesired toxicity. SuviCa Inc. is an early-stage cancer drug discovery and development company co-founded by Su, who now serves as its chief science officer.  Working in collaboration with scientists at CU-Boulder, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and Colorado State University, SuviCa is pursuing a promising discovery process based on several small molecules identified using its proprietary screening technology and targeted to a distinct cellular process. SuviCa researchers hope to discover and develop novel drugs used as standalone therapies or to prevent tumor recurrence following treatment with a variety of approved anti-cancer therapies. SuviCa recently received funding from Colorado’s Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program, an initiative launched in 2007 by the state of Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade to provide early-stage, matching seed grants to enable the development and commercial validation of promising technologies that are licensed from Colorado research institutions. SuviCa also received a grant from the Internal Revenue Service through the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Program aimed at small businesses. Current and future efforts will focus on identifying and optimizing additional lead compounds to enter into formal clinical testing. Give to MCDB researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-Boulder doctoral student wins 2012 Thomas Jefferson Award
CU system news release Five members of the University of Colorado community – leaders among faculty, staff and students at four campuses – have been named recipients of the 2012 Thomas Jefferson Award, among the highest honors given at CU, the state’s flagship university.   Award winners are those who embody and advance the ideals of Jefferson, the third U.S. president and a Founding Father whose influence shaped American arts, sciences, education and public affairs. The Jefferson Award recognizes CU faculty, staff and students who demonstrate excellence in the performance of regular academic responsibilities while contributing outstanding service to the broader community. The honorees are: Angie White, M.A., doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at CU-Boulder. She studies issues of community building, experiential education and poverty. Her research explores how communication strategies may be used to help people in poverty empower themselves and move toward self-sufficiency. Andrea O’Reilly Herrera, Ph.D., director of the Women and Ethnic Studies (WEST) Program at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). The poet and author is regarded as a leading scholar of the Cuban diaspora, and her work bridges art, literature, literary criticism, creative writing and history. She partners with local libraries and schools in developing writing and art programs. Thomas Huber, Ph.D., professor of geography and environmental Studies at UCCS. An alumnus of the University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), he has worked on such projects as habitat mapping of the Prebles meadow jumping mouse in El Paso County, vegetation mapping of large portions of Colorado for the Division of Wildlife, and mapping and analyzing elk habitat in the Pikes Peak region. Philip Zeitler, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and clinical sciences at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is an internationally known expert in the field of pediatric endocrinology. His rigorous focus on top-quality research has contributed greatly to the world’s understanding of pediatric Type 2 diabetes and pediatric obesity.  Linda Theus-Lee, M.S., program assistant and event coordinator for the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) Business School. She is a versatile professional, artist, counselor, teacher and entrepreneur. A CU Denver alumna, her volunteerism includes developing and implementing a reading program at the Ford Warren Library, and mentoring girls at the Gilliam Youth Services Center and the Jefferson County Correction Facility. Honorees have demonstrated a strong commitment to the advancement of higher education, a deeply seated sense of individual civic responsibility and a profound commitment to the welfare and rights of the individual.  “The winners of the Thomas Jefferson Award show how the CU community adds value not only to our institution, but throughout the state and beyond,” said CU President Bruce D. Benson. “By teaching, doing research and providing service, our people have a profound effect on improving quality of life for countless others.” A committee of CU faculty, staff and students selects winners. Recipients receive an engraved plaque and a $2,000 honorarium, and are recognized by the CU Board of Regents. The Thomas Jefferson Award was established at the University of Virginia in 1951 by the Robert Earll McConnell Foundation to honor teaching faculty who exemplified the humanistic ideals associated with Jefferson. By 1962, six other institutions – including CU – had established a Jefferson Award. In 1980, the university added a student category; in 1988, the staff category was approved. Funding for the awards is derived from earnings on an endowment provided by the McConnell Foundation and from a bequest by Harrison Blair, a CU alumnus. The University of Colorado is a premier public research university with four campuses: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Some 60,000 students are pursuing academic degrees at CU. Academic prestige is marked by the university’s four Nobel laureates, seven MacArthur “genius” Fellows, 18 alumni astronauts and 19 Rhodes Scholars. For more information about the CU system and to access campus resources, go to www.cu.edu.   Contact: Jay Dedrick, 303-860-5707, Jay.Dedrick@cu.edu      “The winners of the Thomas Jefferson Award show how the CU community adds value not only to our institution, but throughout the state and beyond,” said CU President Bruce D. Benson. “By teaching, doing research and providing service, our people have a profound effect on improving quality of life for countless others.”Community Outreach, Civic EngagementCommunity & Culture, Civic Engagement, Community Outreach, Serving Coloradovar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Angie White


New CU-led study may answer long-standing questions about enigmatic Little Ice Age
A new University of Colorado Boulder-led study appears to answer contentious questions about the onset and cause of Earth’s Little Ice Age, a period of cooling temperatures that began after the Middle Ages and lasted into the late 19th century. According to the new study, the Little Ice Age began abruptly between A.D. 1275 and 1300, triggered by repeated, explosive volcanism and sustained by a self- perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback system in the North Atlantic Ocean, according to CU-Boulder Professor Gifford Miller, who led the study. The primary evidence comes from radiocarbon dates from dead vegetation emerging from rapidly melting icecaps on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, combined with ice and sediment core data from the poles and Iceland and from sea ice climate model simulations, said Miller. While scientific estimates regarding the onset of the Little Ice Age range from the 13th century to the 16th century, there is little consensus, said Miller.  There is evidence the Little Ice Age affected places as far away as South America and China, although it was particularly evident in northern Europe. Advancing glaciers in mountain valleys destroyed towns, and famous paintings from the period depict people ice skating on the Thames River in London and canals in the Netherlands, waterways that were ice-free in winter before and after the Little Ice Age. “The dominant way scientists have defined the Little Ice Age is by the expansion of big valley glaciers in the Alps and in Norway,” said Miller. “But the time it took for European glaciers to advance far enough to demolish villages would have been long after the onset of the cold period,” said Miller, a fellow at CU’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Most scientists think the Little Ice Age was caused either by decreased summer solar radiation, erupting volcanoes that cooled the planet by ejecting shiny aerosol particles that reflected sunlight back into space, or a combination of both, said Miller. The new study suggests that the onset of the Little Ice Age was caused by an unusual, 50-year-long episode of four massive tropical volcanic eruptions. Climate models used in the new study showed that the persistence of cold summers following the eruptions is best explained by a sea ice-ocean feedback system originating in the North Atlantic Ocean. “This is the first time anyone has clearly identified the specific onset of the cold times marking the start of the Little Ice Age,” said Miller.  “We also have provided an understandable climate feedback system that explains how this cold period could be sustained for a long period of time.  If the climate system is hit again and again by cold conditions over a relatively short period -- in this case, from volcanic eruptions -- there appears to be a cumulative cooling effect.”   A paper on the subject is being published Jan. 31 in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. The paper was authored by scientists and students from CU-Boulder, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, the University of Iceland, the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the Icelandic Science Foundation. As part of the study, Miller and his colleagues radiocarbon-dated roughly 150 samples of dead plant material with roots intact collected from beneath receding ice margins of ice caps on Baffin Island.  There was a large cluster of “kill dates” between A.D. 1275 and 1300, indicating the plants had been frozen and engulfed by ice during a relatively sudden event. Both low-lying and higher altitude plants all died at roughly the same time, indicating the onset of the Little Ice Age on Baffin Island -- the fifth largest island in the world -- was abrupt. The team saw a second spike in plant kill dates at about A.D. 1450, indicating the quick onset of a second major cooling event. To broaden the study, the team analyzed sediment cores from a glacial lake linked to the 367-square-mile Langjökull ice cap in the central highlands of Iceland that reaches nearly a mile high. The annual layers in the cores -- which can be reliably dated by using tephra deposits from known historic volcanic eruptions on Iceland going back more than 1,000 years -- suddenly became thicker in the late 13th century and again in the 15th century due to increased erosion caused by the expansion of the ice cap as the climate cooled, he said. “That showed us the signal we got from Baffin Island was not just a local signal, it was a North Atlantic signal,” said Miller.  “This gave us a great deal more confidence that there was a major perturbation to the Northern Hemisphere climate near the end of the 13th century.” Average summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere did not return to those of the Middle Ages until the 20th century, and the temperatures of the Middle Ages are now exceeded in many areas, he said. The team used the NCAR-based Community Climate System Model to test the effects of volcanic cooling on Arctic sea ice extent and mass. The model, which simulated various sea ice conditions from about A.D. 1150-1700, showed several large, closely spaced eruptions could have cooled the Northern Hemisphere enough to trigger Arctic sea ice growth. The models showed sustained cooling from volcanoes would have sent some of the expanding Arctic sea ice down along the eastern coast of Greenland until it eventually melted in the North Atlantic.  Since sea ice contains almost no salt, when it melted the surface water became less dense, preventing it from mixing with deeper North Atlantic water.  This weakened heat transport back to the Arctic and creating a self-sustaining feedback system on the sea ice long after the effects of the volcanic aerosols subsided, he said. "Our simulations showed that the volcanic eruptions may have had a profound cooling effect,” says NCAR scientist Bette Otto-Bliesner, a co-author of the study. “The eruptions could have triggered a chain reaction, affecting sea ice and ocean currents in a way that lowered temperatures for centuries." The researchers set the solar radiation at a constant level in the climate models, and Miller said the Little Ice Age likely would have occurred without decreased summer solar radiation at the time. “Estimates of the sun’s variability over time are getting smaller, it’s now thought by some scientists to have varied little more in the last millennia than during a standard 11-year solar cycle,” he said. One of the primary questions pertaining to the Little Ice Age is how unusual the warming of Earth is today, he said.  A previous study led by Miller in 2008 on Baffin Island indicated temperatures today are the warmest in at least 2,000 years. Other co-authors on the paper include CU-Boulder's Yafang Zhong, Darren Larsen, Kurt Refsnider, Scott Lehman and Chance Anderson, NCAR's Marika Holland and David Bailey, the University of Iceland's Áslaug Geirsdóttir, Helgi Bjornsson and Darren Larsen, UC-Irvine's John Southon and the University of Edinburgh's Thorvaldur Thordarson. Larsen is doctoral student jointly at CU-Boulder and the University of Iceland.   Contact: Gifford Miller, 303-492-6962Gmiller@colorado.edu Bette Otto-Bliesner, NCAR, 303-497-1723 Jim Scott, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3114 Kate Ramsayer, AGU media relations, 202-777-7524 David Hosansky, NCAR/UCAR media relations, 303-497-8611 Cheryl Dybas, NSF communications, 703-292-7734“This is the first time anyone has clearly identified the specific onset of the cold times marking the start of the Little Ice Age,” according to CU-Boulder Professor Gifford Miller, who led the study. “We also have provided an understandable climate feedback system that explains how this cold period could be sustained for a long period of time. If the climate system is hit again and again by cold conditions over a relatively short period -- in this case, from volcanic eruptions -- there appears to be a cumulative cooling effect.”Natural Sciences, Environment, InstitutesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborations, Student Researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: University of Colorado Boulder Professor Gifford Miller is shown here collecting dead plant samples from beneath a Baffin Island ice cap. A new study led by Miller indicates the Little Ice Age began roughly A.D. 1275 and was triggered repeated, explosive volcanism that cooled the atmosphere. Photo courtesy Gifford Miller, University of Colorado.


CU-Boulder ranked No. 1 for Peace Corps volunteers
For the second straight year, CU-Boulder is ranked No. 1 in the nation for graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers with 112 undergraduate alumni currently serving around the world. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: Interdisciplinary, Peace Corp, International, Outreach, Outreach, Global Engagement, Civic Engagement


CU-Boulder names former CU President ‘Sandy’ Bracken to Newton Chair in Leadership
The University of Colorado Boulder today announced the appointment of former University of Colorado President Alexander E. “Sandy” Bracken to the Quigg and Virginia S. Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership at the University of Colorado Boulder. Bracken, who served as the 19th president of the University of Colorado in 2000, succeeds former CU President Hank Brown as the Newton Chair. Brown held the inaugural chair from 2008-10. The Newton Chair supports and helps to coordinate the activities of several marquee leadership programs at CU-Boulder, including the Presidents Leadership Class, the Chancellor’s Leadership Residential Academic Program and the Leadership Certificate program. The chair also helps to bring experienced leaders from government, business, higher education, the military and the public sector to campus to interact with students and faculty and advise students on leadership paths. Overall, the chair serves as a catalyst to expose more students campuswide to leadership training and development. “I am delighted that former President Bracken has accepted the appointment to serve as our next Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “He is both a scholar of leadership and an accomplished leader himself. His long record of public service has given him vital insights that will help guide our students and faculty in their studies of leadership.” Bracken most recently served as executive director of the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Business from 2001-07. Prior to his service as interim CU president in 2000, he served as vice president for public affairs for 19 years with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., and before that, as assistant professor of history at Anderson College in Anderson, Ind. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business and the board of directors for the Presidents Leadership Class, both at CU-Boulder. He also serves as chair of the Imagine! Foundation board and is a board member of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County. Bracken also has been affiliated with several state commissions, including the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. He also served on the board of Boulder Community Hospital. “It is an honor and a privilege to accept this appointment as the Newton Endowed Chair,” said Bracken. “Leadership is a key resource for Colorado and the nation, and I look forward to continuing the work of President Brown, Chancellor DiStefano, and the faculty and staff of CU-Boulder in elevating the campus’s leadership programs to new levels of success.”  Contact: Bronson Hilliard, CU-Boulder spokesperson, 303-735-6183“I am delighted that former President Bracken has accepted the appointment to serve as our next Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “He is both a scholar of leadership and an accomplished leader himself. His long record of public service has given him vital insights that will help guide our students and faculty in their studies of leadership.”BusinessServing Colorado. Engaged in the World., Campus, Communityvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Alexander "Sandy" Bracken.


CU-Boulder No. 1 for Peace Corps volunteers for second straight year
For the second straight year, CU-Boulder is ranked No. 1 in the nation for graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers with 112 undergraduate alumni currently serving around the world. “Our No. 1 Peace Corps ranking for volunteer service is tangible evidence of something we have always known: our students and graduates are service-oriented and down-to-earth, working tirelessly to benefit communities around the globe,” said Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “It emphasizes how CU-Boulder’s civically engaged students go on to become service-oriented citizens at home and abroad.” Each year since 2004, CU-Boulder has ranked in the top three schools in the nation for Peace Corps volunteers -- three times as the No. 2 school and four times at No. 3. “We have a track record of attracting adventurous students who also have a hunger to serve, particularly in underdeveloped nations,” said Peter Simons, director of CU-Boulder’s Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement. The Peace Corps is one of 12 programs overseen by CU-Boulder's Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement. In 2010, CU-Boulder became part of the Peace Corps Master’s International program, which allows volunteers to combine Peace Corps service with a master’s degree program and receive credit for their Peace Corps service abroad. In the 50 years since the Peace Corps was founded, more than 200,000 volunteers have fanned out across the globe working on everything from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation. More than 2,300 CU-Boulder alumni have served as Peace Corps volunteers, No. 5 all-time.Photo Gallery: CU-Boulder and the Peace CorpsGlobal Engagement, Civic EngagementServing Colorado. Engaged in the World., Outreachvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU-Boulder-led team to assess decline of Arctic sea ice in Alaska's Beaufort Sea
  A national research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder is embarking on a two-year, multi-pronged effort to better understand the impacts of environmental factors associated with the continuing decline of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. The team will use tools ranging from unmanned aircraft and satellites to ocean buoys in order to understand the characteristics and changes in Arctic sea ice, which was at 1.67 million square miles during September 2011, more than 1 million square miles below the 1979-2000 monthly average sea ice extent for September -- an area larger than Texas and California combined. Critical ocean regions north of the Alaskan coast, like the Beaufort Sea and the Canada Basin, have experienced record warming and decreased sea ice extent unprecedented in human memory, said CU-Boulder Research Professor James Maslanik, who is leading the research effort. The team will be targeting the Beaufort Sea, considered a “marginal ice zone” where old and thick multiyear sea ice has failed to survive during the summer melt season in recent years, said Maslanik of CU-Boulder’s Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research in CU’s engineering college. Such marginal ice zones are characterized by extensive ice loss and a strong “ice-albedo” feedback. “Sea ice is lost when the darker ocean absorbs more sunlight in the form of heat in the summers, resulting in potentially thinner sea ice that re-forms the following winter,” Maslanik said.  “This positive feedback between heat absorption by the ocean and accelerated melting becomes reinforcing in itself.” Marginal ice zones also are characterized by significant human and marine mammal activity, he said. There was a record loss of sea ice cover over the Arctic in 2007, he said. “In some areas of the Arctic Ocean the multiyear ice rebounded, but in the Beaufort Sea we did not see that kind of multiyear ice persistence like we used to see,” said Maslanik, who also is a research professor in the aerospace engineering sciences department. “The biggest question is whether places like the Beaufort Sea and adjacent Canada Basin have passed a ‘tipping point’ and now are essentially sub-Arctic zones where ice disappears each summer,” he said.  Such ice loss could be causing fundamental changes in ocean conditions, including earlier annual blooms of phytoplankton, which are microscopic plant-like organisms that drive the marine food web. The vast majority of climate scientists believe shrinking Arctic sea ice in recent decades is due to rising temperatures primarily caused by human activities that pump huge amounts of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The new $3 million study led by Maslanik, “The Marginal Ice Zone Observations and Processes EXperiment,” or MIZOPEX, is being funded by NASA. The team will undertake extensive airborne surface mapping using a variety of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or UAS, comparing the results with data collected by a fleet of satellites from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Japanese space agency.  Unlike satellites, small, unmanned aircraft can fly below the clouds, observe the same location continuously for hours and make more precise measurements of sea ice composition and sea surface temperatures.  Maslanik and his CU-Boulder team previously used unmanned aircraft to assess ice conditions both in the Arctic and in Antarctica. The MIZOPEX arsenal also will include floating buoys that measure ocean temperatures. CU-Boulder engineering faculty members Scott Palo and Dale Lawrence and their graduate students are converting miniaturized versions of dropsondes -- standard weather reconnaissance devices designed to be dropped from aircraft and capture data as they fall toward Earth -- into the buoys that will be deployed by the UAS. The modified dropsondes, which were developed at CU-Boulder for use in Antarctica, will be combined with CU-designed miniature unmanned aircraft that will land on the ocean near sea ice floes. Such floes are critical to several species of Arctic wildlife, including polar bears, walruses and seals. The buoys and unmanned craft will collect sea surface and subsurface temperatures to about a meter deep, while the overflying unmanned planes and satellites measure temperatures at the surface, Maslanik said. “We want to know if the warming is just at the ocean surface or if there is additional heat getting into the mixed layers of the upper ocean, either from absorbed sunlight or from ocean currents, that could be contributing to sea ice melt.” The team plans to gather information over 24-hour cycles to determine how the ocean and ice are reacting to atmospheric changes. “Understanding what’s happening in the water is critical to forecasting what will happen to ice in the near term, as well as in the decades to come,” said MIZOPEX team scientist Betsy Weatherhead of CU-Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. “We’ve never had the data before,” Weatherhead said. “With this new instrumentation, we’ll be able to ask questions and test theories about the drivers of ice melt.” The MIZOPEX effort involves CU-Boulder, NASA, Fort Hays State University in Kansas, Brigham Young University, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, NOAA, the University of Washington and Columbia University.  Ball Aerospace Systems Group of Boulder also is collaborating on the project. Other MIZOPEX project scientists from CU include Brian Argrow, Sandra Castro, Ian Crocker, William Emery, Eric Frew and Mark Tschudi.  Argrow directs the CU-headquartered Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles, a university-government-industry partnership for the development and application of unmanned vehicle systems. For more information on MIZOPEX visit http://ccar.colorado.edu/mizopex/index.html. For more information on CU-Boulder’s Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles visit http://recuv.colorado.edu/.   Contact: James Maslanik, 303-492-8974James.Maslanik@colorado.edu Betsy Weatherhead, 303-497-6653Betsy.Weatherhead@noaa.gov Jim Scott, CU media relations, 303-492-3114Jim.Scott@colorado.edu“The biggest question is whether places like the Beaufort Sea and adjacent Canada Basin have passed a ‘tipping point’ and now are essentially sub-Arctic zones where ice disappears each summer,” said CU-Boulder Research Professor James Maslanik, who is leading the research effort.Engineering, Environment, InstitutesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborations


CU-Boulder ranked No. 1 for Peace Corps volunteers for second straight year
For the second straight year, the University of Colorado Boulder is ranked No. 1 in the nation for graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers with 112 undergraduate alumni currently serving around the world, the Peace Corps announced today. CU-Boulder is ranked the No. 5 all-time school for volunteers with 2,317 alumni who have served in the Peace Corps since it was established in 1961. “For the second year in a row, CU-Boulder has produced more Peace Corps volunteers than any other university in the nation,” said Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams. “CU fosters civic engagement and participation, and students graduate from CU with the language and cross-cultural skills necessary to make them successful during their 27 months of Peace Corps service.” The University of Washington ranked No. 2 for large schools this year with 110 undergraduate alumni serving. Also in the top five, in descending order, were the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Florida and the University of Michigan. “Our No. 1 Peace Corps ranking for volunteer service is tangible evidence of something we have always known: Our students and graduates are service-oriented and down-to-earth, working tirelessly to benefit communities around the globe,” said Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “It emphasizes how CU-Boulder’s civically engaged students go on to become service-oriented citizens at home and abroad.” The Peace Corps ranks its top volunteer-producing schools annually according to the size of the student body. Large schools have more than 15,000 undergraduates, medium-sized schools have between 5,000 and 15,000 undergraduates, and small schools have fewer than 5,000 undergraduates. The George Washington University ranked first among medium-sized schools with 78 undergraduate alumni currently serving and the University of Mary Washington ranked highest among small schools with 29 undergraduate alumni serving. The University of Florida ranked as the top producing school for graduate school alumni volunteers with 30. Each year since 2004, CU-Boulder has ranked in the top three schools in the nation for Peace Corps volunteers -- three times as the No. 2 school and four times at No. 3. “We have a track record of attracting adventurous students who also have a hunger to serve, particularly in underdeveloped nations,” said Peter Simons, director of CU-Boulder’s Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement. In 2010, CU-Boulder became part of the Peace Corps Master’s International program, which allows volunteers to combine Peace Corps service with a master’s degree program and receive credit for their Peace Corps service abroad. For more information about the Peace Corps at CU-Boulder, call the campus recruiting office at 303-492-8454 or visit http://www.colorado.edu/iece/peacecorps/.   FACT SHEET CU-Boulder Peace Corps Volunteers -- CU-Boulder is ranked No. 1 in the nation for graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers with 112 undergraduate alumni currently serving. -- CU-Boulder is ranked the No. 5 all-time school for volunteers with 2,317 alumni who have served in the Peace Corps since it was established in 1961. -- Each year since 2004, CU-Boulder has ranked in the top three schools in the nation for Peace Corps volunteers -- two times as the No. 1 school, three times as the No. 2 school and four times at No. 3. -- The Peace Corps is one of 12 campus programs overseen by CU-Boulder’s Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement. -- The CU-Boulder academic experience stresses rigorous coursework and hands-on research opportunities, enabling undergraduate and graduate students to put their knowledge to use through a variety of critical thinking, leadership development and service-learning opportunities. -- CU-Boulder is one of a select group of public and private universities nationwide participating in the Peace Corps Master’s International program. Contact: Peter Simons, 303-492-1962 Greg Swenson, CU media relations, 303-492-3113“Our No. 1 Peace Corps ranking for volunteer service is tangible evidence of something we have always known: Our students and graduates are service-oriented and down-to-earth, working tirelessly to benefit communities around the globe,” said Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “It emphasizes how CU-Boulder’s civically engaged students go on to become service-oriented citizens at home and abroad.”Academics, Outreach, Global Engagement CU-Boulder and the Peace Corps CU-Boulder has a long history of alumni joining the Peace Corps Photo: Caption: Kristen Mayer graduated from CU-Boulder with a bachelor's degree in French and anthropology in 2009. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa from 2009-11 as a health educator. Photo: Caption: Evan Taylor worked as the CU-Boulder Peace Corps coordinator from 2009-10. He volunteered as a Peace Corps health educator in Mali, Africa from 2006-08 Photo: Caption: Fishing boat in Mali Africa, where CU-Boulder Peace Corps coordinator Evan Taylor volunteered as a Peace Corps health educator from 2006-08. Photo: Caption: Julie Fast graduated from CU-Boulder in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in integrative physiology. She worked as a Peace Corps community health volunteer from 2008-10 in Cajamarca, Peru. Photo: Caption: CU-Boulder Peace Corps coordinator Alea Richardson worked in Ecuador as a Peace Corps community health volunteer from 2008-10. Photo: Caption: Kevin Wheeler (left) graduated from CU-Boulder with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1997, before returning to complete a master's degree in the same field in 2000. He served in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic working on water purifying systems from 2002-04. Serving Colorado. Engaged in the World., Outreach, Research & Creative Works, Teachingvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Peace Corps director to visit CU-Boulder Jan. 25
  Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams will give a short presentation at the University of Colorado Boulder on Wednesday, Jan. 25, to share stories of CU alumni who are currently serving overseas and discuss the importance of the Peace Corps in the world today. The presentation will begin at 1:30 p.m. in Old Main Chapel and is free and open to the public. Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009, Williams is the 18th director of the Peace Corps and the fourth director to have served as a Peace Corps volunteer. Williams served as a volunteer from 1967 to 1970. He served two years in a training program for rural teachers in Monte Plata, Dominican Republic, and then extended his service for a third year to work as a professor of teaching methods at the Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in Santiago, Chile. After completing his service, he became coordinator of minority recruitment and project evaluation officer for the Peace Corps in Chicago from 1970 to 1971. For the first time in its history, CU-Boulder was ranked No. 1 in the nation for graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers last year with 117 undergraduate alumni serving around the world. Overall, CU-Boulder is ranked the No. 5 all-time school for volunteers with 2,369.   Contact: Peter Simons, 303-492-1962 Greg Swenson, CU media relations, 303-492-3113  Academics, OutreachGlobal engagement, Serving Colorado. Engaged in the World.var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Nutrition labels can lead even most health conscious consumers astray
Jan. 2010                                                                   Donald Lichtenstein Your food choice may not be as healthy as you think. New research by Donald Lichtenstein, CU-Boulder professor of the Leeds School of Business, reveals how food manufacturers are trying to make their products appear more nutritional.  It’s a tactic he calls the “Health Framing Effect. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: Academics, Business, Marketing


Nutrition labels can lead even the most health-conscious consumers astray, study finds
People who made New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier or lose weight might also want to brush up on their math skills, according to Professor Donald Lichtenstein of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. In a study appearing in this month’s edition of the Journal of Marketing, Lichtenstein and his colleagues found that nutrition labels on packaged food products in the United States can lead even the most health-conscious consumers astray, if they don’t “do the math.” The study was co-authored by marketing instructor Gina Mohr of Colorado State University and marketing Professor Chris Janiszewski of the University of Florida. While the “Nutrition Facts” printed on food labels are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, companies are given some freedom to present food packages as a single serving or as smaller serving sizes within a package, according to Lichtenstein, chair of the Leeds School marketing department. Through this practice, referred to in the study by Lichtenstein and his colleagues as “health framing,” companies can present smaller serving sizes so that a food’s negative nutrients -- calories and fat -- on a nutrition label show up as a lower number per serving. “The take-away message is when you look at the calories per serving on a candy bar or a can of soup at the grocery store, be sure to look at the serving size too,” Lichtenstein said. “Surprisingly what we found was those people who are health conscious and are concerned about nutrition fall prey to health framing effects more frequently. “The problem comes when people do pay attention, but they only pay attention to the calorie information and not the serving size,” Lichtenstein said. “And that’s what we find in study after study. Those consumers who are more health conscious pay attention to the calorie information, but they don’t take the extra step to look at the serving size. So they are duped, if you will, by a health framing effect.” This is where the math part comes in. For example, if a candy bar is 2 ounces and has 200 calories for a whole bar, it might be labeled as one serving or two servings. If the manufacturer decides to make the serving size of 1 ounce it cuts the calories per serving in half. “We found that many consumers only pay attention to the calorie information and don’t look to see exactly what the serving size is,” he said. “When you present a smaller serving size, it cuts down the calories per serving, which makes consumers feel less guilty about consuming the product, and that affects not only their purchase intentions, but actual choice.” To ensure more informed consumer choices, Lichtenstein recommends reducing the latitude manufacturers have in setting serving sizes, requiring manufacturers to report nutrient information on a per unit weight basis -- calories per ounce -- and increasing consumer education about manufacturer use of health framing. Without any changes to policy, Lichtenstein said, consumers need to put the onus on themselves when it comes to food labels. “In the absence of any changes, public policy officials should encourage consumers to calculate negative nutrients for a reasonable serving size, so they know the health benefits and detriments of the foods they eat,” Lichtenstein said. Contact: Donald Lichtenstein, Leeds School, 303-492-8206 Greg Swenson, CU media relations, 303-492-3113“The problem comes when people do pay attention, but they only pay attention to the calorie information and not the serving size,” said Professor Donald Lichtenstein of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. “And that’s what we find in study after study. Those consumers who are more health conscious pay attention to the calorie information, but they don’t take the extra step to look at the serving size. So they are duped, if you will, by a health framing effect.”Business Nutrition labels can lead even most health conscious consumers astray Discovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Trying to eat healthy? Read those nutrition labels carefully
People who made New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier or lose weight might also want to brush up on their math skills. In a new study, marketing professor Donald Lichtenstein found that nutrition labels on packaged food products in the United States can lead even the most health-conscious consumers astray, if they don’t “do the math.” While the “Nutrition Facts” printed on food labels are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, companies are given some freedom to present food packages as a single serving or as smaller serving sizes within a package, according to Lichtenstein, chair of the Leeds School marketing department. Through this practice, referred to in the study by Lichtenstein and his colleagues as “health framing,” companies can present smaller serving sizes so that a food’s negative nutrients -- calories and fat -- on a nutrition label show up as a lower number per serving. “The take-away message is when you look at the calories per serving on a candy bar or a can of soup at the grocery store, be sure to look at the serving size too,” Lichtenstein said. “Surprisingly, what we found was those people who are health conscious and are concerned about nutrition fall prey to health framing effects more frequently. “The problem comes when people do pay attention, but they only pay attention to the calorie information and not the serving size,” Lichtenstein said. “And that’s what we find in study after study. Those consumers who are more health conscious pay attention to the calorie information, but they don’t take the extra step to look at the serving size. So they are duped, if you will, by a health framing effect.” This is where the math part comes in. For example, if a candy bar is 2 ounces and has 200 calories for a whole bar, it might be labeled as one serving or two servings. If the manufacturer decides to make the serving size of 1 ounce it cuts the calories per serving in half. “We found that many consumers only pay attention to the calorie information and don’t look to see exactly what the serving size is,” he said. “When you present a smaller serving size, it cuts down the calories per serving, which makes consumers feel less guilty about consuming the product, and that affects not only their purchase intentions, but actual choice."   Nutrition labels can lead even most health conscious consumers astray Jan. 2010                                                                   Donald Lichtenstein Your food choice may not be as healthy as you think. New research by Donald Lichtenstein, CU-Boulder professor of the Leeds School of Business, reveals how food manufacturers are trying to make their products appear more nutritional.  It’s a tactic he calls the “Health Framing Effect.Topic: Academics, Business, Marketing Business, Social SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Serving Colorado. Engaged in the World.var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Deepwater Horizon lessons are subject of Jan. 26 lecture at CU-Boulder
  The University of Colorado Boulder will host a free public lecture this month illuminating the lessons learned from the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and resulted in the largest accidental oil spill in U.S. history. Called “What Happened at Deepwater Horizon?” the event will be presented Jan. 26 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the Mathematics Building auditorium, room 100. Donald Winter, former secretary of the Navy, professor of engineering practice at the University of Michigan and chair of the National Academies committee that wrote a report on the Deepwater Horizon accident, will be the first of two guest speakers.   The report, issued last month, points to multiple flawed decisions leading to the blowout and explosion, and calls for a new “system safety” approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every level of operation. A second guest speaker will be Paul Hsieh, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who was named 2011 Federal Employee of the Year. Hsieh performed the crucial calculations on pressure that deemed it safe to cap the oil well in mid-July without causing it to rupture from beneath the seabed and result in a bigger disaster. Two CU-Boulder environmental engineering faculty who have been researching the aftermath of the incident also will present their findings at the event. Fernando Rosario-Ortiz will discuss the environmental fate of dispersants used in the disaster response and Alina Handorean will present information on air quality impacts of the oil spill. “I was really jarred by this event because it was so preventable,” said event co-organizer Jana Milford, professor and director of the Environmental Engineering Program at CU-Boulder. “By learning more about what happened, I think we can encourage a stronger culture around safety.” The event is presented by the College of Engineering and Applied Science, the BOLD Center, the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Environmental Engineering Program. For more information or to request accommodations for disabilities call 303-492-4774.   Contact: Jana Milford, 303-492-5542jana.milford@colorado.edu Roseanna Neupauer, 303-492-6274Roseanna.neupauer@colorado.edu Carol Rowe, 303-492-7426carol.rowe@colorado.edu  “I was really jarred by this event because it was so preventable,” said event co-organizer Jana Milford, professor and director of the Environmental Engineering Program at CU-Boulder. “By learning more about what happened, I think we can encourage a stronger culture around safety.”EngineeringCommunity & Culture, Arts & Culture, Lectures & Seminarsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Get involved, get connected, get inspired
First semester of freshman year, the majority of your time was probably devoted to getting lost around campus, making friends in your dorm, figuring our your major, and surviving finals. Now that you have a whole semester under your belt, it’s time to get involved and find your niche at CU. Getting involved makes the large CU student population seem much smaller as you get to know more people and take part in the network of groups and organizations on campus. With so many opportunities and different ways to contribute, there’s no excuse to not find something. But more importantly, the significant impact getting involved can have on your education here at CU can create, change, and carve your future path in ways far beyond what a textbook and lecture ever can. For a comprehensive listing of CU-Boulder resources and services for students, check out the Division of Student Affairs website. Volunteer your time Now that we are college students, it truly is our duty to give back to the community we have gained so much from. Whether you want to help animals or children, advocate for the environment or for social change, it doesn’t matter—just find something you can support, and do it. Not sure where to volunteer? Try the Volunteer Resource Center, Volunteer Connection, VolunteerMatch, or the Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement. “I like being in GlobeMed because I have met a bunch of people who have a similar passion for promoting global health equity.” – Ashley Armstrong Join a student activity or organization No matter what your interests or passions are, there is a group of students for you. From intramural and club sports, to Anime Anonymous, to Sports Marketing Club, to the Extreme Measures, to Gay Straight Alliance, to Boulder Freeride, there are countless student groups you can join. Becoming involved in an organization is a great way to pursue interests outside of the classroom. Can’t find the group your looking for? Create your own! “Doing school activities not only allows you to make new friends, but also allows you to find yourself and your potential career path.” – Elle Aud Find a leadership position A foundation in leadership not only helps you excel in academia and in the work world, but also enriches you personally. CU GOLD, Chancellor’s Leadership Studies Program, and CU Student Government (CUSG) are only a few leadership-based groups on campus. Reaching a leadership position in any student organization can also be just as rewarding as participating in a group meant specifically for developing leadership skills. “Student Ambassadors is really about bringing the best and brightest students to the CU campus. Being a student ambassador gives me the chance to be make a difference in the lives of incoming freshmen by sharing all of the wonderful opportunities CU offers.” – Andi Hudler Go Greek Getting involved with the Greek community on campus is another great way to get involved. Panhellenic Sororities and Multicultural Greek Organizations are both affiliated with the university, and provide students with opportunities to participate in community service, develop leadership skills, and expand socially. The Interfraternity Council also provides students with academic support, leadership skills, lifelong friends, and a network of opportunities. “The Greek community is an excellent source to meet other students from different backgrounds whether they’re from out-of-state or different majors. It’s a great way to get involved with a large community that shares the same motivation to help other organizations like charities and local student groups.” – Brett Forrest These are only a few options of how you can get involved on campus; so if you don’t see anything you like, start looking for other opportunities. Becoming active on campus allows you to be a contributing member of the CU and Boulder communities, helps you meet people and find your place on campus, and can inspire interests and passions outside of the classroom. But let’s be real—another huge perk of becoming active on campus is that it’s a major résumé-builder. The truth is, thousands of students graduate every year across the country with your same degree—so what you do outside of the classroom sets you apart and distinguishes you as the most valuable candidate to employers. Most companies and organizations don’t care about your GPA, how many credits you graduated with, or even what your specific major is (sorry to break it to you). What makes you unique are the groups and organizations you belong to, positions you hold, and the overall good you’ve contributed to the community. Also, employers love to see long-term commitment—so if you start now, you’re ahead of the game.  So get involved today! var switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU wins EPA challenge to divert most gameday garbage from landfills
The University of Colorado Boulder topped two leader boards in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 Game Day Challenge -- a national competition to eliminate waste generated at college football games. CU won the 48-school “Diversion Rate” and 17-school “Organics Reduction” categories in the EPA’s NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision contest. “Our achievements toward zero-waste reflect the efforts of an outstanding team committed to this initiative,” said CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn. “Being a national leader in the EPA challenge would not have been possible without the dedication and tireless efforts of campus leaders and the cooperation of event sponsors and vendors. The enthusiasm and willingness of fans, led by our students, has been key in driving the success of this endeavor.” Data for CU’s competition in the EPA challenge was taken from the Oct. 22, 2011, home football game against the University of Oregon. Measures that marked CU as the division winner in “Diversion Rate” and “Organics Reduction” included diverting nearly 88 percent of total gameday waste from landfills. Also, about 2.5 ounces of organic materials per person were diverted from landfills and composted or donated instead. “One of the most exciting aspects of this whole effort has been the reduction in overall waste generated despite record attendance and food sales,” said Edward von Bleichert, CU-Boulder environmental operations manager. “Compared to 2008, the 2011 season produced 21 percent less total waste per game and sent 44 percent less trash to the landfill per game due to aggressive composting and recycling efforts.” According to the EPA, 2.7 million game-goers involved in the 2011 challenge from 78 participating colleges and universities diverted more than 500,000 pounds of waste from football games, preventing nearly 810 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. That is the equivalent of the annual emissions from 159 passenger vehicles. CU also competed in the EPA’s 2009 inaugural Game Day Challenge against seven other schools, winning in the “Diversion Rate” and “Waste Reduction” categories. In 2008, CU became the nation’s first major college football program to commit to zero-waste at football games through its own Ralphie’s Green Stampede initiative, later extending the same efforts to all athletics events. “We would be remiss if we did not salute Boulder County’s own White Wave Foods for its inspiration and support in creating Ralphie’s Green Stampede,” said Bohn. For more information on Ralphie’s Green Stampede visit http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4457&SPID=274&DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=1549954. For more information on the EPA Game Day Challenge visit http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/partnerships/wastewise/challenge/gameday/index.htm.   Contact: Mike Bohn, 303-492-7930mike.bohn@colorado.edu Edward von Bleichert, 303-735-3627edward.vonbleichert@colorado.edu Dave Newport, 303-492-8308dave.newport@colorado.edu Elizabeth Lock, 303-492-3117elizabeth.lock@colorado.edu“One of the most exciting aspects of this whole effort has been the reduction in overall waste generated despite record attendance and food sales,” said Edward von Bleichert, CU-Boulder environmental operations manager. “Compared to 2008, the 2011 season produced 21 percent less total waste per game and sent 44 percent less trash to the landfill per game due to aggressive composting and recycling efforts.”Campus Sustainability, EnvironmentCommunity & Culture, Athletics, Sustainabilityvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: A CU game-goer uses a recyclables and compostables sorting station -- available instead of trash cans through the Ralphie's Green Stampede zero-waste initiative.


As Voyager 1 nears edge of solar system, CU scientists look back
CU-Boulder planetary scientist Larry Esposito remembering the Voyager mission. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: Academics, Natural Sciences, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Research & Creative Works, Natural Sciences


CU-led study pinpoints farthest developing galaxy cluster ever found
A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder has used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to uncover a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of construction -- the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe. In a random sky survey made in near-infrared light, Hubble spied five small galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. They are among the brightest galaxies at that epoch and very young, living just 600 million years after the universe’s birth in the Big Bang. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster, or protocluster, presumably will grow into one of today’s massive galactic “cities” comparable to the nearby Virgo cluster, a collection of more than 2,000 galaxies. “These galaxies formed during the earliest stages of galaxy assembly, when galaxies had just started to cluster together,” says the study’s leader, Michele Trenti, a research associate at CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy and a newly appointed scientist at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. “The result confirms our theoretical understanding of the buildup of galaxy clusters. And Hubble is just powerful enough to find the first examples of them at this distance.” Trenti will present his results Jan. 10 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. The study will appear in the Feb. 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Most galaxies in the universe live in groups and clusters, and astronomers have probed many mature “galactic cities” in detail as far as 11 billion light-years away. But finding clusters in the early phases of construction has been challenging because they are rare, dim and widely scattered across the sky. “Records are always exciting, and this is the earliest and the most distant developing galaxy cluster that has ever been seen,” said CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, a member of the observing team. “We have seen individual galaxies this old and far away, but we have not seen groups of them in the construction process before.” Last year, a group of astronomers uncovered one distant developing cluster. Led by Peter L. Capak of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the astronomers discovered a galactic grouping 12.6 billion light-years away with a variety of telescopes, including Hubble. Spectroscopic observations were made with the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm the cluster’s distance by measuring how much its light has been stretched by the expansion of space. Trenti’s team used the sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 to hunt for the elusive catch. “We need to look in many different areas because the odds of finding something this rare are very small,” Trenti said. “It’s like playing a game of Battleship: The search is hit and miss. Typically a region has nothing, but if we hit the right spot we can find multiple galaxies.” Because these distant, fledgling clusters are so dim, the team hunted for the systems’ brightest galaxies. These bright lights act as billboards, advertising cluster construction zones, according to the team. Galaxies at early epochs don’t live alone. From simulations, the astronomers expect galaxies to be clustered together. Because brightness correlates with mass, the most luminous galaxies pinpoint the location of developing clusters. These powerful light beacons live in deep wells of dark matter, which form the underlying structure in which galaxy clusters form, Trenti said. The team expects many fainter galaxies that were not seen in these observations to inhabit the same neighborhood. The five bright galaxies spotted by Hubble are about one-half to one-tenth the size of our Milky Way, yet are comparable in brightness. The galaxies are bright and massive because they are being fed lots of gas through mergers with other galaxies, Trenti said. The team’s simulations show that the galaxies will eventually merge and form the brightest central galaxy in the cluster, a giant elliptical similar to the Virgo Cluster’s M87. The observations demonstrate the progressive buildup of galaxies and provide further support for the hierarchical model of galaxy assembly, in which small objects accrete mass, or merge, to form bigger objects over a smooth and steady but dramatic process of collision and agglomeration. Astronomers have likened the process to streams merging into tributaries, then into rivers and to a bay. Hubble looked in near-infrared light because ultraviolet and visible light from distant objects have been stretched into near-infrared wavelengths by the expansion of space in these extremely distant galaxies. The observations are part of the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies or BoRG survey, which is using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to search for the brightest galaxies around 13 billion years ago, when light from the first stars burned off a fog of cold hydrogen in a process called reionization. The team estimated the distance to the newly spied galaxies based on their colors, but the astronomers plan to follow up with spectroscopic observations to confirm their distance. Without spectroscopic observations, it’s not clear whether the observed galaxies are gravitationally bound yet. The average distance between them is likely comparable to that of the galaxies in the Local Group, consisting of two large spiral galaxies, the Milky Way and Andromeda, and a few dozen small dwarf galaxies. These observations are pushing Hubble to the limit of its ability. This region, however, will be prime country for future telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared observatory scheduled to launch later this decade. Webb will see farther into the infrared, allowing it to hunt for even earlier stages of galaxy assembly within 300 million years of the Big Bang. Shull, also a faculty member at CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, said the research team will receive an additional 260 orbits of observation time on Hubble to continue the search for more of the fledgling galaxy clusters as part of the BoRG survey.  “There is high interest right now in learning if Earth is unique in the universe in its ability to host life,” he said. “Similarly, we are interested to see if these ancient, forming galaxy clusters we have identified are unique, or if there are others out there. I expect that we may find a few more.” The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute, or STScI, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., in Washington, D.C. For more information on the galaxies visit the news center at http://hubblesite.org/. For more information on CU-Boulder’s CASA visit http://casa.colorado.edu/.   Contact: Michele TrentiMichele.Trenti@colorado.edu Michael Shull, 303-492-7827Michael.Shull@colorado.edu Ray Villard, STScI media relations, 410-338-4514villard@stsci.edu Jim Scott, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3114Jim.Scott@colorado.edu  “Records are always exciting, and this is the earliest and the most distant developing galaxy cluster that has ever been seen,” said CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, a member of the observing team. “We have seen individual galaxies this old and far away, but we have not seen groups of them in the construction process before.”Natural Sciences, Research Galaxy Cluster Photo: Caption: Courtesy NASA Photo: Caption: A team led by a CU-Bulder astronomer has discovered the earliest and most distant developing galaxy cluster ever. Image courtesy NASA, ESA, M. Trenti (University of Colorado Boulder and Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, U.K.), L. Bradley (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore), and the BoRG team Photo: Caption: The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was serviced for the fourth and final time by NASA astronauts in 2009. Image courtesy NASA Photo: Caption: NASa's Hubble Space Telescope, which is carrying an instrument designed by CU-Boulder, has been used to make thousands of important astronomical discoveries in the past two decades. Image courtesy NASA Discovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: The composite image above, taken in visible and near-infrared light, reveals the location of five tiny galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years away. The circles pinpoint the galaxies. The Wide Field Camera 3 aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spied the galaxies in a random sky survey. The developing cluster is the most distant ever observed. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Trenti (University of Colorado Boulder and Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, U.K.), L. Bradley (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore), and the BoRG team


Caution: early galaxy cluster under construction
An astronomy team led by the University of Colorado Boulder using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has zeroed in on a wild intergalactic construction project -- a cluster of early galaxies just starting to assemble only 600 million years after the Big Bang. The five small galaxies clustered together, about 13.1 billion light-years away, are among the brightest galaxies at that epoch and represent the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster, or protocluster, presumably will grow into one of today’s massive “galactic cities” comparable to the nearby Virgo cluster, a collection of more than 2,000 galaxies. “These galaxies formed during the earliest stages of galaxy assembly, when galaxies had just started to cluster together,” says study leader Michele Trenti, a research associate at CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy.  “The result confirms our theoretical understanding of the buildup of galaxy clusters. And Hubble is just powerful enough to find the first examples of them at this distance.” Most galaxies in the universe live in groups and clusters, and astronomers have probed many mature “galactic cities” in detail as far away as 11 billion light-years away. But finding clusters in the early phases of construction has been challenging because they are rare, dim, and widely scattered across the sky. “Records are always exciting, and this is the earliest and the most distant developing galaxy cluster that has ever been seen,” said CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department, a member of the observing team. “We have seen individual galaxies this old and far away, but we have not seen groups of them in the construction process before.” Trenti’s team used the Wide Field Camera 3 to hunt for the elusive catch. “We need to look in many different areas because the odds of finding something this rare are very small,” Trenti said. “It’s like playing a game of Battleship: The search is hit and miss. Typically, a region has nothing, but if we hit the right spot, we can find multiple galaxies.” The five bright galaxies spotted by Hubble are about one-half to one-tenth the size of our Milky Way, yet are comparable in brightness. The galaxies are bright and massive because they are being fed lots of gas through mergers with other galaxies. Simulations show the galaxies will merge in time to form the brightest central galaxy in the cluster. The observations demonstrate the progressive buildup of galaxies and provide further support for the hierarchical model of galaxy assembly, in which small objects accrete mass, or merge, to form bigger objects over a smooth and steady but dramatic process of collision and agglomeration. Astronomers have likened the process to streams merging into tributaries, then into rivers and to a bay. The observations are part of the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies, or BoRG survey, which is using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to search for the brightest galaxies around 13 billion years ago, when light from the first stars burned off a fog of cold hydrogen in a process called reionization. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.Natural SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & AchievementsNews releasevar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Some earthquakes expected along Rio Grande Rift in Colorado and New Mexico, new study says
The Rio Grande Rift, a thinning and stretching of Earth’s surface that extends from Colorado’s central Rocky Mountains to Mexico, is not dead but geologically alive and active, according to a new study involving scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.   “We don’t expect to see a lot of earthquakes, or big ones, but we will have some earthquakes,” said CU-Boulder geological sciences Professor Anne Sheehan, also a fellow at CIRES. The study also involved collaborators from the University of New Mexico, New Mexico Tech, Utah State University and the Boulder-headquartered UNAVCO. The Rio Grande Rift follows the path of the Rio Grande River from central Colorado roughly to El Paso before turning southeast toward the Gulf of Mexico. Sheehan was not too surprised when a 5.3 magnitude earthquake struck about 9 miles west of Trinidad, Colo., in the vicinity of the Rio Grande Rift on Aug. 23, 2011.  The quake was the largest in Colorado since 1967 and was felt from Fort Collins to Garden City, Kan.   Along the rift, spreading motion in the crust has led to the rise of magma -- the molten rock material under Earth’s crust -- to the surface, creating long, fault-bounded basins that are susceptible to earthquakes, said Sheehan, a study co-author and also associate director of the CIRES Solid Earth Sciences Division. The team studied the Rio Grande Rift region to assess the potential earthquake hazards. Using Global Positioning System instruments at 25 sites in Colorado and New Mexico, the team tracked the rift’s miniscule movements from 2006 to 2011. “Questions we wanted to answer are whether the Rio Grande Rift is alive or dead, how is it deforming and whether it is opening or not,” said Sheehan. The high-precision instrumentation has provided unprecedented data about the volcanic activity in the region. Previously, geologists had estimated the rift had spread apart by up to 2 inches or 5 millimeters each year, although the errors introduced by the scientific instruments were known to be significant. “The GPS used in this study has reduced the uncertainty dramatically,” Sheehan said. Using the latest high-tech instrumentation, the scientists found an average strain rate of 1.2 “nanostrain” each year across the experimental area, the equivalent of about one-twentieth of an inch, or 1.2 millimeters, over a length of about 600 miles.  “The rate is lower than we thought but it does exist,” Sheehan said. The researchers also found the extensional deformation, or stretching, is not concentrated in a narrow zone centered on the Rio Grande Rift but is distributed broadly from the western edge of the Colorado Plateau well into the western Great Plains. “The surprising thing to come out of the study was that the strain was so spread out,” Sheehan said. Results of the study are published in the January edition of the journal Geology.  The team plans to continue monitoring the Rio Grande Rift, probing whether the activity remains constant over time, said lead study author Henry Berglund of UNAVCO, who was a graduate student at CU-Boulder working at CIRES when he completed this portion of the research. Also, the team may attempt to determine vertical as well as horizontal activity in the region to tell whether the Rocky Mountains are still uplifting or not, Berglund said.  “Present-day measurements of deformation within continental interiors have been difficult to capture due to the typically slow rates of deformation within them,” Berglund said. “Now with the recent advances in space geodesy we are finding some very surprising results in these previously unresolved areas.” As far as the potential for future earthquakes in the region, the study’s results are unequivocal, however. “The rift is still active,” Sheehan said. The new study also is co-authored by CU-Boulder Associate Professor and CIRES Fellow Steven Nerem, Frederick Blume of UNAVCO, Anthony Lowry of Utah State University, Mousumi Roy of the University of New Mexico and Mark Murray of New Mexico Tech. The National Science Foundation provided the funding for this study and the NSF-funded EarthScope program and UNAVCO provided instruments, equipment and engineering services. The Boulder-headquartered UNAVCO is a nonprofit, university-governed consortium that facilitates geosciences research and education. Contact: Anne Sheehan, 303-492-4597Anne.Sheehan@colorado.edu Jane Palmer, CIRES media relations, 303-492-6289Jane.Palmer@colorado.edu Jim Scott, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3114Jim.Scott@colorado.edu    “We don’t expect to see a lot of earthquakes, or big ones, but we will have some earthquakes,” said CU-Boulder geological sciences Professor Anne Sheehan, also a fellow at CIRES.Natural Sciences, Institutes, Natural Sciences Rio Grande Rift Photo:  Photo:  Photo:  Photo:  Photo:  Photo:  Photo:  Photo:  Discovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Graduate Education, Research Collaborationsvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: Anne Sheehan, a CU-Boulder professor and fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, monitors a GPS station near Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado. Photo courtesy Anne Sheehan, University of Colorado.


Some dating websites do not remove GPS data from photos, CU-Boulder students find
  While the majority of dating websites do a good job of managing the privacy of their users, a class research project at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business found that 21 of 90 dating websites the class examined did not properly remove location data from pictures uploaded by their users. As a result of people taking more photographs with cameras and cell phones containing Global Positioning System chips, some dating website profile pictures contain GPS coordinates showing where a picture was taken, said Associate Professor Kai Larsen, who taught the class on Privacy in the Age of Facebook. When such information is not removed by the dating website, commonly available tools can be used to detect the location of a person’s residence or other locations frequented by the user. This gap in privacy protection leaves women users especially vulnerable to online predators, the CU-Boulder student researchers said. Users of dating websites share a plethora of private details but generally will not share their addresses or real names unless a stronger relationship develops through multiple online and offline interactions. The largest dating sites, such as Match.com and PlentyofFish.com, were found to remove location metadata from user profile pictures. But 23 percent of the 90 websites were found to leave metadata attached to the profile photo. All of these specialized dating sites were based on such attributes as age, disability, hobby or religion. Twelve of the 21 websites were run by a single Canadian company, SuccessfulMatch.com. According to the SuccessfulMatch website, the company runs 24 dating websites on the same platform, 12 of which were not examined as part of the research project. “While we were pleased to see such a high level of responsible behavior by online dating companies, an online predator would require no more than one website to act irresponsibly,” Larsen said. “The fact that we found more than 20 websites that do not carefully maintain user privacy is cause for concern, in that individual users are left to maintain their own privacy by carefully confirming that any uploaded picture does not contain GPS coordinates.” Metadata is “a set of data that describes and gives information about other data,” Larsen said. Such information that can be derived from online photos includes camera type, date of capture, whether the picture has been altered and GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken. Dating websites have the ability to “scrub” or eliminate such metadata from their member photos and most do because misuse of the information could compromise the safety of their users, Larsen said. The research method of the study included the creation of user profiles of two individuals, the personal information of which was fabricated except for the photos, which contained location information and other metadata, Larsen said. The photo uploaded by one user then was downloaded by the other user and the existence of the location information confirmed. The websites found not to remove location metadata were contacted on Dec. 29, 2011, and the Leeds School team has since worked with several of those dating website companies to ensure that location metadata is removed before the survey results were publicly announced. “It was clear that some companies did not know about this issue,” Larsen said. “The feedback ranged from appreciative to reluctantly removing the metadata to no response.” Several of the companies immediately reported that they were taking action to resolve the issue, including SuccessfulMatch and the companies behind CatholicSingles, DeafSinglesMeet and MeetingMillionaires. A company that tracks online consumer behavior, Experian Hitwise, recently listed more than 1,100 websites in its “lifestyle dating” category. “Technology is so important today and many companies deal with very private data,” Larsen said. “Company decisions about how to deal with data privacy can affect their valuation.” The information management class was offered jointly by the Leeds School’s Division of Management and Center for Education on Social Responsibility. Dating websites that did not remove location metadata from photographs during the 2011 fall semester class’s research period were the following: Agematch.com Bikerkiss.com Casualfriends.com Catholiccupid.com Catholicsingles.com Churchfriends.com Deafsinglesmeet.com Interracialmatch.com Jromances.com Largeandlovely.com Latinfriends.com Ldate.com Matemakers.com Meetingmillionaires.com Militaryfriends.com Millionairematch.com Seniorscircle.com Sexsearch.com Singleparentmatch.com Sugardaddyforme.com Passionsearch.com A complete list of all the websites examined by the class is available at http://leeds.colorado.edu/im/.     Contact: Kai Larsen, Leeds School, 720-938-2436kai.larsen@colorado.edu Peter Caughey, CU media relations, 303-492-4007caughey@colorado.edu  Dating websites that did not remove location metadata from photographs during the 2011 fall semester class’s research period were the following: Agematch.com Bikerkiss.com Casualfriends.com Catholiccupid.com Catholicsingles.com Churchfriends.com Deafsinglesmeet.com Interracialmatch.com Jromances.com Largeandlovely.com Latinfriends.com Ldate.com Matemakers.com Meetingmillionaires.com Militaryfriends.com Millionairematch.com Seniorscircle.com Sexsearch.com Singleparentmatch.com Sugardaddyforme.com Passionsearch.com A complete list of all the websites examined by the class is available at http://leeds.colorado.edu/im/. “While we were pleased to see such a high level of responsible behavior by online dating companies, an online predator would require no more than one website to act irresponsibly,” Kai Larsen of the Leeds School of Business said. “The fact that we found more than 20 websites that do not carefully maintain user privacy is cause for concern, in that individual users are left to maintain their own privacy by carefully confirming that any uploaded picture does not contain GPS coordinates.”BusinessDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Student Achievements, Undergraduate Researchvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


First class of CU-Boulder undergrads enrolls in new Journalism Plus program
As a new year and the spring semester begin, the University of Colorado Boulder is welcoming the first class of journalism students entering under a new undergraduate degree structure called “Journalism Plus” that CU officials say will create better journalists, better news content and, over time, a more informed society.  Currently, more than 45 new students are expected to enroll for spring semester under the new Journalism Plus requirements. Journalism Plus stipulates that students supplement their journalism degree requirements with an additional field of study in a specific arts and sciences discipline, an approach that Journalism Director Chris Braider says will make better journalists and communication professionals, better university students and better citizens. “Journalism Plus ensures that the journalists and communicators CU produces will not only possess the updated skills they need to create and deliver messages, but will also possess the analytical abilities, research tools and knowledge of a subject to communicate something of value in those messages,” Braider said. “Our students will understand, with depth and context, the content they will create as journalists. We think this will set them apart from other journalism programs across the nation.” Journalism and Mass Communication will continue to grant the Bachelor of Science degree in one of five sequences:  advertising, broadcast news, broadcast production, media studies, and news-editorial. Under the new requirements, students also will enroll in a 30- to 33-credit-hour additional field of study, the equivalent of work in a major in a discipline of their choice – anything from English, physics and history to political science, environmental studies or film studies. Journalism Plus at CU-Boulder CU-Boulder faculty members discuss the Journalism Plus curriculum and how it prepares studentsTopic: Academics, Journalism, News JournalismLearning & Teachingvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Study indicates hail may disappear from Colorado's Front Range by 2070
Summertime hail could all but disappear from the eastern flank of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains by 2070, says a new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Less hail damage could be good news for gardeners and farmers, said lead author Kelly Mahoney, a research scientist at CIRES, but a shift from hail to rain can also mean more runoff, which could raise the risk of flash floods.  “In this region of elevated terrain, hail may lessen the risk of flooding because it takes awhile to melt,” Mahoney said. “Decision makers may not want to count on that in the future.” For the new study, published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, Mahoney and her colleagues used “downscaling” techniques to try to understand how climate change might affect hail-producing weather patterns across Colorado. The research focused on storms involving pea-sized and smaller hailstones on Colorado’s Front Range, a region that stretches from the foothill communities of Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins up to the Continental Divide. Colorado’s most damaging hailstorms tend to occur further east and involve larger hailstones not examined in this study. In the summer in Colorado’s Front Range above about 7,500 feet, precipitation commonly falls as hail. Decision makers concerned about the safety of mountain dams and flood risk have been interested in how climate change may affect the amount and nature of precipitation in the region. Mahoney and her colleagues began exploring that question with results from two climate models, which assumed that levels of climate-warming greenhouse gases will continue to increase in the future, from about 390 parts per million in the atmosphere today to about 620 parts per million in 2070. But the weather processes that form hail, like thunderstorms, occur on much smaller scales than can be reproduced by global climate models. So the team “downscaled” the global model results twice: first to regional-scale models that can take regional topography and other details into account, then again to weather-scale models that can resolve individual storms and even the cloud processes that create hail. The regional-scale topography step was completed as part of NCAR’s North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program.  Finally, the team compared the hailstorms of the future, from 2041 to 2070, to those of the past, from 1971 to 2000, as captured by the same sets of downscaled models. Results were similar in experiments with both climate models. “We found a near elimination of hail at the surface,” Mahoney said. In the future, increasingly intense storms may actually produce more hail inside clouds, the team found. However, because those relatively small hailstones fall through a warmer atmosphere, they melt quickly, falling as rain at the surface or evaporating back into the atmosphere. In some regions, simulated hail fell through an additional 1,500 feet of above-freezing air in the future as compared with the past. The research team also found evidence that precipitation events over Colorado become more extreme in the future, while changes in hail may depend on the size of the hailstones -- results that will be explored in more detail in ongoing work. Mahoney’s postdoctoral research was supported by the Postdocs Applying Climate Expertise, or PACE, program administered by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and funded by CIRES Western Water Assessment, NOAA and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. PACE connects young climate scientists with real-world problems such as those faced by water resource managers. Co-authors of the new paper include James Scott and Joseph Barsugli of CIRES and NOAA, Michael Alexander of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory and Gregory Thompson of NCAR. CIRES is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NOAA.     Contact: Kelly Mahoney, 303-497-5616Kelly.Mahoney@noaa.gov Jane Palmer, CIRES media relations, 303-492-6289Jane.Palmer@colorado.edu  “In this region of elevated terrain, hail may lessen the risk of flooding because it takes awhile to melt,” said Kelly Mahoney, a research scientist at CIRES. “Decision makers may not want to count on that in the future.”Environment, Natural SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Discoveries & Achievements, Research Collaborations


First class of CU-Boulder undergraduates enrolls in new ‘Journalism Plus’ program
As a new year and the spring semester begin, the University of Colorado Boulder is welcoming the first class of journalism students entering under a new undergraduate degree structure called “Journalism Plus” that CU officials say will create better journalists, better news content and, over time, a more informed society. Currently, more than 45 new students are expected to enroll for spring semester under the new Journalism Plus requirements. Journalism Plus stipulates that students supplement their journalism degree requirements with an additional field of study in a specific arts and sciences discipline, an approach that Journalism Director Chris Braider says will make better journalists and communication professionals, better university students and better citizens. “Journalism Plus ensures that the journalists and communicators CU produces will not only possess the updated skills they need to create and deliver messages, but will also possess the analytical abilities, research tools and knowledge of a subject to communicate something of value in those messages,” Braider said. “Our students will understand, with depth and context, the content they will create as journalists. We think this will set them apart from other journalism programs across the nation.” Journalism and Mass Communication will continue to grant the Bachelor of Science degree in one of five sequences: advertising, broadcast news, broadcast production, media studies and news-editorial. Under the new requirements, students also will enroll in a 30- to 33-credit-hour additional field of study, the equivalent of work in a major in a discipline of their choice -- anything from English, physics and history to political science, environmental studies or film studies. Students admitted prior to spring 2012 have until May of 2016 to earn a degree under the former requirements, or they can elect to complete the Journalism Plus degree requirements. The changes, say CU-Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore, were deliberate and in line with CU’s larger goals for its students. “We want CU-Boulder students to be both knowledgeable and engaged in the world they live in,” said Moore. “So the goal for us was never to make journalism go away, but to pair it with a discipline that would add the depth of knowledge of a liberal arts degree to the skills developed in a journalism curriculum. I think this is going to answer a call we’ve heard from media professionals -- don’t just send us skilled graduates, send us graduates who can interpret and understand the information they gather with some depth and context.” At a practical level, Braider says, this will mean better, more contextual reporting to inform and shape our democratic society. “In this model, science writers will possess first-hand knowledge of the sciences they report on,” Braider said. “Reporters covering government or business will bring an in-depth knowledge of political science and economics to the events they chronicle. Advertisers and graphic designers will explore the full range of expressive arts on which their professions rely.”  As Journalism Plus is implemented, more students will be admitted directly to Journalism and Mass Communication as freshmen. The university is continuing on a path to creating a new interdisciplinary college or school of information, communications, journalism, media and technology, which will one day house journalism and companion disciplines in an environment of sharing, innovation and scholarship. Journalism and Mass Communication continues to be accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education for Journalism and Mass Communications. In two years, the accrediting council will make a determination on accreditation for the following four years.    Contact: Christopher Braider, 303-492-4364 Bronson Hilliard, 303-735-6183  Journalism and Mass Communication will continue to grant the Bachelor of Science degree in one of five sequences: advertising, broadcast news, broadcast production, media studies and news-editorial. Under the new requirements, students also will enroll in a 30- to 33-credit-hour additional field of study, the equivalent of work in a major in a discipline of their choice -- anything from English, physics and history to political science, environmental studies or film studies.“Our students will understand, with depth and context, the content they will create as journalists," said Journalism Director Chris Braider. "We think this will set them apart from other journalism programs across the nation.” Journalism Journalism Plus at CU-Boulder Learning & Teaching, Teaching Innovation, Undergraduate Educationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Journalism Plus at CU-Boulder
CU-Boulder faculty members discuss the Journalism Plus curriculum and how it prepares students brightcove.createExperiences(); <!-- Start of Brightcove Player --> <div style="display:none"> </div> <!-- By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at https://accounts.brightcove.com/en/terms-and-conditions/. --> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script> <object id="myExperience1325817204001" class="BrightcoveExperience"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="width" value="720" /> <param name="height" value="405" /> <param name="playerID" value="1265500576001" /> <param name="playerKey" value="AQ~~,AAAAAGp_KKo~,YReCpgy2R8rllX8CzAqLpOUckyR8QFpJ" /> <param name="isVid" value="true" /> <param name="isUI" value="true" /> <param name="dynamicStreaming" value="true" /> <param name="@videoPlayer" value="1325817204001" /> </object> <!-- This script tag will cause the Brightcove Players defined above it to be created as soon as the line is read by the browser. If you wish to have the player instantiated only after the rest of the HTML is processed and the page load is complete, remove the line. --> <script type="text/javascript">brightcove.createExperiences();</script> <!-- End of Brightcove Player -->Topic: 


All hail: by 2070, icy pellets hitting state's mountain flanks may be a thing of the past
If you are college-age or younger, you might just live to see the day when hail disappears from the eastern flanks of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.   A new modeling study involving the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, indicates hail will likely cease to fall in those locales by the year 2070, a result of rising temperatures.   Less hail damage could be good news for gardeners and farmers, said lead author Kelly Mahoney, a CIRES research scientist, but a shift from hail to rain can also mean more runoff, which could raise the risk of flash floods.  “In this region of elevated terrain, hail may lessen the risk of flooding because it takes awhile to melt,” Mahoney said. “Decision makers may not want to count on that in the future.”   For the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Mahoney and her colleagues used “downscaling” techniques to try to understand how climate change might affect hail-producing weather patterns across Colorado.     The research focused on storms involving pea-sized and smaller hailstones on Colorado’s Front Range, a region that stretches from the foothill communities of Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins up to the Continental Divide. Colorado’s most damaging hailstorms tend to occur further east and involve larger hailstones not examined in this study.   In the summer on Colorado’s Front Range above about 7,500 feet, precipitation commonly falls as hail. Decision makers concerned about the safety of mountain dams and flood risk have been interested in how climate change may affect the amount and nature of precipitation in the region.   Mahoney and her colleagues began exploring that question with results from two climate models, which assumed that levels of climate-warming greenhouse gases will continue to increase in the future, from about 390 parts per million in the atmosphere today to about 620 parts per million in 2070.   But the weather processes that form hail, like thunderstorms, occur on much smaller scales than can be reproduced by global climate models. So the team “downscaled” the global model results twice: first to regional-scale models that can take regional topography and other details into account, then again to weather-scale models that can resolve individual storms and even the cloud processes that create hail.   Finally, the team compared the hailstorms of the future, from 2041 to 2070, to those of the past, from 1971 to 2000, as captured by the same sets of downscaled models. Results were similar in experiments with both climate models. “We found a near elimination of hail at the surface,” Mahoney said.   In the future, increasingly intense storms may actually produce more hail inside clouds, the team found. However, because those relatively small hailstones fall through a warmer atmosphere, they melt quickly, falling as rain at the surface or evaporating back into the atmosphere. In some regions, simulated hail fell through an additional 1,500 feet of above-freezing air in the future, compared to the past.   Co-authors of the study include James Scott and Joseph Barsugli of CIRES and NOAA, Michael Alexander of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory and Gregory Thompson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.InstitutesDiscovery & Innovation


Engineering team supports green energy in Haiti
test, test, testvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


CU engineering team to support green energy in Haiti
A team of University of Colorado Boulder engineers will travel to Haiti this month to support the growth of green energy on the two-year anniversary of the country’s devastating earthquake.  Engineering professors Alan Mickelson and Mike Hannigan and graduate student Matt Hulse will be in Haiti Jan. 8-16 to collaborate with the Neges Foundation school at Leogane to create a vocational training program on the installation, operation and maintenance of renewable energy systems.    “I’m eager to learn about the people of Haiti and the services that they would like energy systems to provide,” said Hannigan, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “Historically, the development of energy systems has shaped nations and economies, so the timing is right to pass along what we have learned about those energy systems that are sustainable.” The Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that struck Haiti destroyed what little electricity infrastructure had existed in the country, plunging towns across the country into total darkness and forcing households to rely on high-cost diesel generators for power, according to news reports. As a result, families are unable to study or work at night, and the number of assaults, particularly against women and girls, has increased.  Studies point to Haiti’s great potential for renewable energy, including solar, hydro and wind power. “The present lack of a Haitian power grid cries out for a distributed solution -- that is, one that grows from small, localized, renewable energy sources,” said Mickelson, associate professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering. To address these issues, the Engineering for Developing Communities project will: Develop a curriculum for vocational training on the operation and maintenance of self-contained, adaptable power sources, and electrical operations and maintenance with a focus on green energy systems. Build local capacity to provide vocational training on renewable energy systems using a “train-the-trainers” approach. Identify a viable system to create sustainable access to renewable energy that will meet basic household energy needs. Develop a strategy for the sustainable scale-up and replication of energy and infrastructure vocational training to support reconstruction efforts, with a focus on private sector investment. About $35,000 has been provided for the initiative by CU-Boulder’s Mortenson Center for Engineering in Developing Communities, the IEEE Foundation and the CU-Boulder Outreach Committee. The Mortenson Center is seeking additional funding to build upon the initiative and develop additional vocational training curriculum on sustainable and disaster-resistant design and construction. The Mortenson Center was founded to promote integrated, participatory and sustainable solutions to the engineering challenges of the developing world, with a focus on clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene; energy; sustainable and disaster-resistant building materials and shelter; and cook stoves and indoor air quality. For more information, go to http://ceae.colorado.edu/mc-edc.   Contact: Anna Segur, Mortenson Center, 303-492-5606anna.segur@colorado.edu Bernard Amadei, Mortenson Center, 303-492-7734 Carol Rowe, engineering communications, 303-492-7426      “I’m eager to learn about the people of Haiti and the services that they would like energy systems to provide,” said Mike Hannigan, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “Historically, the development of energy systems has shaped nations and economies, so the timing is right to pass along what we have learned about those energy systems that are sustainable.”Engineering, Outreach, Global Engagement, OutreachCommunity & Culture, Community Outreach, Sustainabilityvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'}); Photo: Caption: The Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake destroyed Haiti's electrical infrastructure. (Photo by Matt Jelacic, University of Colorado Boulder)


Colorado business leaders optimistic going into first quarter, says CU Leeds School index
Colorado business leaders' optimism has resumed going into the first quarter of 2012 after a dip in confidence last quarter, according to the most recent quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index, or LBCI, released today by the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business. For the first quarter of 2012 the LBCI posted a reading of 54.7, up from 47.3 last quarter. Business leaders are optimistic about all of the metrics measured by the quarterly index, which include industry sales and profits, capital expenditures and hiring plans, and national and state economic growth. "The first quarter index is much more positive than the fourth quarter index of 2011, and that's obviously a good thing," said economist Richard Wobbekind, executive director of the Leeds School's Business Research Division, who conducts the quarterly survey. "It portends high levels of activity in all of the categories, including most importantly sales and profits and capital expenditures and hiring plans. There's quite a bit of enthusiasm being exhibited in this survey." Hiring and capital expenditures had readings of 52.7 and 52.8 respectively, up from 46.8 and 46.7 last quarter. Thirty percent of respondents said they planned to hire in the coming quarter, and another 45 percent said they planned to hold steady. "You put these numbers together and that means that 75 percent of businesses are either planning to hire or remain stable -- they aren't letting employees go," Wobbekind said. "I think that's very bullish in terms of the employment picture." Since last quarter, many economic indicators have begun to suggest that the U.S. economy is in a slow, sustained recovery, according to Wobbekind. "As we see these metrics come in, business people start to feel better about the economy going forward and that there is going to be sustained growth," he said. An index reading of 50 is neutral. A reading greater than 50 indicates positive expectations, while one lower than 50 indicates negative expectations. Overall, business leaders in Colorado believe the state's economy is in better shape than the national economy, but more importantly, their optimism for the national economy also increased. The first quarter index measuring the prospects for the state economy rose nearly 10 points from 49.0 to 58.4 in the fourth quarter, while the national index rose more than 10 points from 40.4 to 51.0. "The national number went from negative to positive in terms of expansion, so our business leaders are suggesting that they believe that the national recovery is sustainable and that's clearly very important for the Colorado economy," Wobbekind said. Business leaders' sales expectations for the first quarter increased to 58.3 from 51.2 in the fourth quarter, and their profit expectations increased from 49.5 last quarter to 54.7. To access the complete report visit leeds.colorado.edu/publication/261.Businessvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Glory, Glory Colorado
A video tour of Boulder and surrounding area. brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


CU-Boulder by Air
brightcove.createExperiences(); Topic: 


Learning assistant helps transform classes
Over the past decade, the University of Colorado Boulder has established itself as a national leader in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, education. Through its Learning Assistant and CU Teach programs and Integrating STEM initiative, CU-Boulder is making great progress on its goal of improving introductory math and science classes and recruiting and training future K-12 science teachers. The Learning Assistant program, which was created in 2003 and is now a model for schools throughout the nation, hires dozens of undergraduate learning assistants each semester. The assistants help faculty in departments such as physics, chemistry, astrophysical and planetary sciences and mathematics to make changes in their large undergraduate classes, some of which have as many as 200 students in them. By employing undergraduate students as learning assistants, the program aims to both improve introductory math and science classes and recruit and train future K-12 science and math teachers. "One exciting aspect of this program is that these undergraduate learning assistants are the pool from which we recruit new teachers, which is one of the four main goals of our Learning Assistant model," said Valerie Otero, director of the Learning Assistant program and an associate professor in the School of Education. Learning assistants have helped transform nearly 60 courses on campus, she said. One thing they do is break the large classes into smaller learning groups that are led by learning assistants. One of those assistants, Emily Quinty, is now a teacher at Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts in Thornton. She worked as an assistant in the LA program for two semesters before graduating from CU-Boulder with an astrophysics degree in May 2007. "Teaching was not on my radar at all," Quinty said. "But after I was introduced to the Learning Assistant program and became involved in the process of teaching, I decided that I wanted to go into teaching after college. The program really sparked that interest in me." As an LA program assistant, Quinty worked as what she described as a "facilitator" in class rather than standing up in the front of the room teaching. It was really a different model for her, she said, and it was hard for the other students too. "At first the students were really uncomfortable," Quinty said. "They said, 'you want me to work with three students who I don't know and talk about physics? I'm here because I don't understand it.'" Seeing the students overcome that fear and really gain from it was rewarding for Quinty, and she saw a new model for teaching that she really believed in and wanted to try. "I saw their understanding of physics explode, while my understanding of physics concepts also improved tremendously," she said. "I became a big believer that teaching as a student helps you understand the material better because when you have to articulate something all of the holes in your understanding become clear, and you have to figure out other ways to explain it, so you have to have a solid understanding of it." It's a model she now uses in her own high school classroom. "One of the most significant things I learned from the Learning Assistant program is that my role as a teacher is not the traditional stereotype of a teacher who stands up at the front of the classroom and dumps knowledge on kids and they learn it," Quinty said. "Rather, it's me facilitating interactions with the kids so they can create their own understanding of a topic, whether it's through an activity or a simulation in a lab. The important thing is they are able to bounce their ideas off each other, teach each other and really hone their understanding based on their interactions with each other."EducationIntegrating STEM Educationvar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Listen up: crickets have had ears on their legs for more than 50 million years
How did insects get their hearing? A new study of 50-million-year-old cricket and katydid fossils sporting some of the best preserved fossil insect ears described to date are helping to trace the evolution of the insect ear. According to University of Colorado Museum of Natural History paleontologist Dena Smith and University of Illinois Professor Roy Plotnick, who collaborated on the new study at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, or NESCent, in Durham, N.C., insects hear with help from some very unusual ears. Grasshoppers have ears on their abdomens. Lacewings have ears on their wings. The ears of the tachinid fly are tucked under the chin. “Insects have ears on pretty much every part of their body except on their head proper,” Plotnick said. Insects have evolved ears at least 17 times in different lineages, said Smith, also an assistant professor in CU-Boulder’s geological sciences department. Smith and Plotnick are trying to figure out when different insects got their ears, and whether predators may have played a role. “The big evolutionary trigger for the appearance of hearing in many insects is thought to be the appearance of bats,” Plotnick said. “Prior to the evolution of bats we would expect to find ears in relatively few insects, but after that we should see ears in more insect groups,” he explained. Did insect ears get an upgrade when bats came to be? To find out, Plotnick and Smith turned to remarkably well-preserved fossils from a series of lake deposits in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado known as the Green River Formation, where some of the earliest bats are found. “You can see every tiny feature down to the veins in their wings and the hairs on their legs,” said Smith, who has been studying Green River fossils for more than 15 years. The researchers also scoured more than 500 museum drawers of Green River fossils for crickets and katydids — which have ears on their front legs just below the knees — looking for telling evidence. They found it. “You can just make them out with the naked eye,” Plotnick said of the insect ears. “They look like the eye of a needle.” The fossil ears measured half a millimeter in length, and were virtually identical in size, shape and position to their modern counterparts. The findings suggest that this group of insects evolved their supersensitive ultrasonic hearing long before bat predators came to be, the researchers say. “Their bat-detecting abilities may have simply become apparent later,” Smith said. “The next step is to look for ears in other insect groups.” Crickets, moths and other flying insects have ultrasound-sensitive hearing and can hear bats coming, diving or swerving in midflight to avoid being eaten. Insects that evolved such supersensitive hearing would have had a crucial survival advantage, the researchers said. In crickets and katydids living today, the ear is a tiny oval cavity with a thin membrane stretched over it that vibrates in response to sound, much like our own eardrum.Natural Sciences, Social SciencesDiscovery & Innovation, Research Collaborations, CU Museum of Natural HistoryNews releasevar switchTo5x=true; stLight.options({publisher:'dr-ab13ac53-73e2-de14-de15-814771a7bbf3'});


Nap-deprived tots may be missing out on more than sleep, says new CU-led study
A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder could be a wake-up call for parents of toddlers: Daytime naps for your kids may be more important than you think.


50-million-year-old cricket and katydid fossils from Colorado hint at origin of insect hearing
How did insects get their hearing? A new study of 50-million-year-old cricket and katydid fossils sporting some of the best preserved fossil insect ears described to date are helping to trace the evolution of the insect ear.


Colorado business leaders optimistic going into first quarter, says CU Leeds School index
Colorado business leaders' optimism has resumed going into the first quarter of 2012 after a dip in confidence last quarter, according to the most recent quarterly Leeds Business Confidence Index, or LBCI, released today by the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business.


Boswell named CU-Boulder vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community engagement
University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today named Robert Boswell as CU-Boulder vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community engagement effective Jan. 1, 2012.


Coffin named CU-Boulder vice chancellor for student affairs
University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today named Deborah J. Coffin as CU-Boulder vice chancellor for student affairs effective Jan. 1, 2012. Coffin has served in the post in an interim capacity since July 2011.


CU-Boulder to be closed Thursday, Dec. 22
The University of Colorado Boulder campus will be closed on Thursday, Dec. 22, for all but essential employees due to hazardous weather conditions, according to Chancellor Phil DiStefano.


CU-Boulder responds to Kappa Alpha Theta fire
The University of Colorado Boulder is assisting the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority in the aftermath of a fire late Monday night that severely damaged the sorority's house at 1333 University Ave., adjacent to the CU-Boulder campus.


As Voyager 1 nears edge of solar system, CU scientists look back
In 1977, Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president, Elvis died, Virginia park ranger Roy Sullivan was hit by lightning a record seventh time and two NASA space probes destined to turn planetary science on its head launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.


CU professors can comment on Lobato school funding case
Kevin Welner, professor of education and director of the National Education Policy Center at the CU-Boulder School of Education, can speak to most elements of the Lobato litigation and its implications.


CU-Boulder lab experience launches career path for graduating senior
After two years of working in a University of Colorado Boulder laboratory that recently gained international media attention for its work with snakes and heart disease, graduating senior Ryan Doptis has set his sights on becoming a research scientist.


Robert Boswell named sole internal finalist for CU-Boulder vice chancellor for diversity post
University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today announced that a search committee has named Robert "Bob" Boswell the sole internal finalist for the post of vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community engagement.


CU-Boulder to hold winter commencement Dec. 16
The University of Colorado Boulder will hold its winter commencement ceremony on Friday, Dec. 16, in the Coors Events Center on campus.


Coffin named sole finalist for vice chancellor for student affairs post at CU-Boulder
University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today announced that a search committee for the vice chancellor for student affairs has named Deborah J. "Deb" Coffin the sole finalist for the position. Coffin has served in the post in an interim capacity since July 2011.


USAID, CU-Boulder partner to study water resources in Asia mountains
A University of Colorado Boulder team is partnering with the United States Agency for International Development to assess snow and glacier contributions to water resources originating in the high mountains of Asia that straddle 10 countries.


Economic Outlook Forum presented Dec. 5 by CU's Leeds School of Business
The University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business will present its annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook Forum on Monday, Dec. 5, at 1 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Denver.


CU students to demonstrate engineering and sustainability projects at three events
University of Colorado Boulder students will demonstrate innovative ideas and projects ranging from a safer climbing helmet to robot butlers at three expos over the next week. All of the events are free and open to the public.


CU's Williams Village North earns platinum rating in LEED certification
Williams Village North, the University of Colorado Boulder's newest residence hall, has received a LEED platinum rating from the United States Green Building Council. The 500-bed residence hall is the first of its size in the nation to rank platinum -- th


Early Earth may have been prone to deep freezes, says CU-Boulder study
Two University of Colorado Boulder researchers who have adapted a three-dimensional, general circulation model of Earth's climate to a time some 2.8 billion years ago when the sun was significantly fainter than present think the planet may have been more


Slow, steady job growth forecast for Colorado in 2012, says CU Leeds School of Business
Colorado will continue on the road to recovery and add jobs in 2012 following a positive year in 2011, according to economist Richard Wobbekind of the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business.