Spring 2017 Edition

Dean's Letter

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Scholars eye freedom in reverse

With help from five graduate students, two CU Boulder professors will conduct a careful study of what happens to citizen engagement when previously liberal democratic nations become more repressive.

sitting

If ‘sitting is the new smoking,’ can desk workers snuff out risk?

CU Boulder research team has found marked health benefits from electric-assist commuter bikes and ‘passive-cycling’; now, the team is studying an under-the-desk cycle that shows similar promise.

Turbines

Wind power you can bank on

Incorporating wind energy into today’s electrical grid raises a host of questions about wind forecasting, wind-turbine siting, wind-turbine design in hurricane zones; CU Boulder lab is investigating these and other questions.

sex ed

Let’s (not) talk about sex

CU sociologist’s book examines society’s mixed messages to teens about sex In the small, rural Ohio town where Stefanie Mollborn grew up, the prevailing message to teenagers about sex was straightforward: Don’t do it, because it’s morally wrong. In wealthier, liberal places like Boulder, the message tends to be different:...

Brylowe

CU scholar brings innovative hands-on teaching approach to English

Thora Brylowe told her students they’d complete three separate, significant projects during the semester, each in collaborative fashion. The results would be experienced by the public in three distinct media formats: books, pictures and the internet.

Sacks

Why Mendelssohn (Moses, not Felix) matters

Elias Sacks, CU Boulder assistant professor or religious studies, makes a case for the contemporary relevance of an Enlightenment superstar.

Kreps

Humanitarian, lifelong student of people, politics memorialized in scholarship

Political science is the degree that Kreps earned from the 鶹Ƶ in 1993. And it’s for that interest which Kreps, who passed away last April at the age of 45, is memorialized in the newly renovated Ketchum Arts and Sciences Building.

Eagan

Former kid from Levittown boosts education, the great leveler

To Christopher Eagan, growing up in Levittown, N.Y., America’s first and most famous suburb, was nirvana. But after 18 years there, Eagan was ready for a change, and he knew just where he wanted to go: the 鶹Ƶ.

Casey

Career diplomat makes a world of difference

It was during a summer-long family trip to Europe that 13-year-old Mary Ann Casey cemented her career plan: diplomacy. "You embark overseas as a citizen of a single country; you return home as a citizen of the world," says Casey.

Stanton

CU Boulder family’s living history dates to 19th century

Timothy William Stanton matriculated at the 鶹Ƶ on Sept. 5, 1877, the school’s first day of classes — ever. Stanton was a senior in high school, attending a college-prep school located in Old Main, the only building on campus.

Africans

History profs win support from National Endowment for the Humanities

Two CU Boulder history professors received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, with projects in Elizabethan politics and the emancipation of Africans taken during the outlawed slave trade in the 1800s.

Carroll

Prof preserves native traditions with help of National Science Foundation

Clint Carroll will help to preserve tribal tradition and knowledge for future generations through the Faculty Early Career Development Award, a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation.

kids

Late bedtimes, light at night could turn your kid into a ‘night owl’

Scientists in the 鶹Ƶ Sleep and Development Laboratory recently found that 4- 5-year-olds who go to bed later and are exposed to brighter nighttime light experience delays in the timing of their brain’s central timekeeper—the biological clock. That, in turn, could lead to night-owl schedules that are associated with a host of health problems.

Blackwell

Physics sheds new light on cellular biology

Turns out, it took a physicist to unlock some key findings about how cells actually divide, and Robert Blackwell, who recently received his PhD in biological physics from the 鶹Ƶ, apparently stepped up to the plate in a big way.

innovation

Two distinguished profs recognized as top inventors

鶹Ƶ Distinguished Professors Leslie Leinwand and Chris Bowman have been named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Jimi

When does ‘na na na nah’ become poetry?

Paul McCartney spent three minutes singing “nah, nah, nah, na na na nah” in “Hey Jude.” Some might find that repetitious. Adam Bradley says it’s poetry.

DNA

CU geneticist refutes his own study linking schizophrenia, inbreeding

When Matthew Keller found he could not duplicate his own 2012 study that tied inbreeding to the chances of developing schizophrenia in a more-powerful secondary study, he wanted to make sure the scientific record was clear.

Charlotte York Irey

‘To dance is to live,’ and dance lives on at CU

More than two decades after she had almost single-handedly established the first degree program in dance at the 鶹Ƶ, Charlotte York Irey attended the dedication of the new theater named in her honor.