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Science-education experts recognized for ground-breaking work

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 16:22:07 +0000

Science-education experts recognized for ground-breaking work Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/13/2023 - 10:22

CU Boulder professors Noah Finkelstein of physics and Valerie Otero of education have won the 2023 Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture from Stockholm University

Two experts in science education at the �鶹��Ƶ have won the Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture of 2023 for their “major and lasting” contribution to science education, Stockholm University has announced.

Noah Finkelstein, professor of physics, and Valerie Otero, professor of science education, share the 2023 award and are planning to deliver a joint lecture in Sweden early next year.

Stockholm University bestows the Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture annually to a researcher who has made a “major and lasting contribution” within the fields of mathematics education or science education internationally.

The award, which was unsolicited, recognizes their joint contribution to “teacher education praxis.” The cross-disciplinary collaboration between physics and education “led to the development of the highly influential and successful Learning Assistant Program,” Stockholm University said.

Noah Finkelstein and Valerie Otero

“Finkelstein and Otero are both leading researchers in physics/science education, and both their individual and collaborative work has gained recognition internationally and inspired researchers at the Department of Teaching and Learning at Stockholm University,” the award citation notes.

Finkelstein’s research focuses on university students’ interests and capacities in physics and also on educational transformations. Finkelstein is one of leads of the Physics Education Research (PER) group and was founding co-director, with Otero, of CU’s Center for STEM Learning.

Otero’s research focuses on the interplay of learning environments, instructional teams and materials that make learning more accessible. Otero is the faculty director and co-founder of CU Boulder’s Learning Assistant Program and the International Learning Assistant Alliance.

Finkelstein’s research projects range from the specifics of students’ learning particular concepts to the departmental and institutional scales of sustainable educational transformation. His research has yielded more than 150 publications.

He is increasingly involved in education policy and in 2010 testified before the U.S. Congress on the state of STEM education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He serves on many national boards, including chairing both the American Physical Society’s Committee on Education and PER Topical Group.

He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Presidential Teaching Scholar and the inaugural Timmerhaus Teaching Ambassador for the University of Colorado system.

Explaining his research focus, Finkelstein says, “At root, I see higher education as a fundamental public good—advancing the lives of individuals and capacities of our societies more broadly. In the long haul, I know of no better way to enhance societies and individuals' lives than to support the core missions of our colleges and universities, and to help them realize the promises that they hold toward these ends.”

He acknowledges that there is much work still to do. “And that's where I spend my time—through teaching and educational programs, through my research and scholarly work, and through my professional service efforts. I particularly focus on higher education—colleges and universities—as these are a tremendous resource and lever for change in our broader educational system.”

Partly in response to expert warnings that the nation was falling behind its international peers in science education, U.S. educators have in the past two decades renewed their focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) education. This focus is reflected in levels of funding, national discourse, programs focused in STEM, numbers of students, diversity of students and even faculty hiring trends, Finkelstein says.

I see higher education as a fundamental public good—advancing the lives of individuals and capacities of our societies more broadly. In the long haul, I know of no better way to enhance societies and individuals' lives than to support the core missions of our colleges and universities, and to help them realize the promises that they hold toward these ends.”

“Two decades ago, it was far less common to find discipline-based education researchers—folks such as myself hired into disciplinary departments to conduct research on education from within,” he observes, adding that when he was hired in 2003, CU Boulder was “extremely forward-looking” in such a hire.

“Now it is both much more common and CU has established itself as an international leader in this space, boasting researchers across a wide array of disciplinary departments focusing on education and in schools of education focusing on undergraduate science learning,” he says.

Finkelstein also notes that educators have broadened goals in their courses “to focus on the whole array of learning and educational practice, rather than the initial staples of attending to students’ conceptual understanding and algorithmic capacities.”

Now, he adds, “we are attending to how students think about our fields; what habits of mind they are developing; how we build inclusive environments and support a sense of belonging among the breadth of learners; who we are not including and why.”

Additionally, educators have also moved way from viewing their jobs as “fixing students” or addressing their "deficiencies" and now place greater emphases on the “systems that our learners are participating in to support their substantial capacities.”

Otero is internationally recognized for her foundational work with the Learning Assistant (LA) model and the International LA Alliance. The LA model was established in 2001 when Otero was hired by the �鶹��Ƶ in STEM education and as the first physics education researcher at CU Boulder.

She is a President’s Teaching Scholar and served as an advisor for NASA, on committees for the National Academy of Science and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, which awarded her team the Excellence in Physics Education Award in 2019 for their work on the LA model.

The LA model improves student success by increasing the diversity of CU Boulder’s instructional teams through the inclusion of pedagogically trained undergraduate LAs. Otero’s team provides continuing development opportunities for professors and undergraduates, supporting their growth as educational leaders, mentors and state-of-the-art educational innovators.

“Working with LAs has helped me refresh my teaching strategies and resist the temptation to just do what's worked in the past,” a participating professor commented. “I enjoy helping LAs take on responsibility and gain confidence in their leadership skills, and in turn, this experience reminds me of the greater purpose and goals of education.”

LAs rarely provide direct instruction; instead, they facilitate group interactions, answer questions that students may be embarrassed to ask instructors and give general guidance such as how to study and where to find health care resources.

They relate to students, give them voice, care about them and help them learn. LAs plan and reflect with professors, providing information about how students are experiencing the course, bringing students closer to the professor, especially in large courses.

Learning Assistants maintain both a peer and educator role, which may allow the breaking down of psychological barriers in the minds of students due to formal boundaries, possibly preventing them from seeking help for fear of bothering the professor or appearing incompetent.”

participating LA observed, “LAs maintain both a peer and educator role, which may allow the breaking down of psychological barriers in the minds of students due to formal boundaries, possibly preventing them from seeking help for fear of bothering the professor or appearing incompetent.”

Today, approximately 400 LAs are hired each year at CU Boulder, serving more than 20,000 students each year. Research shows that students who have experienced a STEM course with LAs are 60% more likely to succeed in subsequent STEM courses. The model has caught on.

Universities all over the world have realized that the LA model can transform their institutions, building lasting capacity for sustained offerings of high-quality, learner-centered instruction.

In these settings, students feel included and valued and are comfortable accessing multiple forms of support in and outside of the classroom. The thousands of CU Boulder students who have served as LAs and LA mentors have become effective leaders, teachers and team members, prepared for the increasingly diverse and interdisciplinary workforce.

On Oct. 27, professors from universities around the world will come to CU Boulder, as they do each year, to learn about and share research regarding the LA model.

Otero founded the Learning Assistant Alliance in 2009, and since then, more than 3,000 professors from more than 560 universities and 28 countries have joined. Otero has been invited to Norway, Egypt, Japan and the United Kingdom to provide guidance and support for country-level adoptions of the LA Model.

Otero is also known for her foundational work with PEER Physics, a high school physics curriculum and teacher professional learning community adopted by high schools from Seattle to New York.

“We used to be gullible before this class, but now evidence has our backs,” a PEER Physics student said, while another noted, “This course has provided a very safe and helpful learning environment for me. This class is all about working with others and has really helped me learn the material—it has also lifted my spirits about the science subject in general.”

A PEER Physics teacher said, “PEER Physics gives ownership to students who haven’t had ownership in other science classrooms before. It empowers them to take charge of their own learning rather than just being fed information. I think it challenges their analytical skills.”

Another teacher said, “I think if the PEER Physics teacher community didn’t exist, I would have left education. This has kept me in, really enhanced my life, and the life of my students.”

Otero found empowerment and joy in physics when she took her first physics course at the University of New Mexico. “I always loved learning,” she says. “My dad always taught us that learning is a great privilege, and I committed my life to making positive learning opportunities available for students like me.”

As a first-generation college student, Otero has first-hand knowledge about how a Hispanic woman can navigate physics and academia and achieve great success through a supportive community like CU Boulder. Otero says that she developed leadership skills by working at her parents’ grocery store and at the New Mexico State Fair since she was 12.

Twenty-three years after starting at CU Boulder, she continues to work with the Learning Assistant Alliance and PEER Physics to find ways to include, rather than exclude, people from physics.

Did you enjoy this article? Subcribe to our newsletter. Want to learn more? View Otero's Ed Talk at this link.

CU Boulder professors Noah Finkelstein of physics and Valerie Otero of education have won the 2023 Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture from Stockholm University.

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Shemin Ge elected as fellow of American Geophysical Union

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 21:04:59 +0000

Shemin Ge elected as fellow of American Geophysical Union Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/14/2023 - 15:04

CU Boulder geological sciences professor is an expert on ‘induced seismicity,’ when earthquakes are triggered by energy development

Shemin Ge, professor of geological sciences at the �鶹��Ƶ and an expert in how earthquakes can be triggered by human activity, has been elected as an American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fellow, the union announced this week.

Shemin Ge

Ge is among 53 scholars in the 2023 Class of Fellows. AGU, the world's largest Earth and space sciences association, annually recognizes a select number of individuals for its highest honors. Since 1962, the AGU Union Fellows Committee has selected less than 0.1% of members as new fellows.

Ge was selected because of her outstanding scientific achievements, contributions to furthering scientific advancement and exemplary leadership, the organization said, adding that Ge also embodies AGU’s vision of a thriving, sustainable and equitable future powered by discovery, innovation and action.

Equally important, the AGU said, is that Ge works with integrity, respect and collaboration while creating deep engagement in education, diversity and outreach.

Ge is a hydrogeologist who studies groundwater in the Earth’s crust, with a focus on understanding how groundwater flow interacts with and is affected by other geologic processes and how theses interactions advance science and offer insights on societally relevant issues.

One focus of her research is the mechanical interaction between groundwater and rock deformation, which was motivated by an apparent spatial association between some mountain belts and ore deposits in foreland basins adjacent to those mountain belts.

Episodic orogenic deformation could drive mineral-bearing groundwater flow to concentrate ore deposits and enable secondary petroleum migration, Ge’s website notes. A new focus in groundwater-rock deformation research is to seek causal mechanisms for induced seismicity beneath dammed reservoirs and around deep wastewater disposal wells.

Another area of Ge’s research is studying the impact of climate change on groundwater resources, focusing on high-altitude regions where variations in temperature and precipitation are expected. Relying on the fundamental theory of energy and fluid transport in porous media, this research looks into snowmelt infiltrating seasonally frozen ground and permafrost into deeper subsurface and discharging back to surface waters downstream.

“I am deeply honored and extremely grateful for the support I have received from CU and many colleagues, as well as my fortune of working with a stream of bright students throughout the years,” Ge said.

“This recognition further inspires me to continue addressing emerging scientific challenges in water resources and natural or human-induced geohazards through research and teaching.”

Ge joined the CU Boulder faculty in 1993 and has been recognized with a 2019-20 Fulbright U.S. Scholar award to study water-induced earthquakes in Hong Kong. She was named a fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2006, and she won the society’s O.E. Meinzer Award in 2018.

Ge holds a PhD in hydrogeology from Johns Hopkins University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in geotechnical engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and Wuhan University of Technology in Wuhan, China, respectively.

AGU will formally recognize this year’s recipients at AGU23, which in December will convene more than 25,000 attendees from over 100 countries in San Francisco and online.

AGU describes itself as a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in the Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values.

CU Boulder geological sciences professor is an expert on ‘induced seismicity,’ when earthquakes are triggered by energy development.

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NSF grants CU Boulder nearly $2 million for climate communication by and for kids

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 18:03:19 +0000

NSF grants CU Boulder nearly $2 million for climate communication by and for kids Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/24/2023 - 12:03

Bradley Worrell

The award will fund small exhibits created by high school students that will tour museums and birding festivals throughout the Americas, raising awareness about climate change and promoting STEM diversity

Can the common barn swallow help promote awareness of climate change while encouraging greater diversity in STEM?

A group of �鶹��Ƶ faculty believes so—and they recently won a five-year grant worth nearly $2 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund their endeavor.

Their project aims to recruit high school students from Denver area schools to create small, touring art-science exhibits centered around humanity’s relationship with birds. A primary goal is to instill a deeper connection with the natural worldin today’s youth.

Through hands-on exploration, students will better understand of how bird biology intersects with changing local environments and a shifting climate, the group notes.

A cross-disciplinary team of CU Boulder faculty members recently won a five-year, nearly $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation designed to promote awareness of climate change while encouraging greater diversity in STEM. Those team members (from left to right) are: Rebecca Safran, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and environmental studies; Shawhin Roudbari, associate professor of environmental design; Beth Osnes, professor of theater and environmental studies; and Chelsea Hackett, educational theater researcher, facilitator and professor. The faculty members are pictured with a giant bird puppet, reflecting their project’s focus on migratory birds and climate change. Photos at the top of the page and above by Kylie Clarke.

Securing the competitive NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) grant was rewarding for the team, “especially given that this was our first submission to this highly competitive funding program,” says Rebecca Safran, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and environmental studies whose lab studies barn swallows.

“Once we got word that we received funding, our mood was very celebratory,” she adds. “We are all very passionate about this project and ready to get started on the work.”

Fortunately for the CU team, they had advantages in the grant-selection process. One was that team members had already been successfully overseeing the Side by Side art-science program in Boulder for local high school students for the past three years. That program—which was previously funded by local sources including the CU Research and Innovation Office, the Center for Humanities and the Arts, and supplements to Safran’s existing NSF grant—is a template for the NSF-funded endeavor.

A second factor is the corresponding expertise of those CU team members, which also includes Beth Osnes, professor of theater and environmental studies; Chelsea Hackett, educational theater researcher, facilitator and professor; and Shawhin Roudbari, associate professor of environmental design. Moreover, former PhD student Molly McDermott and honors student Avani Fachon collaborated with the team by collecting data and designing material and visuals for the project, many of which were included in the grant document.

“We all have our areas of expertise,” Hackett explains. “Beth and I often publish in education and theater journals, Becca is our expert in evolutionary biology and has been teaching a class in science communication for the past 14 years, and Shawhin is an expert in environmental design.”

The four faculty members are comfortable working across disciplines. Osnes and Safran are two of the founders of Inside the Greenhouse, which uses film, fine art and performance art to address climate change; and Roudbari, Safran and Osnes all assisted in founding the Center for Creative Climate Communication and Behavior Change (C3BC). Additionally, Hackett and Osnes co-founded SPEAK, a nonprofit supporting young women in self and civic advocacy.

Building on Side by Side’s Success

In the program, high school students from historically under-represented communities in the Denver metro area will participate in 10-day summer-intensive programs at CU Boulder. Under the guidance of undergraduate near-peer mentors from the Miramontes Arts and Science Program (MASP), as well as a small group of graduate students and scientists, the participants will delve into the world of migratory birds, particularly barn swallows, which have nesting grounds around campus. Barn swallows are notable because they make their homes in human-built structures, so their fate is tied with that of humans, Safran says.

During the summer program, high school students will learn through art-science observation of wild bird populations, data collection and focus group discussions. The program will partner with Garth Spellman, curator of birds at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the education team at the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies.

With that STEM-focused knowledge, they will create Migratory Micro-Exhibits (MMEs) that feature materials including wearable bird costumes, art-science explorations of bird biology and bilingual (English/Spanish) interactive components designed to engage audiences about the changing climate.

The nearly $2 million NSF grant will provide continued funding for the Side by Side program at CU Boulder, which involves high school students creating small, touring art-science exhibits centered around humanity’s relationship with birds.

Under Roudbari’s guidance, program participants will design and build the exhibits as migrating trunks, which will be shared with K-4^th graders in partnership with Growing Scientists, a collaboration between Denver art and science organizations including the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies and the Denver Botanic Gardens.

From there, the trunks will be distributed widely through partnerships with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Environment for the Americas. Program organizers anticipate that the trunks will travel across the Americas, from Canada to Central and South America.

Given how extensively the trunks are expected to travel, it’s vital that they be sturdy and yet look like they belong in professional settings, according to Osnes.

“That’s a big task for Shawhin and his students: How do we construct these so they can survive trips across the Americas? And how do we design them so that they can take the spirit this project embodies and make it accessible to an end user who is seeing it in a museum or a botanic garden or a professional art and exhibit space?” she says.

Safran says the traveling exhibits will be designed to help both the youth creators and the young audiences perceive how changing local habitats are part of larger, global phenomena like migration and climate change.

“We will have students observe wild bird populations that breed here in Colorado during the summer that will migrate along with the exhibits to our partner organizations where these same bird populations can be observed during the non-breeding season,” she says.

The NSF-funded program officially kicks off in the fall semester. �鶹��Ƶ 10 to 12 Denver high school students will participate. Students will be selected, in part, by their involvement and interest in biology, natural sciences and art, Hackett says.

The program will select a new group of Denver high school students for each year of the program, and each year about five to 10 MASP undergraduate students will serve as near-peer mentors to the high school students.

During the program’s five-year life, organizers anticipate that thousands of K-4^th grade students will be exposed to the high school student-created exhibits, Hackett says.

Safran says after the first NSF-funded Side by Side summer program concludes, she and her teammates, including graduate students in ecology and evolutionary biology and theatre and dance, will study what parts of the program were successful and what might benefit from changes, with improvements later incorporated into the program.

Promoting Diversity in STEM

This project specifically emphasizes involving underrepresented groups in STEM, Hackett says, working closely with Latinx female-identifying youth and those who do not conform to traditional gender roles, with the aim of addressing the lack of climate change communications intended for minority audiences.

“They (NSF) had just made this shift where they really want to see people making strides toward changing what STEM looks like in terms of diversity and representation,” she says. “And you can’t just do that by having diverse students at the end. You have to be thinking about it throughout the process. And I think that worked to our benefit in getting the grant, because we’ve been doing that for the past few years. That’s kind of the heart and soul of this program.”

What’s more, MASP undergraduate students who will work with the high schoolers are from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in higher-education and/or are first-generation college students, she adds.

“The notes (from NSF) for our grant just kept saying, ‘We love that the peer-to-near-peer mentorships are diverse, and who are not the typical students, and who are able to model for young people that science and the arts should be welcoming to everyone,” Osnes says. “And not only welcoming, but benefiting from everyone’s inclusion, because the more perspectives we have to solve climate change, the better able we’re going to be to do it.”

Part of the Side by Side program involves having students creating bird costumes, which they display for family members and others at the end of their summer program.

Meanwhile, the Side by Side leadership team has diverse training and skills, according to Safran.

“One of the cornerstone dimensions is really represented in the leadership team, which is composed of artists and scientists and environmental designers,” she says. “That kind of interdisciplinary, inclusive work takes time. It’s a real commitment by all the parties; it doesn’t just happen.”

Hackett says one of the things that most excites her about the program is that the elementary school students who view the trunk exhibits will learn that the creators of the exhibits are like them, which can open up worlds of possibilities to those young minds as they contemplate their careers.

“What does it say to a fourth grader or a fifth grader when they see someone who is only a few years older than them presented as an expert, telling them stories about birds and climate change?” she asks rhetorically.

“The ultimate goal is that those young students who are going to be experiencing the trunks … are going to be able to see a pathway into STEM fields that not only feels accessible but also is filled with people who are like them and is also a welcoming and experiential space.”

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CU Art Museum earns first-time accreditation

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 17:42:22 +0000

CU Art Museum earns first-time accreditation Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/15/2023 - 11:42

Rachel Sauer

Following a rigorous, five-year process, the museum joins peer institutions with a recognition of its quality and credibility

The �鶹��Ƶ Art Museum recently joined an elite group of peer institutions when it received first-time accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums.

This distinction recognizes “a museum’s quality and credibility to the entire museum community, to governments and outside agencies, and to the museum-going public,” the American Alliance of Museums notes, adding that the accreditation program ensures the integrity and accessibility of museum collections, reinforces the educational and public service roles of museums and promotes good governance practices and ethical behavior.

“This is an important milestone,” says Sandra Q. Firmin, museum director. “It increases our credibility as a trusted resource and partner on the CU campus and in the community and also among our peer institutions. It applauds the work we do to fuel imagination and collaboration through art.”

Top of the page: "Pool" by Sandra Kaplan is featured in the current Lush: Prolific Nature exhibit. Above: Sandra Q. Firmin is director of the University of Colorado Art Museum and led the successful accreditation process.

Of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums, more than 1,099 are accredited. The CU Art Museum is one of 26 museums accredited in Colorado. “We are thrilled to join this esteemed community of museums in Colorado and nationwide,” Firmin says.

Reflecting on purpose

The road to accreditation traversed a winding five years, extended by a global pandemic that saw the museum close from March 13, 2020, to Aug. 17, 2021. “We knew the process was going to be rigorous, but that added a whole new dimension,” says Maggie Mazzullo, head registrar and collection manager. “It really gave us an opportunity to reflect on our role and our identity.”

The accreditation process began in 2018 with submitting key operational documents for evaluation, then completing a more in-depth self-study. The first prompt in the self-study was deceptively simple: “Briefly describe what stories and messages the museum wants to convey; and the museum’s interpretive philosophy, educational goals and target audiences.”

“That was a whole-museum effort,” says Hope Saska, chief curator and director of academic engagement. “It was so much more than asking whether we’re good stewards of the collection, which is a great strength of this museum. It was looking at how we create learning opportunities and partnerships with faculty and students. Reviewers recognized our student-centered perspective and noted the excellence of students in our Museum Attendant Program.”

Maggie Mazzullo, CU Art Museum head registrar and collection manager (left), and Hope Saska, chief curator and director of academic engagement, helped guide the five-year accreditation process.

In the self-study, museum staff noted, “We are a collecting institution with artworks representing 10,000 years of human history. Because of the historical depth and geographic scope of the collection, the museum is able to mobilize the collection to relate a wide range of stories and messages. Our exhibitions are designed to contextualize our collection, make visible campus research through collaborative projects, and present new artistic productions.”

Saska highlights as an example the recently opened Lush: Prolific Nature exhibition, which brings together artworks from the museum’s collection that focus on the natural world. Not only are different geographies and time periods represented in many different media, but several pieces are on display for the first time.

One such piece is “Volcán” by artist Fernanda Brunet, a fiberglass, wood and metal sculpture abundantly blooming with vibrant migajón flowers made from a bread-based clay. “We’re really excited to be displaying this for the first time,” Saska says. “We’re thinking about so many things as we’re envisioning our exhibitions, and an important aspect of that is the idea that any faculty member can find an artwork here that relates to what they’re teaching in class, and any student can come here to see what they’re learning about.”

In-depth peer evaluation

Another important aspect of the accreditation process is a multi-day, on-site evaluation completed by peer reviewers. These reviewers considered not only practical aspects of museum operations—such as whether environmental conditions are appropriate for the collection and whether the interpretive materials are accurate, informed and professionally presented—but also how well the museum encourages and facilitates community discourse and how it asserts its public service role.

In their final evaluation, the peer reviewers note that not only do museum staff take pride in the power of strategic planning to guide the museum to new heights, but also ground their work in student-centeredness and a commitment to the museum’s educational mission.

Tim Whiten: Tools of Conveyance was a featured exhibit in 2021.

The CU Art Museum “emphasizes its learner-centeredness through its interdisciplinary teaching, using its strong and developing art collection to educate audiences about subjects well beyond the boundaries of art and art history,” the peer reviewers observed. “Additionally, students and faculty learn through collaborative label writing for exhibitions and object writing for the newsletter, as well as exhibitions that they curate with staff guidance (these include thesis work for art students).”

Firmin adds that while the accreditation process was long and rigorous, achieving the distinction “is validating and acknowledges the expertise of our staff and all the ways the museum supports education and our partners in the community. It recognizes the museum as a dynamic and growing institution.”

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Following a rigorous, five-year process, the museum joins peer institutions with a recognition of its quality and credibility.

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Arts and sciences dean appoints new deans of division

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 21:35:27 +0000

Arts and sciences dean appoints new deans of division Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/28/2023 - 15:35

Hirings mark significant milestone in the reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences, an initiative launched by the provost

In a significant milestone in the reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dean Glen Krutz has appointed two deans of division and one interim dean of division and has relaunched the search for the third. The deans of division join Krutz in the council of deans, convened by the provost.

The strengthening of the three divisions’ authority in the college fulfills recommendations made in the November 2018 report of the Provost’s Committee on Academic Reorganization.

The newly appointed deans of division are:

John-Michael Rivera, dean of the division of arts and humanities
Sarah Jackson, dean of the division of social sciences

The new interim dean is:

Irene Blair, interim dean of the division of natural sciences

John-Michael Rivera, Sarah Jackson and Irene Blair (left to right).

Rivera has served with distinction in recent years as transitional dean for the division. He is a professor of English and humanities and the former director for the Program for Writing and Rhetoric at the �鶹��Ƶ. Rivera began his new role May 1.

His first book, The Emergence of Mexican America, won the Thomas J. Lyon Best Book Award. His second book, UNDOCUMENTS, won the Kayden Award and Pope Award. He has edited, introduced and translated two books for the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project and has published widely in scholarship, essays, memoir, creative nonfiction and poetry. He was the curator of El Laboratorio, a literary space for Latinx writers, and co-creator of CrossBorders, an international collective of writers and artists engaging borders. He earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jackson, divisional dean for social sciences at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Arts and Sciences, will become the dean of division of social sciences here beginning on Aug. 1.

Jackson, who is a professor in the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Anthropology and has served as that department’s head, holds a PhD, MA and BA in anthropology from Harvard University. As divisional dean for social sciences at Cincinnati, she has shown a commitment to leading interdisciplinary initiatives that resulted in the formation of new schools and worked to apply existing administrative processes to the new schools.

Blair's research focus is stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, and she works with several multidisciplinary groups to examine disparities in health care and health outcomes, funded most frequently by the National Institutes of Health. She begins work in this new position Aug. 1.

Blair has examined implicit racial and ethnic bias among healthcare clinicians and how those biases affect the delivery of care. She has also examined the potential effects of discrimination on health in urban American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Blair joined the CU Boulder faculty in 1995 after earning an MS, MPhil and PhD in social psychology from Yale University.

Krutz has relaunched the search for the dean of the division of natural sciences, because the previous search did not result in a hire. Krutz will share more details about the search process within a few weeks.

“I’d like to thank Dean Krutz for his hard work and thoughtful leadership in organizing appropriate searches and carrying out these key appointments,” said Provost Russell Moore. “I’d also like to welcome our two new deans of division and our interim dean welcoming the third to the College of Arts and Sciences and to the council of deans.”

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CU Boulder’s Marvin Caruthers wins inaugural Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology for developing technology that efficiently synthesizes DNA

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 20:51:25 +0000

CU Boulder’s Marvin Caruthers wins inaugural Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology for developing technology that efficiently synthesizes DNA Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/28/2023 - 14:51

The $400,000 award recognizes the far-reaching medical impact of Caruthers’ development, in the early 1980s, of an efficient and fast method to synthesize nucleic acids

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Pt-W0Wb40]

Marvin H. Caruthers explains the importance of developing technology for synthesizing DNA.

Marvin H. Caruthers, distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the �鶹��Ƶ, has won the inaugural Richard N. Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology for developing an efficient, automated technology for synthesizing DNA.

The chemical reactions that Caruthers discovered in the early 1980s, which accurately and quickly assemble nucleotides into strands of DNA, provided an essential element in the development of modern molecular medicine, according to the Merkin Prize selection committee. Today, scientists use these reactions to produce customizable DNA and RNA molecules that enable genetic sequencing, drug and vaccine development, pathogen tests, cancer diagnostics, and many aspects of basic biomedical research.

“I am honored to acknowledge the incredible and transformative impact of Dr. Caruthers’ technology on human health over the last four decades,” said Dr. Richard Merkin, founder and CEO of Heritage Provider Network, one of the country’s largest physician-founded and physician-owned integrated health care systems. “He deserves our support and recognition. I hope this prize not only raises awareness of this work but underscores and encourages others to realize the broader importance of developing new scientific technologies to transform health care.”

The Merkin Prize, which recognizes novel technologies that have improved human health, carries a $400,000 cash award. The prize was created by the Merkin Family Foundation and is administered by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Caruthers will be honored in a prize ceremony held this fall.

“I’m really very happy that this work is being recognized,” Caruthers said. “It’s been amazing to see the technology have such widespread use over the years.”

“The method developed by Dr. Marvin Caruthers was truly revolutionary. It exemplifies how a powerful technology can promote discovery and improve medical care. There are now whole fields of biology, medicine and public health that one cannot imagine practicing without his methods for synthesis of polynucleotides,” said Dr. Harold Varmus, chair of the Merkin Prize selection committee. Varmus is the Lewis Thomas University Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, a senior associate at the New York Genome Center and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the origins of cancer.

More than 50 technologies and scores of scientists from around the globe who invented them were nominated for the 2023 Merkin Prize. Those nominations were evaluated by the selection committee, composed of eight scientific leaders from academia and industry in the U.S. and Europe.

Paving the Way for a Genetics Revolution

Today, scientists routinely manipulate genetic material to study human health and diagnose and treat disease. They sequence genes to diagnose inherited conditions and cancers, synthesize DNA and RNA strands by the millions to detect pathogens, manufacture drugs and edit the sequences of genes as potential therapy. Just a few decades ago, before the synthetic methodologies developed in the Caruthers laboratory, none of this was possible.

Caruthers is a CU Boulder distinguished professor of biochemistry and internationally recognized expert in chemical biology and genetics.

Born in 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa, Caruthers became enamored with science in the third grade, when his parents gave him a chemistry set. The color-changing liquids and exploding mixtures of chemicals fascinated him.

He went on to study chemistry at Iowa State University before joining the lab of Robert Letsinger at Northwestern University in 1963, a decade after the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure.

During his graduate education at Northwestern, Caruthers learned how to assemble nucleotides—the building blocks of DNA and RNA—into short sequences using methods Letsinger pioneered. But the approach was slow and inefficient.

“To make one little piece of synthetic DNA a few nucleotides long could take two months,” Caruthers recalled.

While at Northwestern, he assembled five nucleotides into a strand of DNA, representing a major breakthrough at the time. He then became a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Wisconsin lab of Gobind Khorana, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how the order of nucleotides in DNA encodes proteins. There, Caruthers became interested in how DNA was regulated and what its many sequences meant. Studying these problems was hard, though, without a way to build new pieces of DNA.

By the time Caruthers joined the chemistry and biochemistry department at the �鶹��Ƶ in 1973, he had set a goal to improve DNA synthesis.

“It was clear to me at the time that none of the current technologies were really very good for general, everyday use by most biologists,” he said. “But most scientists in the biological and biochemistry communities couldn’t care less.”

At conferences and in hallways, colleagues frequently questioned why he wanted to develop new methods to synthesize DNA; most did not see any benefit, Caruthers said.

Over the coming years, with significant contributions from graduate student Mark Matteucci and postdoctoral fellow Serge Beaucage, Caruthers’ lab tackled the problem. They first probed how to provide structural support for fragile, lengthening strands of DNA, and discovered that a highly porous silica glass known as “controlled pore glass” worked far better than the polystyrene that researchers had been using.

Colleagues frequently questioned why develop new methods to synthesize DNA; most did not see any benefit. Suddenly, in less than a day, you could make a piece of synthetic DNA that would have taken months using older methods."

Then, the team developed a chemical method to protect nucleotides from undergoing unwanted reactions during DNA synthesis — a major reason DNA synthesis had been so inefficient. Caruthers’ group discovered how to create protected “deoxynucleoside phosphoramidites” that didn’t undergo the unwanted reactions. This made the synthesis reaction far more efficient. A series of chemical reactions could be carried out again and again, with each new iteration successively adding a new nucleotide to a growing strand of DNA in a matter of seconds.

“Suddenly, in less than a day, you could make a piece of synthetic DNA that would have taken months using older methods,” Caruthers said.

A Lasting Impact

With the new technique, the Caruthers lab could rapidly synthesize strands of up to 30 nucleotides. In 1981, Caruthers and Matteucci described the controlled pore glass support in Journal of the American Chemical Society and Caruthers and Beaucage published the new approach for DNA synthesis in Tetrahedron Letters. Other scientists quickly began using the methods, and soon adapted the approach for synthesizing the other important polynucleotide, RNA.

At the same time, Caruthers imagined the technique could become even more widespread with machines to automate the repetitive process. He teamed up with world-leading protein scientist and systems biology pioneer Leroy Hood, then at the California Institute of Technology, to develop instruments for DNA and protein synthesis and protein sequencing, described in a seminal 1984 Nature paper. Together, the pair launched a company—Applied Biosystems—that would produce both machines.

“I knew from day one that if people had to make their own reagents and chemically synthesize DNA in their own labs, it was never going to take off,” Caruthers said. “If they could instead order DNA from a supplier, or have a really good machine to automate it, that could appeal to biologists.”

The Caruthers' lab is desinged to generate and manipulate DNA. Photo courtesy of Caruthers.

Caruthers’ foresight paid off. Such machines now produce strands of DNA hundreds of nucleotides long; DNA microchips can produce millions of these sequences at a time.

Today, scientists frequently synthesize short stretches of DNA to act as “primers,” binding to genes of interest for the purpose of sequencing those genes or making new copies of them. Caruthers’ technology was critical for developing polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which rapidly amplifies DNA or RNA so it can be detected or studied in greater detail. This technology also underlies many new diagnostic methods, including tests for COVID-19, for selection of cancer therapies and for noninvasive prenatal screening for fetal abnormalities.

Longer synthetic DNA and RNA molecules also are critical for modern biologic drugs. These strands of genetic material carry the instructions for cells to produce antigens and therapeutic proteins, with the potential to prevent or treat infectious and metabolic diseases and cancers.

“The ability to synthesize genetic information has changed the face of medicine,” said Varmus. “Synthesis of DNA and RNA is not only used directly for making diagnostics and therapies; its effects are magnified when you consider all the medical advances that have come out of research dependent on gene sequencing.”

Caruthers is a recipient of the National Medal of Science and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In addition to his role at Applied Biosystems, he is a co-founder of companies including Amgen, Array BioPharma, miRagen Therapeutics, SynGenis and ProGenis.

Nominations for the 2024 Merkin Prize will open in September 2023. Visit merkinprize.org for more information.

The $400,000 award recognizes the far-reaching medical impact of Caruthers’ development, in the early 1980s, of an efficient and fast method to synthesize nucleic acids.

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Twenty-six students are named 2023 Van Ek Scholars

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 21:12:59 +0000

Twenty-six students are named 2023 Van Ek Scholars Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/26/2023 - 15:12

The award is given to students for academic achievement and service; it is considered one of the College of Arts & Sciences’ highest honors

The College of Arts and Sciences has awarded the Jacob Van Ek Scholarship—one of the college’s highest honors—to 26 exceptional undergraduates.

These students were nominated by faculty at the �鶹��Ƶ for their superior academic achievement and service to the university, the Denver and Boulder communities, or larger national and international communities. The five-person Van Ek Scholars Award committee selected the winners, who receive a $230 award and a certificate of recognition.

The award is named for Jacob Van Ek (1896-1999), who arrived at CU as a young assistant professor shortly after earning his doctorate in 1925 at what is now known as Iowa State University. Within three years, he was a full professor and, by 1929, he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts, serving until 1959.

Students studying on campus in unique places.

The following students are this year’s Jakob Van Ek Scholar Award recipients:

Abigail Matthews, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Eswari Duggirala, Ethnic Studies and Psychology
Caitlyn Mendik, Biochemistry
Joseph Lim, Integrated Physiology
Rose Rivera, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Emily Reynolds, Anthropology and Linguistics
Ben O’Meara, Psychology
Jordan Lee, Geography and Linguistics
Wendy Acevedo, Integrated Physiology
Kaitlyn Shirley, History
James Kim, Sociology/LCE
Emmeline Nettles, International Affairs and Chinese
Keely Olson, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Ella Baca, Women and Gender Studies
Shane Ball, Economics and History
Wessie Simmons, Theater and Dance
Gigi Saad, Program in Jewish Studies
Jackson Avery, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
Paloma Siegel, Geography
Veronica Feather, French and Italian and International Affairs
Cassie Parrisher, Political Science
MacKenzie Dean, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
Abby Hartley, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences
Em Fox, Anthropology
Nick Nemeth, Art and Art History

The award is given to students for academic achievement and service; it is considered one of the College of Arts & Sciences’ highest honors.

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CU Boulder’s Aaron Whiteley named a Pew Scholar

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 17:57:08 +0000

CU Boulder’s Aaron Whiteley named a Pew Scholar Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/13/2023 - 11:57

The biochemistry assistant professor is investigating how inflammatory proteins called NLRs establish the first line of defense against viral infection in bacteria and humans

Aaron Whiteley, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the �鶹��Ƶ, has been selected to join the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, the Pew Charitable Trusts announced today.

“I am truly thrilled to be named a Pew Scholar,” said Whiteley. “Support from this grant will help my lab pursue high-risk/high-reward research on how the immune system recognizes pathogens. I hope one day our findings can inform design of the next generation of vaccines and antiviral treatments.”

Aaron Whiteley, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at CU Boulder, was recently selected to join the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. Whiteley’s recent research has identified unexpected similarities between how bacteria and human cells fight off viruses.

This award follows a recent publication from the Whiteley lab in the journal Cell that identified unexpected similarities between how bacteria and human cells fight off viruses. The article reveals that a part of the human immune system, called “NLRs,” actually originated from bacteria.

“Like studying a fossil, understanding bacterial ancestors of our NLRs will help us understand the human immune systems,” Whiteley said.

He added, “One of the most impactful aspects of being a Biomedical Scholar is connection to the fantastic network of Pew-supported scientists from across the country. This award is career milestone—I am grateful for the recognition and opportunity.”

Whiteley is one of 22 early career scientists who will receive four years of funding to spearhead innovative studies exploring human health and medicine.

This award is career milestone—I am grateful for the recognition and opportunity.”

The 2023 class—all early career, junior faculty—joins a rich legacy of more than 1,000 scientists who have received awards from Pew since 1985. Current scholars have opportunities to meet annually with fellow Pew-funded scientists to exchange ideas and forge connections across a wide variety of disciplines.

“From vaccine development to treatments for complex diseases, biomedical research is foundational to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges,” said Susan K. Urahn, Pew’s president and CEO. “Pew is thrilled to welcome this new class of researchers and support their efforts to advance scientific knowledge and improve human health.”

Scholars were chosen from 188 applicants nominated by leading academic institutions and researchers throughout the United States. This year’s class includes scientists who are studying how external and internal factors affect the gut microbe, what causes HIV to re-emerge when treatment is halted and how living an urban lifestyle affects long-term health.

“This new class of scholars embodies the creativity and curiosity that is key to science discovery,” said Craig C. Mello, a 1995 Pew scholar, 2006 Nobel Laureate in physiology or medicine and chair of the national advisory of committee for the scholars’ program.

“With support from Pew and its network of colleges and advisors, I am confident this group will do great things to advance biomedical science.”

The biochemistry assistant professor is investigating how inflammatory proteins called NLRs establish the first line of defense against viral infection in bacteria and humans.

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Three CU Boulder profs win Boettcher Foundation awards

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 23:12:26 +0000

Three CU Boulder profs win Boettcher Foundation awards Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/12/2023 - 17:12

The awards are part of $1.88 million in 2023 biomedical research grant funding for Colorado researchers

Three �鶹��Ƶ assistant professors have been named 2023 Boettcher Investigators, each earning $235,000 in grant funding to support up to three years of biomedical research. The 13-year-old program invests in leading Colorado researchers during the early stages of their careers, providing support to fund their independent scientific research.

Nuris Figueroa Morales studies the complex interactions between microorganisms and their environment.

The three CU Boulder award winners and their fields of study are:

Nuris Figueroa, assistant professor, physics; studying the mechanics of mucus organization and transport;
Halil Aydin, assistant professor, biochemistry; investigating cellular and molecular mechanisms of mitochondrial form and function in human health and disease; and
Nick Bottenus, assistant professor, biomedical, mechanics of materials, and robotics and systems design in the College of Engineering and Applied Science; studying binding kinetics of targeted microbubble agents.

Funding for the awards is made possible in part by the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards program, which is administered by the Boettcher Foundation.

“It’s an honor to be acknowledged by a distinguished organization,” Aydin said of the Boettcher Foundation. “The Boettcher Foundation Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Award will grant our laboratory the opportunity to develop novel approaches and push the boundaries of high-resolution imaging and structural cell biology to advance our understanding of how cellular machines function normally, and how they are corrupted by disease. An integrative understanding of how protein machines function has implications for targeting cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, cancers, aging and a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases.”

Halil Aydin is an expert in membrane biology, cell signaling, proteins and enzymology, molecular biophysics, structural biology, and electron cryo-microscopy (cryoEM).

Figueroa also expressed thanks to the Boettcher Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Program and for what the funding will mean for her research team’s work.

“With this research grant, my team and I will have the means to investigate mechanical properties of lung mucus, how it flows, and how bacteria navigate in it,” she said. “Our research will look at the biophysics of lung-obstructive diseases using new quantitative and interdisciplinary tools, to further understand causes and consequences of failed mucus clearance and hopefully device solutions.”

Bottenus said, “Being named a Boettcher Investigator is an amazing career milestone. I’m grateful to become a part of a rich community of biomedical researchers throughout Colorado. This award will allow my group to grow in new directions, applying our acoustics and signal processing techniques to more fundamental biological investigations. I hope that our work will translate to improved diagnostic imaging, personalized medicine, and accessible health care technologies as we pursue new approaches to molecular imaging.”

Assistant Professor Nick Bottenus' research is focused on developing system-level solutions to problems in diagnostic ultrasound imaging.

The awards given to the three CU Boulder assistant professors are part of a larger pot of $1.88 million grant funding awarded to eight individuals from four of Colorado’s research institutions: CU Boulder, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus,Colorado State University and National Jewish Health.

“We are thrilled to support our 2023 Boettcher Investigators, and as proud investors in their work, we are confident that these exceptional researchers will continue to push the boundaries of discovery and medical breakthrough,” said Katie Kramer, president and CEO of the Boettcher Foundation. “Their innovative research holds the promise of transformational impact that will drive progress in health care and make a meaningful difference in the lives of Coloradans.”

Since its inception in 2010, the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards program has advanced the work of 98 Boettcher Investigators with more than $20 million in grant funds. The researchers have attracted more than $150 million in additional independent research funding from federal, state and private sources.

“Colorado BioScience Association applauds Boettcher Foundation’s support of Colorado’s most dynamic and promising researchers,” said Elyse Blazevich, president and CEO of the Colorado BioScience Association.

“The Webb-Waring Biomedical Awards program invests in Colorado researchers at a pivotal time in their careers and encourages them to deepen their roots in Colorado as they contribute to the leading-edge health innovations coming from our state.”

The awards are part of $1.88 million in 2023 biomedical research grant funding for Colorado researchers.

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Faculty, staff and students honored for diversity, inclusion work

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 16:26:50 +0000

Faculty, staff and students honored for diversity, inclusion work Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/07/2023 - 10:26

Chosen by a faculty committee, the recipients of ASCEND Awards were recognized for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion

Faculty, staff and students are being honored for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in the �鶹��Ƶ College of Arts and Sciences.

The winners are the recipients of the third annual awards from ASCEND, or the Arts and Sciences Consortium of Committees on Climate, Equity, Inclusion and Diversity.

The 2023 winners were selected and announced by the A&S Diversity Committee of the Staff Advisory Council, the primary representative body for the college’s faculty, with the goal honoring faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduate students who have “demonstrated a commitment to the principles and actions of diversity” when it comes to curriculum expansion, creative teaching practices, community building endeavors and/or communication, according to Cecilia Pang, who chaired the awards committee.

The 2023 faculty winner is Brian A. Catlos, professor of religious studies, who was responsible for establishing Mediterranean Studies at CU Boulder, both through the CU Mediterranean Studies Group (CUMSG), which he founded in 2010 and directs, and the Mediterranean Seminar, which has more than 1,800 members in more than 40 countries.

The Mediterranean Seminar presents a vision of history of a larger West, stretching from the Indus to the Atlantic, and emphasizing the role of Muslims, Christians and Jews from Africa, Europe and West Asia in this great historico-cultural venture.

The CUMSG is interdisciplinary and actively supports the work of junior faculty and graduate students through workshops, conferences and panels, and by supporting their travel and attendance at Mediterranean Seminar workshops across North America.

The group organizes conferences, workshops and guest speakers at CU for faculty, graduate, undergraduate and community audiences. Catlos said it often features scholars from underrepresented groups and emphasizes non-Eurocentric perspectives, offering a rare nexus of intellectual collaboration at CU Boulder.

Often, these events are proposed by junior faculty, and the group facilitates these visits, thus providing mentoring/professional support to these faculty as well as enriching undergraduate and graduate education by bringing in diverse scholarly perspectives.

Mediterranean Studies, my specialty, is all about establishing a new meta-narrative for the origins of the modern West—giving voice to scholars from underrepresented constituencies or whose work focuses on regions, culture or methodologies..." -Brian A. Catlos

Catlos has been teaching courses that integrate Islamic, Jewish and European studies, particularly the course The Mediterranean Origins of the West (HUMN/RLST3801), which uses the textbook that he co-wrote, The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650.

Catlos receives no compensation for this work, and he fundraises to support this programming, given that the group receives no regular support from the university.

According to the faculty awards committee, Catlos’ work demonstrates an “impressive commitment to the Ascend Awards’ principles of diversity and inclusion through curriculum, creative teaching practices, community building and communication.”

“I am honored by the 2023 ASCEND award,” Catlos said. “Mediterranean Studies, my specialty, is all about establishing a new meta-narrative for the origins of the modern West—one which incorporates and integrates African, West Asian and European history and focusses on the contributions of diverse peoples and cultures to this process, as well as giving voice to scholars from underrepresented constituencies or whose work focuses on regions, culture or methodologies that have been sidelined by traditional disciplinary approaches and Eurocentric biases.”

The 2023 staff winner is Kirsten Stoltz, who is in charge of the CU Boulder Visiting Artist and Visiting Scholars Program. She works with AAH faculty to identify various speakers/artists to bring to campus and give public lectures.

It is an honor to receive the ASCEND award, and I share this with the art and art history faculty and staff with whom I closely collaborate to bring a diverse array of artists and art scholars to engage with CU Boulder students.” -Kirsten Stoltz

“It is an honor to receive the ASCEND award, and I share this with the art and art history faculty and staff with whom I closely collaborate to bring a diverse array of artists and art scholars to engage with CU Boulder students,” Stoltz said.

“The department is deeply committed to educating students from all backgrounds, and the visiting artist and scholars program is reflective of this mission, believing that the arts have the power to transform individuals and to transform society.”

In her role, Stoltz works with the speakers/artists to schedule studio visits with AAH students. She also works with faculty to secure university grants to pay the honorariums of the speaker/artists.

Stoltz has been instrumental in increasing participation in the event, according to the faculty awards committee.

She develops posters and fliers and advertises the events widely via social media and other electronic media. She also seeks out collaborators in other departments to work on programming enhancements and co-mingling programmatic opportunities, such as Environmental Design, Center of the American West, Conference on World Affairs, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and CU Art Museum.

Stoltz organized the hosting of events online during COVID and is now slowly getting back to live events.

The graduate student winner is Sarah Brown, who was assigned to teach American Political Thought this term. The classic syllabus for this course involved a focus on the political thought of the (mostly) white men who have served as the leaders of this country, from the founding (Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, U.S. Constitution), through debates over slavery (typically the Lincoln/Douglas debates), through milestones of Supreme Court jurisprudence in the 19th and 20th centuries amending and interpreting the U.S. Constitution.

Brown decided from the start to reimagine what this course could be. She gathered ideas from colleagues at other institutions, met for extended conversations with faculty members, and completely rethought the syllabus from the ground up, to include diverse voices and thinking from a wide array of activists, scholars and politicians, reflecting major issues in American political thought.

Her course—now organized thematically rather than chronologically—incorporates indigenous, African American, feminist and Chicano thought, alongside of canonical works by white men such as Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.

Taylor Johnson, an undergraduate philosophy major, is receiving the ASCEND award for her work in creating, registering and running the Women in Philosophy undergraduate club at CU Boulder.

Taylor initially had the idea to create such a group to provide a safe and supportive community for gender minorities who are interested in and excited about philosophy, which is still one of the academic disciplines most dominated by men. So, the value of having a specific space on campus for women and gender minorities interested in philosophy has been well-received.

The Women in Philosophy undergraduate club at CU Boulder provides an intellectually stimulating space specifically for marginalized people, but the readings that drive discussion during meetings are almost always centered on historically underrepresented authors and topics." -The Faculty Awards Committee

The group Taylor leads is a place where women and non-binary students can feel comfortable expressing opinions and feel empowered in philosophy.

Not only has the club provided an “intellectually stimulating space specifically for marginalized people, but the readings that drive discussion during meetings are almost always centered on historically underrepresented authors and topics,” according to the faculty awards committee.

In advance of meetings, Taylor independently researches authors and topics that members have expressed interest in and proceeds to send out weekly emails, including readings, videos and notes on the author and/or topic under discussion. After preparing discussion questions, during each meeting Taylor facilities conversations so that everyone has a chance to speak their opinion.

At the top of the page: The 2023 ASCEND award winners are (from left to right): Professor Brian Catlos, graduate student Sarah Brown and undergraduate Taylor Johnson. Not pictured: staff member Kirsten Stoltz.

Chosen by a faculty committee, the recipients of ASCEND Awards were recognized for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion.

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