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The computer is the most important invention in human history but most of us are not aware of that yet, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder professor. That's because its impact today is beyond comprehension, just as the full impact of the printing press could not be perceived by observers in the 15th century, said Douglas Robertson, an adjunct professor of geological sciences. The computer will produce even greater changes than the printing press, he contends.

CU-Boulder marketing Professor Dipankar Chakravarti has been elected president for 2003-04 of the Society for Consumer Psychology, a premier organization of consumer researchers from academia, government and industry.

Julio DeCastro, associate professor of organizational management at the CU-Boulder Leeds School of Business, has been elected to the board of governors of the Academy of Management. The Academy of Management, based at Pace University in New York, is the premier organization of management professors, bringing together 12,000 members from the United States and throughout the world. The board of governors both manages and sets policy for the organization.

University of Colorado at Boulder researchers have discovered four new kingdoms of life in the high alpine environment of Colorado, findings that have potential applications in the fields of agriculture and global change. Doctoral student Allen Meyer and Professor Steven Schmidt of the environmental, population and organismic biology department discovered the new microbe kingdoms in barren, boulder-filled tundra slopes west of Boulder.

Beta Gamma Sigma has awarded Juan Rodriguez, a former CU-Boulder professor and a board member of the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, with the 2003 Medallion for Entrepreneurship. Beta Gamma Sigma is the only international honor society serving business programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. It has established 374 collegiate chapters in all 50 states plus Canada and Hong Kong. Its mission is to honor academic achievement, support the advancement of business and foster a commitment to integrity.

Â鶹ÊÓƵ 750 physicists will gather at the University of Colorado at Boulder May 20 through May 24 for the 34th annual conference of the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society. Nobel laureates Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell will be among the scientists attending the national event. Atomic, molecular and optical physics covers a diverse range of subjects from medical imaging and geological exploration to tests of Einstein's theories of relativity and the fundamental properties of atoms and molecules.

The University of Colorado at Boulder announced today the appointment of Professor David Getches as dean of the CU School of Law, pending approval by the Board of Regents at its May 27 meeting. CU-Boulder Provost Phil DiStefano said Getches would begin his duties as dean July 1. "I am extremely pleased that Professor David Getches has accepted my offer to be dean of the law school," said DiStefano. "He brings an exceptionally strong academic record and administrative experience to this leadership position on the campus."

A serendipitous discovery by a University of Colorado at Boulder-led team has shown for the first time that satellite signals from the Global Positioning System are a valuable new tool for studying earthquakes.

Vanessa Aponte has been interested in science for as long as she can remember, since she first built a terrarium in the fifth grade. But the Puerto Rican elementary school student didn't think she had what it took to become an astronaut until much more recently.

The first comprehensive study of the history of the death penalty in Colorado shows a longstanding unease with capital punishment and a general trend toward abolition, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder expert. Since the 1859 hanging of John Stoefel from a cottonwood tree in Cherry Creek in the new settlement of Denver in the Kansas Territory, another 102 legally mandated executions were carried out through 2003, said sociology Professor Michael Radelet, one of the nation's leading experts on the death penalty.