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Valentine's Day is a time of year when cupid, flowers and candy-shaped hearts can signal the most romantic day of the year. Many couples take the occasion to evaluate where the relationship is, but according to Cindy White, an assistant professor in the University of Colorado at Boulder's communications department, many couples have a difficult time evaluating their relationships because of poor communication skills.

University of Colorado experts from a dozen disciplines will reappraise the relationship between human society and wildfires in two public programs presented by the Center of the American West on Saturday, Feb. 17. "Facing Fire: Lessons From the Ashes" will examine current understanding of wildland fires in the West and explore whether combining knowledge from different viewpoints might produce new strategies for wildfire management.

Chancellor Richard L. Byyny will deliver the annual address on the status of women at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. in Old Main Chapel. The chancellor will address some of the key issues contained in the Status of Women Report issued by the Chancellor's Committee on Women. He and committee members will take questions, comments and suggestions from the audience afterward. The public is invited to attend the address and the reception in the Heritage Center immediately following.

A $6.8 million study at the University of Colorado at Boulder will examine three generations of families in an effort to determine the influence of genetics in problem alcohol use. The five-year study also will collect extensive information on environmental factors such as marital status, education and employment in an attempt to disentangle the influences of the environment and genetics on problem alcohol use.

Editors: Media are welcome to attend the balsa wood glider contest, boat-building and racing event, and other activities this Thursday, Feb. 8. Contact Carol Rowe, (303) 492-7426, for a detailed schedule of events. Up to 200 high school students from 20 schools throughout Colorado will apply their skills to building boats and flying gliders of their own design during the Colorado Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Spring Fling 2001 at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Feb. 8-9.

A collection of 36 posters celebrating women scientists will be the focus of a public reception at Fiske Planetarium on Thursday, Feb. 8, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The poster collection is the work of Pamela Davis Kivelson from the UCLA Science and Art Center, part of the university's physics department. "This reception is really a celebration of the strong presence of women in the sciences at CU-Boulder, as well as the arrival of this wonderful collection," said astrophysical and planetary sciences Professor Fran Bagenal.

Editors: Reporters and photographers are welcome to attend this event, which is not open to the public. University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman will address students enrolled in the CU-Boulder Minority Arts and Sciences Program at an awards ceremony on Feb. 9 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the British Studies Center in Norlin Library. The event is to recognize the community of 93 undergraduate students for collectively achieving a 3.2 grade-point average last semester.

The world's great leaders have many traits in common, including being inspirational, compassionate, ethical and courageous. But few were born leaders - they had to learn those skills. Students at the University of Colorado at Boulder interested in becoming effective leaders while working toward their chosen degrees can now do so through a new leadership program.

Recent discoveries about the universe and its evolution will be the topic of "The Big Bang," a live show at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Fiske Planetarium on Friday, Feb. 16, and Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. CU-Boulder Professor Andrew Hamilton will take the planetarium audience on a trip back in time to learn about the "big bang" and how the Milky Way and its stars were formed. The term big bang refers to the theory that the universe began at a single point in space and has been expanding ever since.

The University of Colorado at Boulder's journal of Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research has been ranked the No. 1 geography journal in the world for its impact and citation by the prestigious Institute of Scientific Information. The ranking is for the journal's 1999 publications, which are the latest rankings released by the Washington, D.C., based institute, according to CU-Boulder's Kathleen Salzberg, managing editor of the journal.