Just the Facts 2007-2008

CU-Boulder is home to one of the most extensive Glenn Miller archives in the world. In 2007 CU-Boulder's archive of the big band-era trombonist added a new donation from an English estate, one of the finest private Glenn Miller collections known.

In March 2007, CU-Boulder joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and two local universities in establishing the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels. Known as C2B2, its mission is to become the world's leading center for research, education and innovation involving integration of renewable energy sources into the chemical and fuels industry.

CU-Boulder is finalizing its landmark strategic plan following a series of community dialogues like the one featured here on the Boulder campus from May 2007. Titled Flagship 2030: Serving Colorado, Engaged in the World, the plan outlines how CU will maintain its competitiveness in the near term while transforming to meet Colorado's needs as the state's flagship higher education institution in the year 2030. The plan's centerpiece is 10 "flagship" initiatives touching on such areas as creating a three-semester academic year, instituting customized learning and multiple-degree tracks and fostering multi-year learning communities for students.

Two graduate specialty programs were ranked in the top 10 in the nation and another four in the top 20 in U.S. News & World Report's 2008 America's Best Graduate Schools issue. Leading the group was environmental law (4th), followed by physical chemistry (10th), business entrepreneurship (13th), aerospace engineering (16th), geology (18th) and chemical engineering (19th).

CU-Boulder physics doctoral student Michael Thorpe (above) holds a detection chamber for a new ultrafast laser apparatus developed by a JILA team and led by researcher Jun Ye. The laser device can help researchers identify faint human-breath molecules that may be biomarkers for disease. Ye (inset) also leads a team that recently developed a new atomic clock accurate to within 1 second over 200 million years.

CU-Boulder student Ben Safdi received three prestigious awards in 2007-08: the Churchill Scholarship, which provides university and college fees of $25,000 plus other expenses to Churchill College, the University of Cambridge; the Goldwater Scholarship of $7,500 per year; and the $10,000 Astronaut Foundation Scholarship. The engineering physics and applied math major has received several other CU-Boulder awards and has been a co-author on two scientific papers. Safdi is pictured with CU alumnus and astronaut Scott Carpenter in 2007 after receiving the Astronaut Foundation Scholarship.

Each semester, about 60 undergraduate "learning assistants" are working with their professors to improve introductory math and science classes through a program called CUTeach. The program also strives to recruit and train future K-12 science teachers.

CU-Boulder's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program gives undergraduates the opportunity to conduct real-world research at a major university. Since its inception in 1986, UROP has provided more than $5 million to some 6,000 undergraduates for research and creative work.

CU-Boulder is the only research institution in the world to have designed and built space instruments for NASA that have been launched to every planet in the solar system.

One of seven scientific instruments riding aboard the MESSENGER spacecraft — which made a flyby of Mercury last January — was built by CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Called MASCS, the instrument is measuring Mercury's surface and atmosphere to help scientists determine the distribution and abundance of the planet's minerals and gases. LASP Director Dan Baker, right, said the project will provide "a field day for students," as abundant data pours back to Earth via MESSENGER.

Scientists from CU-Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center reported in September 2007 that the extent of Arctic sea ice recorded in that month shattered all previous lows since satellite record-keeping began nearly 30 years ago.

Several CU-Boulder research faculty from the National Snow and Ice Data Center shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for their contributions to the international report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The CU-Boulder researchers, including Tingjun Zhang who was "chapter leader" for a section of the report on permafrost, joined co-authors from around the world on the groundbreaking report.

With the help of a new CU-Boulder invention, corn and potato crops may soon provide information to farmers about when they need water and how much should be delivered. The technology, based largely on a doctoral thesis by CU-Boulder Research Associate Hans-Dieter Seelig, includes a tiny sensor that can be clipped to plant leaves to measure water deficiency and leaf stress.

Associate Professor Stephen Yeaple of CU-Boulder's economics department received the Bhagwati Award in 2007 for the best article published in the Journal of International Economics, considered the leading journal in the field. The award is given every other year.

Professor Richard Wobbekind presents the Colorado Business Economic Outlook forum annually in December. Delivered by faculty from the CU-Boulder Leeds School of Business, the forum summarizes the overall state of Colorado's economy and details 13 distinct economic sectors.

The TREP Café in the business school's newly renovated and expanded Koelbel Building is student-owned and operated, giving CU-Boulder students an opportunity to learn how to run a business. While the cafe isn't yet profitable, the long-term goal is to put future earnings back into the Leeds School of Business to fund entrepreneurship scholarships and specific student programs and events.

The popular outreach series CU Wizards features astronomy, chemistry and physics professors, and focuses on basic scientific principles to educate and entertain students of all ages. Wizards shows are seen by hundreds of school-age children annually from September through May. Distinguished Professor Margaret Murnane and Professor Henry Kapteyn, both of physics, demonstrated how lasers work in a 2007 Wizards show.

CU-Boulder faculty, staff and students continue to sign up for a wireless text-messaging service enabling campus officials to notify them swiftly via mobile phone in case of a campus emergency. Introduced in fall 2007, the Short Message Service was one of several new or improved programs implemented to fine-tune CU-Boulder's emergency response and communication programs. As of spring 2008, more than 11,000 faculty, staff and students have signed up for the service.

Wireless Internet access is available in nearly all classrooms and academic buildings, and most administrative buildings on campus. All campus residence hall rooms are equipped with Ethernet connections and most also have wireless access. A list of buildings with wireless coverage is available here.

In 2006 the CU-Boulder ski team won the NCAA National Collegiate Skiing Championship for the 17th time. Overall, CU-Boulder has won 22 national championships, including four in cross country and one in football.