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Graduate programs at the °µÍø½ûÇø continue to earn national prominence based on the latest annual rankings from U.S. News & World Report. CU-Boulder schools and programs garnered 25 mentions in the 2012 edition of Best Graduate Schools, including five ranked in the top 10 of their fields.

The °µÍø½ûÇø is hosting a Campus Master Plan open house on Wednesday, March 16, from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Flatirons Room at the Center for Community. The open house launches the 30-day public comment period and members of the campus and community are invited to come at any time to talk with campus planners about the draft plan.

A new study involving the °µÍø½ûÇø shows clear evidence of the continuous control of fire by Neanderthals in Europe dating back roughly 400,000 years, yet another indication that they weren't dimwitted brutes as often portrayed.

All of the °µÍø½ûÇø's 14 students studying in Japan have been accounted for and all are unharmed, university officials have confirmed.

Local firefighters are responding to a wildfire in Lefthand Canyon northwest of Boulder. The fire began about 10 a.m. near an area known as Chaos Hill, on U.S. Forest Service land at mile marker 3.7. The fire was close to 200 acres in size as of 3 p.m. and was producing a high volume of smoke that is visible from campus.

Kathleen Tierney, director of the CU-Boulder Natural Hazards Center and a nationally recognized expert on disasters, is available to talk with the media about the Japan earthquake. Tierney has worked on Japan earthquake issues for many years. She is a longtime member of a U.S.-Japan group focusing on urban earthquake hazards and has been a visiting professor at Kyoto University in Japan. The Natural Hazards Center is the nation's leading repository of knowledge on human behavior in disasters. Tierney can be reached at 302-981-0259 (302 area code is correct) or by e-mailing tierneyk@colorado.edu .

When a team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the °µÍø½ûÇø's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences raced to the scene of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill to assess the disaster's impact on air quality last year, they found more than they expected.

The deadly Russian heat wave of 2010 was due to a natural atmospheric phenomenon often associated with weather extremes, according to a new study by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the °µÍø½ûÇø's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES

°µÍø½ûÇø faculty entrepreneurship success stories will highlight the annual "Entrepreneurship Under the Microscope" event on March 9.

On behalf of the entire °µÍø½ûÇø community, I want to express my condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of astronaut John "Mike" Lounge.