°µÍø½ûÇø

Lafayette Public Library and the University of Colorado at Boulder Office of Community Relations will present a reading by prominent Denver-based Chicano artist Tony Ortega on Friday, March 31, at the library. The reading will be at 3:30 p.m. at Lafayette Public Library, 775 W. Baseline Road. Ortega, a CU-Boulder alumnus, will read from the children's book "Who am I?/¿Quien soy Yo?," written by CU-Boulder fine arts Professor George Rivera and illustrated by Ortega.

Renowned planet hunter and University of California, Berkeley Professor Geoffrey Marcy, whose research team has discovered more than 100 planets outside the solar system, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on April 6. Marcy will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium in a free, public lecture titled "New Worlds, Yellowstone, and Life in the Universe." In his presentation, Marcy will address the possibility of habitable worlds beyond the solar system.

The University of Colorado at Boulder's Fiske Planetarium will give a free public talk about eclipses in celebration of Sun-Earth Day on Wednesday, March 29, at 4 p.m. Suzanne Traub-Metlay, education programs manager at Fiske Planetarium, will present the talk "Eclipse in a Different Light" coinciding with a total eclipse of the sun on March 29 that will be seen by people in parts of Africa, southeastern Europe and Central Asia. The eclipse won't be visible in Colorado, according to Traub-Metlay.

The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded $833,000 by NASA for a 2007 sounding rocket mission to study high-altitude clouds believed to be tied to climate change. The sounding rocket will be launched from Norway to study noctilucent clouds, which form at Earth's poles at altitudes of about 50 miles in the portion of the atmosphere known as the mesosphere. First identified in 1885 in northern high latitudes, the clouds have been increasing in brightness and frequency.

Jovan Quintana, a University of Colorado at Boulder sophomore, has been named the Latin American Educational Foundation's "student of the year," the organization's top award. She was formally honored during the foundation's March 11 gala titled "SUEÑOS - Making Dreams Come True," held at the Adam's Mark Hotel in downtown Denver. Quintana was chosen from among 200 applicants and will receive a $2,000 scholarship for each of the next four years.

A new Science Education Project at the University of Colorado at Boulder created and directed by Distinguished Professor and Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman will incorporate research findings on effective science instruction in the classrooms of four CU-Boulder science departments beginning this fall.

Carl Wieman, CU-Boulder distinguished professor and Nobel laureate, announced today he will leave his faculty position at the University of Colorado at Boulder in January 2007 for a position at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Wieman made the announcement today at a news conference on the CU-Boulder campus with Interim Provost Susan Avery and UBC Provost Lorne Whitehead. Under the terms of his agreement with UBC, Wieman will retain a 20 percent appointment at CU-Boulder to head up the Science Education Project.

The University of Colorado at Boulder will host a news conference on Monday, March 20, to announce the plans of Nobel laureate and Distinguished Professor Carl Wieman. Wieman, who has been a member of the CU-Boulder faculty since 1984 and who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001 for his creation of the Bose-Einstein condensate, will begin an appointment with the University of British Columbia in January 2007. Wieman will retain a 20 percent appointment with CU-Boulder and will remain the director of the newly launched Science Education Project.

A 19-year-old male student at the University of Colorado at Boulder was diagnosed Friday morning with meningococcal meningitis. The student, who is a sophomore living off campus, is in stable condition at Boulder Community Foothills Hospital. University and Boulder County Public Health officials are investigating the single case and say that no other cases of the disease have been identified. State health authorities also have been notified.

Five candidates for the position of vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school have been announced by the University of Colorado at Boulder to fill the position currently held by Interim Vice Chancellor for Research Susan Avery. Avery is a candidate for the permanent position and a second internal candidate, engineering Professor Stein Sture, also is in the running for the post.