°µÍø½ûÇø

Science Discovery founding director Carol McLaren Schott will retire this month, 22 years after she began developing the University of Colorado at Boulder's tremendously successful statewide science outreach program for children ages 4 to 16. McLaren Schott joined the staff of the fledgling CU-Boulder science program for kids in 1983, when it offered a series of summer classes based at Fiske Planetarium. As she passes leadership of the program to incoming director Jeffrey Kidder, Science Discovery now serves more than 30,000 students and 1,500 teachers.

A new film by a University of Colorado at Boulder professor designed to raise awareness of child exploitation in the global sex trade, will be shown in a sneak preview on Jan. 13 at Boulder's Dairy Center for the Arts.

The University of Colorado at Boulder's Fiske Planetarium will host a free public event Wednesday, Jan. 11, at 2 p.m. to unveil a new image of the Orion Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and discuss the upcoming mission to Pluto. The event will include CU-Boulder professors John Bally and Fran Bagenal and planetarium astronomers. Bally is with the CU Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy and has used the Hubble Space Telescope to make observations of the Orion Nebula and other regions where stars are forming.

Donald Hodel, who held two cabinet posts in the Reagan administration including secretary of the interior, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Jan. 19. Hodel will speak at 6 p.m. in the Eaton Humanities Building, room 150, in a conversation with CU-Boulder professors Patricia Limerick, of history and environmental studies, and Charles Wilkinson, distinguished professor of law. The talk is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception.

Two external scholars have joined the Investigative Committee reviewing charges of research misconduct alleged against Professor Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado at Boulder. José Limón, professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, and Robert N. Clinton, professor of law at Arizona State University, have been named to replace two professors who recently resigned from the five-member panel.

A University of Colorado at Boulder study has shown the health of mice carrying a genetic mutation for a disease that is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in people under 30 worsened considerably when the animals were fed a soy-based diet.

The Friends of the University of Colorado Libraries will hold its annual Information Day at Norlin Library on the CU-Boulder campus Thursday, Jan. 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will be in the Center for British and Irish Studies on the fifth floor of the library. Information Day is free and open to the public and no reservations are required. Jim Williams, dean of the CU Libraries, and Claudine Garby, president of the Friends, will welcome participants. Guests will view selected original American manuscripts and documents held in Special Collections.

MEDIA ADVISORY The University of Colorado at Boulder's Center of the American West in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency, the offices of U.S. Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, and U.S. Reps. Joel Hefley, John Salazar, Mark Udall and Bob Beauprez, the Western Governors' Association, Trout Unlimited and others will host a joint press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 11, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. to discuss solutions to abandoned mines and their legacy of toxic contamination of Western waterways.

MEDIA ADVISORY The University of Colorado at Boulder has released a report outlining the university's progress toward meeting diversity goals that will be presented to the Blue Ribbon Commission on Diversity in January. CU President Hank Brown created the commission to study the effectiveness of campus diversity programs at all CU campuses. The committee will include community and corporate leaders and will hold its first meeting on Jan. 21. A selected group of students, faculty and staff also will participate.

Two December graduates of the University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communication are winners in one of the nation's most prestigious journalism competitions.