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J.D. and Elsie Abrams, longtime supporters of the University of Colorado at Boulder, have committed $1.5 million to establish a multicultural student center and an additional $800,000 to enhance the J.D. Abrams Engineering Scholarship Fund. The J.D. Abrams Multicultural Student Center will be part of the new Center for Community at CU-Boulder. The community center will include a new dining hall, programs and student services that will enrich the student experience.

Microscopic worms used for scientific research are living longer despite cellular defects, a discovery that is shedding light on how the human body ages and how doctors could one day limit or reverse genetic mutations that cause inherited diseases, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.

Arctic sea ice during the 2007 melt season plummeted to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979, according to researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center. The average sea ice extent for the month of September was 1.65 million square miles (4.28 million square kilometers), the lowest September on record, shattering the previous record for the month by 23 percent, which was set in 2005. At the end of the melt season, September 2007 sea ice was 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.

A suspect has been arrested and jailed in an incident the evening of Sept. 27th involving a handful of students in CU-Boulder residence halls. For more information on the incident see the CU Police report on the Web at: www.colorado.edu/police/reports/releases/20070928news01.pdf .

Just two weeks after the extent of Arctic sea ice hit a record low, earth scientists from around the country are putting their heads together to discuss new research platforms for studying remote and risky places like the polar regions. "When the research is dirty, dull or dangerous, it just might be a job for unmanned aircraft," said Research Associate Elizabeth Weatherhead, who, with Professor Brian Argrow of the University of Colorado at Boulder, is coordinating the first U.S. conference exclusively focused on expanding research applications of remotely piloted aircraft.

A physics education Web site launched by Nobel laureate Carl Wieman, distinguished professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has won first place in an international contest held by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science. The Physics Education Technology Project, or PhET, was honored in the fifth annual International Science and Technology Visualization Challenge in the category of interactive media. More than 200 contest entries were received from 23 countries on six continents.

Internationally known conflict resolution expert and best-selling author William Ury will give a public talk on resolving conflicts peacefully on Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Eaton Humanities Building room 1B50 on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus. Ury, who co-founded Harvard University's Program on Negotiation where he currently directs the Global Negotiation Project, is the author of the book "The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes" and the five-million-copy best-seller "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In."

The University of Colorado Foundation board of trustees and board of directors announced the election of five new board members and the re-election of seven returning board members. Richard E. Engebretson has been elected to the board of directors. He will join Mary Lee Beauregard, Richard M. Burridge Sr. and Andrea C. Dikeou, who have been re-elected to both the board of directors and the board of trustees.

High school students interested in exploring engineering as a field of study are invited to attend a free, one-day program Oct. 13 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The CU Engineering Sampler will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at the Engineering Center on the CU-Boulder campus. The program is open to high school juniors and seniors, as well as parents and guidance counselors.

More than 5,000 alumni of the University of Colorado at Boulder's art and art history department have been invited to a farewell "TOAST" exhibition in the Sibell Wolle Fine Arts Building on Oct. 5-6. The exhibition is in recognition of the building's impending demolition and is free and open to the public. The exhibition will include a reception on Oct. 5 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and public viewing on Oct. 6 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Several artists have created exhibits in rooms of the now empty building.