°µÍø½ûÇø

A satellite designed, built and controlled at the University of Colorado at Boulder for NASA has returned data indicating both Venus and sunspots have something in common -- they block some of the sun's energy going to Earth. Data from The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment, or SORCE, satellite show when the shadow of Venus tracked across the face of the sun June 8 as the planet passed between Earth and the sun, the amount of sunlight reaching Earth decreased by 0.1 percent, said CU-Boulder's Gary Rottman.

Kyle Reinholt, a senior at Horizon High School in Thornton, is the 2004 recipient of the University of Colorado at Boulder Parents Association CU-LEAD Scholarship. The CU Leadership, Excellence, Achievement and Diversity scholarship consists of $10,000 divided into four annual supplements of $2,500. The award was presented to Reinholt at a July 23 banquet for high school students who successfully completed the CU-Boulder Pre-Collegiate Development Summer Residential Program.

Professor Jim Symons of the University of Colorado at Boulder department of theater and dance will receive a national award from the Association for Theater in Higher Education on July 29 in Toronto, Canada. Symons is the winner of the association's "Outstanding Teacher of Theater in Higher Education" award, given once a year. With a membership of 2,000, the ATHE is the principal professional organization for theater professors in American colleges and universities.

The University of Colorado at Boulder announced today it has received a donation of $250,000 worth of advanced equipment and five $30,000 graduate student fellowships from Agilent Technologies. The gift supports education and research in several engineering departments and programs related to Agilent's strategic interest areas of communications, electronics and life sciences, and further establishes the company as one of the College of Engineering and Applied Science's key corporate partners.

Associate Law Professor Sarah Krakoff has been named interim director of the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Law's Natural Resources Law Center. Krakoff replaces Jim Martin, who left the center to become executive director of Western Resource Advocates, a Boulder-based environmental law and policy group focused on the Interior West. Martin had served as NRLC director since 2002.

University of Colorado Nobel laureate Thomas Cech will speak at the July 29-30 public grand opening of a teaching laboratory on the Boulder campus to train CU students, faculty and K-12 students and teachers on the latest genetic research techniques.

A small, powerful University of Colorado at Boulder instrument will fly on NASA's MESSENGER mission, slated for launch Aug. 2 from Cape Kennedy, Fla., to probe Mercury's searing surface, oddball atmosphere and bizarre magnetic field.

University of Colorado at Boulder sociologist and author Leslie Irvine is using what is known about human infants to prove a point many scientists won't formally examine - that domesticated dogs and cats each have unique personalities and are smarter than we think. Irvine explores animals' sense of self and their interactions with humans in her new book, "If You Tame Me: Human Identity and the Value of Animals' Lives." She used a new approach to illustrating pet intelligence.

Colorado's photonics industry, which employs more than 28,000 people in Colorado, is poised to grow in 2004, according to new research published by the University of Colorado at Boulder's Leeds School of Business. The findings appear in the 2004-05 Colorado Photonics Industry directory published by the Leeds School's Business Research Division and Business Advancement Center and commissioned by the Colorado Photonics Industry Association.

Note to Editors: John Lymberopoulos will leave for Greece on Aug. 3, but will be reachable by phone in Greece. Contact him at (303) 492-7541 to make arrangements before Aug. 3. A photo also is available. As the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece approach, one CU-Boulder professor is anxiously counting down the days until he leaves for his birth country to volunteer at the games he has been passionate about for more than 50 years.