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The University of Colorado at Boulder campus will be awash in imaginative and creative minds as thousands of students from around the world converge to compete in the 23rd annual Odyssey of the Mind World Finals May 22-25. °µÍø½ûÇø 700 teams will participate in the event, which challenges students to come up with the most creative, original and imaginative ways to solve a selection of problems.

Editors: Please note students listed from your community. Eighteen undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder have received the prestigious Jacob Van Ek Award for outstanding academic achievement and contributions to the university and Boulder communities. The recipients were honored May 9 along with faculty members they named as mentors. The award was established in 1973 to honor Jacob Van Ek, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at CU-Boulder from 1929 to 1959. Van Ek died in 1994 at the age of 97.

The University of Colorado at Boulder will host a Women and Tobacco Trade-In Event on Monday, May 13, to highlight the special risks that tobacco use poses to females. Women are asked to trade in their ashtrays, cigarettes or tobacco company promotional items such as key chains, lighters and bottle openers for a free T-shirt listing the "Top Ten Reasons for Women in Colorado to Quit Smoking" plus helpful information on the quitting process.

People who plan to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder commencement exercises May 10 at 9:30 a.m. in Folsom Stadium will join a crowd of about 20,000 and should plan to arrive early. The majority of parking for the ceremony will be in lot 436 on Regent Drive, just south of Colorado Avenue. Close-in parking and drop-off for persons who have difficulty walking will be along Colorado Avenue south of the stadium. People who want to access the drop-off area should do so well before the student procession reaches the stadium. The student procession begins at 9 a.m.

The Directory of Colorado Manufacturers published by the University of Colorado at Boulder is now available through the Business Research Division of the Leeds School of Business. The volume contains contact and product information on nearly 6,000 manufacturing firms in Colorado. Information includes the firm name, address, city, ZIP code, NAICS code (North American Industry Classification System), telephone number, name of primary contact, Web site address, sales and numbers of employees.

Note to Editors: Copies of the complete report are available on the Web at www.centerwest.org or by calling (303) 492-4007. The American West may be renowned for its "boom and bust" economy, but during the last two centuries it's been vastly more boom than bust, according to a new report from the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

PharmOut, a team of MBA students from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, took first place in the "Lightning Round" of the University of Oregon's business plan competition. Twenty-one business schools from throughout the United States participated in the April contest. PharmOut's business model would help the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry by enabling companies to outsource their process development and clinical manufacturing needs.

A University of Colorado at Boulder law professor known for championing American Indian and western environmental legal issues has received the university's largest single honor for teaching and research, the Hazel Barnes Prize. Charles Wilkinson, 60, will receive the prize, which carries a $20,000 award, at CU-Boulder's summer graduation ceremony where he will deliver the commencement address.

The CU Parents Association has awarded $40,000 in scholarships to 40 undergraduate students at the University of Colorado at Boulder, according to Peter Simons, director of the Office of Parent Relations. The scholarship awards are merit-based and are presented each spring. Scholarships are made possible by CU Parents Association fundraising efforts. Interested students must complete and submit an application by early March.

Forrest Garrison and Jessica Garrison, two of Colorado's first set of quadruplets, will graduate from college May 10. Forrest Garrison will receive a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Jessica Garrison will receive a bachelor's degree in computer information systems from Colorado State University's College of Business.