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The CU-Boulder Center of the American West has received a $60,000 grant from the Hewlett Foundation to remind Westerners of both the positive and negative impacts that energy development and fossil fuel use have had on the region. "We hope to take advantage of the national attention now focused on energy to lay the foundation for a better informed, more reflective public discussion in the future," said history Professor Patricia Nelson Limerick, chair of the center's board.

The impact of HIV and AIDS on American politics and culture will be the topic of a presentation titled "AIDS at 20: A Political History" on April 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Eaton Humanities Building, room 1B50, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The lecture will be given by Steve Sanders, an administrator and political scientist at Indiana University in Bloomington. Sanders uses slides and video clips to illuminate the political history of HIV/AIDS as a feature of American life and a global epidemic.

The Artist Series and CU Department of Theatre and Dance will host a master class with a dancer from the Pilobolus Dance Theatre on Tuesday, April 2, before the company's sold out performance in Macky Auditorium that evening. The master class will take place at the Charlotte York Irey Studios in the University Theatre Building on the CU-Boulder campus from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The class will feature a dancer from the company and CU dance students and will be open to the public for observation.

Recent discoveries about the universe and its evolution will be the topic of "The Big Bang," a live show at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Fiske Planetarium on Tuesday, April 9, and Friday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. CU-Boulder Professor Andrew Hamilton will take the planetarium audience on a trip back in time to learn about the "big bang" and how the Milky Way and its stars were formed. The term big bang refers to the theory that the universe began at a single point in space and has been expanding ever since.

The University of Colorado at Boulder appears to have experienced a decline in the rate of binge drinking, according to the results of Harvard University's 2001 College Alcohol Survey. The binge drinking rate at CU-Boulder declined from 63 percent in 1999 to 54 percent in 2001.

The search committee seeking a new dean for the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Arts and Sciences has unanimously nominated Todd Gleeson, former associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, to fill the post following a national search. The recommendation was forwarded to Provost Phil DiStefano as a unanimously endorsed sole finalist.

The University of Colorado at Boulder will receive $870,000 over the next four years to study the impact of HIV and AIDS on people living in sub-Saharan Africa, including children and the elderly. The new Population Aging Center will be directed by sociology Professor Jane Menken, director of CU-Boulder's Institute of Behavioral Science and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Five finalists have been selected to participate in campus interviews during April for the position of dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The finalists, and the dates of their campus interviews, follow: * Reza Abbaschian, Vladimir A. Grodsky Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville, will visit the campus April 8-9. Abbaschian has served as chairman of the department of materials science and engineering since 1986.

At their March 21 meeting, the University of Colorado Board of Regents approved a new name for the east wing of the Engineering and Applied Science Building at CU-Colorado Springs in memory of David E. Teets, who died tragically in an accident in December 2001. Teets was a microelectronics engineer with an undergraduate degree from CU-Boulder and a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Colorado Springs campus.

The CU Parents Association will present eight faculty and staff members at the University of Colorado at Boulder with the Marinus G. Smith Recognition Award at a ceremony on April 6 at 11 a.m. at the University Club Lounge. The purpose of the award is to identify and recognize CU-Boulder faculty, instructors and staff who have made a significant impact on the lives of one or more CU-Boulder undergraduates.