Associate Professor Len Ackland


Associate Professor Len Ackland said his most memorable experience last year was “to stand in the desert near Socorro, N.M., at the Trinity Site, where scientists exploded the first atomic bomb. By ushering in the Nuclear Age, they changed the world forever.”

Ackland’s visit was part of a sabbatical research trip that also took him across Europe to examine the sometimes controversial way that history is presented in museums. He had opportunities to lecture to journalism students in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and to meet with several European journalists. After returning to CU in the fall semester, he taught Investigative Reporting and Reporting 3 and co-taught the year-long seminar for Ted Scripps Fellows in Environmental Journalism. In the spring, he taught Reporting on the Environment.

Also, in the spring an updated, paperback version of his book, “Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West,” was published by the University of New Mexico Press. Along with continuing to write about Rocky Flats, Ackland is working on a virtual museum using the former nuclear weapons plant near Boulder as a window into Nuclear Age issues. Len.Ackland@Colorado.edu