Summer 2016

Modern readers of the Holy Bible often say that context is critical. Samuel Boyd, assistant professor of religious studies, heartily agrees. And he should know. He has no fewer than 23 ancient NearEast tongues at his disposal.

When politicians actively seek to gum up or slow down the legislative works in an effort to throw up obstacles to governors or presidents, they often increase the power of executive-branch bureaucracies or courts to make the rules. The result can be a less-informed citizenry, researchers find.

A group called CU Café (the group initially began meeting over coffee), offers a student-run seminar series that brings in minority scholars from other institutions to talk about their research and give their perspectives about succeeding in the academic environment. “It’s small, but it’s powerful,” one participant says.

On the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death this year, the campus is staging two significant Shakespearean events. In its 59th season, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival will move closer to performing all of Shakespeare’s canon for the second time—a feat most companies have yet to achieve once. And the famous published edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays, printed in 1623, will be exhibited on campus.

Does your stomach experience toil and trouble at the memory of a pinched and scolding high-school English teacher peddling Bardic cod-liver oil? Does the idea of seeing a Shakespeare play threaten to put you to sleep, perchance to dream? Well, “You haven’t seen ‘Hamlet’ until you’ve seen a 10-year-old do ‘Hamlet.’”

The newly completed Sustainability, Energy and Environment Complex “establishes CU-Boulder as the epicenter for environmental sciences and geosciences research nationally and perhaps worldwide,” says Provost Russ Moore. The center was officially dedicated this month.

Take a pinch of serendipity, add a dash of coincidence and top it with a smidgen of good fortune, and you have the recipe for Janet Romberg Pollack’s life. The University of Colorado Boulder alumna and donor is now a narrator at the giant panda exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. But how she got there is a tale of unexpected twists and surprising turns.

Disbelief still lingers in Allison Cleary’s voice months after winning the grand prize in the 2015 SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists.

What can you do with a liberal-arts degree? Beth Cross, who graduated from CU-Boulder in 1986 with a BA in political science, has an answer: Become an entrepreneur. She did this in a big way, co-founding Ariat International, a company that specializes in high-performance equestrian footwear and apparel.

Think of Robert R. “Bob” Crifasi as a kind of Zelig or Forrest Gump when it comes to water in Boulder, Denver and northern Colorado—he spent a quarter century getting his hands wet, both literally and figuratively, in countless ways. Crifasi, who earned bachelor’s degrees in geology and chemistry and master’s degrees in geology and environmental science from CU-Boulder, has served on the boards of—and often, pitchforked weeds, trash and the occasional dead skunk for—11 Boulder County ditch companies.

Alumnus and pediatrician Mike Nelson uses his degrees every day and credits a passionate professor with helping him get into medical school. Nelson followed his passions, Spanish and history, which in turn led him to medicine. Having traveled in Latin America with Amigos de las Americas, a program connecting volunteers to community-health programs, Nelson quickly learned what he could accomplish with a medical background.

CU-Boulder dance Professor Michelle Ellsworth is among a diverse group of 178 scholars, artists and scientists from the U.S. and Canada to be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship this year.

Boulder’s public open-space system was launched 50 years ago, and an event at CU-Boulder will bring together experts who will discuss the lay of the land in the next half-century.