Summer 2009

Alumni Carl Quintanilla and Joe Kernen co-anchor CNBC morning show Squawk Box.

Forget Oprah’s Book Club or The New York Times bestseller list. If you’re looking for diversity — both in subject matter and artistic form — here's your summer reading list.

The last time Cynthia Lawrence sang with world-renowned operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti, he gave her a one-eyed glance to see where she was going to land before she plunged backward off a wall in Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca.

When Bill Gates put up $125 million to fund his own philanthropic foundation in 2000, one of the first employees in the fledgling Seattle organization was Allan Golston, a health care executive working in nearby Olympia, Wash.

In the United States we import about two-thirds of the oil used to fill the tanks of our vehicles.

The 1980s was a tough decade at CU Boulder.

When Kara Grgas-Wheeler Goucher crossed the finish line of the New York City Marathon last fall, she wept.

Phil DiStefano, who has worn many hats at CU-Boulder during 35 years, has made it to the top: Boulder campus chancellor.

If you feel like everything you say to your toddler goes in one ear and out the other, don’t despair.

Like more than 900 cities, Boulder has voluntarily committed to meeting the Kyoto Protocol’s greenhouse gas reduction targets. And, like all but two of those cities, it is failing to meet its goals.

Treatment of injured, diseased or aging muscle tissues in humans, including damage wreaked by muscular dystrophy, may reach new heights, thanks to a recent discovery by a CU research team.

Anthropologists often travel the world for their research, but this discovery involved just a six-block stroll from the Boulder campus: a rare stone tool cache containing traces of camel and other animal proteins from 13,000 years ago.

Boulder chef Hosea Rosenberg became a “Top Chef” in February when he won Bravo TV’s reality competition, completing a 12-month season and beating out 16 others from around the country to win $100,000.

Founded in 1849, Boulder joyously celebrated its 150-year anniversary on Feb. 10.

Civil engineering professor Bernard Amadei’s work extends far beyond the classroom since he helped found the international humanitarian nonprofit Engineers Without Borders-USA in 2001.

Former ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill was unlawfully fired from the University of Colorado for expressing his political beliefs, a Denver jury decided April 2. But the jury only awarded the professor $1 in damages.

The Old Main bell joined a cacophony of bells tolling 150 times on Feb. 10, 2009, in celebration of  Boulder’s sesquicentennial anniversary.

Scores of CU community members gathered in Old Main on May 6 for the 79th Annual Alumni Awards Ceremony. Every year the Alumni Association gives out some of the university’s most prestigious awards.

Chancellor Phil DiStefano's column from the summer 2009 issue. 

Liz Kritza was hired as the Buffs’ head volleyball coach in February, replacing Pi’i Aiu.

The men’s basketball team finished with the most losses in a season in program history, which dates back to 1901, and with its second-worst in-conference winning percentage ever. 

The women’s tennis team started 5-0 in Big 12 competition for the first time ever but lost four of its last six regular season matches to finish fifth in conference play. 

Steve Kerr played golf at CU and so did his daughter, Erin Kerr, and thanks to his generosity the university’s golf programs now have an official course to call home.

While the battle for CU’s starting quarterback job isn’t expected to be settled before August, one candidate broke his thumb in April and another bowed out of the competition.

The skiers won two individual titles but for the second straight year finished second to the University of Denver in the team standings at the NCAA Championships.

Senior Jenny Barringer ran the fastest 5K in the world this year, finishing in 15:09.72 at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in May.

Sports tidbits from the summer 2009 issue.

Broaden your Buff network by posting your company’s job openings and internship opportunities in the Career Services job database and in the Alumni Association’s Forever Buffs Network, a social and professional networking site.

Blindness leads to clarity.

New York City fashion designer Lela Rose is a regular in Vogue, Glamour and Marie Claire.

From entertaining to inspirational, Frank Ellis’s life is full of stories.

When Jennifer Veiga told her dad she was gay, it immediately caused him concern for her political career.