Research

On Dec. 30, 2021, one of the most destructive wildfires on record in Colorado swept through neighborhoods just a few miles from the University of Colorado Boulder. The flames destroyed over 1,000 buildings, yet some houses were still completely intact right next to homes where nothing was left to burn...

On Dec. 30, 2021, a quick-moving, grass-fueled wildfire in suburban Boulder County became the costliest wildfire in Colorado history. It burned 6,000 acres, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and damaged thousands of others. Hundreds of CU Boulder students, faculty and staff were among the thousands who fled parts of unincorporated...

Put people in poorly ventilated rooms, where coronavirus-containing aerosols are trapped in the air with nowhere to go, and their risk of getting COVID-19 skyrockets. Research has shown that you can decrease the risk by ventilating the room and filtering viruses from the air. Now, a new CIRES and CU...

Thanks to new CU Boulder research, scientists see the impact of flushing the toilet in a whole new light—and now, the world can as well. Using bright green lasers and camera equipment, a team of CU Boulder engineers ran an experiment to reveal how tiny water droplets, invisible to the...

A new water quality sensor developed by engineers at CU Boulder can quickly, cheaply and accurately monitor for the presence of E. coli bacteria in water supplies, an issue that may affect more people in the U.S. and around the world in the future. Emily Bedell (PhDEnvEngr’22) is lead author...

Karl Linden has landed a major fellowship to research solutions to water pollution in rural and First Nations communities in Canada. Linden, the Mortenson Professor in Sustainable Development in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been selected as a 2022 Fulbright...

The three largest wildfires in Colorado’s known history all occurred in 2020. More than 600,000 acres burned, with the Cameron Peak Fire alone causing $6 million in property damage. Fernando Rosario-Ortiz Professor, Environmental Engineering While the last embers of the Cameron Peak Fire are long since extinguished, researchers are increasingly...

The classrooms of Barnum Elementary School in Denver echo with the chatter of students and the instruction of teachers. The white, waist-high, curved machine in the corner is quiet as can be. The machine, which looks like a less-complicated R2D2, contains a NASA-designed HEPA filter and is part of a...

A new publication headed by the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering seeks to create better alignment among academic programs and sector needs when it comes to training engineers in global development. The publication comes after the center hosted over 100 participants from universities, donors, government agencies and industry partners for...

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society, today announced that three CU Boulder researchers will join the ranks of its newest class of AAAS Fellows . CU Boulder faculty named to the prestigious fellows program are: Noah Finkelstein, professor and vice chair...