Edit your profile

  Use this guide if you want to change information on your INSTAAR website profile by yourself.

 

 
Do not edit your profile on a shared computer

Logging out is is not reliable on UCB's Web Express system. After clicking the "Log Out" button, it can take hours before you are actually logged out. This delay is a serious security issue on a shared computer.  

Alternatively, skip this guide and ask David Lubinski to make changes on your behalf. When David is unavailable, Joe Constancia or Gabe Allen might be able to help you. 

Regardless of your approach, we can offer assistance to help make your profile what you want it to be, while fitting into the overall INSTAAR context.

If you want to update your profile by yourself, follow these three steps: 

1. Request & accept your invitation

First, you need an invitation from the university's Web Express website system to join the INSTAAR website. To get your invitation:

  1. Email David (david.lubinski@colorado.edu) and ask for an invitation.
  2. David will have Web Express email an invitation to you (typically within 24 hours of your request).
  3. You have five days to accept or else you will need make another request.
  4. Follow the included instructions to accept our invitation.
  5. Upon completion, you should receive a confirmation email.

2. Log in

Anytime after you've accepted our invitation, log in as follows:

  1. Log in at https://www.colorado.edu/instaar/user with your CU Boulder IdentiKey username and password.
  2. Upon logging in, you'll be in a Web Express dashboard. Navigate to your profile page as per usual.
  3. When you see your profile page, click “Edit” on the blue bar near the top of the page.

3. Edit

Once you've logged in and clicked the "Edit" button on your profile page as outlined above, you'll see an editing screen with a number of form fields spread across three tabs: Personal, Contact, and Body. Instructions and tips for each tab are shown below.

Personal

For the Personal tab, enter at least your name, job type (INSTAAR people category), and title. 

Can either be your first name, or your first name plus any middle names or initials.

This name puts you in alphabetical order in lists. If you have a two-part family name, this is where you can ensure you show up in the right place!

Let’s say your last name is Maria Statten Munoz.

  • If you should be listed under M for Munoz, then put Maria Statten in the First Name box and Munoz in the Last Name box.
  • If you should be listed under S for Statten Munoz, then put Maria in the First Name box and Statten Munoz in the Last Name box.

Type in your preferred pronouns, like She/her

Start typing to see and choose an existing INSTAAR people category–do not create a new category. For instance, type “fac” and choose one of the three faculty options.

Your options are:

  • Faculty Fellows
  • Faculty Research Scientists
  • Faculty Fellows Emeriti
  • Research Staff
  • Postdocs
  • Students
  • Affiliates
  • Admin Staff
  • Type in your title(s). Stick with one to three titles; the fewer and shorter, the better.
  • When possible, make them consistent (text and spelling) with other people’s titles, like these:
    • Professor
    • Associate Professor
    • Postdoctoral Scholar
    • PhD Student
    • MS Student
    • MA Student
  • Do not invent variants like "Geography Professor"

 

  • Start typing and choose one of the existing partner departments:
    • ie type “geo” to choose Geography or Geological Sciences.
    • If you want to add a new partner dept/unit, talk with David. He can set that up for you. Don’t just add it yourself please.

Existing departments:

  • Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
  • Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Environmental Studies
  • Geography
  • Geological Sciences

Would you like to switch out your picture on your profile? Great! It’s a nice way for other INSTAARs, students, and colleagues to recognize you. That said, there are lots of reasons why people don’t want a photo on their profile (including security reasons). Just let David know and we can remove your photo from your profile and replace it in lists with an icon.

Here’s what your profile picture should be:

Headshot

A picture of you that shows mostly just your head and is cropped near your collarbone or upper chest. Even if you are in a beautiful or meaningful outdoor setting, please crop to just your head and upper chest. The goal is to be able to see you well enough in that little picture that your fellow INSTAARs can recognize you in real life. Keep in mind that your picture will be even smaller when on a group listing page like Faculty Fellows or Students, especially on phone screens.

Good resolution

Try to find a decent resolution image with face+neck spanning at least 700 x 700 pixels. But if necessary, use a lower resolution like 400 x 400 pixels.

Face & eyes visible

The best photos show your face pretty straight-on and without dark sunglasses.

Adjusting color

Please take a few seconds to make sure the color of your face is good. Try auto levels to see if it makes an improvement. If using MacOS Preview, choose Tools > Adjust Color > Auto Levels button. If your face remains too dark, too red, etc., make a small adjustment.

Centering

You can be centered or a little off-center when you crop to a circle (next step), whichever looks better.    

Cropping

Crop to a circle (1:1) before uploading. Use any app that works for you. Instructions for two common apps are below:

  1. Double click the image to open it in Preview.
  2. Then choose View > Show Markup Toolbar or click the pencil icon in the upper right.
  3. The Markup Toolbar is now visible. Note its boxy Selection tool icon in the upper left. It defaults to a square selection, so click on the adjacent dropdown arrow and choose Elliptical Selection.
  4. Then hold down shift before you click and drag your circle. Holding shift constrains the elliptical selection to an exact 1:1 circle.
  5. Once you like your circle, click the Crop button, choose Tools > Crop, or type ⌘K (ie command k). Then Save. Save in .png format.
  6. Double check that your cropped image has the same number of pixels for width and height. Check your results by opening Tools > Show Inspector (⌘I) and looking at the pixel dimensions. Otherwise the non-circle may get truncated when showing multiple people on a people listing page.
  1. Gather/download the photo to your computer.
  2. Login to Canva (free version is sufficient).
  3. On Canva home page, click the big purple "Create a design" button in upper right.
  4. At the bottom of the resulting pop up window in the section called "Start creating from your media", choose Import file.
  5. Select the file on your machine.
  6. Choose to use your file in a new design.
  7. Chose custom size.  It needs to be square.  The default of 980px by 980px is fine. Click the Create new design button.
  8. Your image should be on top of a white square design.  Select Elements in the left sidebar and scroll in the sidebar until the Frames section.  Click on the circle frame.
  9. You should see the circle frame on top of your image.  Click on your image (not the frame) and drag your image into the circle frame and let go. You should see the cropped image inside the circle.
  10. Resize the frame+image by dragging the corners (or use alignment + dragging) to fill the whole square design area.  If you don't do this step, your image will be too small on the INSTAAR website because of the extra white space.
  11. Zoom the image by double clicking on it and then dragging one of its corners.  You want the person to be cropped in the circle very close to the top of their head and near their collarbone.  You can recenter the image by clicking on it and dragging.  Once your zoom and centering looks good, click Done.
  12. Transfer the cropped circle image to your computer by going to the blue menu bar near the top and choosing File > Download and clicking the Download button.  Whew!

Filename

Try to rename your image with your name, ideally in the format lastname_firstname. This isn’t critical, but it improves internet search results for images.

Uploading

Okay! You’ve got your new picture all ready. Now upload it:

  1. Under the Photo section at the bottom of the Personal tab, click the X Remove icon to get rid of what’s there now.
  2. Click the Add Media button to select the file on your computer. Then Add file > Choose file
  3. Enter “Yourfirstname Yourlastname” in the Alternative Text box. (This lets people using screen readers understand what this picture is–plus the form won’t upload your picture without the alt text.)
  4. Now hit the Upload button.

You’ve just done the hardest thing to do on your profile. Good job.

 

For the contact tab, enter your email address and any other contact information you want to share.

All lowercase letters
Example: shelly.sommer@colorado.edu

Most people do not have a phone number.  But if you do, the preferred format is like this: 303 492-7071 

An optional primary link will show your key presence elsewhere on the web. It will not only appear on your profile page, but on your people listing page too (e.g., Students, Faculty Fellows). For most people, your primary link will be either:

  • Personal webpage
    • Link to your webpage and title the link something like "YourLastname's website" (e.g., Markle's website).
  • Your lab/group at INSTAAR
    • Link to your most important INSTAAR lab/group. If your lab/group's website is hosted on the INSTAAR website, start typing its name, and choose the autocompleted option.  If your lab/group's website is hosted elsewhere, enter it's full URL, like https://www.mountainlimnologylab.com

Links will show your important presences elsewhere on the web.

  • Your lab/group(s) at INSTAAR
    • Enter links to all of your INSTAAR lab/groups (other than the one you listed in your Primary Link field). If your lab/group's website is hosted on the INSTAAR website, start typing its name, and choose the autocompleted option.  If your lab/group's website is hosted elsewhere, enter it's full URL, like https://www.mountainlimnologylab.com
  • Citation services
    • Like Google Scholar, ResearcherID, ResearchGate, ORCID, and Academia.edu
  • Social media
    • Like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn
  • Additional link
    • Your professional presence elsewhere on the web

Use the address field for office and lab rooms.

A simple example

     Office: SEEC S209

A more complex example

     Offices: SEEC S210, Benson 462A
      Lab: SEEL 376

Formatting

  • Format each line with a title and colon that are italicized; then the content of the line is in plain text. The title should have its first word capitalized.
  • Do not include the word “room” or “rm”.
  • Use shift+return between lines to keep your entries nice and tight together (if you use a regular return, it adds an extra space).

Summary field

Finding the entry field for the Summary is a little tricky in Web Express. You need to click on the blue "Edit summary" link right next to the Body field label.

Your required summary is not displayed on your profile page but instead appears on your people listing page. For example, a student's summary will appear next to their name on the Students listing page. Your summary will also be used as metadata for search engines like Google, increasing the chance that people will find you. Search engines may also show your summary on their search results pages.

Your summary text should be your research specialty terms, formatted like this:
Geomorphology • Landform evolution • Glaciology

If you are Research Staff, you can either use research terms or short text that describes your expertise, like:
Stable isotope mass spectrometry
or 
Wet lab chemistry • Isotope chemistry • Geochronology

  • Try to use three terms or fewer, totaling < 70 characters including spaces and bullets.
  • Keep ‘em concise, please. We will edit your specialities if you get carried away.
  • Enter all terms on one line, separated by the bullet symbol • (opt+8 on MacOS).
  • Capitalize the first letter of each item; the rest of the phrase is lowercase. (Example: Stream ecology)

Enter your summary as a brief statement of who you are and your role.  Here is an example:
Finance contact for a number of INSTAAR PIs and labs/groups. 

 

Body field

Use the body field to enter as little or as much professional info as you would like. Listed below are some commonly used sections, in suggested order.

  1. Copy the research specialty terms you entered in the Summary field above and paste them into the very top of the Body field.  Here is a formatted example:
    Geomorphology • Landform evolution • Glaciology

  2. Right align your specialty terms, like this:

Geomorphology • Landform evolution • Glaciology

Introduce yourself via a text statement, amazing person that you are. Use a single phrase to several paragraphs including lists to describe yourself and your work. Set off your initial phrase, sentence(s), or paragraph in larger font size by clicking within the text and changing the Style to Lead. 

Do not include detailed discussion of your research longer than a few paragraphs here.  Instead, introduce your research here and add a separate Research section as outlined in the instructions below. 

If you’re a student or postdoc, manually add your advisor’s name.

  • Enter their name directly below the optional blue button (no blank line in between, use shift+return).
  • Use a combination of text and white button with your advisor's first and last name, like this

To create a button, you can copy and paste the one above. Alternatively, click the Button symbol in the toolbar.  It looks like right arrow pointing to a right square bracket. Be sure to include a link URL and if needed, change the button color to white. See instructions on how to insert a button.

  • Multiple advisors are fine, just add more white buttons.
  • If your advisor is not within INSTAAR, just use text, like:
    • Advisor: Peter Molnar (GEOL)

Here's another example for two advisors, one at INSTAAR and one elsewhere:

Advisor: David Lubinski & Peter Molnar (GEOL)

  • If you have a personal or primary lab/group page that you should be linked to, add a blue button for it.
  • The button is optional, but it’s pretty common for faculty, students, and research staff.
  • Each person is limited to one blue button (to prevent visual clutter).
  • Center your blue button.

Here are some examples:

Visit Duchicela's website 
Organic Geochemistry Lab 

To create a button, you can copy and paste one from above. Alternatively, click the Button symbol in the toolbar.  It looks like right arrow pointing to a right square bracket. Be sure to include a link URL. See instructions on how to insert a button.

INSTAAR news stories, whether authored by us or external sources, are tagged with the last names of INSTAAR faculty and in some cases, senior Professional Research Assistants. Each last name has an associated news page. Link to that page using a standardized black button.    

  • Create a black news button for faculty and senior PRAs that have been tagged to at least 2 news stories.
  • Place the black button adjacent to the blue button, on the same line and separated by a space.
  • Center the black button, along with the blue button.

An example:

Visit the Ecohydrology Lab  News about Holly

To create a button, you can copy and paste one from above. Alternatively, click the Button symbol in the toolbar.  It looks like right arrow pointing to a right square bracket. Be sure to include a correct link URL and if needed, change the button color to black. See instructions on how to insert a button.

If you want to manually highlight some of your news, we suggest considering a bulleted list of story titles something like this, with a Heading 2. 

News

If you want to discuss your research in detail, set up a Research section here.  The heading might be simply "Research", but might instead be something like "Research areas".  Either way, be sure to set your heading as a Heading 2.

Research

If you have more than a few paragraphs of text, you might want to use a set of accordions like the one you are viewing now. Accordions are expandable text where the titles of each text section remain visible, but the text within remains hidden until the visitor selects the section.  They help keep your page length manageable and are especially helpful for visitors using a phone.

For an example set of accordions, see Julio Sepúlveda's profile.

Use a bulleted list, formatted like that below. Use a Heading 2, like this:

Education

  • PhD (Geography): Oregon State University, 2009
  • MS (Geological Sciences): Colorado State University, 2000
  • BS (Environmental Studies): University of Washington, 1998

Use a bulleted list, formatted like that below. Use a Heading 2:

Awards

  • Excellence Award, Boulder Faculty Assembly, 2021
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 2009

Use a bulleted and linked list, formatted like that below. Use a Heading 2, with text like "Students", "Current students", or "Current students and postdocs"

Current postdocs and students

Use a bulleted list, formatted like like that below.  Use a Heading 2.

Courses taught

  • GEOG 5700: Geomorphology Seminar
  • GEOL 5100: Geomechanics

Outreach

Describe your outreach as you see fit, using paragraphs, lists, etc. When possible, link to specific examples.  If you have lots of information, use accordions as described in the Research instructions above.

For non-retired faculty and some senior PRAs, a feed of current publications is automatically shown at the bottom of your profile page. It is based on the university's CU Boulder Elements (CUBE) system, the same one used for your annual Faculty Report on Professional Activities (FRPA). The feed is created by matching the email address on your INSTAAR profile against the email address in the related CU Experts website.  If you're missing some pubs on your INSTAAR profile, log in to CUBE at elements.colorado.edu and make sure you've claimed everything that's yours and add more if needed. If you make updates in CUBE, they might not appear on your INSTAAR webpage for some days. 

If you're having problems or do not want to show CU Boulder publications on your profile page, contact David Lubinski.

Details about the Feed. From CUBE, your publications flow into several places, including FRPA, CU Experts (research profiles for the public), and INSTAAR.  Note that your publications might look a little different across these three places.  For example, parts of a publication that you have manually added in CUBE may show up as expected in FRPA but be overridden by CU Experts, which prefers to rely on authoritative sources like Web of Science. Technically speaking, your INSTAAR pubs come from a feed called Experts Direct which closely resembles CU Experts but is not identical.

Folks without a feed from CUBE (including retired Faculty), may want to highlight their publications by either linking to their profile on a service like Google Scholar or manually entering some individual citations for "Selected publications".  Or both.  Follow the format of this example:

Selected publications

John T. Andrews, Wesley E. LeMasurier 2021: Resolving the argument about volcanic bedrock under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and implications for ice sheet stability and sea level change. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 568: 117035. DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2021.117035

John T. Andrews 2020: Glacier: Nature and Culture [book review]. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research, 52(1): 103. DOI: 10.1080/15230430.2020.1738190

John T. Andrews 2020: Linking marine core lithofacies and mineral and grain-size compositions on the Baffin Island margin: Changes in provenance and transport. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 90(7): 763-775. DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2020.50

Anne Jennings (she/her), John T. Andrews, Reilly, B., Walczak, M., Jakobsson, M., Mix, A., Stoner, J., Nicholls, K. W., Cheseby, M. 2020: Modern foraminiferal assemblages in northern Nares Strait, Petermann Fjord, and beneath Petermann ice tongue, NW Greenland. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 52(1): 491-511. DOI: 10.1080/15230430.2020.1806986

John T. Andrews, Vogt, C. 2020: Variations in felsic-versus mafic-sources in the Western Nordic Seas during MIS 1 to MIS 4. Marine Geology, 424: 106164. DOI: 10.1016/j.margeo.2020.106164

McCave, I. N., John T. Andrews 2019: Distinguishing current effects in sediments delivered to the ocean by ice: I. Principles, methods and examples. Quaternary Science Reviews, 212: 92-107. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.105902

For additional publications, see John's Google Scholar profile.

David Lubinski will be updating these instructions with additional info on options like photos and column layouts. He'll include links to the university's Web Express system, such as this one: