Academics

Two faculty members from the University of Colorado Boulder have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, a top honor recognizing scientists and engineers for distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

After six years of helping operate NASA spacecraft and satellites, Andrew Poppe will receive his doctoral degree in physics from the University of Colorado Boulder on May 6.

To honor a father who stoked their love of history and respect for civil rights, Boulder sisters and University of Colorado Boulder alumnae Midge Korczak and Leslie Singer Lomas have donated $2 million to endow the Louis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History at CU-Boulder.

Three University of Colorado Boulder students have won 2011 Goldwater Scholarships, recognizing top work in math, science or engineering among undergraduates nationally.

An ancient, bipedal hominid sporting a set of powerful jaws and huge molars that earned it the nickname "Nutcracker Man" likely didn't crack nuts at all, preferring instead to slurp up vast quantities of grasses and sedges, says a new study.

Harvey Segur, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been selected to receive the 2011 Hazel Barnes Prize, the highest faculty recognition for teaching and research awarded by the university.

Scientists seeking to understand the origin of the human mind may want to look to honeybees -- not ancestral apes -- for at least some of the answers, according to a University of Colorado Boulder archaeologist.

Two students at the University of Colorado Boulder have been awarded major teaching fellowships by the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, or KSTF, for 2011. CU-Boulder undergraduates Julia Ratcliff and Cacia Steensen were among 37 new fellowships awarded nationwide for teachers of biology, mathematics and physical science.

Karl Linden, professor of environmental engineering and a water treatment expert, has been leading a yearlong study of the environmental fate of the oil dispersants used in the Gulf of Mexico cleanup. His research team has traveled to the Gulf area to collect samples and is investigating the chemical constituents in the dispersant, as well as its sunlight-based decay in the laboratory. Linden can be reached at 303-492-4798 or karl.linden@colorado.edu .

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused social disruption and psychological stress among Gulf residents that is similar to the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez spill and the impacts are likely to persist for years, a new study finds.