Academics

NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden has selected University of Colorado at Boulder faculty member Waleed Abdalati to serve as the agency's chief scientist effective Jan. 3 for a two-year appointment.

Two students tweak the ramp of a skateboarder in Energy Skate Park, sending her on a steep track that ends in a wild loop. They measure the energy of her motion as she goes. The skate park may sound like an after-school hangout, but it's a cutting-edge computer simulation that -- along with animated cousins like Electric Field Hockey and John Travoltage -- is a boon to students and science teachers alike.

Women are underrepresented and on average perform more poorly than men in introductory physics. But a recent study finds that this gap arises predominantly from differential preparation prior to college and psychological factors, rather than differences in ability.

Successfully treating and reversing the effects of multiple sclerosis, or MS, may one day be possible using a drug originally developed to treat chronic pain, according to Distinguished Professor Linda Watkins of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

A University of Colorado at Boulder-led study shows that specific types of stem cells transplanted into the leg muscles of mice prevented the loss of muscle function and mass that normally occurs with aging, a finding with potential uses in treating humans with chronic, degenerative muscle diseases.

University of Colorado President Emeritus Hank Brown will lead a CU-Boulder political science class on a trip to the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 11-13.

University of Colorado at Boulder faculty member Ivan Smalyukh is one of only 100 men and women in the United States to be awarded a coveted 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, or PECASE.

Melt water flowing through ice sheets via crevasses, fractures and large drains called moulins can carry warmth into ice sheet interiors, greatly accelerating the thermal response of an ice sheet to climate change, according to a new study involving the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Brian E. Lebowitz has a deep fondness for used books and bookstores, a keen interest in Judaica and the acumen to amass a collection of 19,000 works of 20th century Jewish-American Literature. He is donating this collection to the University of Colorado at Boulder, and faculty members say the gift will enhance the university's stature.

NASA's space shuttle Discovery will make its swan song flight Nov. 1 carrying two University of Colorado at Boulder-built biomedical payload devices, including one to help scientists better understand changes in the virulence of nasty bacteria in the low gravity of space as a way to help researchers prevent or control infectious diseases.