Campus Community

Retired Col. Stephen Dinauer, the former commanding officer of CU-Boulder's Naval ROTC program and now interim director of the Presidents Leadership Class, or PLC, believes that leadership transpires when people understand each other. “Leadership,” Dinauer said, “is a people business.”

A huge range of activities will be offered during the University of Colorado’s 2013 Back to Boulder Homecoming Weekend Oct. 24-27 for alumni, students, faculty, staff and community members. A full description of activities and events as well as event registration can be found on the Back to Boulder website at http://alumni.colorado.edu/backtoboulder .

The inaugural University of Colorado lacrosse spring schedule includes eight home matches and nine conference bouts, head coach Ann Elliott announced Tuesday. The Buffs open home play on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 against Regis. “After being on the road for three games it will be exciting to finally be able to play at home,” Elliott said. “This will mark the first ever women’s Division I lacrosse game at CU and we are very excited to be able to play at home with the support of the community and our fans.”

Former University of Colorado President Alexander E. “Sandy” Bracken knows a few things about the role that effective leadership plays in career success and life in general. As the Newton Leadership Chair at CU-Boulder, Bracken has the task – and desire – to bring more leadership training and development opportunities to students across all academic disciplines. One of the major components of this goal is the creation of the Newton Leadership Studies Minor, which will launch in the spring 2014 semester along with a new class (LEAD 1000) titled “Becoming a Leader.”

Engineering students at the University of Colorado Boulder will host the annual College Egg Drop competition Oct. 18 as part of Engineering Days. “E-Days” is an annual tradition during which students celebrate the engineering profession with fun and challenging competitions and social events. The event is organized by the University of Colorado Engineering Council (UCEC) and various student honor societies. The egg drop, which starts at 1 p.m. on the west side of the Engineering Center, challenges students to create a contraption that will protect a raw egg when dropped from the eighth floor of the Engineering Center’s office tower.

Sky gazers will be better immersed in spectacular views at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium since the dome’s nearly 40-year-old analog projector was replaced with a new digital “star ball” in a project completed this week. The modernized Fiske, which now can show a wider range of media including ultra high-definition movies, will reopen to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 12.

Scott Carpenter, a University of Colorado Boulder alumnus and a famed NASA Mercury astronaut who became only the second American to orbit Earth, died Thursday. He was 88. Carpenter, a Boulder native, entered CU-Boulder’s astronautical engineering program in 1945, eventually earning a bachelor of science degree. He orbited Earth three times on May 24, 1962, in NASA’s Aurora 7 capsule before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates drought high in the northern Colorado mountains is the primary trigger of a massive spruce beetle outbreak that is tied to long-term changes in sea-surface temperatures from the Northern Atlantic Ocean, a trend that is expected to continue for decades.

The 105th Distinguished Research Lecture will be presented on Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. in the Cristol Chemistry 140 auditorium. The Distinguished Research Lectureship is the highest honor bestowed upon a faculty member by the Graduate School. Its purpose is to honor and recognize an entire body of creative work and research. This year’s recipient of the award, Dr. Owen Brian Toon, will present “Dead Dinosaurs and Nuclear Wars.” Dr. Toon was awarded the American Physical Society’s 1985 Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest for his work on nuclear winter. He studies radiative transfer, aerosol and cloud physics, atmospheric chemistry and parallels between the Earth and planets.

Electrical currents born from thunderstorms are able to flow through the atmosphere and around the globe, causing a detectable electrification of the air even in places with no thunderstorm activity.