Education & Outreach

Two University of Colorado Boulder undergraduate student teams have been named among the 11 top winners from a field of 5,636 teams that entered the 2013 international Mathematical Contest in Modeling this spring. Only 375 teams, or 6 percent of those entering the contest, were from the United States. The others were from Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Early next month, researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder will begin the painstaking process of interviewing hundreds of undergraduates in an effort to understand why the rates of students switching out of science, technology, engineering and math majors has remained troublingly high over the last couple of decades despite widespread efforts to address the problem.

The University of Colorado Boulder is ranked No. 4 in the nation for graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers with 93 alumni currently serving around the world, the Peace Corps announced today. Since 2004, CU-Boulder has held a position in the top four among institutions of similar size. CU-Boulder is the fifth highest volunteer-producing university of all time with 2,353 undergraduate alumni having served in the program since it was established in 1961.

Ever wondered who is living in your gut, and what they’re doing? The trillions of microbial partners in and on our bodies outnumber our own cells by as many as 10 to 1 and do all sorts of important jobs, from helping digest the food we eat this Thanksgiving to building up our immune systems.

Analysis of 90 years of observational data has revealed that summer climates in regions across the globe are changing -- mostly, but not always, warming --according to a new study led by a scientist from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences headquartered at the University of Colorado Boulder. “It is the first time that we show on a local scale that there are significant changes in summer temperatures,” said lead author CIRES scientist Irina Mahlstein. “This result shows us that we are experiencing a new summer climate regime in some regions.”

The University of Colorado Boulder enrolled more international students during the 2011-12 academic year and sent more students abroad during the 2010-11 academic year than any other higher education institution in Colorado. The data, released today by the Institute of International Education in its annual Open Doors Report, shows that CU-Boulder was home to 1,681 international students during the 2011-12 school year. CU-Boulder sent 1,316 students overseas during the 2010-11 school year.

A new startup company that sprang from the University of Colorado Boulder this year is a Grand Challenges Exploration winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Psychology and neurosciences department Associate Professor Don Cooper, co-founder and chief science officer of Mobile Assay Inc. of Boulder who developed the technology in his laboratory at CU’s Institute for Behavioral Genetics, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project titled “A Lab on Mobile Device Platform for Seed Testing.”

A novel genetic study led by the University of Colorado Boulder has helped to clarify the native diversity and distribution of cutthroat trout in Colorado, including the past and present haunts of the federally endangered greenback cutthroat trout.

With hundreds of student groups, clubs and organizations on campus, students at the University of Colorado Boulder have numerous opportunities to find their niche. Beginning Sept. 4, CU-Boulder will hold its annual Student Involvement Week, which includes a variety of events and fairs offering students information about different clubs and organizations on campus and in the greater Boulder community.

University of Adelaide news release In a major breakthrough, an international team of scientists from the University of Adelaide and University of Colorado Boulder has proven that addiction to morphine and heroin can be blocked, while at the same time increasing pain relief. The team has discovered the key mechanism in the body’s immune system that amplifies addiction to opioid drugs. Laboratory studies involving rats have shown that the drug (+)-naloxone will selectively block the immune-addiction response.