Campus News

Balaji Sridhar has always liked science, but it was his father’s bad knees that were the impetus for him to study both chemical engineering and medicine. His father once was a good squash player, but had to give up playing when the cartilage in his knees wore out. With the dual graduate degrees, Sridhar hopes to someday be able to help people like his father who struggle with debilitating joint pain and reduced mobility due to damaged cartilage.

In humans, nature may be less than half of the story, a team led by University of Colorado Boulder researchers has found. In the first study of its kind, the team found that genetic similarities may help to explain why human birds of a feather flock together, but the full story of why people become friends “is contingent upon the social environment in which individuals interact with one another,” the researchers write.

“Nature teaches beasts to know their friends,” wrote Shakespeare. In humans, nature may be less than half of the story, a team led by University of Colorado Boulder researchers has found. In the first study of its kind, the team found that genetic similarities may help to explain why human birds of a feather flock together, but the full story of why people become friends “is contingent upon the social environment in which individuals interact with one another,” the researchers write.

Provost Russell Moore today announced the charge and membership of a visioning committee to consider future opportunities for synergies and collaboration between University of Colorado Boulder environment and sustainability research and academic programs. Sharon Collinge, director of environmental studies and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, will chair the Environment and Sustainability Visioning Committee, or ESVC.

Veronica Vaida, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this month. She was elected to the academy in recognition of her exceptional achievements in scientific research. Among the other 218 new members elected this year were U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actor and director Clint Eastwood, journalist Judy Woodruff and Amazon.com founder and chairman Jeff Bezos.

Veronica Vaida, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this month. She was elected to the academy in recognition of her exceptional achievements in scientific research. Among the other 218 new members elected this year were U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actor and director Clint Eastwood, journalist Judy Woodruff and Amazon.com founder and chairman Jeff Bezos.

Police officers and students exhibit an apparent “hierarchy of bias” in making a split-second decision whether to shoot suspects who appear to be wielding a gun or, alternatively, a benign object like a cell phone, research conducted by the CU-Boulder and San Diego State University has found. Both the police and student subjects were most likely to shoot at blacks, then Hispanics, then whites and finally, in a case of what might be called a positive bias, Asians, researchers found.

In a new paper released today in Nature, BioFrontiers Institute scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder, Tom Cech and Leslie Leinwand, detailed a new target for anti-cancer drug development that is sitting at the ends of our DNA.

Police officers and students exhibit an apparent “hierarchy of bias” in making a split-second decision whether to shoot suspects who appear to be wielding a gun or, alternatively, a benign object like a cell phone, research conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder and San Diego State University has found. Both the police and student subjects were most likely to shoot at blacks, then Hispanics, then whites and finally, in a case of what might be called a positive bias, Asians, researchers found.

Sean Wiese’s project for a computer science class last year has been developed into a software application now being used by a Boulder nonprofit, and also led to an internship for Wiese with the nonprofit.