Academics

<p>The confidence of Colorado business leaders has surged going into the second quarter of 2013, according to the most recent Leeds Business Confidence Index, or LBCI, released today by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.</p>

Following today's U.S. Supreme Court decision declining to hear an appeal from former CU faculty member Ward Churchill, CU President Bruce D. Benson and CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano issued a joint statement, saying in part, "The Supreme Court’s decision upholds a unanimous line of rulings from the Colorado courts determining that the university has the right and obligation to ensure high professional standards from its faculty." University of Colorado Board of Regents Chair Michael Carrigan also issued a statement on the court's decision.

<p>A new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth’s species, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.</p>

<p>Colorado communities have a new tool to help identify programs aimed at developing healthy children free from problems like bullying, violence, obesity and depression.</p>
<p>The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado Boulder, in partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, today launched a new interactive website called Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development. The website will allow schools, communities and government agencies to find scientifically proven programs based on their specific needs.</p>

<p>University of Colorado Boulder astronomers targeting one of the brightest quasars glowing in the universe some 11 billion years ago say “sideline quasars” likely teamed up with it to heat abundant helium gas billions of years ago, preventing small galaxy formation.</p>

<p>Three University of Colorado Boulder engineering faculty were selected this spring to receive National Science Foundation CAREER awards.</p>
<p>Assistant professors Abbie Liel and Matthew Hallowell of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, and Mahmoud Hussein of aerospace engineering sciences, were selected to receive the awards.</p>

<p><span>University of Colorado Boulder students, along with experts from government and industry, will focus on student research and topics including energy storage and cooperation with China during the fourth annual Energy Frontiers conference April 4.</span></p>
<p>The event, organized by the CU Energy Club, is free and open to the public and will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom of the University Memorial Center. The conference includes a poster session, panel discussion, catered lunch and a career fair.</p>

<p>NASA’s next Mars mission is giving students and the public worldwide an opportunity to have a personal connection with space exploration through a new education and public outreach effort called the “Going to Mars” campaign. The campaign is led on behalf of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN mission, by the University of Colorado Boulder.</p>

<p>Wei Zhang, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, has won a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship.</p>
<p>Awarded annually since 1955, the fellowships are given to early career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars and as the next generation of scientific leaders. The 2013 fellowships were awarded to 126 U.S. and Canadian researchers.</p>

Steven Hayward has been appointed the first Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy, the University of Colorado Boulder announced today.

Hayward, Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Fellow at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University in Ohio, will begin his one-year appointment in the fall.