The winner of this year's Colorado Geographic Bee was Pranit Nanda from Aurora Quest, K-8.  In second and third places were Sanat Mehta, Littleton Academy Charter School, and Vinu Harir, Nevin Platt Middle School.  Congratulations!

Former biology Professor Moras Shubert, who died Dec. 10, at age 100, lived a rich and productive life. Read more ...

NSM Award for Excellence in Research - Dr. Gareth Eaton, Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryNSM Award for Excellence in Teaching - Dr. Michael W. Kerwin, Department of Geography and the EnvironmentNSM Award for Outstanding Service - Dr. Keith Miller, Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryNSM Award for Outstanding Junior Faculty - Dr. Shannon Murphy, Department of  Biological Sciences

The University of Denver's spectroscopic motor vehicle emissions remote sensing system FEAT (Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test) has been monitoring emissions around the USA since the early 1990s. Average emissions have gone down remarkably while the fractional contribution of the few grossest emitters has gone up. With this program, supported by the Coordinating Research Council, we will return to sites in Chicago, Tulsa and Denver where we will obtain an even longer history of these measurements. For our previous publications on this subject see the FEAT web site www.feat.biochem.du.edu. Also view article on the DU Magazine regarding Dr. Stedman's work on emissions' tools detection at this link.

On October 17, DU honored Dr. Robert Dores, Biological Sciences, with the Faculty Service Award.  This award is given to a faculty member in recognition of outstanding service to the university, the community, or the profession.

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Check the observatory disaster recovery blog at http://mysite.du.edu/~rstencel/MtEvans/RepairBlog.txt

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Several faculty and staff members from the Department of Geography attended the annual ESRI User Conference and Academic Education Fair in San Diego during the week of July 23-27. ESRI is the world leader in geographic information systems (GIS) software, and this year there were over 16,000 attendees at the conference, up by 23% over last year. The Department of Geography and University College co-sponsored a booth in the exhibit hall to market our on-campus and online masters degree and certificate programs in geographic information science. Nearly 600 attendees stopped by the DU table for information, and over 200 expressed an interest in applying to our programs.   The Department of Geography also hosted an Alumni & Friends reception at the conference that was attended by nearly 200 people.

Spring 2012: Geography Ph.D. Student Gary LaVanchy was recently awarded an EPA STAR fellowship.  This is a three-year award with a value of $126,000 to support his research in Nicaragua into water conflicts and to model aquifers along the Pacific coast. This is a highly competitive award. This year, 80 students across the USA received the fellowship. This represents 5% of the application pool.  Gary joins Geography Ph.D. Student, Joe Hoover, who received the fellowship last year.

Congratulations!

•  Frederic Latremoliere, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
•  Daniel Linseman, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
•  Paul Sutton, Professor, Department of Geography and the Environment
•  Toshiya Ueta, Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy

A vicious windstorm swept over Mount Evans in January, tearing a 700-pound door off the Meyer-Womble Observatory and leaving the telescope exposed to the winter elements.  See more here.

Geography Professor Matthew Taylor conducts research investigating climate change and droughts in Guatemala with DU students.  His research there with his colleagues from Columbia University and Universidad del Valle, Guatemala, Dr. Kevin Anchukaitis and Dr. Edwin Castellanos,  was recently highlighted in the New York Times Science Blog.  To read the updates please visit http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/atop-a-volcano-the-ages-of-red-pines/

Physics and Astronomy professor Sean Shaheen has been named a Scialog Fellow by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) in support of his research proposal "Energy Pooling as a Novel Thermodynamic Mechanism for Organic Photovoltaics." Learn more about Scialog Fellows here.

Biological Sciences professor Todd Blankenship shares his research on the biology of shape in his TEDxDU presentation "Why We're Long: The Biology of Shape."

Betty Knoebel, widow of Denver food services pioneer Ferdinand "Fritz" Knoebel, has given the University of Denver (DU) $17.5 million, among the largest gifts in its history. DU will use the gift to establish the Knoebel Center for the Study of Aging and to support the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management (HRTM) in the Daniels College of Business. Read more on DU Today.

Armed with grants from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Biological Sciences professor Dan Linseman has devoted the last three years to unraveling the mysteries of Lou Gehrig's disease. Read more.