Education & Outreach

An international research team involving the University of Colorado Boulder announced this morning it has found the first direct evidence for a new particle that likely is the long sought-after Higgs boson, believed to endow the universe with mass.

When it came to eating, an upright, 2 million-year-old African hominid had a diet unlike virtually all other known human ancestors, says a study led by the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and involving the University of Colorado Boulder.

Companies paying celebrities big money to endorse their products may not realize that negative perceptions about a celebrity are more likely to transfer to an endorsed brand than are positive ones, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study. Celebrity endorsements are widely used to increase brand visibility and connect brands with celebrities’ personality traits, but do not always work in the positive manner marketers envision, according to Margaret C. Campbell of CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, who led the study.

Seven University of Colorado Boulder graduate students and alumni will go abroad during the 2012-13 academic year to pursue a variety of studies, research and teaching projects as grantees of the prestigious Fulbright program. Their proposed subjects range from exploring desertification knowledge in Mali and the impact of collaboration with a foreign development agency, to studying medieval Islamic philosophy in Egypt and its potential to inform debates in Anglo-American moral philosophy.

A monthlong summer exhibit at the University of Colorado Boulder Art Museum will feature a dynamic new media composition based on innovative robotics technology. Called “Swarm Wall,” the large-scale interactive piece displays changing fields of color, light and sound that are driven by a distributed form of artificial intelligence.

Just prior to entering the University of Michigan Law School, Wendy Chi taught in a Bay area under-resourced school. That experience motivated her to plan a career combining education and law, and brought her to CU-Boulder.

University of Colorado Boulder twin sophomores Srinidhi Radhakrishnan and Saikripa Radhakrishnan -- both chemical and biological engineering majors -- have been awarded prestigious Goldwater Scholarships. The scholarships are worth up to $7,500 for educational expenses each year and are given to students who intend to pursue careers in the fields of math, science or engineering.

Two University of Colorado Boulder undergraduate student teams have been named among the 10 top winners from a field of 3,697 teams that entered the international Mathematical Contest in Modeling. Results of the 2012 contest were announced this month by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications. The contest took place at the students’ home institutions Feb. 9-13.

Using the world’s fastest light source -- specialized X-ray lasers -- scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have revealed the secret inner life of magnets, a finding that could lead to faster and “smarter” computers.

With visions of ski resorts and warm beaches on the minds of many students, the University of Colorado Boulder is urging students to exercise caution whether they remain in Colorado, travel elsewhere in the country or go abroad for spring break. CU-Boulder’s spring break is March 26-30.