Getting Involved

Pioneering genomics researcher J. Craig Venter—best known for leading the privately funded team that sequenced the first human genome—will give a keynote talk at the University of Colorado Boulder on Sept. 29 about the scientific potential of and future products derived from “synthetic life.”

The University of Colorado Boulder greatly expanded its CU Promise program for low-income students this fall resulting in funding assistance becoming available for more than 700 additional students. The CU Promise program guarantees that CU-Boulder students with Colorado resident status from low-income families can receive enough grants and work-study employment to pay for their share of tuition, fees and estimated book expenses.

The University of Colorado Boulder welcomed a freshman class of 5,869 students, a slight increase by 0.4 percent over last year, and in the process achieved the most academically qualified and diverse incoming class in the campus’s history. Fall 2014 census figures show a total enrollment of 29,772 degree- and licensure-seeking students, 447 students more than last year. A total of 3,083 Colorado residents enrolled as new freshmen in the fall class, as well as 2,786 from out of state and a record 386 freshman international students, a 41 percent increase from last year.

In recognition of national Constitution Day, nearly 100 students, faculty and alumni of the University of Colorado Boulder Law School will teach a lesson on the First Amendment and online bullying in high school classrooms throughout Colorado Sept. 15-26.

The public is invited to attend a watch party at the University of Colorado Boulder on Sunday, Sept. 21, when NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, designed to understand past climate change on Mars, inserts itself into orbit after a 10-month journey to the planet.

Continuing its commitment to improving America’s drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 9 announced more than $8 million in grants to create two national centers for research and innovation in small- to medium-sized drinking water systems.

U.S. Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonin Scalia will deliver the fourth annual John Paul Stevens Lecture hosted by the Byron R. White Center and the University of Colorado Law School on Wednesday, Oct. 1. The event will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus. A limited number of seats are available to the lecture for the general public at no cost. To register for tickets visit the center’s website at byronwhitecenter.org .

Tweets sent during last year’s massive flooding on Colorado’s Front Range were able to detail the scope of damage to the area’s infrastructure, according to a study by the University of Colorado Boulder. The findings can help geotechnical and structural engineers more effectively direct their reconnaissance efforts after future natural disasters—including earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes—as well as provide them data that might otherwise be lost due to rapid cleanup efforts.

The public is invited to attend free, Saturday programs led by University of Colorado Boulder faculty on popular topics as part of the CU on the Weekend series, which begins Sept. 6. With topics ranging from the sweeping stories behind celebrated musical compositions to the micro-level study of bacteria that uniquely forms each person’s microbiome, CU on the Weekend programs are designed to satisfy the community’s curiosity surrounding some of the intriguing research conducted at CU-Boulder.

The importance of Mars exploration and how the aerospace industry partners with university researchers to advance one of Colorado’s leading economic sectors will be featured at a free program Monday, Sept. 8, in south Denver.