Aug. 31

Kevin J. Krizek, associate professor of planning and design, was recently awarded a research grant from the Mineta Transportation Institute titled “Non-motorized Transportation Intercept Survey: Development and Testing.” Krizek is co-PI on the project with Ann Forsyth (Cornell University) and Asha Weinstein Agrawal of San Jose State University is an investigator. The $60,000 project aims to develop and test a suite of survey modules and associated sampling strategies for measuring non-motorized travel at the local level.

Aug. 21

Erica McCoy, School of Medicine, is among the newest group of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellows. The fellows are doctoral-level scientists and master's- and doctoral-level engineers who spend a year working in federal agencies or congressional offices. They learn about science policy while providing valuable science and technology expertise to the government.

This is the 36th year for the prestigious program whose alumni include a member of Congress and numerous public officials as well as senior executives in academia, nonprofits and industry. The new class of nearly 200 fellows represents the largest cohort in the program's 36-year history. They begin their year-long fellowship Sept. 1. For more about the AAAS S&T Policy Fellowships: http://fellowships.aaas.org/

Professor of Architecture Joe Juhasz was chair and discussant in the symposium “The virtual world, the invisible world, and the Sacred World” at the American Psychological Association annual convention in Toronto on August 9. Associate Professor of Architecture Bob Flanagan and Architecture Lecturer Rori Knudtson also participated.

Psychology's Mitch Handelsman, CLAS, has co-authored "Ethics for Psychotherapists and Counselors: A Proactive Approach" just published by Wiley-Blackwell. The first author is Dr. Sharon K. Anderson of Colorado State University. The publisher describes this work as the "First book designed to engage students and psychotherapists in the process of developing a professional identity that integrates their personal values with the ethics and traditions of their discipline.
--Authors take a positive and proactive approach that encourages readers to go beyond following the rules and to strive for ethical excellence.
--Utilizes a variety of thought-provoking exercises, case scenarios, and writing assignments.
--Authors present examples from their own backgrounds to help clarify the issues discussed.
--Text emphasizes awareness of one’s own ethical, personal, and cultural backgrounds and how these apply to one’s clinical practice. See at http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405177667.html 

Brian Barker, assistant professor of English, had a poem, "Elegy with a Mute Bell" featured in the "Poet's Choice" column in the Washington Post last weekend see it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081302438.html 

Hamilton Bean, assistant professor of communication, is principal investigator for a $70,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) research grant administered by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). The research involves an assessment of warning communication practices in support of DHS’s Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grants Program.

Lisa Keränen, assistant professor of communication, co-facilitated a three-day workshop for faculty and advanced graduate students concerning how to conduct scholarship pertaining to the rhetoric of science and publics at the Rhetoric Society of America’s (RSA) Summer Institute at the Pennsylvania State University in June.

Phil Strain, School of Education and Human Development, received a $400,000 contract from the State of Colorado, Division of Developmental Disabilities, to produce state guidelines governing services to young children with autism from diagnosis to age 3 and to subsequently train providers statewide to implement these guidelines.

Aug. 17

Barbara Walkosz, CLAS Communication, and her colleagues have been awarded a $2.8 million grant by the National Cancer Institute to study the adoption and implementation of sun-safe policies at worksites that employ outdoor workers. Walkosz is co-principal investigator and Allan Wallis, School of Public Affairs, is a co-investigator on the project. The study will investigate theoretical and applied avenues for promoting health improvements in organizations using an innovative proactive policy program for skin cancer prevention.

In other news, Wallis co-authored a chapter in a June 2009 book edited by CU-Boulder's Patricia Limerick of the Center for the American West, and others. Wallis' chapter “Oh Give Me Land, Lots of Land” (co-authored with Gene Bressler) addresses issues of sprawl development in the West – the book is titled Remedies for a New West: Healing Landscapes, Histories, and Cultures (University of Arizona Press).

School of Public Affairs' Jody Fitzpatrick made invited visits to Mexico and Chile this summer after studying and giving talks about evaluation research in Spain and Europe this past spring. The Mexico conference in July “Critical choices in evaluation practice" addressed new government monitoring systems being established in Mexico. The conference was organized by El COLEF, an organization concerned with governance and border issues in Mexico and part of El Colegio de la Frontera Norte; Tijuana, Mexico. Fitzpatrick reports that Mexico’s OMB-like agency is developing a new performance monitoring system, and she discussed evaluation issues it raised.

Fitzpatrick also gave several talks in Santiago, Chile through the U.S. Department of State Speaker Program, August 5-7.  Her topics “ The Administration of the U.S. School System from an Institutional Perspective” at Universidad Católica de Chile; differing aspects of program evaluation with Ensena Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Universidad Finis Terrae, and the Center of Educational Research Methods and Diagnosis at Universidad Católica de Chile; and developing master’s programs in public administration and measuring outcomes there. Fitzpatrick met with the Chilean cabinet-level director of higher education, who talked about the OECS report on higher ed policy in Chile.

Austin Allen, associate professor of Landscape Architecture, spoke in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward at Rebuilding the Bayou: Visions of Restoration in the Central Wetlands, a panel and discussion with community members and experts to learn what’s happening and share the vision for restoration of the Bayou Bienvenue/Central Wetlands area.

Biology Professor Diana Tomback is a co-principal investigator on a newly funded four-year National Science Foundation grant from the Geography and Regional Science Program, "Implications of an invasive forest pathogen for alpine treeline dynamics." The lead principal investigator is Lynn Resler of Virginia Polytech and the other co-principal investigator is George Malanson of the University of Iowa. UC Denver's share of the $439,000 award is $222,000. Most of the fieldwork for this research will take place on the Beartooth Plateau, north of Yellowstone National Park, and on the Rocky Mountain Front in northwestern Montana on the Blackfeet Reservation. Resler and Tomback will offer a research assistant position to a university student from the Blackfeet tribe.

Heidi L. Wald, MD, MSPH, assistant professor of Medicine, is one of the recipients of the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in the Aging Research Program. The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), The National Institute on Aging (NIA), The Atlantic Philanthropies, The John A. Hartford Foundation, The Starr Foundation and other program partners co-sponsor the awards. Beeson Awards go to scholars doing clinically relevant studies related to aging. These include the biology of aging and age-related diseases, as well as health outcomes, health services and clinical management issues. The goal of the program is to enhance the health and quality of life of older adults. Scholars receive $600,000 to $800,000 for a three-to-five-year period, allowing them flexible and protected time for innovative research. Wald will research ways to reduce urinary tract infections in hospitalized older patients.

School of Education and Human Development colleagues Stevi Quate and John McDermott's new book Clock Watchers has just been published by Heinemann. The book’s subtitle provides information about the focus of the book: Six steps to motivating and engaging disengaged students across content areas. Recommended as a good text or reference for any faculty teaching a class that covers this topic.   

Laurie Sperry and Brooke Young in the School of Education and Human Development recently signed a contract with Denver Public Schools for the 2009-2010 School Year to provide in-service training and classroom support through the Professional Development in Autism (PDA) Center at UC Denver.

 

Aug. 10

Computer Science and Engineering Professor Gita Alaghband is now chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, beginning this position on Aug. 7.

From March 2007 to December 2008, Alaghband served as the interim director of the UC Denver Honors and Leaders program. She is a PI on the National Science Foundation REACH Scholars Program, which provides engineering students with financial, academic and social support to complete their degrees in a timely manner and join the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce.

Aug. 7

Chair of Sociology Sharon Araji, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), is attending the American Sociological Association meeting in San Francisco from Aug. 7-12.

She is participating in activities related to her position as president-elect of the Pacific Sociological Association and immediate past president of Alpha Kappa Delta, the International Honor Society for the field of sociology.

 

Abbie Beacham, assistant professor of psychology in CLAS, has recently received some media attention for her publication in the Journal of the American Dental Association on how redheaded patients have a genetic variation associated with a fear of dental pain and care. She was a co-investigator on the NIH grant. Study: Redheads' extra pain may cause fear of dentists, CNN.com.

 

Akihiko Hirose, assistant professor of sociology, presented his paper, "Structure, Agency, and Micro-Macro Distinction: Some Principles of Social Structure" at the American Sociological Association meeting in San Francisco from Aug. 7-12.

Steven G. Medema, professor of economics, has a new book published by Princeton University Press called The Hesitant Hand: Taming Self-Interest in the History of Economic Ideas. Related, on July 24, he had a blog post published by the Wall Street Journal called  The Invisible Hand Isn't Broken.

Robert Metcalf and Mark Tanzer, associate professors in the department of philosophy, have published the first English translation of Martin Heidegger's Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy, an influential lecture course presented at Marburg University in 1924. The publisher, Indiana University Press, describes it as follows: "A sophisticated and conscientious translation that captures Heidegger's subtle expressions of detail and nuance. Available in English for the first time, these lectures make a significant contribution to ancient philosophy, Aristotle studies, Continental philosophy and phenomenology."

Aug. 3

Civil Engineering Professor Anu Ramaswami was an invited participant in the World Bank’s 5th Urban Research Symposium held June 27-July 1 in Marseille, France where she conducted the plenary session “Linking Urban Planning, Design, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions” along with Drs. Chris Kennedy (University of Toronto), Sebastian Carney (University of Manchester), and Shobhakar Dhakal (National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan) that discussed protocols for city-based GHG emission indices. Ramaswami also spoke on the hybrid demand-centered methodology that she has developed with a team of UC Denver researchers. Three IGERT students—Abel Chavez, Andrea Solis, and Leslie Miller—plan to continue this work as part of their PhD dissertation research.

Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Tim Lei and Physics Assistant Professor Emily Gibson received a grant on July 23 of $189,965 from Colorado Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program for “A microfluidic cell sorter integrated with Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy for medical diagnostics.” Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy, or CARS, is a nonlinear spectroscopic technique with which the vibrational spectra of biomedical samples, such as cells, can be measured rapidly. The measured vibrational spectrum can be further used to differentiate and sort cells without extrinsic markers.

Mechanical Engineering Professor Peter Jenkins, PE, was awarded a one-year contract for $49,000 on July 19 by the U.S. Naval Academy for the “UCD-USNA Turbine Alternative Fuel Testing Program.”

This program between UC Denver and the U.S. Naval Academy will determine the performance of JP-5 and FT synthetic fuels in a small T-63 gas turbine engine. The objective of the program is to better understand how synthetic fuels can be integrated into Navy applications to meet the present and future operational requirements of the Navy.

July 30

Carole Basile, editor, along with several other School of Education and Human Development faculty contributed to the recently released book, Intellectual Capital: The Intangible Assets of Professional Development Schools. SEHD faculty members with chapters in the book include Cindy Gutierrez, Honorine Nocon, Donna Sobel, Sherry Taylor, Caron Westland, Stephanie Townsend, Mike Marlow, and Deanna Sands. There are also contributions in the book from a number of our professional development school principals and site coordinators.

Kathy Hill has been chosen director for the Front Range BOCES, which is housed at the School of Education & Human Development. UC Denver and BOCES received a $250,000 grant to expand professional development opportunities for teachers. The grant will make additional funds available for teachers to be trained in issues of equity and cultural responsiveness.

Barb Paradiso, School of Public Affairs Domestic violence concentration director, and the working group on domestic violence prevention at the University of Colorado Denver have been awarded a $750,000 grant from the Statewide Strategic Use Fund of the Colorado Department of Human Services. Also working on this grant and project at the School of Public Affairs are Sam Cole, Malcolm Goggin, Beverly Buck and Lisa Carlson. The project will provide more and better school-based counseling about domestic violence issues, and the effectiveness of this model will be tested for further dissemination.

July 24

Joni Dunlap, Center for Faculty Development and School of Ed, and Patrick Lowenthal, CU Online and SEHD doctoral student, recently published Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence in the Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 129-136.

Ritu Chopra of the School of Education and Human Development published Parent-Paraeducator Collaboration in Inclusive Classrooms: Reality and Issues for Students with Disabilities. It is available on Amazon.

Laura Summers of the School of Education and Human Development, was recently chosen the new chair for the Educators of School Library Media Specialists Section (ELMSS) of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). This committee has 600 members and provides leadership to school library program professors within its national association.

July 21

Kathryn Horwitz, MD, distinguished professor of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at UC Denver, recently received a $650,000 grant from the Avon Foundation for Women, presented at the close of the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Since 2001 Avon has given more than $7 million to support breast cancer research and outreach programs at UCCC. Horwitz says the gifts have been invaluable in supporting our outreach efforts to medically underserved women in the Denver metro area, and to our basic and clinical research programs.

This year's funding will support patient access to care programs, including the Comadre Program, Project Survivorship Outreach to Latinas (Project SOL), and MRI screening for women at high risk for breast cancer. It will also help fund some cutting-edge research projects about pregnancy-related breast cancer, breast cancer stem cells, and treatment resistance and markers for hormone responsiveness or metastatic spread.

Professors of Pediatrics Robin Deterding, MD, Jeff Wagener, MD, and Rich Spritz, MD, have been elected to the American Pediatric Society this year. The Society for Pediatric Research has elected seven new members from the School of Medicine. They are Laura Brown, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, specializing in neonatal and perinatal medicine; Kathryn Collins, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, specializing in cardiology; Eduardo DaCruz, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit; Leonard Dragone, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, specializing in rheumatology; Monica Federico, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, specializing in pulmonary medicine; Paul Rozance, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, specializing in neonatal and perinatal medicine; and Adel Younoszai, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, specializing in cardiology.

Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD, professor of pediatrics and chief of pediatric neurology, recently was the Kyowa Hakko Kirin invited lecturer at the International Symposium on Epilepsy in Autistic Disorders meeting in Kurume, Japan.

July 10

Ben Honigman, MD, professor of Surgery and division head of Emergency Medicine, has been chosen to receive the third annual School of Medicine Faculty Professionalism Award. This award will be presented at the Matriculation Ceremony on Aug. 13. The award recognizes a faculty member who has served as a role model. Honigman’s colleagues cited him for exemplary academic and institutional citizenship as a clinician, educator and administrative leader. They praised him for lifelong learning, empathy, altruism, compassion and other attitudes and behaviors which represent the core traditions of the profession of medicine. One colleague wrote in his nomination letter that “He consistently does the right thing for patients . . . he truly is a patient advocate.” Honigman was also a polite, but persistent advocate for establishing the new Department of Emergency Medicine, which the Regents are expected to approve at their September meeting.

Farah Ibrahim, professor in the School of Education & Human Development’s Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education program has recently published two exercises for conducting diversity-conscious group exercises in the Association for Specialists in Group Work’s 2009 publication called Group Work Experts Share Their Favorite Multicultural Activities: A Guide to Diversity-Competent Choosing, Planning, Conducting, and Processing. In addition, Ibrahim is presenting at the American Psychological Association conference in Toronto on Aug. 6, 2009, as co-chair, of the Task Force on “Taking Action against Racism” on “Experiences and Impact of “isms” in the Schools.”

Willem van Vliet, professor of planning, director of the Envd Division and Director of the Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design, was awarded two grants for 2009-10 by the CU-Boulder Outreach Committee. One for $5,000 is for Boulder’s Child and Youth Friendly City (CYFC) Initiative, which aims to: ensure all children and youth have a voice and opportunity to work with community leaders and decision makers in Boulder; support people, strengthen networks and create places in Boulder that make young people feel recognized and valued; and support the healthy development of ALL children and youth in Boulder. The second grant, for $1,100, is for the CYE project The Sesquicentennial: Boulder as a Place to Grow Up in 1875, 1925 and 1975.

July 6

Mark Gelernter, dean of the College and Professor of Architecture, contributed the chapter “History of American Architecture” to the Oxford Companion to Architecture, edited by Patrick Goode and published by Oxford University Press in July 2009. For more information visit the Oxford University Press Web site.

Mechanical engineering professor Peter Jenkins, left, along with civil engineering assistant professor Jason Ren and mechanical engineering assistant research professor Atousa Plaseied have been awarded a $450,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research for “High Yield Hydrogen Production in Microbial Electrolysis Cells Using Carbon Nanofiber Electrodes” This program is directed toward the investigation and improvement of the hydrogen production in Microbial Electrolysis cells (MECs) using carbon nanofibers as electrode materials, with the final goal of developing a portable MEC system for on-site hydrogen generation.

Proposals from the School of Education and Human Development’s Margarita Bianco and Bryn Harris were accepted for the 2009 Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented annual state conference, Oct. 4-5, at the Marriott Denver Tech Center. Their presentations are Gifted ELL: Improving Referral, Assessment and Programming and Examining Teacher Bias: Gatekeepers with a Key.

UC Denver has selected two participants for the 2009-10 Academic Management Institute:

• Joni Dunlap, faculty fellow for teaching, Center for Faculty Development, and associate professor, School of Education & Human Development.

• Lorri Ogden, assistant professor, Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, Colorado School of Public Health

In September, the Academic Management Institute (AMI) for women will begin its 23rd year serving women in higher education throughout Colorado and Wyoming. The Institute is sponsored by the Colorado Network of Women Leaders (CNWL), the state affiliate of the American Council on Education’s Office of Women. Approximately 700 women from nearly 30 institutions have participated in the program.

Rob Pyatt, lecturer in architecture, is participating in Brian MacKay-Lyons’ Ghost Lab 11, a two-week summer design-build internship on the coast of Nova Scotia June 13-27. The Ghost Architectural Laboratory, the research facility of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Ltd., is an education initiative designed to promote the transfer of architectural knowledge through direct experience – project-based learning taught in the master-builder tradition – with emphasis on issues of landscape, material culture and community.  Check out the Ghost Lab site.

June 25

School of Public Affairs Professor, Don Klingner, was selected to Chair a People to People delegation to India.   People to People International was founded in 1956 by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in an effort to better promote cultural understanding through the efforts of individuals. For more than 50 years the program has developed teams of specialists in a variety of disciplines to allow face-to-face communication among colleagues across borders.

School of Public Affairs Assistant Professor Danielle Varda has won a national award for the best published public health systems research (PHSR) in 2008 for her article “Core Dimensions of Connectivity in Public Health Collaboratives.”  Varda was the lead author on this article published in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice with co-authors Anita Chandra, Stefanie Stern, and Nicole Lurie.

June 22

Joe Juhasz, professor of architecture, will be a faculty member at the 2009 SKKU International Summer Semester at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea, from June 28-July 18. He will be teaching a course called Globalization, Humanity and the Environment. For more about the International Summer Semester visit http://summer.skku.edu/.

Professor of Pediatrics David Olds, PhD, recently received the Society for Prevention Research Presidential Award for a lifetime of contributions to prevention science. Olds directs the School of Medicine Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health. His passion working in child care began in Baltimore in the 1970’s, and he has since developed a Nurse-Family Partnership program that lets registered nurses visit the homes of low income families from pregnancy through the first two years of life. His studies show that this interaction has a dramatic reduction on physical abuse and neglect of children throughout their childhood, as well as early antisocial behavior and later criminal and/or delinquent behavior when they are adolescents. This Nurse-Family Partnership became a national model for preventing child health and behavioral problems, is now active in 25 states and is proposed for $8.6 billion over the next 10 years in President Obama’s budget.

Senior Instructor and Associate Chair of Architecture Rick Sommerfeld and David Needleman, M.Arch student, are participating in the eighth Glenn Murcutt Architecture Masterclass at Riversdale, Australia, July 12-26. They will be among the 32 national and international students in this prestigious two-week residential program sponsored by the Architecture Foundation Australia. The first week is held at ‘Riversdale’ Education Centre located on 1,100 hectares of pristine bush land overlooking the Shoalhaven River, and the second week is held at the University of Sydney School of Architecture. Glenn Murcutt, Australia’s best known architect, was awarded AIA Gold Medal in 2009, the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 2002 (the ‘Nobel’ Prize of Architecture), and is a Visiting Professor at Yale University.

Lecturers in Environmental Design Rori Knudtson and Ken Renaud are leading students from ENVD, CAP and CAM in the study-abroad class Digital Scandinavia, taking place in Denver, Copenhagen and Bergen. Collaborative research began during Maymester and will continue late June through early July in Scandinavia. Students will be visiting with design practices such as Bjarke Ingels Group, Julien de Smedt Architects and Copenhagen X. Research will be exhibited at RedLine in October. Follow project progress at http://digitalscandinavia.wordpress.com/.

Jason Rebillot and Ranko Ruzic, senior instructors in Architecture, are leading an architecture program in Rome, Italy, from June 1-30, offering both The Architecture & Urban Context of Rome and The Roman Built Environment: Research Design. Students explore the development of style, theory and type, as well as urban lessons of context, monumentality, and place in a focused and relevant environment, and have a unique opportunity to study and propose an architectural or urban research project in what may be the most important city in western architectural history.

A visiting professor in May at the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest, Romania, Taisto Mäkelä, associate professor of Architecture gave three public lectures under the general title of The Possibility of History. Mäkelä will deliver a paper titled “Reima Pietilä: Conjuring the Authentic” at the Architecture and Phenomenology Conference in Kyoto, Japan, June 26-29. He also published an essay titled “Reima Pietilä” in the Romanian architecture journal Arhitectura in May 2009. His review of an architectural exhibition titled “Raili and Reima Pietilä: challengers of modern architecture” (Helsinki, February 27-May 25, 2008, Museum of Finnish Architecture) was published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians in June 2009. Order the journal online at: http://www.sah.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=JSAH%20Back%20Issues&category=Publications

Kevin J. Krizek, associate professor of Planning and director of the PhD Program, was the lead author on a journal article just published by the Journal of Urban Planning and Development, June 2009. The article, “Analyzing the Effect of Bicycle Facilities on Commute Mode Share over Time,” is available for viewing in the Planning and Design showcase in the elevator foyer (3rd floor, UC Denver Building) and is available at http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~kkrizek/journal.html.

June 18

A team at the Auraria Campus library has published an article in the April/June 2009 issue of Public Services Quarterly ( v.5, no.2). Meg Brown-Sica, Karen Sobel and Denise Pan co-wrote the article "Learning for All: Teaching Students, Faculty, and Staff with Screencasting." Another peer-reviewed article by Sobel was published simultaneously in the Summer 2009 issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly (v.48, no. 4). The title is "Promoting Library Reference Services to First-Year Undergraduate Students: What Works?"

June 17

Tom Clark, professor andchair of Planning, was a contributing author to the book Smart Growth Policies: An Evaluation of Programs and Outcomes, published in May 2009 by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (Cambridge, MA). The book is the definitive study of state-sponsored smart growth practices across the nation. Visit the Web site.

Perry Dickinson, MD, professor of Family Medicine was elected president of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine at the group's annual meeting in Denver last month.

Associate Professor Therese Jones, PhD, Department of Medicine, is the new director of the Arts and Humanities in Healthcare Program for the Center for Bioethics and Humanities. Jones earned her PhD in English from the University of Colorado Boulder. Previously, as associate director for the Center for Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, she created and implemented a longitudinal, integrated humanities curriculum for the School of  Medicine. At the University of Utah School of Medicine, she developed an elective curriculum in the humanities.

June 11

Professor of Economics Steven Medema in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has been elected President of the History of Economics Society and is hosting the 2009 History of Economics Society Conference at UC Denver June 26–29.

The conference will include sessions on all aspects of the history of economics. UC Denver faculty members are welcome to attend any of the conference sessions. For more information about the conference, please consult the conference Web site or contact Steve Medema.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Chad Kautzer edited a book with colleague Professor Eduardo Mendieta of Stony Brook University called Pragmatism, Nation and Race: Community in the Age of Empire (Indiana University Press, 2009).

Biology Professor Brad Stith in the past month has served as a panel member for the National Science Foundation on Signal Transduction, Cell Biology division, in Washington, D.C. He was also invited as an advisor for grant writing for four faculty members at Mississippi State University, in Starkville.

On Monday, June 8, English Professor Cate Wiley read her excerpt from the new book, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer's Disease (Kent State University Press), at the Tattered Cover on Colfax.

June 8

Kevin Krizek, associate professor of Planning and director of the PhD program, will present in Grand Junction on June 12 as part of West Slope Community Planning Day. Krizek will discuss a number of tools from an award-winning project, www.designforhealth.net, including technical assistance tools, research summaries, and health impact assessment tools that are oriented to practitioners for every-day use.

June 3

On May 12, Civil Engineering Assistant Professor David Mays, left, attended the Water Environment Federation/American Water Works Association (WEF/AWWA) student conference at the University of Wyoming. His independent study student Chelsea Campbell, at right, a MS candidate in Environmental Sciences, presented a poster "Clogging Potential of Pervious Concrete," which she co-authored with Mays and civil engineering MS alumnus Patrick Coughlin. This is the third year Mays and his students have attended this meeting, but this year, UC Denver enjoyed additional representation when the keynote address was delivered by UC Denver civil engineering BS alumnus Ken Lowrey, PE, of the environmental consulting firm HDR.

On May 23-24, the UC Denver Steel Bridge Team participated in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) National Steel Bridge Competition by competing against 49 other nationally ranked teams in Las Vegas. The UC Denver team placed third in the Stiffness category and received 17th place overall. In addition, they finished 8th in Construction Speed; the team in fact placed in the Top 20 in every category except one. The team advisor is ASCE advisor, Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Stephan Durham, right.

On May 15, Civil Engineering Professor Kevin Rens was interviewed by Channel 7 News on bridge inspections for “CALL7 Investigation: State Bridge Inspections Obstructed” for both his expertise on evaluating bridge safety and his ongoing research involving bridge inspections for CCD, for whom Kevin has inspected over 500 bridges.

See article online at http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/19473083/detail.html.  

 

June 1

Professor and Chair of Chemistry Mark Anderson recently was elected to the Board of Directors for the Physical/Analytical division of the Electrochemical Society for a 2-year term.

Angela Schultz (B.S., 2009) was recently recognized as Outstanding Young Botanist by the Botanical Society of America (BSA). Schutlz’s research, which was supported by a grant from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, addressed aspects of the reproductive biology of Degener beardtongue (Penstemon degeneri), a rare Colorado endemic known only from Fremont and Custer Counties. She will be presenting her research at the Annual Meeting of the BSA with co-author and mentor Leo P. Bruederle, associate professor and chair in biology.

Joe Juhasz, professor of architecture, has been elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association’s Division of International Psychology, “an honor bestowed upon members who have made an unusual and outstanding contribution or performance in the field of psychology.”

Kevin Krizek, associate professor of planning and director of the PhD Program, gave the presentation, “Planning for Cycling: Rolling out Benefits, Reeling in Expectations,” as part of a session on bicycle-friendly policies that Result in Economic and Public Health Improvements at Bike Summit 2009, hosted by Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation and the Clean Air Partnership on May 28 in Toronto. Krizek will be part of an expert panel at the Norman Y. Mineta National Transportation Policy Summit, “Using Bicycles for the First and Last Mile of Transit Commutes,” on June 3 in San Jose, Calif. The Summit addresses the question: How can transit riders be encouraged to use bicycles for the first and last mile of their commutes rather than using high-polluting cars? The first mile of a gasoline-powered auto causes as much as 10 times the pollution as each subsequent mile with half the efficiency. How can municipalities, transit agencies, and employers encourage more bicycle commuting – especially when combined with transit trips –to address greenhouse gases, petroleum prices and traffic congestion?

May 22

School of Education and Human Development Professor Deanna Sands with Associate Professors Joni Dunlap and Donna Sobel collaborated to recently publish "Teaching intricate content online: It can be done and done well." Action in Teacher Education, 30(4), 28-44.

May 5

Three CAP Architecture Department faculty members were honored at the AIA Colorado Young Architects Awards Gala on April 17:

Jason Rebillot, senior instructor, was chosen Instructor of the Year.

 

 

Rick Petersen, lecturer and principal at Oz Architecture, was awarded Mentor of the Year.

 

 

 

Rick Sommerfeld, senior instructor and associate chair, received the James M. Hunter Scholarship for travel to study American architecture.

 

 

Rachel Cleaves, associate director of Learning Landscapes and project director of LiveWell Westwood, and Sarah Lampe, Learning Landscapes’ research coordinator, presented at the Policy Institute on Healthy Communities conference sponsored by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEAO) Educational Fund in Denver on April 25. Their talk was “Healthy Community Strategies in Action: Strategies to Enhance the Built Environment in Denver.” The conference brought together state legislators, municipal elected officials and school board members from throughout the Western United States to discuss the role of elected officials in creating opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating, which are both directly associated with the prevention of obesity and chronic disease.

Greg Cronin, acting chair of biology, presented sessions about Green Careers at the Go Green Fair at the CEC Middle College of Denver. He spoke with 16-18 year olds about the opportunity to make any career path ‘green’, and shared information about the new Sustainability minor in CLAS.

Laurel Hartley, assistant professor of biology, attended the National Association of Research in Science Teaching conference in Garden Grove, Calif., in April. Hartley presented her work "Are students prepared to understand ecosystem carbon cycling: why it's important and how principled reasoning can help."

Assistant Research Professor Arun Karunanithi, civil engineering, attended the 2009 AIChE Spring National Meeting and 5th Global Congress on Process Safety (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) held in Tampa, Fla. last month, where he presented a paper.

Kevin Krizek, associate professor of planning and director of the PhD program in design and planning, was co-principal investigator on a project with his former colleagues at the University of Minnesota that has won two major awards recently. The Design for Health Project, "Integrating Active Living Principles into Municipal Planning," claimed the National Planning Excellence Award for Best Practices at the American Planning Association conference in Minneapolis this week. It also is one of seven exemplary projects in architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and urban design to have been named winners of the 2009 Great Places Research Awards by the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), Places Journal, and Metropolis Magazine. For more information on the project see the Web site.

Surgical oncologist Martin McCarter, associate professor of surgery at UC Denver, was the local PI for a phase III study published in the March 28 issue of The Lancet. The study, which enrolled 18 patients in Denver and 713 overall, found that patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors who are treated adjuvantly with the oral medication imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) have a greater chance of recurrence-free survival than those who receive standard of care, observation.

 

College of Engineering's Kevin Rens, associate professor, just returned from the ASCE Structures Congress ’09 in Austin, Tex., along with his graduate student Brad Van Otterloo where they presented a paper based on Brad’s Master’s thesis: “Ultrasonic Assessment of Cimmaron Historic Bridge.” During April, Rens, who is on sabbatical this year, traveled to Northeast Forest University (NEFU) in Harbin, China to present seven lectures (in English but immediately translated) about his research projects during his 14 years at UCD. His visit is shown online http://civil.nefu.edu.cn/News_View.asp?NewsID=560 and http://www.nefu.edu.cn/ldxw/xinwen.asp?newsid=9260. He also spoke to the students about attending UCD, as he and Stephan Durham currently advise two civil engineering students who are graduates of NEFU.

May 4

Wendy Kohrt, PhD, professor of Medicine (geriatrics) has been selected to co-chair the steering committee for NASA’s “Decadal Study in Physical and Biological Space Research.” This steering committee will oversee multiple committees charged with planning NASA's scientific path for the next 10 years. The study is sponsored by the National Research Council of the National Academies.

Jessica K. Tyler, PhD, associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and Director of the Molecular Oncology Program of the Cancer Center, won the prestigious Women in Cancer Research Award at the 100th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research held recently in Denver.

The School of Medicine's Academy of Medical Educators announced the following awards:

• Direct Teaching, Robert Neumann, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery; Dan Bessesen, MD, Professor in the Department of Medicine’s Endocrinology/Metabolism/Diabetes Division, who works at Denver Health, and J.J. Cohen, MD, Professor of Immunology

• Educational Administration, Nancy Madinger, MD, Associate Professor and Interim Head of the Infectious Diseases Division

• Research in Education, Gretchen Guiton, PhD, Associate Professor of Curriculum Evaluation

• Educational Leadership, Mark Deutchman, MD, Professor of Family Medicine and Director of the Rural Track

• Mentoring and Advising, David Fullerton, MD, Professor of Surgery and Head of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Division.

April 30

Karen H. Sousa, RN, PhD, associate dean for research and extramural affairs at the University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing since July 1, 2008, was recently elected a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the highest and most prestigious honor in the nursing field. Sousa will be inducted at the Academy's annual meeting in November.

 

 

April 27

Amy Barton, project director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Quality and Safety Education for Nurses project (QSEN), was profiled on the Robert Wood Johnson Web site. QSEN is a way to bridge the gap between nursing education and nursing practice. While leading the QSEN project, Barton is also an associate professor and the associate dean for clinical and community affairs at the University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing. QSEN offers dramatic and effective changes in the methods used to teach the next generation of nurses.

The College of Nursing's Dr. Lynn Gilbert this past week received the Pioneer Award from the Colorado chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). The Pioneer of the Year is awarded to the nominee who has contributed to the expansion or improvement of pediatric health care and the advancement of the profession of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners at the local and national level.

April 20

The UC Denver Physical Therapy (PT) Program had the opportunity to share its use of various instructional technologies with the faculty, students and clinical preceptors at Yamagata Prefectural University of Health Sciences.

In March, David M. Weil, Educational Technology Manager for the UC Denver PT Program, was invited to lecture and consult with faculty in Japan, as part of an ongoing 8 year relationship with the PT Program in Yamagata. Various technologies such as Blackboard, narrated learning modules, on-demand video lectures and labs, and web conferencing tools were discussed and demonstrated.

Each Fall, students and faculty from Yamagata visit the Anschutz Medical Campus, to participate in a Scientific Congress, a series of tours and presentations, as well as cultural learning about PT practices and student life in America.

Photo: left to right, Akira Kusakabe, MD, PhD, President of YPUHS, Kouji Ihashi, PT, PhD, Professor and Chair of Physical Therapy, David M. Weil, Hitoshi Makabe, PT, PhD, Professor discuss integration of teaching and technology.

April 13

Lynne Fox, assistant professor and education librarian at the UC Denver Health Sciences Library, is the 2009 recipient of the Marla Graber Award for Excellence and Achievement. Awarded annually by the Colorado Council of Medical Librarians (CCML), the Graber Award recognizes the career of a CCML member who has made outstanding contributions to CCML and to health sciences librarianship at the local level.

The Marla Graber Award will be presented to Lynne at the CCML Annual Meeting, April 15, 2009, at the WELLS Center on the UC Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. This award was established in 2002 in honor of CCML member emeritus Marla Graber, who retired as Deputy Director of Denison Memorial Library and served the Colorado health sciences community for many years.

Several College Architecture and Planning faculty participated in this year’s ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) conference “The Value of Design” in Portland, Or., held March 26-28:

• Willem van Vliet, professor of planning, and former architecture faculty, and Michael Hughes (University of Arkansas) and Bruce Wrightsman (Montana State University) received an ACSA Collaborative Practice award for the project “Design Outreach: The Trailer Wrap Project.”

• Amir Ameri, associate professor of architecture, presented his paper “A Thesis Fable” in The Future of the Architectural Thesis session

• Meredith Banasiak, instructor of architecture, was an invited panelist in the Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) session on Research in the Design Studio

• Peter Schneider, professor of architecture and associate dean of academic affairs-Boulder

April 8

University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing (CON) faculty member, Marilyn Krajicek, EdD, RN, FAAN, professor and chair, CON Division of Informatics, Health Systems and Leadership, and director of the UC Denver National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care, received the Doris J. Biester Award for Excellence in Leadership on April 6 at the annual Sigma Theta Tau International, Alpha Kappa Chapter Spring Meeting.

Krajicek was recognized for her national leadership in education, practice and policy development for children, especially for children with special needs. She has been a national leader since her first grant in the 1980s when she began the First Start Program which served as the foundation for the UC Denver College of Nursing masters option focused on children with special needs. Continuously funded since the mid-1990s, Marilyn has provided leadership on the national level, in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region, and at UC Denver. She and her colleagues in the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care are highly regarded by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Nursing where she has provided leadership on an expert panel, and the Colorado community.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Mike Jacobson, chairman of Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, reported the math contingent at UC Denver won a National Science Foundation award for GK12 program to prominence through the broadcast media because of a 9News story aired two months. The University of Colorado contingent returned last week from the national GK12 meeting held by the NSF in Washington, D.C. “We were all surprised when they announced the university as the winner, but it really helped to bring the university and program to the attention of all the other attendees,” Jacobson says. “We hope to keep our crown in future years!” Check out the 9News story and video.

The Cancer Center’s Monique Spillman has received the Liz Tilberis Scholars award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. This highly competitive award, given to early-career researchers who are developing techniques for early diagnosis and improved care for women with ovarian cancer, comes with a $450,000, three-year grant.

Her project, “Modulation of Estrogen Response in a Mouse Xenograft Model of Steroid Hormone Sensitive Ovarian Cancer,” builds upon her recent success showing that ovarian cancer cells with estrogen receptors grow faster than estrogen-negative cells when estrogen is present.

Spillman, assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UC Denver, has developed a unique xenograft model for ovarian cancer using IVIS, a fluorescent technique offered by the UCCC Animal Imaging developing core, to quantify the growth of these tumors, something that is otherwise impossible to do.

April 3

David Bondelevitch, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Media's Music & Entertainment Industry Studies Program, recently produced and hosted an event in Los Angeles for the Cinema Audio Society. He is vice president of the organization.

The Cinema Audio Society's (CAS) annual "Meet the Winners" event encourages people to meet and ask questions of the Cinema Audio Society Awards winners. This year the group included Resul Pookutty, who answered questions about his work on Slumdog Millionare, which won not only the CAS award but also the Oscar and BAFTA awards. Ian Tapp discussed the re-recording mix for the same film. CAS board member Bob Brownow discussed his work on the documentary series Deadliest Catch, and how difficult it is to be a one-man sound crew with no production sound mixers. In addition to winning the CAS award, the show has been nominated for the Emmy four times.

Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Tim Lei has been appointed as an adjunct faculty to the UCD Department of Medicine. Tim is currently a member of the advisory panel for the Light Microscopy Facility of the Anschutz Medical Campus. The Light Microscopy Facility (LMF) is an National Institute of Health (NIH) funded Core Facility for researchers to perform advanced microscopic imaging.

Also his week, the NIH awarded a $500,000 plus $150,000 cost-share grant to acquire a Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) microscope to the LMF. This is the first commercial CARS microscope ever awarded by NIH across the country. The NIH has officially approved the transfer of PI-ship to Lei (who was co-PI), due to the departure of Dr. Nicholas Barry, the original PI, for England in February.

Anu Ramaswami, professor of civil engineering, received a grant through the AT&T Industrial Ecology (IE) Faculty Fellowship Program. The IE Program is intended to stimulate interdisciplinary research involving social and environmental issues in fields such as engineering. This project will explore how the diffusion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategies for greenhouse gas mitigation can be enhanced by providing life cycle assessment tools and decision support systems to social actors at the local level, i.e., homes, businesses and local governments. The focus will be on two specific ICT sustainability strategies: promoting residential and office energy conservation through energy information displays and smart meters; and promoting telework and teleconferencing at the urban and sustainable business scale. The research will explore, for example, how much energy is consumed to move people and how much energy is consumed to move information through a communication network (such as people sending e-mail messages). See further details about the AT&T program at http://www.att.com/gen/corporate-citizenship?pid=12434.

Computer Science Assistant Professor Ilkyeun Ra and his PhD student Ahyoung Lee learned have that they won the 2009 Best Paper Award from the 12th Communications and Networking Simulation Symposium (CNS) 2009. The conference was held on San Diego from March 22-27. The paper title is “Performance Study of Ad Hoc Routing Protocols with Gossip-Based Approach.”

On March 24, Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Fernando Mancilla-David participated as a committee member for the defense of a doctoral thesis entitled “Simple Topologies for Power Conditioners and FACTS Controllers” for Julio César Rosas at the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV) in Guadalajara, Mexico.

 

On March 15, Civil Engineering Professor N.Y. Chang attended the American Concrete Institute Annual Meeting held in San Antonio, Texas and gave a presentation entitled “Rocking Hinge Bearings — A New Concept in Seismic Isolation” to ACI Committee 341, Earthquake-Resistant Concrete Bridges.

 

 

March 27

University of Colorado Hospital has three finalists and the College of Nursing has one finalist for the 2009 Nightingale award. Three finalists is the most the hospital has ever had.

The finalists are:

College of Nursing:

• Marylou Robinson, assistant professor, at right
  

University of Colorado Hospital:

• Sue West, at right: Director, Professional Risk Management/ Clinical Excellence and Patient Safety
• Kathy Bunzli: Clinical Educator MICU/CICU
• Amiee Orf: Staff RN, Oncology

The Nightingale Awards for Excellence in Human Caring honors those who exemplify the philosophy and practice of Florence Nightingale, a 19th century nursing pioneer who epitomized the art of helping people toward their optimal health. Fifteen finalists are selected.

Nightingale 2009 will be held on Saturday, May 9, at the Renaissance Hotel in Denver. The announcement of the recipients at the event is the highlight of the evening. Each recipient receives a commemorative bronze sculpture of Florence Nightingale. The Colorado Nurses Foundation (CNF) organizes this statewide event.

Drs. Steve Leong, left, and Meg Macy, right, have been chosen Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology Research Scholars. Calabresi Scholars are recipients of a K12 award that provides five years of mentored support leading to becoming independent translational researchers.

Leong is assistant professor of medical oncology at UC Denver. Macy is instructor of pediatric hematology/oncology/bone marrow transplantation at UC Denver and The Children’s Hospital.