People

Thomas Blumenthal, professor and chairman of the department of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, signs his name into the registry of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences during a ceremony earlier this month in Cambridge, Mass. Blumenthal is part of the academy's 2010 Class of Fellows.

Biologist accepts high honor at ceremony

Thomas Blumenthal of the University of Colorado at Boulder's molecular, cellular and developmental biology department was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences during an Oct. 9 ceremony in Cambridge, Mass.

Blumenthal joins a host of researchers, scholars and artists who are members of the academy's 230th class of Fellows. He is the 21st faculty member to be elected a fellow of the academy while at CU. Three others, including Norman Pace, distinguished professor of MCDB, were elected prior to joining the CU faculty.

CU faculty members previously elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences include three of four of CU's Nobel laureates, three of four of CU's National Medal of Science winners and several of its Guggenheim and MacArthur fellows.

"The induction ceremony celebrates the academy's mission and the accomplishments of its newly elected members," said Leslie Berlowitz, academy president. "Through three centuries of service, the academy and its Fellows have been dedicated to intellectual leadership and constructive action in America and the world."

Since its founding by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other "scholar-patriots," the academy has elected leading "thinkers and doers" from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th.

The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners. A complete list of new members is available on the academy's website.

Boulder faculty members awarded National Science Foundation grants

Halverson Palmer

Two University of Colorado at Boulder faculty members have received prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER) awards.

Assistant Professor Nils Halverson, who holds faculty appointments in both the astrophysical and planetary sciences department and the physics department, was awarded $875,415 over five years from NSF to support detector development and data analysis for cosmic microwave background studies with the South Pole Telescope.

Cosmic microwave background is relic heat from the Big Bang that scientists can detect with microwave-wavelength telescopes. The light is slightly polarized, much in the way sunlight is polarized when it is reflected off the surface of a pond. The polarization signal is expected to contain tiny ripples from gravitational waves set in motion a small fraction of a second after the Big Bang, Halverson said. By measuring the signal, astrophysicists can begin to understand the physics of the universe during its birth.

As part of the NSF award, Halverson and astrophysical and planetary sciences instructor Seth Horenstein will provide a graduate class focused on observations, data analysis and statistics with conceptual assessment tools, peer-instruction exercises and course notes.

Assistant Professor Amy Palmer of the chemistry and biochemistry department received $831,720 from the NSF over five years to support her research to provide a powerful new approach to illuminate disease-causing bacteria like salmonella that invade host organisms and can produce harmful and sometimes lethal effects.

Many bacterial pathogens use a set of proteins called "effectors" to invade and infect host cells, cooperatively working to hijack cellular signaling and to reprogram the host cell to enable bacterial survival. Palmer and her team are developing a new method that will directly tag a broad spectrum of effector proteins with fluorescent molecules in order to visualize their movements during infection of a host cell.

Palmer's project also will contribute to a campuswide effort to reform undergraduate science education by developing and validating interdisciplinary, hands-on tutorials that will promote student engagement and transform student learning. She has worked with the Science Education Initiative on campus, which is part of the university's STEM efforts, to integrate learning assistants into upper division physical chemistry classes, develop pre/post concept tests to measure learning gains and to promote active engagement in the classroom. Palmer also is a faculty member in CU's Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology (CIMB).

Dropping names ...

Fox

Barden

Ramaswami

Facilities Management at the University of Colorado Denver has promoted Mike Barden to director of facilities projects. Barden had been the manager of major projects and assistant director of facilities projects for nearly every new building or major renovation on both campuses, and also had been the university's state buildings delegate, requiring him to be actively involved in contracts, amendments, change order, change order proposals and pay applications for major capital projects. ... John (Jack) M. Westfall, M.D., MPH, is the co-director of the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and Director of the Community Translation – Community Engagement and Research Program. Westfall is an associate professor of family medicine and Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of Colorado School of Medicine who has been involved in the CCTSI since it was created in 2008. He will direct the Community Translational Research pillar program of the CCTSI, overseeing the community engagement key functions and organizing the innovative Partnership of Academicians and Communities for Translation (PACT) and ensuring community engagement and public trust in our research and training endeavors. ... Michael Tavel, AIA, senior instructor of architecture studies at the University of Colorado Denver, has developed and is teaching an after-school program for elementary age children called "The Green Neighborhood Class." The emphasis is environmental literacy learned through field trips and hands-on experiences. Tavel is volunteering his time at his children's elementary school, Academia Marie Sandoval, a dual language, Montessori Denver Public School in the Highland Neighborhood. ...

Anu Ramaswami, professor of environmental and sustainability engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado Denver and director of the Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Systems, recently presented on "Innovations in Greenhouse Gas Inventory Methods at the City-Scale" at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 19th International Emission Inventory Conference in San Antonio, Texas. ... Frederick J. Suchy, M.D., will join the faculty of the department of pediatrics, section of pediatric gastroenterology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and become the chief research officer of The Children's Hospital on Dec. 1. He also will serve as associate dean for child health research. Suchy currently is chair of the department of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital, where he has worked for 13 years. ... John C. Miller, professor emeritus, languages and cultures at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, recently returned to Gaziantep University, Turkey, under a U.S. State Department English Language Fellow grant. He will teach American literature and culture in addition to providing English training for regional teacher groups in cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of Education.

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