People

Madden named to Wirth Chair at UC-Denver

Madden

"We're delighted to welcome Alice to serve as the Wirth Chair in Sustainable and Community Development," said Paul Teske, dean of the UC Denver School of Public Affairs. "Ms. Madden's considerable expertise in energy and environmental policy, and her service to Gov. Ritter in those areas, as well as her Colorado legislative experience, will make her a great asset to our public affairs students, faculty and researchers."

The Wirth Chair provides a forum for research, dialogue and education on policies that balance economic, environmental and social welfare priorities. It is named for its founder, Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund, and U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1987 to 1993.

Madden, who represented House District 10 in the Colorado Legislature from 2000 to 2008, was House Majority Leader from 2005 to 2008. She also was senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, from 2008 through 2009, where she analyzed climate change and related environmental topics. She'll take her new post on Jan. 17.

"Alice Madden is a terrific appointment for the Wirth Chair," Wirth said. "As majority leader in the Colorado House of Representatives and deputy chief of staff for Gov. Bill Ritter, Alice has been at the forefront of Colorado's efforts to create a new, clean energy economy. Her background, expertise and track record of leadership make her a great choice for the university, for our state and for the important issues of sustainability that are engaging young people across Colorado."

The Wirth Chair is a two-year appointment. Madden will teach in the master's in public administration program, work with community leaders and policymakers on sustainability issues, organize conferences and events, seek external funding, and assist with research and evaluation programs, sometimes in conjunction with the School's Buechner Institute for Governance and the university's Center for Sustainable Infrastructure Systems.

"I am incredibly honored to be named the Wirth Chair and cannot wait to dive in," Madden said. "It will be a privilege to continue the good work of the Chair on these important issues."

Professor to lead violence prevention effort

Kaukinen

Katie Kaukinen, associate professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs' School of Public Affairs, will work with campus and community leaders in an effort to reduce domestic violence among students at UCCS and Pikes Peak Community College.

Kaukinen will be the principal investigator of a $499,645 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to develop programs that protect students from victimization and build healthy relationships.

"We envision a broad-based team of professionals at both colleges and within the Colorado Springs community to connect with students where they are in their lives," Kaukinen said. "Both genders will be involved as we try to teach fundamentals such as anger management and healthy relationships as well as how to recognize when intervention is necessary."

Kaukinen envisions a team of experts in fields ranging from psychology, nursing, law enforcement and student life joining in early 2011 to develop programming that meets the needs of student bodies at both campuses. The programs will go into place by fall 2011.

For example, Kaukinen envisions different presentations for traditional-age college students that focus on issues such as dating violence, sexual assault and healthy intimate relationships. In contrast, nontraditional age college students might receive information on recognizing spouse or domestic partner violence and how to cope with it, including what community resources are available.

But Kaukinen is quick to emphasize her goal is not only to prevent crime but to give students counsel about how to prevent problems, a message that is directed at both men and women.

— Tom Hutton

Distinguished Professor honored for science impact

Glover

The honor recognizes his seminal work on metaheuristic algorithms, specifically the development of Scatter Search and Tabu Search, and for his work popularizing these techniques as effective solution methods for previously intractable problems.

Glover helped pioneer the field of metaheuristics (which he named) with his introduction of Scatter Search in his 1977 Decision Sciences paper, "Heuristics for Integer Programming Using Surrogate Constraints." Over the next 10 years he continued his work, ultimately formalizing his revolutionary Tabu Search algorithm in his 1987 Computers and Operations Research paper, "Future Paths for Integer Programming and Links to Artificial Intelligence." These two papers garnered more than 2,000 citations, paving the way for the explosive development of metaheuristic research in the following decades.

Since that time, other researchers have used Glover's work to develop novel metaheuristic algorithms, sometimes by directly hybridizing elements of Scatter Search and Tabu Search.

Scatter Search and Tabu Search have remained two of the most prominent, most successful, and most widely applied metaheuristic algorithms. Their impact can be seen in almost any field that features extremely difficult problems of a combinatorial nature, including knapsack problems, telecommunications, network design, scheduling, financial planning, DNA sequencing, logistics, and computational biology. Despite the fact that these problems typically defy standard exact solution methods, Glover's work has shown that optimal solutions can often be found relatively quickly through application of intelligent search methods.

Glover also recently earned recognition in Interfaces, the Journal of Practice of Operations Research, published by the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS). An article in the November-December issue identified the paper most highly cited in scholarly work from 1989-2008 as Glover's "Tabu Search: A Tutorial" from 1990.

Attorney to receive honorary degree

Berliner

Berliner is known for his expertise in intellectual property matters. University officials consider his service invaluable in protecting the rights and interests of the university's creative minds.

He formed Berliner and Associates, a worldwide intellectual property firm specializing in patent, trademark and copyright prosecution, licensing and litigation, but not before developing a network of more than 60 top-rated intellectual property firms in more than 20 countries. He was a founding member of the intellectual property firm of Robbins, Berliner and Carson, and served there for 25 years. Later, he was a partner of the international general law firm of Fulbright and Jaworski.

UCCS leaders prepared the campus for the 21st century by focusing on invention, innovation and technology transfer. Berliner helped make this possible through his familiarity with university patent portfolios, and with his experience assisting in the formation and operations of early stage companies. He is known as a pioneer in biotechnology patent law.

Berliner also served as an instructor, pro bono, to teach CU courses in technology transfer and biotechnology, further demonstrating his commitment to education and CU.

Berliner is a founding member of Breathe California, a nonprofit foundation concerned with lung health issues, and he is helping other states establish similar agencies. In 2007, President Bush's Council on Service and Civic Participation presented him with the President's Volunteer Service Award.

— Ron Fitz

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