People
Rankin named associate vice chancellor for research
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| Rankin |
Patricia Rankin, professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been named associate vice chancellor for research.
"Professor Rankin brings a wealth of experience to the position, and I am confident that
she will reach out to faculty in all disciplines to enhance the quality of research, scholarship and creative work on our campus," said Stein Sture, vice chancellor for research.
Rankin most recently served as interim associate vice chancellor for research, following service as faculty director in the Office of Faculty Affairs, and before then as associate vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community engagement.
While serving as professor in the department of physics, she served for two years as program officer for particle physics at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. She also has served as the principle investigator for the campus' NSF Advance Institutional Transformation Program and helped develop the campus' Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP) program.
Rankin first came to CU-Boulder in 1988.
The offices of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Dean of the Graduate School work in tandem with campus research institutes, graduate departments and local and regional agencies to expand research and graduate education opportunities.
Boulder professor named Google Science Communication Fellow
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| Townsend |
Alan Townsend, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University
of Colorado Boulder, recently was named one of 21 Google Science Communication Fellows for 2011.
Google said the awards were initiated to foster a more open, transparent and accessible scientific dialogue aimed at inspiring pioneering use of technology, new media and computational thinking in the communication of science to diverse audiences.
Initially the awards focus on communicating the science on climate change.
Townsend's background is as an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist. Much of his work focuses on controls over nutrient limitation and carbon storage in moist tropical and alpine tundra ecosystems, and how these controls help researchers understand the response of such systems to human-induced environmental change.
The Google fellows were elected from a pool of applicants of early to mid-career Ph.D. scientists nominated by leaders in climate change research and science-based institutions across the United States.
In June, the fellows will participate in a workshop, which will integrate hands-on training and facilitated brainstorming on topics of technology and science communication. Following the workshop, fellows will be given the opportunity to apply for grants to put their ideas into practice. Those with the most impactful projects will be given the opportunity to join a Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic trip to the Arctic, the Galapagos or Antarctica as a science communicator.
Film featuring Boulder assistant professor takes high honor at festival
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| Osnes |
A film featuring Beth Osnes, an assistant professor in the department of theater and dance at the University of Colorado Boulder, was named the Best Colorado Film after its premiere last month at the Boulder International Film Festival.
"Mother: Caring Our Way Out of the Population Dilemma" casts a light on a root cause of the planet's largest environmental, humanitarian and social crises. Since the 1960s, the world population has nearly doubled, adding more than 3 billion people. The film introduces Osnes, a mother, child-rights activist and the last sibling of a family of 12, as she navigates the complexities of the population issue and highlights a different path to solve it. Osnes is co-founder of Mothers Acting Out.
The film was directed by Christopher Fauchere and produced by Fauchere and Joyce Johnson.
Hernandez first recipient of namesake award
Theresa D. Hernandez, associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, will be the first recipient of the Theresa Hernandez Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund Community Award. The award, given by the State of Colorado Department of Human Services, honors her work helping Colorado's citizens recover from traumatic brain injury or TBI.
Along with her research aimed at improving clinical treatment following brain injury, she also worked with Rep. Todd Saliman to make possible the 2002 law that created the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund Program. Since its inception, the program is estimated to have helped 4,000 people deal with the effects of TBI and to support their health care and rehabilitation.
Hernandez will be honored formally on Thursday, March 3.
Dropping names ...
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| Handelsman |
Mitch Handelsman, professor of psychology at the University of Colorado Denver, recently gave four invited presentations at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Three were for the Teaching and Learning Center: "Teaching Philosophies," "Positive Ethics and Positive Teaching," and "Collaborative and Formative Course Evaluation: How to Implement Student Management Teams to Improve Teaching and Learning." He also facilitated a discussion for leadership, "Being Ethical in Inclusive Leadership." ... Farah Ibrahim at the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver had two proposals accepted for presentation at the American Psychological Association's 2011 annual conference. The first is a research project on "Assessment of Polish Worldviews: Universal Values Perspectives Using My Scale to Assess Worldview,"with Jan Cieciuch from the University of Finance and Management, Warsaw, Poland. The second is a symposium she is chairing on"The Implementation of Social Justice Organizational Initiatives: Current and Future Strategies for Long-term Change in Counseling and Psychology" with social justice advocates in psychology. ... An article on research by the Kevin J. Krizek, associate professor of planning and design at CU Denver, co-director of the Active Communities/Transportation (ACT) Research Group and director of the Ph.D. program in design and planning, is in the Feb. 14 issue of The Urban Transportation Monitor (Vol. 25 No. 1). The article on the research project is titled "Measuring Walking and Cycling Using the PABS (Pedestrian and Bicycling Survey) Approach: A Low-Cost Survey Method for Local Communities." ... Nancy Leech, an associate professor of research, statistics and evaluation methods at the School of Education, University of Colorado Denver, and her co-authors were selected as co-winners of the 2011 Southwest Educational Research Association (SERA) Outstanding Paper Award for their paper, "A Mixed Research Study of Approaches Used by Mixed Research Instructors." Leech earned her degrees from Colorado State University and CU-Boulder. Co-winners were declared for the first time in SERA history because judges' rankings were exactly tied. Both author teams will receive an honorarium, and be noted on the SERA website, and in all future SERA conference programs.
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