Kudos

How a California dude became �� Boulder’s provost

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 19:23:49 +0000

How a California dude became �� Boulder’s provost Rachel Sauer Fri, 06/06/2025 - 13:23

Clint Talbott

Before finding the joy of exploration as a university professor and chief academic officer, Russell Moore found it traveling the world

When Russell Moore went to college, the Vietnam War, Kent State killings, Watergate and an energy crisis dominated the nightly news.

Moore was studying biochemistry at the University of California, Davis, and those tumultuous days made academics less than entrancing. “There was so much going on in the world, and as for college, well, I just didn’t see the point,” Moore recalled recently.

Biochemistry seemed “maybe interesting,” but it also seemed mostly focused on process, and the purpose wasn’t clear, Moore said.

Russell Moore (right) talks with Reiland Rabaka (right), director of the Center for African and African American Studies, before the State of the Campus address. (Photo: Glenn Asakawa/�� Boulder)

So after two and a half years of college, he dropped out to travel the world. At the time, his sister was a flight attendant for Pan Am Airways, and he got long-haul tickets “virtually free.” He went to the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

Once back in the United States, he got a job but soon realized that “this job thing” also wasn’t compelling. So, he returned to college and began working in a research lab.

“That’s when things changed,” he said. “Then I saw the point.”

He was working in the lab of Irwin Segel, then a professor of biochemistry, who framed the scientific enterprise this way: “When you make a scientific discovery, you know something no one else on the planet knows, even if it’s minuscule and for only a few minutes or hours.”

Segel also told his students that science rarely progresses in large leaps; most of the time, it takes small steps. “I thought that was cool, like I could be part of something that was significant,” Moore said.

“I could see myself in that process, even though I wasn’t the quarterback. I was just a small contributor,” but playing that role got him “very, very interested in the research enterprise.”

After earning his BS in biochemistry from UC Davis, Moore studied physiology and earned a PhD from Washington State University.

Leaving college and returning was not so much a detour in his academic journey as a necessary part of the path. As he puts it, the experience widened his aperture, which helped him realize his eventual role as a university professor and chief academic officer for the University of Colorado Boulder.

Initially, academic life seemed not to offer a foray into the unknown. “What I love about traveling is just a sense of exploration. And part of what I learned about myself is, particularly being in very foreign environments, you don’t have to fear the unknown. You can view it also as an exciting thing.”

Now, he eyes another journey into the unknown. He is about to retire.

From professor to administrator

Today, he is the university’s provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs. He has served as provost since 2010 and is a professor of integrative physiology and an adjunct professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Moore was appointed associate vice chancellor for research in 2006 and was named interim vice chancellor for research in 2009. He has taught at �� Boulder since 1993 and served as chair of the Department of Integrative Physiology from 1994 to 2001.

Russell Moore (front center, wearing blue shirt) and �� Boulder deans at a "The Big Lebowski"-themed tribute to Moore at the UMC Connection.

Before the department became dedicated to integrative physiology, it was the department of kinesiology, which had grown out of the university’s physical-education program.

A core group of faculty members launched the move to transform the kinesiology department into a department of physiology. By the early 2000s, �� Boulder’s Department of Integrative Physiology’s graduate program was ranked among the nation’s top 10.

Moore’s lab contributed to that reputation, focusing on the cellular basis for exercise-induced protection of the heart against ischemia-reperfusion injury and on the influences of diet and exercise on cardiac energy metabolism.

Moore said he appreciates the physical-education roots of his department. Paraphrasing an early 20th century physiologist, Moore said you can study a locomotive at rest, disassembling its engine and examining its parts, but that won’t really tell you how it works.

“You need to be able to study the locomotive while it’s moving,” Moore said. “And you can study physiology while I’m sitting in this chair, but I have arms and legs, and they’re not designed for me sitting in the chair. They’re designed for me to run and pick fruit and whatever.”

Studying organisms under stress, as they’re designed to function, is more revealing. Another thing that drew him to physiology is that much scientific research focuses on pathology rather than physiology. “And they’re not necessarily just reverses of each other. They’re two different paths. That just gets back to the exploring part, and that’s what’s fun.”

Similarly, conducting research is a different enterprise than becoming an academic administrator. Moore came to that when he “drew the short straw” and was named chair of his department.

“It was hard, really hard. I think department-chair jobs are the hardest jobs on campus, because if you’re making hard decisions, you’re making them with people whom you know really well,” he said.

“It’s easier to make hard decisions when you’re further removed interpersonally. I always know when I make a tough decision is impacting people. But it’s different when you’re working with peers-slash-friends.”

Moore volunteered for a campus-wide committee with a light workload, the research-misconduct committee, which hadn’t heard a case in years. Within months, allegations arose against Ward Churchill, a former ethnic-studies professor whom the university later fired for plagiarism and academic misconduct. Moore co-chaired the inquiry committee that initially investigated the charges against Churchill.

Churchill was also a controversial figure, calling victims of 9-11 terrorist attacks “little Eichmanns,” a reference to Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

Responding to a question about why such an initiation into academic administration was compelling, Moore said the experience taught him about research administration and research compliance.

“I didn’t know all of that stuff existed,” he said, adding, “Because I have such an affinity for research and discovery, I got really interested in that.” So he applied to be associate vice chancellor for research.

"You need to be able to study the locomotive while it’s moving. And you can study physiology while I’m sitting in this chair, but I have arms and legs, and they’re not designed for me sitting in the chair. They’re designed for me to run and pick fruit."

This, too, was a natural fit, he said, noting that he’s always loved research and scholarly endeavors on campus, whether they’re in science, arts and humanities, music; “it’s all incredibly interesting to me,” because all these disciplines involve the discovery or creation of things that are novel.

The regular-person leader

Bronson Hilliard, �� Boulder senior director of academic communications, has worked with six university presidents, five campus chancellors and a host of mid- and upper-level administrators in three decades of university service.

“Russ Moore is a complete human being,” Hilliard said. “He’s not only a good administrator; he’s a good human being. He’s brought into the role of being provost an abundant life experience … of erudition and education and training. But Russ adds to all of that a kind of regular-person quality that I’ve not seen in any administrator I’ve ever worked with.”

“He’s very much in touch with the impact of education on real people’s lives,” Hillard said, adding, as an example, that Moore worked to ensure a smooth path for students transferring from community colleges to �� Boulder.

Student success is one of Moore’s passions. As he tells it, in regular meetings with new employees, he’d ask every person a question for which there was, he emphasized, one right answer.

The question: “What’s your job?”

Employees might reply with, “groundskeeper” or “advisor,” for instance.

“The right answer is, ‘I’m here to make students successful,’” Moore observed, adding that Nobel laureates, groundbreaking spinoff companies, startling discoveries about the solar system, soaring musical scores—“we can’t do it without everybody’s contribution.”

Student success, along with knowledge discovery and dissemination, is “why we’re all here.”

Moore, Hillard said, has never lost touch with his roots; he grew up in Northern California, worked as a river-raft guide, enjoys fly fishing, loves to camp and hike and “knows his way around a backyard barbecue grill.”

“Every day I came to work with Russ, I knew I had a real human being at the center of the work,” Hilliard said.

“There’s the stereotype of an ivory tower, and Russ Moore is the antithesis of an ivory tower. If there is a Russ Moore tower, it’s made of very earthy substances, not ivory.”

That relatively unflappable, regular-person quality figures prominently in Moore’s favorite movie, The Big Lebowski. “He appreciates the character of the dude, who stays true to himself from the beginning of the movie to the end, even though all these things around him get completely unhinged,” Hilliard said.

“The dude abides,” a line from the film, suggests equanimity in the eye of a storm.

“So, Russ abides," Hilliard opined, "just like the dude.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about �� Boulder? Show your support.

Before finding the joy of exploration as a university professor and chief academic officer, Russell Moore found it traveling the world.

Traditional

White

�� Boulder prof named Boettcher Investigator

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 18:38:17 +0000

�� Boulder prof named Boettcher Investigator Rachel Sauer Fri, 06/06/2025 - 12:38

Assistant Professor Jennifer Hill is one of seven Colorado researchers to be recognized by the Boettcher Foundation for their pioneering biomedical research

The Boettcher Foundation and Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) have named Assistant Professor Jennifer H. Hill with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and BioFrontiers Institute, as one of seven outstanding early-career biomedical researchers.

Each scientist will receive a $250,000 grant through the Boettcher Foundation’s Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program to support up to three years of independent scientific research, with total grant funding reaching $1.75 million.

�� Boulder scientist Jennifer Hill, an assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, has been named a 2025 Boettcher Investigator.

“It’s a huge honor to be selected as one of this year’s Boettcher Investigators, especially given the depth of groundbreaking biomedical research in Colorado,” Hill said. “The award gives my lab the resources to explore the relevance of our work in human tissues, bringing us closer to our goal of preventing type 1 diabetes in children. As a young investigator, receiving funds like these goes a long way to help offset some of the anxiety and uncertainty in the current federal funding landscape.”

This year’s class represents the next generation of scientific excellence and marks another milestone in Boettcher Foundation’s 16-year commitment to strengthening Colorado’s biomedical research ecosystem, according to the Boettcher Foundation. The Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards provide crucial early-career support and position recipients to compete for additional private, state and federal research funding.

“We are delighted to support our 2025 Boettcher Investigators, and as champions of their work, we are confident that these researchers will continue to spark new discoveries and drive innovation in medicine,” said Katie Kramer, president and CEO of the Boettcher Foundation. “The far-reaching impact of our Investigators’ research extends well beyond the lab—each advancement sets in motion a ripple effect that benefits patients, strengthens Colorado’s scientific community, and inspires future breakthroughs. We are proud to invest in these remarkable scientists, whose dedication and creativity are shaping a healthier future for all.”

Hill is a microbe scientist who studies the connection between the pancreas and microbes in the gut, examining microbiota in the development of insulin-producing beta cells. Four Boettcher Investigators with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and two with Colorado State University are pursuing research into fields including osteoarthritis, autism spectrum disorder, cancer and autoimmune diseases, and developmental and neurological disorders.

Since its inception, the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program has supported 113 Boettcher Investigators, including this year’s class, and awarded close to $27 million in grant funding. These researchers have gone on to secure more than $150 million in additional research funding from federal, state and private sources, according to the Boettcher Foundation.

“Colorado BioScience Association is grateful to the Boettcher Foundation for its continued investment in the next generation of scientific leaders in our state,” said Elyse Blazevich, president and CEO of Colorado BioScience Association. “The Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards provide essential early-career funding that empowers researchers to remain in Colorado and advance their discoveries within our world-class academic and research institutions. We are honored to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2025 class of Boettcher Investigators.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about molecular, cellular and developmental biology? Show your support.

Assistant Professor Jennifer Hill is one of seven Colorado researchers to be recognized by the Boettcher Foundation for their pioneering biomedical research.

Traditional

White

Anthropologists awarded major early-career development support

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 30 May 2025 21:44:15 +0000

Anthropologists awarded major early-career development support Rachel Sauer Fri, 05/30/2025 - 15:44

�� Boulder scholars William Taylor and Fernando Villanea have been named 2025 National Science Foundation CAREER award winners

Two University of Colorado Boulder anthropologists have been named 2025 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award winners by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support their research of animal domestication and genomic variation.

William Taylor, a �� Boulder assistant professor of anthropology and �� Museum of Natural History curator of archaeology, has been awarded a $419,696 grant for his research project “Understanding Animal Domestication and Human-Environmental Relationships.” Fernando Villanea, an assistant professor of anthropology, has been awarded a $579,010 grant to study “Archaic Hominin Genomic Variation in Modern Human Populations.”

William Taylor, a �� Boulder assistant professor of anthropology and �� Museum of Natural History curator of archaeology, has been awarded a $419,696 NSF CAREER grant for his research project “Understanding Animal Domestication and Human-Environmental Relationships.”

The NSF CAREER Program offers the foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty “who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization,” according to the NSF. “Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.”

“Funding from this grant means my research team’s salaries will be supported for the next five years, including hiring a new post-doctoral scholar, to explore the effects of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry in living people,” Villanea says. “A portion of the grant will also fund functional genetic experiments in collaboration with scientists at the �� Anschutz School of Medicine.”

Taylor notes that this award “is a tremendous honor and a huge step forward in our scientific investigation of the past. Ancient Mongolia was deeply intertwined with so many parts of the story of animal domestication, from dogs to horses, reindeer, and beyond. It’s exciting we will be able to start exploring that with our interdisciplinary team at �� over the years ahead.”

Doing community archaeology

Taylor’s research aims to understand animal domestication and human-environmental relationships on northeast Asian prehistory through archaeology.

His NSF CAREER project will investigate rare, well-preserved archaeological and biological assemblages recovered from archaeological field research in western Mongolia—including new finds from high mountain snow and ice features and excavation of stratified dry caves—spanning the last four millennia and beyond.

The research will be paired with a multifaceted program of museum education and outreach, building on Taylor’s past findings, providing infrastructure for the protection of cultural resources and the cultivation of international scientific cooperation while supporting early-career scientists and expanding public education in Mongolia and the United States.

The NSF CAREER support will aid Taylor and his Mongolian partners, including the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and National Museum of Mongolia, to analyze ancient animal remains, artifacts and ecofacts with cutting-edge techniques from archaeozoology, biomolecular sciences and paleoenvironmental data from the Mongolian Altai. The research team will seek to establish data-driven models for the introduction and dispersal of domestic livestock to northeast Asia; the timing and role of Mongolian cultures in the innovation of large animal transport, including the chariot, the saddle/stirrup and reindeer riding; and the relationship of key social developments to ancient environments in the eastern Steppe.

Fernando Villanea, an assistant professor of anthropology, has been awarded a $579,010 NSF CAREER grant to study “Archaic Hominin Genomic Variation in Modern Human Populations.”

“Leveraging partnerships and expertise from scientists and institutions at home and abroad, this award will produce key scientific research on animal domestication and the human story,” Taylor noted, adding that the CAREER award will help “to build important educational tools and capacity for a future generation of scientists and scholars, along with strong international partnerships and scientific cooperations between Mongolia and the United States.”

Archaic genetics, modern applications

Villanea’s NSF CAREER research begins with the concept that “living people carry archaic genetic material inherited from other hominins such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. This genetic inheritance can affect fitness and health, and its persistence and effects cannot be fully understood unless studies consider each group’s unique population history and the evolutionary processes that shaped them,” he explained.

The goal of Villanea’s study is to assess the presence and evaluate the impact of archaic hominin ancestry in groups with a complex population history by applying sophisticated computational genetic techniques to existing information. Villanea and his research colleagues aim to develop educational tools, provide training opportunities for students at different educational levels and build capacity in a new generation of scientists.

This research advances knowledge of archaic ancestry in groups with complex admixture. To separate the archaic ancestry contributions from those derived from modern groups, this study analyzes the genomes of individuals that predate well-documented historic processes as well as those from modern peoples. To improve admixture models, the study creates computational tools that benefit from artificial intelligence techniques. The study examines the relationship between archaic gene variants and phenotypic traits.

Villanea’s research will focus on the Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry distribution in Indigenous American and descendant Latin American genomes, promoting understanding of the forces of evolution as they acted in Indigenous American and descendant Latin American genomes. A goal is that the knowledge gained will empower underrepresented students to access higher education in medical and STEM fields.

“Computational and statistical competency is a lower cost of entry to STEM and medical sciences than hands-on experience in laboratory techniques, and I believe that this trend is democratizing access to genomics research across all institutions,” Villanea noted. “The trend towards free access to scientific resources is exemplified by the public availability of modern and ancient genomes, and the acceptance of preprint services to remove paywalls to exciting new results and methodologies.

“For this reason, I advocate for the inclusion of computational competency in the curriculum for all students, and see an opportunity for online resources to provide an early form of access to evolutionary theory for pre-college level students that can both grow their interest in biology and improve their chances at academic development by equipping them with high-level theory they can be self-taught supplementing their school curriculum.”

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about anthropology? Show your support.

�� Boulder scholars William Taylor and Fernando Villanea have been named 2025 National Science Foundation CAREER award winners.

Traditional

White

College finance chief wins prestigious fellowship

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 22 May 2025 15:08:06 +0000

College finance chief wins prestigious fellowship Rachel Sauer Thu, 05/22/2025 - 09:08

Amy Lavens, the College of Arts and Sciences’ vice dean of finance and administration, is one of 17 professionals to win this recognition

Amy Lavens, vice dean of finance and administration for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, is one of 17 business and financial professionals named as fellows of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NA��BO), the group has announced.

NA��BO’s immersive leadership development program prepares higher education professionals who are seeking a chief business officer (CBO) position in their next role, the organization said.

Amy Lavens, vice dean of finance and administration for the College of Arts and Sciences at �� Boulder, has been named a fellow of the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Over the course of a year, NA��BO fellows will work with higher education presidents, provosts, CBOs and other experts as they expand their management, communications and leadership skills and strengthen the core competencies needed to succeed as senior leaders.

The 2025-26 fellows were selected from the largest applicant pool in the program’s history, and the incoming cohort is one of the largest since the program was founded in 2016.

"We are thrilled to welcome the 10th cohort of NA��BO’s prestigious Fellows Program—a milestone made even more meaningful because this group was selected from one of the most competitive applicant pools in our program’s history,” said Kara D. Freeman, NA��BO president and CEO, adding:

“These new fellows’ talent, diverse experiences and passion for higher education reflect the best of the future of college and university business administration and leadership. We look forward to supporting these and all our fellows’ continued growth and impact.”

At the �� Boulder College of Arts and Sciences, Lavens oversees financial strategy, budget planning and finance operations for the largest academic unit on campus. Before joining higher education, Lavens led financial and operational strategies in diverse environments, including clinical research, start-ups, manufacturing and a successful initial public offering. This background allows her to challenge conventional approaches, promoting creative and pragmatic solutions that marry financial stewardship with an institution’s overarching mission.

Her successes are built on the foundation of listening and learning, being authentic and translating complex concepts into clear, accessible language. She prioritizes transparency and avoids jargon that obscures meaning, fostering trust and collaboration, NABUCO noted.

Lavens holds an executive MBA and a bachelor of science in biochemistry from Colorado State University.

NA��BO’s fellows program is one in a suite of professional development programs aimed at preparing the next generation of chief business officers. Its offerings also include the Emerging Leaders Program and the New Business Officers Program.

Founded in 1962, NA��BO is a nonprofit professional organization representing chief administrative and financial officers at more than 1,700 colleges and universities across the country. It works to advance the economic vitality, business practices and support of higher education institutions in pursuit of their missions.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about arts and sciences? Show your support.

Amy Lavens, the College of Arts and Sciences’ vice dean of finance and administration, is one of 17 professionals to win this recognition.

Traditional

White

�� Boulder physicist wins Brown Investigator Award

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 19 May 2025 16:00:00 +0000

�� Boulder physicist wins Brown Investigator Award Rachel Sauer Mon, 05/19/2025 - 10:00

Physics Professor Cindy Regal is one of eight investigators recognized for curiosity-driven research in chemistry or physics who will receive up to $2 million over five years

Cindy Regal, professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been named a 2025 Brown Investigator, the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech announced today.

Regal, who is also Baur-SPIE Chair at JILA, a joint institute of �� Boulder and NIST, is one of eight scientists to gain this distinction, which carries up to $2 million in support over five years.

Brown Investigator Awards are given to mid-career faculty working on fundamental challenges in the physical sciences, particularly those with potential long-term practical applications in chemistry and physics, the institute stated.

Cindy Regal, a �� Boulder professor of physics, has been named a 2025 Brown Investigator.

Regal aims to use the research support to demonstrate quantum entanglement—a connection between particles like photons or atoms that persists despite their physical distance—with objects of larger mass than have been entangled before.

Regal said the Brown Investigator Award is a thrilling opportunity for her research group. “The Brown Institute’s focus on fundamental and risky studies will allow us to explore quantum mechanical phenomena in a regime that is enticing to physicists and for future impact, yet also exceedingly difficult to achieve in the laboratory,” she said, adding:

“We are keen to try a new concept in precision optical measurement and control that we hypothesize will generate quantum states in ever-larger and more tangible mechanical excitations. These explorations would not be possible to embark on without the unique resources provided to Brown Investigators.”

Regal earned a BA in physics summa cum laude from Lawrence University in Wisconsin in 2001 and a PhD in physics from �� Boulder in 2006. She did postdoctoral research at �� Boulder and at the California Institute of Technology before joining the �� Boulder faculty in 2010.

She won the Cottrell Scholars Frontiers in Research Excellence and Discovery Award in 2020, was named fellow of the American Physical Society in 2017 and won the CO-Labs Colorado Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research in 2016.

The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech, established in 2023 through a $400-million gift to the Institute from entrepreneur, philanthropist and alumnus Ross M. Brown (BS '56, MS '57), seeks to advance fundamental science discoveries with the potential to seed breakthroughs that benefit society—a goal it shares with Caltech.

"Mid-career faculty are at a time in their careers when they are poised and prepared to make profound contributions to their fields," Brown said.

"My continuing hope is that the resources provided by the Brown Investigator Awards will allow them to pursue riskier innovative ideas that extend beyond their existing research efforts and align with new or developing passions, especially during this time of funding uncertainty."

Brown established the Investigator Awards in 2020 through the Brown Science Foundation in support of the belief that "scientific discovery is a driving force in the improvement of the human condition," according to its news release from the Science Philanthropy Alliance, which helped guide Brown in realizing his philanthropic vision.

"We're delighted to partner with Ross Brown and the members of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences to identify and support outstanding investigators in fundamental chemistry and physics," said Caltech Provost David A. Tirrell, Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair and Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

A total of 21 investigators were recognized in the first four years of the program, including eight in the 2024 class, the first cohort to be installed under the auspices of the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech.

Brown Investigators from all cohorts are invited to an annual meeting that offers opportunities to share ideas. The second annual meeting was held at Caltech in February 2025.

To determine the new cohort, a select number of research universities from across the country were invited to nominate faculty members who had earned tenure within the last 10 years and who are doing innovative fundamental research in the physical sciences.

Nominees were then evaluated by an independent scientific review board that recommended grant winners. In administering the program, Caltech refrains from nominating its own scientists for Brown Investigator Awards. In return, the Institute draws other funds from the Brown gift to support fundamental research in chemistry and physics.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about physics? Show your support.

Physics Professor Cindy Regal, also of NIST, is one of eight investigators recognized for curiosity-driven research in chemistry or physics who will receive up to $2 million over five years.

Traditional

White

Four Buffalo Bicycle Classic scholars earn Latin honors

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 07 May 2025 19:09:21 +0000

Four Buffalo Bicycle Classic scholars earn Latin honors Rachel Sauer Wed, 05/07/2025 - 13:09

Beneficiaries of the annual scholarship ride win high praise from faculty, set their sights on next academic ventures

The Buffalo Bicycle Classic boasts that it helps promising young scholars, which it identifies as “some of Colorado’s brightest.” Four of its beneficiaries have emphatically underscored that point, winning top honors while conducting novel research on Alzheimer’s, breast cancer and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Four recipients of the University of Colorado Boulder Buff Bike Classic scholarships are graduating this month with Latin honors, and one of those four has earned two summa cum laude distinctions.

Danya Al Nazal is graduating in neuroscience summa cum laude.

The Buffalo Bicycle Classic, which refers to itself the BBC and is not to be confused with the British broadcaster, is a multi-distance bicycle fundraiser for scholarships in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Paul Beale, �� Boulder physics professor and the BBC’s faculty director, said the BBC’s team is “ecstatic that four of our graduating seniors earned Latin honors this year, including a rare double summa cum laude by Danya Al Nazal.”

He noted that the BBC partners with the Arts and Sciences Honors Program to select incoming first-year scholars. “That fact that nearly half of our graduating scholars completed honors research projects and successfully wrote and defended honors theses demonstrates the dedication and academic excellence of the students supported by the Buffalo Bicycle Classic Scholarship Fund,” Beale said.

The four BBC scholars earning Latin honors are:

Danya Al Nazal, who is graduating in neuroscience summa cum laude and whose honors thesis is titled “The Effect of Sleep Disruption on Subclinical Alzheimer’s Disease.” Al Nazal also earned summa cum laude honors for a second thesis, titled “Sheltered but Still at Risk: Addressing Tuberculosis Prevention, Mitigation, and Treatment in a Homeless Shelter.”
Kate Timothy, who is graduating with a degree in neuroscience summa cum laude and whose honors thesis is titled “Effects of Time-of-Day and Circadian Misalignment on Blood-based Alzheimer’s Biomarkers.”
Maria Smolyar, who is graduating with a degree in international affairs summa cum laude and whose honors thesis is titled “The Geopolitical Chessboard: The Russia-Ukraine War and the Logic and Consequences of Carrots and Sticks.”
Stephanie Araiza Acuna, who is graduating with a degree in integrative physiology magna cum laude and whose thesis is titled “The Effects of Zinc Availability on the Cell Cycle and Proliferation in MCF-7 and T-47D Breast Cancer Cells.”

Acuna explained that her research finds evidence that zinc deficiency reduces the proliferation of two lines of breast-cancer cells. Her findings provide the foundation for using zinc as a means of enhancing the efficacy of standard cancer treatments.

Kate Timothy is graduating with a degree in neuroscience summa cum laude.

Acuna began working in the lab of Amy Palmer, professor of biochemistry, last summer. There, she said she became interested in looking at the quiescence-proliferation decision in the cell cycle via fluorescent reporters in cells.

“After years of studying mitosis in textbooks, I found the images I took of MCF-7 (breast cancer cells) to be both scientifically fascinating and visually beautiful, with each phase of the cell cycle vividly displayed frame by frame,” Acuna said.

She added that she appreciates the faculty who supported her during her undergraduate work. “You made me see science not only as a discipline, but as beautifully intricate art,” she said, adding: “A huge thank you to the Buffalo Bike Classic. Your generosity to students makes research like mine possible. Your support fuels learning, exploration and meaningful scientific progress.”

Acuna plans to take a gap year after graduation to prepare for the medical school application cycle and hopes to earn a medical degree. She wants to become a cardiologist.

Smolyar noted that the Russia-Ukraine war is complicated. “I spent months researching, talking to my professors and my dad (who is from Ukraine), and I still barely scratched the surface of what there is to learn and know about the war.”

Smolyar said the war has undergone a “nuanced evolution” to get to the point it is today. “Currently, there needs to be changes in diplomatic dialogue at the government level if we want to see it end. And the rise of China and the alliance between Russia and China is scary for America.”

Smolyar’s parents are from Ukraine, and she has family in both Russia and Ukraine. Additionally, she noted, her interest in Russia began in high school when she wrote an essay on Lenin. That interest grew as she took Russian studies and Russian history classes in college.

Maria Smolyar is graduating with a degree in international affairs summa cum laude.

After graduation, Smolyar hopes to attend law school and/or pursue a PhD in political science, although she hasn’t decided yet.

Al Nazal said attending �� Boulder has allowed her to conduct research that directly pertained to her interests: Alzheimer’s disease and tuberculosis among unhoused people.

Al Nazal said the BBC scholarship gave her the ability to “take time off of work so I can focus on research, which ultimately lead to me being able to pursue two honors theses.”

She plans to take two gap years, during which she will focus on research and then apply to MD/PhD programs.

Timothy noted that her honors thesis found that potential blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease are affected by circadian misalignment and time-of-day. “This means that the protein is changing depending on if an individual is circadian misaligned (their behaviors such as eating and sleeping are out of alignment with their circadian rhythm) versus in circadian alignment and time-of-day at which the protein is assessed (drawn from the blood),” she said.

The overall implication is that future studies identifying a more robust blood biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease should account for time-of-day and circadian timing, she added.

After graduation, Timothy said she plans to attend graduate school to study clinical psychology with a focus on sleep. “This project allowed me to bridge my two interests while developing skills that are going to support me throughout my entire career. Additionally, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases are becoming an increasing concern for the aging population,” she said, adding:

“I am honored to have worked on a project that addresses the concern that we will all face one day.”

Stephanie Araiza Acuna is graduating with a degree in integrative physiology magna cum laude.

Timothy offered advice for current students: seize every opportunity. “This is your moment to make your mark and set yourself up for success in the long-term.” She also thanked the supporters of the Buffalo Bicycle Classic and all those who supported her at �� Boulder:

“I wish I could eloquently describe how significant that support has been for me. The journey to graduate as a first-generation college student is difficult, but my success here is made possible by the generosity of this community.”

The Elevations Credit Union Buffalo Bicycle Classic was founded in 2003 and, with contributions from volunteers, riders, sponsors and endowed funds, the event offers one-year scholarships of $4,000 to 30 students, renewable each year if they maintain full-time status and at least a 3.0 grade point average.

Additionally, endowed funds provide $10,000 annually to three junior or senior students in Arts & Sciences, also renewable under the same conditions. The BBC’s newest corporate sponsor, Zorbent, funds two additional $10,000 scholarships to top continuing BBC scholars.

The students served by the BBC are some of Colorado’s brightest, with each entering �� with over a 4.0 high school GPA.

“Our student scholars also demonstrate strong financial need, which makes this scholarship particularly important,” the BBC states. “Our scholarships for these promising students makes higher education attainable.”

Since 2003, the event has raised more than $3.9 million, funding more than 450 scholarships for high-achieving, financially needy Colorado high school graduates.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about the Buffalo Bicycle Classic? Show your support.

Beneficiaries of the annual scholarship ride win high praise from faculty, set their sights on next academic ventures.

Traditional

White

College of Arts and Sciences faculty win 2025 Best Should Teach Awards

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 13:30:00 +0000

College of Arts and Sciences faculty win 2025 Best Should Teach Awards Rachel Sauer Tue, 04/22/2025 - 07:30

Peter Hunt, Warren Sconiers and Josh Strayhorn will be honored during an awards ceremony May 1

Three College of Arts and Sciences faculty members have been recognized as 2025 Best Should Teach Award winners.

Peter Hunt, a professor of classics; Warren Sconiers, an associate teaching professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; and Josh Strayhorn, an associate professor of political science, will be recognized for their excellence in teaching and academic leadership at an awards ceremony from 6 to 9 p.m. May 1 in the CASE Chancellors Hall and Auditorium.

Peter Hunt (left), Warren Sconiers (center) and Josh Strayhorn (right) have been recognized as 2025 Best Should Teach Award winners.

The Best Should Teach Initiative was established in 1996 by Lindley and Marguerite Stiles to support the idea that “the best should teach.” It celebrates excellence in teaching at primary, secondary and higher education levels and supports the preparation of college and university faculty, as well as public school teachers, in their disciplinary fields.

Hunt, who has been a faculty member at the University of Colorado Boulder since 2000, is a classical Greek historian who studies warfare and society, slavery, historiography and oratory.

Sconiers trained as an insect ecologist, studying the effects of drought stress and changes in nutritional plant physiology and insect species composition. He also researches how to increase student engagement and learning in large classroom settings, focusing on peer-to-peer collaboration, self-efficacy, bridging biology teaching and research experiences and building instructor approachability.

Strayhorn, who joined the �� Boulder faculty in 2013, specializes in formal theory, political institutions and judicial politics. His research applies game-theoretic models in a variety of contexts. His work examines the implications of delegation, oversight and accountability mechanisms for outcomes within political and judicial hierarchies and for democratic governance.

The Best Should Teach Award ceremony is free and open to the public. The keynote speaker will be Alphonse Keasley, former associate vice chancellor in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement at �� Boulder who has more than 30 years of experience as a faculty member, staff and administrator.

Best Should Teach events and awards are co-funded by the Ira and Ineva Baldwin Fund in the �� Foundation and Brian Good's private Best Should Teach Fund, with additional support from the Center for Teaching and Learning, the School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about arts and sciences? Show your support.

Peter Hunt, Warren Sconiers and Josh Strayhorn will be honored during an awards ceremony May 1.

Traditional

White

Farm-diversification research wins high kudos

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:03:22 +0000

Farm-diversification research wins high kudos Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/21/2025 - 13:03

Clint Talbott

�� Boulder’s Zia Mehrabi and an international group of researchers are named national champion of the Frontiers Planet Prize for research that finds environmental and social benefits of agricultural diversification

Widespread agricultural diversification could improve the health of the world’s environment and that of its people, a landmark study published last year found.

Zia Mehrabi, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, alongside a large group of international researchers, has been named the U.S. national champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize, the Frontiers Research Foundation announced today.

As one of 19 national champions, Mehrabi and team are in contention to be named one of three international champions, each of whom will receive $1 million in funding to advance their research. The international champions will be announced at the Frontiers Planet Prize ceremony in Switzerland in June.

Zia Mehrabi, a �� Boulder assistant professor of environmental studies, has been named the U.S. national champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize.

The Frontiers Planet Prize celebrates breakthroughs in Earth system and planetary science that “address these challenges and enable society to stay within the safe boundaries of the planet’s ecosystem.” The prize puts scientific rigor and ingenuity at its heart, helping researchers worldwide accelerate society toward a green renaissance, the Frontiers Research Foundation says.

Professor Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, said the planet faces immense threats that require bold, transformative solutions rooted in evidence and validated by science.

“Innovative yet scalable solutions are the only way for us to ensure healthy lives on a healthy planet,” Burgelman said. “By spotlighting the most groundbreaking research, we are helping scientists bring their work to the international stage and provide the scientific consensus needed to guide our actions and policies.”

Mehrabi, who leads the Better Planet Laboratory, was recognized, alongside his co-authors, for an article published last year in the journal Science titled “Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture.”

Laura Vang Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Ingo Grass of the University of Hohenheim in Germany were lead authors of the paper, which had 58 co-authors. Claire Kremen of the University of British Columbia was a senior author and co-principal investigator on the study.

The researchers found that diversifying crops and animals and improving habitat, soil and water conservation on individual farms can improve biodiversity while improving or, at a minimum, not coming at a cost to yields. Additionally, diversified farming can yield social benefits and improve food security—showing improved food access or a reduced number of hungry months, for example, particularly in smallholder systems.

The more diversification measures farms employed, the more benefits accrued, researchers observed. Essentially, the team found evidence to move toward agriculture that more closely reflects natural systems.

“If you look at how ecosystems operate, it’s not just plants growing alone. It’s not just animals or soil,” Mehrabi said last year. “It’s all of these things working together.”

Using data from 2,655 farms across 11 countries and covering five continents, the researchers combined qualitative methods and statistical models to analyze 24 different datasets. Each dataset studied farm sites with varying levels of diversification, including farms without any diversification practices. This allowed the team to assess the effects of applying more diversification strategies.

Diversified farming differs from the dominant model of agriculture: growing single crops or one animal on large tracts of land. That efficient, “monoculture” style of farming is a hallmark of agriculture after the Green Revolution, which reduced global famine by focusing on high-yield crops that rely on fertilizers and pesticides.

“The Green Revolution did many, many great things, but it came with a lot of costs,” Mehrabi says, noting that synthetic fertilizers and pesticides harm the environment.

Also, to increase labor productivity, large farms rely on mechanization, which tends to “replace people with machines.”

“If you look at how ecosystems operate, it’s not just plants growing alone. It’s not just animals or soil. It’s all of these things working together,” says Zia Mehrabi.

“So, the idea of trying to engineer nature into our agricultural systems is somewhat antithetical to the whole way we think about agricultural development,” Mehrabi says.

Making a case for a different way of doing agriculture is one thing. Implementing it on a widespread basis is something else. The dominant view, fostered by “big ag” (short for agriculture), is that “if you want to do ag, you’ve got to do it this way,” Mehrabi says.

“Our work challenges that idea, but it’s a bit of a David-and-Goliath situation,” he adds. “We have the stone, but it hasn’t yet landed.”

But it’s necessary to confront Goliath, Mehrabi contends, noting that agriculture affects all the things people care about environmentally, including climate change, water security, biodiversity, pollution, land use and habitat destruction.

A third of the Earth’s land is used for agriculture, and about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture, he notes. Climate change has reduced agricultural yields by as much as 5% to 10% in the last four decades, research has shown.

“If we want to do something about environmental issues, agriculture is one of the big buckets that we need to really, really start in.”

Separate from the research published in Science, Mehrabi has done modeling of the future state of agriculture globally if the world continues business-as-usual farming. He found that in the next century, the number of farms is likely to be cut in half and the average size of farms would likely double.

Given that, along with what scientists know about the loss of natural ecosystems as farm sizes increase, “the future looks a little bit bleak,” Mehrabi says. But this new research shows it could be different.

Though he does not suggest that all farms must be small farms, he does advise that agriculture strive to diversify systems that have been “massively depleted and massively simplified.”

�� the Frontiers Planet Prize, Mehrabi says he’s gratified to be recognized as one of 19 national champions. Additionally, he underscores the importance of the Frontiers Research Foundation’s financial commitment to this kind of research, calling it a “signal” to other funding entities that might follow suit.

Launched by the Frontiers Research Foundation on Earth Day 2022, the prize encourages universities worldwide to nominate their top three scientists working on understanding and putting forward pathways to stay within the safe operating space of nine planetary boundaries that are outlined by the Stockholm Resilience Center.

These nominations are then vetted at the national level, and the top scientists face an independent jury of 100—a group of renowned sustainability and planetary health experts chaired by Professor Johan Rockström—who vote for the National and International Champions.

Read a guest opinion by Zia Mehrabi and co-authors at this link. See a Q&A with Mehrabi about adding carbon-footprint labels on food at this link.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about environmental studies? Show your support.

Traditional

White

Abby Hickcox wins 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 20:08:09 +0000

Abby Hickcox wins 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction Rachel Sauer Tue, 04/15/2025 - 14:08

Hickcox, a �� Boulder teaching associate professor of geography, is recognized for empowering students to think of themselves as creators of knowledge

Abby Hickcox, a teaching associate professor of geography and associate director of the Arts and Sciences Honors Program, has been named the 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction winner.

Supported by a generous donation from Craig Cogswell, a three-time alumnus of �� Boulder, the award recognizes outstanding instruction in the college, honoring individuals for their inspirational qualities and teaching abilities.

Hickcox, who also is co-principal investigator of the �� Boulder Affordable Housing Research Initiative, earned a BA in peace and global studies from Earlham College in 2000. In 2006, she received an MS from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Her master’s research investigated the privatization of common property (the Mexican ejido) in a national protected area in western Mexico. She earned her PhD in geography from the University of Colorado in 2012 and joined the honors faculty that year.

Abby Hickcox (second from right, with faculty colleagues in the Arts and Sciences Honors Program) has won the 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction.

“I am so honored to be selected for the Cogswell Award!” Hickcox says. “Teaching is what I love most about my role in the Honors Program. To be selected for the Cogswell Award, which recognizes inspirational instruction, is heartwarming and affirming. I am honored that my colleagues and peers took the time to nominate me, and I am so grateful for the community I have at ��, especially my students.”

In nominating Hickcox for the award, her colleagues and students noted her innovative teaching practices, interdisciplinary focus and genuine care for students.

“(Hickcox) excels at creating an inclusive classroom where students feel safe to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions,” noted Amy Palmer, a professor of biochemistry and the 2024 Cogswell Award winner. “She challenges students to take ownership of their own learning and empowers them to think of themselves as creators of knowledge.”

A former student who took Hickcox’s Environment Society Geography class as a freshman detailed how Hickcox combines an “irresistible passion for geography and learning with an unparalleled care and respect for students and their experiences.”

The student added, “From the first day, Dr. Hickcox had us questioning what can even define the line between nature and the human world, and from this philosophical beginning we extrapolated from questions into frameworks into analysis of lawns and wolves. It rocked.

“Dr. Hickcox’s excitement permeates through the classroom with geographical jokes and contagious interest in people and places. She almost got me; I almost considered changing my major—I might still add a minor. One thing will stick with me forever: a deeper appreciation of our interaction as humans with the world.”

Focusing on human geography

"From the first day, Dr. Hickcox had us questioning what can even define the line between nature and the human world, and from this philosophical beginning we extrapolated from questions into frameworks into analysis of lawns and wolves. It rocked."

Hickcox also is faculty advisor for the Honors Journal, an interdisciplinary, student-run journal published annually by the Arts and Sciences Honors Program. A student who worked on the journal praised the community that Hickcox helped them cultivate as they worked on the journal—“the friendships, memories, creativity and mutual respect that was intentional and significant,” the student noted.

“There is one moment that will last with me for a long time: Towards the end of the semester, we had finished the stressful process of planning the release event for the journal. After we had finished tasks for the day, Dr. Hickcox told us that she wanted to take a moment to talk about what she had observed this semester and what she valued in each of us. I have not felt the same depth of honesty and genuine thoughtfulness from a professor before or since.”

Hickcox teaches five honors courses per year—both lower division and upper division—which include Sustainable Futures (GEOG 1972); Place, Power and Contemporary Culture (GEOG 3742); Environmental Justice (HONR 4075); and Racism in American Culture (HONR 4000). She recently overhauled the Honors Diversity Seminar (HONR 1810) and created a new Advanced Writing Seminar—Honors Journal Section (HONR 3220).

Her research expertise is in human geography and focuses on the relationship between people and the environment. Her areas of research include parks and protected areas, environmentalism, environmental justice, racism, racialization, white racial privilege and the politics of belonging and exclusion. Specifically, through examination of historical and contemporary data, her research addresses the complicated overlap between environmentalism, progressive politics and racism in Boulder.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about geography? Show your support.

Hickcox, a �� Boulder teaching associate professor of geography, is recognized for empowering students to think of themselves as creators of knowledge.

Traditional

White

Why did a frozen Earth coincide with an evolutionary spurt?

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 17:39:03 +0000

Why did a frozen Earth coincide with an evolutionary spurt? Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/08/2024 - 11:39

Clint Talbott

�� Boulder geologists Lizzy Trower and Carl Simpson win $1 million in support from W.M. Keck Foundation to try to solve an evolutionary puzzle and to extend Earth’s temperature record by 2 billion years

What happened during the “Snowball Earth” period is perplexing: Just as the planet endured about 100 million years of deep freeze, with a thick layer of ice covering most of Earth and with low levels of atmospheric oxygen, forms of multicellular life emerged.

Lizzy Trower (top) and Carl Simpson. Trower image courtesy of Lizzy Trower; Simpson photo by �� photographer Glenn Asakawa. At the top of the page: A screen capture from a video of algae clumping together in Simpson's lab. Video by Andrea Halling.

Why? The prevailing scientific view is that such frigid temperatures would slow rather than speed evolution. But fossil records from 720 to 635 million years ago show an evolutionary spurt preceding the development of animals. Two University of Colorado Boulder scientists aim to help solve this puzzle.

If they succeed, they would not only help unravel an evolutionary mystery, but also extend the temperature record of Earth by 2 billion years.

Carl Simpson, a macroevolutionary paleobiologist at �� Boulder, has found evidence that cold seawater could have jump-started—rather than suppressed—evolution from single-celled to multicellular life forms. But to demonstrate that very cold temperatures could have sped up evolution, he needs an accurate temperature record from that period.

Temperature records using existing methods are accurate only to 500 million years ago. That could change, though: Lizzy Trower, a chemical sedimentologist, has developed a novel method of measuring global temperature from 500 million to 2.5 billion years ago.

Together, Trower and Simpson hope to test Simpson’s hypothesis against temperature records from Trower’s novel tool, and they recently won a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to do so.

Both the fossil record and calculations based on a “DNA clock”—which calculates the age of current organisms based on the rate of mutations over eons—indicate that multicellular organisms emerged during Snowball Earth.

Simpson, who is an assistant professor of geological sciences and curator of invertebrate paleontology at the �� Museum of Natural History, has spent a lot of time since coming to �� Boulder trying to understand the connection between extreme, prolonged cold and evolution. He describes a breakthrough stemming from a “knuckleheaded” approach: “trying to imagine what the unicellular ancestor of an animal would have been experiencing” during Snowball Earth.

During this “cold, salty and dark” period, there would have been up to a kilometer of ice at the Equator, and liquid water below the ice would have been very cold, about -5 degrees C (about 23 degrees F).

“One thing that you learn about small organisms from a physics point of view is that they don't experience the world the same way that we do, as larger-bodied organisms,” Simpson said. Unicellular organisms are affected by the viscosity, or thickness, of sea water.

The increase in viscosity—which increases as water temperature falls—could yield an evolutionary advantage to those single-celled organisms that clumped together, using their combined propulsion efforts to their mutual advantage. In his laboratory, Simpson and colleagues have found that a type of green algae responds as he hypothesized it would.

Video of algae clumping together in Simpson's lab. (Credit: Andrea Halling)

“And basically, that would trigger the origin of animals, potentially,” he said.

How cold was it?

However, there is uncertainty about how cold it was and how much that cold varied during Snowball Earth. Current methods suggest that the average global temperature in this period was about 20 degrees C, or 68 degrees F, levels that wouldn’t turn the planet into a snowball. That’s where Trower comes in.

Trower, an associate professor of geological sciences, studies grains of sand made from calcium carbonate and called ooids. These sand grains can gather material and get larger as they roll around, “as opposed to any other type of sand grain, which generally just gets smaller the more it’s transported around,” she said.

Trower’s idea was to explore whether the size of ooids could reveal things about the environments in which they formed. Ooids are affected by two kinds of processes: physical and chemical.

Physically, the sand grains are abraded as they roll around and collide with other grains. These abrasions and collisions make the grains shrink.

Chemically, the sand grains can grow with the precipitation of new minerals. Originally, Trower framed these reactions as reflecting the seawater in which they’re forming. “So, for example, if it's more super-saturated with respect to these calcium carbonate minerals, then the rate of mineral precipitation is faster, and that might explain why you would get ooids that are larger.”

But her calculations based on water viscosity didn’t suggest that ooids would grow as large as they did during Snowball Earth. Giant ooids from this period have been found in some places worldwide. Trower is focusing on a form of calcium carbonate called ikaite, which forms only in very cold conditions and which was discovered in a Norwegian fjord.

The ooids built on these rare, cold-loving carbonate minerals can grow comparatively large, greater than 2 millimeters in diameter. Trower notes that ooids of this size and composition form only in certain temperatures; thus, the diameter of these ooids could be a proxy measurement of Earth’s temperature for the last 2.5 billion years.

Answering a big question

With funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation, Trower, Simpson and colleagues will collect giant ooid samples from around the world, measure them and analyze the samples to determine the nature of minerals they were originally composed of.

Watch Lizzy Trower's talk, “Science Perseverance: What I Learned about Being a Scientist from a Grain of Sand,” in which she tells the story of her love for ooids, her journey from curious student to accomplished researcher, and the unexpected lessons learned along the way.

“That, in turn, can tell us something about the chemistry and water temperature in which they formed,” Trower said, noting that those results would be compared against the physical record.

The goal is to answer a big question: “Does the fossil record agree with the predictions we would make based on this theory from this new record of temperature?”

Undertaking such potentially ground-breaking research is both nerve-wracking and also quite exciting, Simpson and Trower said.

Anne Sheehan, professor and chair of the Department of Geological Sciences, praised the scientists: “The project benefits not only from the talent and creativity of Trower and Simpson but also from their willingness to step outside of their disciplines and take risks. This work exemplifies how cross-disciplinary collaboration can push the boundaries of Earth science and drive groundbreaking discoveries.”

Nancy J. Stevens, professor and research institute director of the �� Natural History Museum, observed: “The origin of complex multicellular life is an exciting puzzle to solve, and it would be remiss not to point out how Trower and Simpson have selected a topic and approach that mirror the contemporary research landscape. Organisms able to join forces to unlock new solutions can navigate challenging environments, and ultimately evolve and thrive.”

Trower and Simpson’s work also has potential implications for the human quest to find life elsewhere in the universe, Trower said. If extremely harsh and cold environments can spur evolutionary change, “then that is a really different type of thing to look for in exoplanets (potentially life-sustaining planets in other solar systems), or think about when and where (life) would exist.”

Based in Los Angeles, the W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W. M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Co. The Foundation’s grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research, science and engineering and undergraduate education. The Foundation also maintains a Southern California Grant Program that provides support for the Los Angeles community, with a special emphasis on children and youth. For more information, please visit www.wmkeck.org.

Traditional

White

Kudos

How a California dude became �� Boulder’s provost

Related Articles

�� Boulder prof named Boettcher Investigator

Related Articles

Anthropologists awarded major early-career development support

Related Articles

College finance chief wins prestigious fellowship

Related Articles

�� Boulder physicist wins Brown Investigator Award

Related Articles

Four Buffalo Bicycle Classic scholars earn Latin honors

Related Articles

College of Arts and Sciences faculty win 2025 Best Should Teach Awards

Related Articles

Farm-diversification research wins high kudos

Related Articles

Abby Hickcox wins 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction

Related Articles

Why did a frozen Earth coincide with an evolutionary spurt?

Related Articles

Kudos

How a California dude became ���������� Boulder’s provost

Related Articles

���������� Boulder prof named Boettcher Investigator

Related Articles

Anthropologists awarded major early-career development support

Related Articles

College finance chief wins prestigious fellowship

Related Articles

���������� Boulder physicist wins Brown Investigator Award

Related Articles

Four Buffalo Bicycle Classic scholars earn Latin honors

Related Articles

College of Arts and Sciences faculty win 2025 Best Should Teach Awards

Related Articles

Farm-diversification research wins high kudos

Related Articles

Abby Hickcox wins 2025 Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction

Related Articles

Why did a frozen Earth coincide with an evolutionary spurt?

Related Articles

How a California dude became �� Boulder’s provost

�� Boulder prof named Boettcher Investigator

�� Boulder physicist wins Brown Investigator Award