Kudos

Nobel laureates gather to celebrate Department of Physics

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 22:50:29 +0000

Nobel laureates gather to celebrate Department of Physics Rachel Sauer Mon, 09/28/2026 - 16:50

Nobel laureates Carl Wieland, Eric Cornell, David Wineland and John Hall

Rachel Sauer

At event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first PhD awarded in the CU �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Physics, researchers reflect on how the department shaped them as scientists

Of the four Nobel laureates seated in a row Saturday afternoon, none set out to win the highest honor in science.

Instead, the goal was doing the science—for the discovery, the limit-pushing, the pursuit of answers to questions as fundamental as “How?” and “Why?”

Nobel laureates Carl Wieland, Eric Cornell, David Wineland and John Hall

At a celebration of the first PhD awarded in the �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Physics 100 years ago, the department’s four Nobel laureates gathered to share insights into the discoveries that the award recognizes and the role that CU �Ǹ�Թ� played in their growth as scientists.

“I think of CU as my physics home,” said Carl Wieman, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics with CU �Ǹ�Թ� colleague Eric Cornell and Wolfgang Ketterle. “This is where I did almost all my physics research and was very successful, and I'd like to hope that I had some impact on the department. I’ve really enjoyed watching it flourish.”

Wieman, who went on to professorships at the University of British Columbia and Stanford University, came to CU �Ǹ�Թ� with ideas about tuning lasers to control and cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute zero—a fifth state of matter that Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein predicted as Bose-Einstein condensates, but Wieman and Cornell proved.

“When I first showed up here, I had a bunch of ideas that I wanted to implement, and I was a little surprised that Carl was extremely enthusiastic,” Cornell recalled. “He’d say, ‘Let's try that.’ So, that worked super well.

“Anyway, I showed up here, started a lab on my own, and for about 10 years, Carl and I basically ran a joint group. I would wander into his labs and talk to his graduate students and postdocs—and even maybe try and tell them what to do, which they maybe would or wouldn't do—and then I would go back into my own lab. And it was the same with Carl.”

And through that long-term collaboration—which can be rare in science because egos easily get in the way, Wieman said—they saw Bose-Einstein condensation in June 1995.

For John Hall, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Roy Glauber and Theodor Hänsch, the CU �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Physics has been a science home that balances scientific thinking with imagination—the envisioning of what could be.

“This university is a magnet for great people,” Hall said. “Our students, I can’t imagine having better. They come and they work hard, they have good imaginations,” adding that his students and science colleagues have been significant factors in his lifelong joy in the work.

David Wineland, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics with Serge Haroche and now the Knight Research Professor at the University of Oregon, credits his time at CU �Ǹ�Թ� with allowing him to explore beyond “junior-level physics” ideas of laser cooling and delve into properties of conservation, momentum and scattering.

“I come back to this idea that this place has been very, very, very good to me,” Cornell said. “It made me as a scientist.”

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John Hall (standing) shares insights into his research while (left to right) Carl Wieman, Eric Cornell and David Wineland listen.

Eric Cornell (left) and Carl Wieman (right)

David Wineland (left) and John Hall (right)

At event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first PhD awarded in the CU �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Physics, researchers reflect on how the department shaped them as scientists.

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Top photo: Carl Wieman discusses his research while Eric Cornell, David Wineland and John Hall listen. (All photos: Glenn Asakawa/CU �Ǹ�Թ�)

Student meteorology society named local chapter of the year

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 21:42:42 +0000

Student meteorology society named local chapter of the year Rachel Sauer Tue, 09/22/2026 - 15:42

Members of the CU �Ǹ�Թ� chapter of the American Meteorological Society on a tour of the NCAR Research Aviation Facility.

CU �Ǹ�Թ� chapter of the American Meteorological Society recognized for cultivating lasting student networks and leading impactful community outreach

The �Ǹ�Թ� chapter of the American Meteorological Society (CUBAMS) has been named local student chapter of the year by the national organization.

The honor recognizes the chapter “for cultivating lasting student networks, leading impactful community outreach and establishing a strong, visible presence throughout the American Meteorological Society.” It will be presented at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) annual meeting in Denver this January.

Members of the CU �Ǹ�Թ� chapter of the American Meteorological Society on a tour of the NCAR Research Aviation Facility.

“This AMS recognition highlights the dedication of our chapter and the broader (atmospheric and oceanic sciences) community to creating an academically supportive, professionally engaged and collaborative environment,” says member Amanda Bowden, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the CU �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC). “It recognizes the efforts of our members to strengthen the atmospheric sciences community at CU �Ǹ�Թ� through professional development, education, outreach and service. It also demonstrates how our students and faculty contribute beyond the university by sharing their knowledge and giving back to the broader public community.”

CUBAMS was formed after ATOC began offering an undergraduate major in fall 2016, explains Andrew Winters, an associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and CUBAMS faculty advisor. “A group of students came to me with interest in building one of these chapters as a way to help undergrads who are very much new to the program, to build community,” he says. “In 2021 we really initiated the chapter—students wrote a constitution; they got approved by national organization and got registered as a student organization at CU.”

Anna Hagberg, a senior majoring in applied mathematics and ATOC, says that when she joined CUBAMS, she had just changed her major to ATOC “and was looking for people that I could be friends with (and talk about the weather with). I was also curious about the possible career paths that existed within atmospheric and oceanic science.”

The student-led organization has organized events from tours of the NCAR Research Aviation Facility to eclipse viewing and a weather balloon launch, as well as tabling at AMS conferences.

Wade Julian, a senior ATOC major who also is pursuing an interdisciplinary climate science minor and a certificate in arctic studies, says that participating and serving as an officer in CUBAMS has been one of his most valuable CU �Ǹ�Թ� experiences.

“Through the chapter, I have developed a lot of leadership and organizational skills, especially through serving as an officer and helping plan events for our members,” Julian says. “I have also had opportunities to attend professional conferences, meet atmospheric scientists and learn about careers that I would not have been exposed to through my classes alone.

"These experiences have helped me become more confident about pursuing a career in atmospheric science and have given me a better idea of the areas of the field that I am interested in, particularly climate and arctic science.”

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Members of the CU �Ǹ�Թ� chapter of the American Meteorological Society at an eclipse viewing event.

Members of the CU �Ǹ�Թ� chapter of the American Meteorological Society launching a weather balloon.

CUBAMS officers on a Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (FARMS) visit.

Students and faculty tabling for the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the annual American Meteorological Society conference.

CU �Ǹ�Թ� chapter of the American Meteorological Society recognized for cultivating lasting student networks and leading impactful community outreach.

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All photos courtesy Anna Hagberg

Michael A. Kelberman named a Simons Foundation Fellows-to-Faculty Award recipient

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:42:54 +0000

Michael A. Kelberman named a Simons Foundation Fellows-to-Faculty Award recipient Rachel Sauer Thu, 09/03/2026 - 14:42

Hope Kerrigan

CU �Ǹ�Թ� postdoctoral researcher receives a grant supporting his work on the intersection between social bonds and brain aging

Michael A. Kelberman, a postdoctoral fellow in Zoe Donaldson’s lab in the �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, has been named a 2026 Simons Foundation Fellows-to-Faculty Award recipient—one of five awardees supported through the Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB) this year. The award comes with a three-year, $600,000 faculty research grant.

Michael A. Kelberman, a postdoctoral fellow in Zoe Donaldson’s lab in the CU �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, has been named a 2026 Simons Foundation Fellows-to-Faculty Award recipient.

Prior to his postdoctoral work at the �Ǹ�Թ�, Kelberman received his Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and earned his doctorate in Neuroscience from Emory University. While a graduate student in David Weinshenker’s lab at Emory, Kelberman used electrophysiology, optogenetic-fMRI and behavioral assays in rodents to uncover how noradrenergic locus coeruleus function is disrupted by dementia-related pathology.

Kelberman joined Donaldson’s lab in October 2023, which uses monogamous prairie voles to understand how disease affects the neural and genetic basis of social bonds. In the Donaldson lab, Kelberman developed a niche, studying the overlap between dementia and social bonds.

The SCPAB Fellows-to-Faculty program represents a natural extension of his research interests, where he will use prairie voles to study how pair bonds and their supporting neural systems evolve over the lifespan and influence cognition.

“I am honored to have been selected as one of this year’s recipients of the Simons Foundation SCPAB Fellows-to-Faculty award,” he says. “I look forward to continuing and expanding my work on how our closest social relationships contribute to healthy aging, with the goal of developing socially informed interventions that prolong health in the face of challenges brought about by aging.”

The Simons Foundation’s Autism & Neuroscience Research Initiative (SFARI) specializes in advancing the basic sciences of autism spectrum disorders. This year, the foundation is funding 10 recipients through SFARI and five through SCPAB to support early-career scientists as they transition from postdoctoral research into an independent, tenure-track faculty position.

Kelly Martin, executive vice president of SFARI, expressed enthusiasm about welcoming this accomplished cohort of scientists into the Simons community: “Their diverse expertise, including clinical insights and computational approaches, reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of basic science, and we look forward to seeing all that they accomplish.”

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CU �Ǹ�Թ� postdoctoral researcher receives a grant supporting his work on the intersection between social bonds and brain aging.

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Two artists walk into a palazzo…

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 23:07:55 +0000

Two artists walk into a palazzo… Rachel Sauer Mon, 08/31/2026 - 17:07

Rachel Sauer

CU �Ǹ�Թ� alumna Martha Russo and Professor Emeritus George Rivera currently are displaying art pieces in Venice, Italy, in an exhibit organized by the European Cultural Centre

Let’s wander, as the title of Martha Russo’s work might advise, to a bright, airy space in the Palazzo Mora in Venice, Italy.

There, on a short white platform, is “nomos (cube Venezia),” Russo’s three-dimensional piece sculpted from porcelain, paper clay, wood, metal and paper, among other materials. Its title is derived from the Greek root for “nomad” and can be translated as “to wander” and “to wonder.”

There are a lot of things to feel and question while observing this piece—in person or from every angle in photographs. Is it reaching for the viewer? Sending shoots and tendrils toward them? Does a brief glance from the corner of the eye reveal that it’s actually moving? Are its thousands of pieces a living ecosystem?

George Rivera (left) and Martha Russo (right) outside the Palazzo Mora in Venice, Italy, where their works are featured in the Personal Structures – Confluences exhibit on display through Nov. 22.

In a gallery next door, a different experience: 16 two-dimensional, 11x14 pieces tiled on a wall in an array of earth tones that speak of the Amazonian plants from which the inks were made.

And in the images themselves, a journey through the liminal space between consciousness and unconsciousness, shapes and figures whose meaning may depend on the viewer, giving rise to the title “Mutations: Subconscious Reality Imagery.” Artist George Rivera writes, “These images appear as figurations resembling reality but manifest themselves as completely different in form and color.”

Both pieces are featured in the Personal Structures – Confluences exhibit on display through Nov. 22 in Venice, organized by the European Cultural Centre (ECC) and held concurrently with the famed Venice Biennale international art exhibition. And both pieces have long roots that stretch to the �Ǹ�Թ�.

Russo (MFA’95), whose piece has been shortlisted for the ECC Awards that will be announced in November, is an art and art history alumnus who has shown around the world and who also teaches an interdisciplinary CU �Ǹ�Թ� course called Art, Design and Engineering, in which a cohort of upper-level art, environmental design and engineering students learn about sculpture and public installation.

Rivera is a professor emeritus of art and art history—a sociologist by training who pivoted to art and in 1996 became one of the founders, with several CU �Ǹ�Թ� colleagues, of the Artnauts collective, whose more than 220 participating artists, including Russo, have worked across art, activism, social practice, peace building and global issues around the world.

As for how their work came to be in a centuries-old palazzo in Venice, well, the art world is small, and it started with an interview.

Enjoying the physical challenges of art

In 2020, writer Ann Landi interviewed Russo for Sculpture magazine. By that point, Russo had grown an international reputation as an artist—showing around the world, known for large-scale pieces that blend media, particularly ceramics, and incorporate abstract shapes that reference the natural world, animal and human forms and fantastical imagery and imaginings.

"I really enjoy the physical challenges of my work,” Russo told Landi. “I also like the science behind it. I was a developmental biology and psychology major, and I had my eye on going to medical school or becoming a psychologist. I was drawn to the materiality and the chemistry of clay.

"nomos (cube Venezia)” by Martha Russo "explores how the abstraction of form, material and gravity couple with a cacophony of color and texture to generate openings for prolonged investigations and enticing a flood of interpretations," Russo explains. (Photo: Matteo Losurdo)

“I loved the idea that you could make clay do different things because of the molecular structure, and that structure made perfect sense to me because I was looking at molecules and thinking about how things generate in the body. The chemistry behind the glazes was also fascinating. To this day, I am drawn to those mysteries and all the infinite possibilities.”

Part of Russo’s interest in the mechanics of the body, she says, arose from a career-ending injury that took her from 1984 U.S. Olympic field hockey hopeful to a Princeton senior recovering from surgery and increasingly drawn to the physical nature of sculpture and ceramics.

In 1991, she and her husband, Joe Ryan, a CU �Ǹ�Թ� professor of environmental engineering, moved from New Jersey to �Ǹ�Թ�, and several years later Russo began her MFA studies. She taught for 20 years at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, growing her art practice and reputation at the same time and becoming known for her large-scale pieces incorporating hundreds or thousands of pieces that allude to natural forms.

Then came the interview in Sculpture magazine—not her first, but it was the one that caught the eye of ECC curators. They contacted her and asked if she’d be interested in showing in Venice, and they also looked into her colleagues and collaborators, including Rivera.

“Obviously you say yes when you get an invitation like that,” Russo says with a laugh. She immediately began envisioning what she would create for Personal Structures – Confluences.

Celebrate the Artnauts!

The exhibit "Rhizome: Origins" opens with a community celebration Thursday, Sept. 3, and honors 30 years of Artnauts.

Learn more

“I was thinking, ‘I’m going to make a cube, but I want to have four very different experiences on each side,” she explains. “Venice is the most visually stunning place, full of texture, full of color, full of exuberance, so I took all the greatest hits from all past iterations of ‘nomos’ and made a piece that’s very vibrant, colorful, lots of movement with the pieces. I also asked if I could have natural light in the gallery, and they really gave George and me such great spaces.

“They did tell me that outside the (gallery) window I would see a very recently renovated pink and white palazzo and they sent me a picture, so I made a bunch of pink pieces that, when you’re looking at my piece, you see that palazzo. A lot of the time you put up your work and you’re like, ‘I wish I’d done this, I wish I’d done that.’ This is one of the few times I said, ‘I think I just did exactly what I wanted to do,’ and I couldn’t be happier, honestly.”

In “Mutations: Subconscious Reality Imagery” by George Rivera, "images appear as figurations resembling reality but manifest themselves as completely different in form and color," Rivera says.

‘This is reality’

For Rivera, the road to Venice began in Glidden, Texas, where he grew up in poverty with a Mexican mother and a Mexican-American father. He was the first in his family to attend college, where he was able to name and study the disparities and injustices he’d grown up seeing. He pursued sociology, he says, because he wanted to understand racism.

After coming to CU �Ǹ�Թ� as a sociology faculty member, Rivera transferred to the Department of Art and Art History after disagreeing with how department decisions were being made, he says. He had studied Chicano art, but says he truly began to understand art as a force for activism, social practice and peace building when he was immersed in it.

In 1996, Rivera and colleagues Garrison Roots, Beth Krensky, Dennis Dalton and Luis Valdovino founded Artnauts, a collective that evolved over time into an artistic force that brings art into places fractured by violence, disaster or upheaval, Rivera explains. Artnauts shows frequently are comprised of two-dimensional prints that can fit into a suitcase on their way to places like Ukraine, Palestine, Colombia or the demilitarized zone at the North Korea-South Korea border.

“It’s the idea that art can be a language all people speak,” Rivera says.

In fact, the idea for “Mutations: Subconscious Reality Imagery” has as one of its roots an experience Rivera had while in Palestine with Artnauts: “We go to places where there’s been social trauma, where things have happened that represent the inhumanity of man against man. So, I was there staying at The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem that is owned by Bansky, and it’s located right next to the Aida Refugee Camp.

“While I was there, Israeli forces shot gas cannisters into the camp, and I was inside the hotel and hotel personnel told me, ‘Don’t go outside because your lungs are going to burn and eyes are going to burn.' So, I went back to my room, and I had olive oil made by Palestinians and wine made by Palestinians, and I always bring some paper and some brushes with me, so I used the wine and olive oil and started making images. That’s when the idea occurred to me, to use something that’s indigenous to the area to paint with.”

So, when he later was in Colombia at El Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación in Bogotá and met a shaman of the Huitoto tribe who invited him into the Amazon rainforest, he learned about inks made from plants that grow there and since then has created a significant body of work with them.

Rivera’s work in Venice harkens to the Artnauts format of two-dimensional pieces that can easily be carried in a suitcase and is titled “Mutations” because, he says, he sees the pieces “as derived from the subconscious, and the subconscious to me is something that exists between consciousness and the unconscious. Right before consciousness enters in, the subconscious is trying to make sense of what it sees. It’s coming up with these images before it locks in and says, ‘This is reality.’

“To me, when I was in the rainforest that idea occurred to me, I looked at what was happening to the rainforest, and I was seeing these things that are not representations of what was in front of me; I was looking through a subconscious lens. That is when, to me, you turn to the spirituality of an object, of a people, you see the spiritual representations before we tell ourselves what reality is.”

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CU �Ǹ�Թ� alumna Martha Russo and Professor Emeritus George Rivera currently are displaying art pieces in Venice, Italy, in an exhibit organized by the European Cultural Centre.

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Top photo: European Cultural Centre

Rebecca Safran wins American Ornithological Society Elliott Coues Award

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:15:35 +0000

Rebecca Safran wins American Ornithological Society Elliott Coues Award Rachel Sauer Mon, 08/17/2026 - 18:15

The CU �Ǹ�Թ� ecology and evolutionary biology professor is recognized for her research on barn swallows and other avian groups, which has taken her across the world

Rebecca Safran, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the �Ǹ�Թ�, has been awarded the Elliott Coues Award by the American Ornithological Society (AOS). The AOS is the world’s largest international ornithological society focused on the scientific study and conservation of birds.

The Elliott Coues Award recognizes outstanding and innovative contributions to ornithological research with no limitation to geographic area, sub-disciplines of ornithology or the time during which the work was done. The award, which consists of a medal and an honorarium, is named in honor of Elliott Coues, a pioneering ornithologist of the western United States and a founding member of the American Ornithologists Union (now AOS).

Rebecca Safran, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the CU �Ǹ�Թ�, has been awarded the Elliott Coues Award by the American Ornithological Society.

“I am honored by this recognition of the research we do in our lab group at the �Ǹ�Թ�,” Safran said. “My first-ever scientific meeting was an AOS conference. I attend these meetings with students as often as I can for the best research updates on bird studies from around the world. There is always something new and exciting to learn. I am humbled to receive this award; past awardees are my academic heroes and have inspired much of the work many of us do today.”

In recognizing Safran, the AOS noted that she and her research group have traveled across the world to study barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and have conducted comparative analyses on other avian groups as part of efforts to study the evolution and maintenance of population differentiation using ecological, genomics and behavioral studies.

Safran and her team established their research lab at the University of Colorado in 2008, where Safran's teaching is focused on speciation and science communication. She is the founding co-director of Inside the Greenhouse, which has a mission to find creative ways to communicate the science of climate change.

In naming Safran as an Elliott Coues Award winner, the AOS said she is passionate about the evolution and conservation of wild bird populations, interdisciplinary collaboration, art-science connections, issues related to belonging in STEM, natural history and providing learning opportunities for students at all stages of their education.

Safran is an AOS elective member (2011) and an elected board member of Environment for the Americas and the Colorado Environmental Film Festival. She is an elected fellow of the AOS (2016), the Animal Behavior Society (2024) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2026).

Safran previously received AOS travel grants in 1999 and 2003 and an AOU research grant in 2001. This support was key for Safran’s research and conference participation during graduate school. Safran noted she is grateful for the support the AOS now provides to members of her team for their research and conference attendance.

Safran said her work is not possible without the collaboration of students and colleagues and through funding by several entities including the AOS and National Science Foundation. Wherever she goes (and sometimes to the dismay of others walking with her), she is always on the lookout for H. rustica and their mud cup nests.

Safran earned her PhD at Cornell University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University.

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The CU �Ǹ�Թ� ecology and evolutionary biology professor is recognized for her research on barn swallows and other avian groups, which has taken her across the world.

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Scott Taylor elected councilor of the American Ornithological Society

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:33:13 +0000

Scott Taylor elected councilor of the American Ornithological Society Rachel Sauer Tue, 08/11/2026 - 09:33

CU �Ǹ�Թ� researcher will serve as a member of the Society’s governing body and promote its mission to support science that advances the understanding and conservation of birds

Scott Taylor, a �Ǹ�Թ� professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and director of the Mountain Research Station, has been elected a councilor of the American Ornithological Society (AOS).

In this three-year volunteer term, Taylor, who also is a fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, will serve as a member of the AOS governing body, which “establishes the direction and strategy of the AOS, makes high-level decisions about AOS’ priorities, oversees the sound financial management of AOS’ resources and ensures legal and ethical integrity of the organization,” according to the organization.

The AOS’ mission is to connect ornithologists, science and bird conservation by “supporting science that advances the understanding and conservation of birds, promoting broad access to ornithological science, supporting ornithologists throughout their career paths and fostering a welcoming, diverse, supportive and dynamic ornithological community.”

CU �Ǹ�Թ� scientist Scott Taylor has been elected a councilor of the American Ornithological Society.

In his councilor candidate statement, Taylor noted that he is deeply committed to the AOS “as both a scientific home and a community that has shaped my career. Having benefited from AOS through collaborations, mentorship networks and opportunities to engage with cutting-edge research, I am motivated to give back in a leadership role.”

His involvement with AOS has included serving on committees, organizing symposia and building inclusive community spaces at annual meetings

“I am particularly interested in helping the Society continue to foster a vibrant, inclusive and forward-looking ornithological community while supporting early-career scientists, strengthening connections across disciplines and engaging in effective outreach,” he noted in his candidate statement.

Taylor, who grew up in rural southern Ontario, earned his undergraduate degree in wildlife biology at the University of Guelph and his PhD at Queen’s University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and worked as a field biologist in South America.

As principal investigator of the Taylor Lab, he leads research focused on hybridization, speciation, evolutionary ecology and population genomics, primarily of birds. He and his colleagues pursue research using natural hybrid zones and recent radiations to understand the genetic bases of traits involved in reproductive isolation, population divergence and speciation, and the impacts of anthropogenic change, including climate change, on species distributions, interactions and evolution.

Taylor also is host of the podcast “Okay, But… Birds,” which has addressed topics ranging from whether birds invented music to how wildfire smoke affects birds and a rumination on whether birdwatching is the original Pokémon with Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Ed Yong.

“Being elected to AOS Council is an honor,” Taylor said. “I have long worked to help the AOS become a more inclusive society and am impressed by the dedication of the society to their members. In my new role, I’ll continue this work at a larger scale, supporting the next generation of ornithologists and ornithological research.”

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CU �Ǹ�Թ� researcher will serve as a member of the Society’s governing body and promote its mission to support science that advances the understanding and conservation of birds.

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Top image: a flock of pelicans in Peru (Photo: Scott Taylor)

Meredith Betterton awarded Sloan Matter-to-Life grant

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:55:21 +0000

Meredith Betterton awarded Sloan Matter-to-Life grant Rachel Sauer Wed, 08/05/2026 - 14:55

Rachel Sauer

Research aligns with foundation goal to sharpen ‘scientific understanding of the physical principles and mechanisms that distinguish living systems from inanimate matter’

Meredith Betterton, a �Ǹ�Թ� professor of physics and molecular, cellular and developmental biology, has been awarded a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Matter-to-Life program.

The two-year, $594,487 grant will support Betterton’s ongoing research on microtubules, the small, long tubes inside cells that serve several functions and that Betterton’s research suggests may be less fixed and static than previously thought.

The Sloan Matter-to-Life program aims “to sharpen our scientific understanding of the physical principles and mechanisms that distinguish living systems from inanimate matter, and to explore the conditions under which physical principles and mechanisms guide the complexification of matter towards life.”

CU �Ǹ�Թ� scientist Meredith Betterton has been awarded a two-year, $594,487 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Matter-to-Life program.

Betterton and her research colleagues study microtubules in cells, which help maintain cell structure similar to how beams support a building and also act like highways that move traffic along, she explains.

“Because (microtubules) have this important role as highways that things stick to and then move along, people have thought about them as being kind of fixed,” she says. “You build a microtubule, it’s there to be a highway and then it’s pretty static.

“The thought has been that once they’re there (in the cell), they sit there. Our project has to do with the idea that there might be subtle changes within the (microtubule) structure that act as a signal that sends information—so they act in some ways not as a highway, but like a telephone wire that’s sending signals.”

Building with bricks

Microtubules are built of subunits, called tubulin, that can be compared to bricks, Betterton explains. These tubulin “bricks” are known to make small internal changes to their shape and size; what hasn’t been known is what happens to the rest of the tubulin in the microtubule if one changes. “Imagine packing a lot of bricks together in a wall,” she says. “If you change the shape of one, what happens to the others nearby?”

Several years ago, Betterton and her research group, in collaboration with another team of research colleagues including Radhika Subramanian and Sithara S. Wijeratne at Harvard Medical School, were studying “traffic” along microtubules, which is done by motor proteins. These proteins take “steps” along the microtubule. They also can pile up and cause traffic jams, so Betterton and her colleagues were studying those jams to better understand the motors.

The researchers discovered this phenomenon because the math wasn’t working. “In my group we were working on mathematical modeling of this, and we couldn’t get the model to work,” she says. “We put in measurements, and the equations gave us predictions that were really different from what experiments showed. We found the only way we could get the model to make sense was if something was happening where the motors could talk to each other over really long distances.”

While this action happens on a nanometer scale, “if you scaled it up it would be as if, when you’re driving a car, you could know there’s another car two miles away and how fast it’s driving,” she says. “That really was the initial discovery—this weird, long-range effect that we didn’t know where it was coming from.”

Other research had explored the conformational transitions, or structural shifts in tubulin, and how motor proteins can stick to microtubules and change their state if they bind in large numbers. Betterton and her research group are exploring whether a change of state can happen when motor proteins bind in small numbers and send signals over long distances.

How cells process information

A key aspect of this research, Betterton says, is it explores a different paradigm for how to think about these particular molecules in cells and aims for broader understanding of the way cells process information.

For example, she says, much is known about how neurons in the brain send electrical signals—a vital process for information transmission in the brain—but that process “can only happen in that one type of cell, whereas microtubules are in every cell,” Betterton says. “They could be sensing something happening in one part of the cell, so we’re studying this new way that cells could be responding.”

She adds that there are various potential applications for this avenue of research, including developing more targeted chemotherapy drugs: “There’s one (tubulin) that seems to be resistant to this subtle expansion and contraction. Recent work shows that makes them not as responsive to chemotherapy drugs. Because microtubules are involved in cell division, some first-line chemotherapy drugs for cancer act against microtubules.

“What has been discovered is that some cancers can resist these chemotherapy drugs by switching to this other type of tubulin that doesn’t change shape as well,” she says, adding that understanding more about tubulin expansion and contraction could possibly lead to more effective drugs.

There also could be potential applications in the physics of materials and using microtubules and motor proteins to make new types of materials that are more tunable to specific functions.

“The Sloan program is interested in this research because this specific program is called Matter-to-Life,” Betterton says. “What that’s trying to say of matter is that it’s some collections of molecules, but what about it becomes different between something that’s inert versus something that could be more alive? That’s a really exciting question.”

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Research aligns with foundation goal to sharpen ‘scientific understanding of the physical principles and mechanisms that distinguish living systems from inanimate matter.'

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National honor recognizes physics teaching excellence

juch8046 — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:31:53 +0000

National honor recognizes physics teaching excellence juch8046 Mon, 08/03/2026 - 08:31

Carl Wieman, Katherine Eggert (interim dean, CU �Ǹ�Թ� College of Arts and Sciences), Tobin Munsat, Noah Finkelstein and Erika Randall (dean and vice provost of undergraduate education, CU �Ǹ�Թ�) celebrate the recognition on Monday, August 3, for CU �Ǹ�Թ�'s Department of Physics. Photo: John Eisele

CU �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Physics named inaugural recipient of the Carl E. Wieman Award for Excellence for sustained commitment to high-quality undergraduate education

The �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Physics has received national recognition as an inaugural recipient of the Carl E. Wieman Award for Excellence, a new honor presented by the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities (UERU).

The award recognizes research university departments and offices that demonstrate a sustained commitment to teaching excellence and high-quality undergraduate education. UERU also recognized the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Programs, Student Success, and Effectiveness at the University of Illinois Chicago with a Wieman award.

Carl E. Wieman, one of the CU Department of Physics' most distinguished faculty members, received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics while a faculty member, sharing the prize with CU �Ǹ�Թ� physics professor and JILA fellow Eric Cornell. Photo: John Eisele

For the Department of Physics, the recognition reflects the department’s longstanding commitment to scientific discovery, physics education research and student success. It also carries special significance because the award is named for Carl E. Wieman, one of the department’s most distinguished faculty members.

Wieman received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics while a faculty member at CU �Ǹ�Թ�, sharing the prize with CU �Ǹ�Թ� physics professor and JILA fellow Eric Cornell. Their groundbreaking work achieved the world’s first Bose-Einstein condensate. Wieman and Cornell’s scientific accomplishments helped elevate CU �Ǹ�Թ�’s international reputation in physics.

Wieman’s impact extends well beyond the laboratory. Following his Nobel Prize-winning research, he launched the PhET initiative focused on improving science education and went on to become an internationally recognized scholar of teaching and learning. He later returned to CU �Ǹ�Թ� as a science education advisor and collaborator, helping advance efforts to improve teaching effectiveness and student learning across STEM disciplines.

Today, his influence continues through research, mentorship and scholarship, including his recent book, How to Learn to Think Like a Skilled Engineer or Scientist and How to Teach It.

That legacy is reflected in the work now being recognized. According to UERU, the Department of Physics was selected for its leadership in rethinking teaching evaluation. Drawing on the department's internationally recognized contributions to physics education research, faculty leaders developed approaches that use multiple measures to evaluate instructional excellence and support effective teaching. Led by Vice Chair Noah Finkelstein and other faculty partners, the effort helped shape teaching evaluation reforms across multiple colleges at CU �Ǹ�Թ�.

“Our department is remarkable in its impact and commitment to excellence in all its activities including education, research and service,” Finkelstein said. “This community continues to innovate and keep our students at the center of what we do. We are so grateful for this recognition from UREU - a national leader in advancing our collective capacities in undergraduate education.”

The department’s success has been strengthened through participation in national initiatives focused on undergraduate STEM education, including the AAU STEM Education Initiative, APLU’s Network of STEM Education Centers, the former Bay View Alliance and UERU’s Raising the Bar Initiative, and the Transforming Higher Education–Multidimensional Evaluation of Teaching project, which culminated in the 2026 Harvard Education Press book, Transforming College Teaching Evaluation: A Framework for Advancing Instructional Excellence.

“This award is enormously meaningful for our department, especially because it bears Carl Wieman’s name,” said Tobin Munsat, chair of the Department of Physics. “Carl showed us that groundbreaking research and a deep commitment to teaching can, and should, go hand in hand. This recognition affirms our commitment to giving students the best education we can.”

Steven P. Dandaneau, UERU Executive Director and Associate Provost at Colorado State University, noted that both universities receiving the inaugural Carl E. Wieman Award for Excellence “demonstrate that excellence in undergraduate education is not the product of isolated innovators, but of intentional systems, leadership and accountability.”

The recognition underscores the department’s role as a national leader in the ongoing effort to improve undergraduate education at research universities. "This award emphasizes accountability, an often-overlooked component of educational excellence," said Wieman. "By recognizing departments that have built systems to support and assess excellence in teaching and learning, this award shines a light on models worthy of attention and emulation."

In many ways, the recognition comes full circle. An award named for a Nobel laureate whose career helped redefine both modern physics and science education now honors the department where much of that work began. For the department, which earned the No. 4 spot among public universities in the latest U.S. News & World Report graduate program rankings, the award reflects the department's longstanding commitment to research excellence, outstanding teaching and the education of future physicists.

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CU �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Physics named inaugural recipient of the Carl E. Wieman Award for Excellence for sustained commitment to high-quality undergraduate education.

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Lee Niswander awarded 2026 Edwin G. Conklin Medal

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:31:43 +0000

Lee Niswander awarded 2026 Edwin G. Conklin Medal Rachel Sauer Fri, 07/31/2026 - 10:31

Mikayla Eppert

The award recognizes the CU �Ǹ�Թ� developmental biologist for extraordinary research contributions being a mentor who helped train the next generation of outstanding scientists

Lee Niswander has been named the 2026 recipient of the Edwin G. Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology.

A distinguished professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the �Ǹ�Թ�, Niswander joins a group of researchers recognized for their exceptional contributions to developmental biology and their dedication to training the next generation of scientists.

Named after Edwin G. Conklin, a pioneering developmental biologist and American embryologist, the medal recognizes both scientific impact and mentorship.

Lee Niswander is a distinguished professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at CU �Ǹ�Թ�.

“It is a huge honor to receive the 2026 Edwin G. Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology (SDB). I thank SDB for nurturing my career and the education and careers of my trainees through the years,” said Niswander. “I am extremely pleased to share in the honor of this award with all of my current and former trainees whose research drove our discoveries and revealed the wonders of the embryo.”

This award follows on the heels of Niswander earlier this year receiving the 2026 Hazel Barnes Prize and being elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Niswander is described by her peers and trainees as a generous mentor, thoughtful leader and a disarmingly humble scientist.

“Lee is fearless,” said Maria Barna, Niswander’s former graduate student who now runs her own lab at Stanford. “[She] has instilled that in me."

Niswander’s work has shaped scientists’ understanding of how the body plan arises in early embryos. Her seminal contributions range from work on FGF signaling in limb development to the role of cell cilia during early organ development, and, more recently, efforts to understand the mechanisms underlying human neural tube defects.

'Wow, this is really cool'

Niswander originally became interested in research as an undergraduate at the �Ǹ�Թ�, where she first stepped into a lab through a work-study program. “Once I started to do research, I was like, ‘Wow, this is really cool,’” she recalled.

That exposure led Niswander to graduate school at Case Western Reserve University, where she joined the developmental biology program. She remembers thinking, “I don’t know anything about development … I’m going to do that,” before joining the lab of Terry Magnuson, PhD.

Her dissertation work used genetic deletions in mice to probe which regions of chromosome 7 are necessary for embryonic development. She spent time in Sweden learning a specialized technique that helped her complete the work.

“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if somebody else knows how to do it,” she said. “Go learn from an expert.”

After completing her PhD, Niswander joined the lab of Gail Martin, PhD, at the University of California, San Francisco, as a postdoctoral fellow. She began working on limb development, a topic no one else in the lab was pursuing at the time, and trained further at University College London with Cheryll Tickle, PhD, a leading expert in the field.

During this work, she found expression of FGF4 in the apical ectodermal ridge (AER) is sufficient for limb outgrowth—a finding that reflected the technical curiosity and willingness to seek outside expertise that would come to define her approach to science.

On her first day as a principal investigator, Niswander walked into an empty lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

“It’s just me … I can’t believe they let me do this,” she remembers thinking. This marked the beginning of her independent research career. Soon after, Niswander began a collaboration with Kathryn Anderson, PhD, launching a large-scale forward genetic screen for developmental mutants in mice.

One major finding to emerge from the screen was in identifying ciliary proteins that help integrate Hedgehog signaling during organogenesis, which Barna describes as, “dogma changing.” The findings reconceptualized cilia from passive “cellular antennas” into active signaling hubs that drive decisions about development. “The cilia is not just a boring antenna that's sticking out of the cell but is like a major signaling center also," Barna noted.

I am extremely pleased to share in the honor of this award with all of my current and former trainees whose research drove our discoveries and revealed the wonders of the embryo.”

Seeking the bigger picture

Niswander later returned to the �Ǹ�Թ�, where her work expanded from identifying genes linked to neural tube defects to probing the broader underlying mechanisms. "[Niswander] was looking for a way to plug in some of these basic discoveries into human health even more,” said Barna.

Neural tube defects remain a central focus of her current work, reflecting her broader approach to science: “I’d be bored to tears to study anything at one level. I want to see things in that bigger picture,” she explained.

Niswander continues to teach limb development as a way of sharing what she finds most compelling about developmental biology and modeling the mentorship style she values.

“I still teach limb development because I think it's such an easy system for somebody to say, ‘Oh yeah, why are my fingers here and my shoulder there?’” she said.

Although her research has since expanded beyond questions of limb development, her postdoctoral findings still stand out to her. Remove the AER and limb growth stalls; replace its signal with FGF and the limb continues to grow.

“I still find it astounding,” she said, “that you can take off this whole strip of tissue – the apical ridge – and just put back in FGF, and the limb will continue to grow.”

Across her independent career, Niswander has trained nearly 50 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to careers in science and beyond: professors, scientists, journalists and editors.

“I have no preconceived notions that somebody’s going to be like me,” Niswander said. “I give people opportunities all the time to pursue the career path that they want."

For Niswander, what has made it all worthwhile comes without hesitation.

"The people are my legacy,” she said. "None of this would be fun if you didn't have people in your lab. I live vicariously through all the wonderful people that have come through my lab."

Barna saw that approach firsthand.

“She encouraged this kind of bold and free way of doing science in the lab that I try to emulate,” said Barna. “But it’s very difficult to emulate Lee."

Niswander began her work at a single lab bench as an undergraduate, but her career has since evolved into one that has moved across institutions and continents, produced work spanning human disease and developmental biology, and trained dozens of scientists. Yet, Niswander still describes the impact of her work in the same way.

“The research is fun,” she said. “You publish papers and stuff, but to me it’s the people and what they’ve done.”

In recognizing Niswander with the Conklin Medal, the Society for Developmental Biology said Niswander exemplifies the scientific impact and mentorship recognized by the organization through a career defined by curiosity, fearlessness and a deep commitment to training the next generation of scientists.

—Bradley Worrell contributed to this article

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The award recognizes the CU �Ǹ�Թ� developmental biologist for extraordinary research contributions being a mentor who helped train the next generation of outstanding scientists.

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CU �Ǹ�Թ� graduate student wins DOE award, joins NASA-DARES

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 15:53:07 +0000

CU �Ǹ�Թ� graduate student wins DOE award, joins NASA-DARES Rachel Sauer Tue, 06/16/2026 - 09:53

Kayleigh Wood

Earth science PhD candidate Catherine Fontana will pursue cyanobacterial biofilm research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Catherine Fontana, a geobiology PhD candidate in the �Ǹ�Թ� Department of Earth Science and the Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology Program, was recently selected for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) award for her research on cyanobacterial biofilms.

The highly competitive program offers PhD candidates in various STEM fields the opportunity to advance their thesis research at one of DOE’s research facilities alongside a DOE national laboratory scientist. Additionally, awardees are eligible to receive a stipend for general living expenses and inbound and outbound transportation.

“The DOE SCGSR program allows me to study microbial processes using cutting-edge analytical techniques and world-class facilities that are a hallmark of the Department of Energy national laboratories,” Fontana says.

PhD candidate Catherine Fontana was recently selected for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Research (SCGSR) award for her research on cyanobacterial biofilms.

In the Department of Earth Science, Fontana is co-advised by stable isotope geochemist Boswell Wing and microbial physiologist Sebastian Kopf. Her research on cyanobacterial biofilms seeks to understand the connections between microbial physiology, mineral precipitation and stromatolite (a layered, rock-like formation built by microbial communities) formation using stable isotope geochemistry and experimental evolution.

From October 2026 to April 2027, Fontana’s SCGSR award will support her study at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where she will work closely with Rhona Stuart, who leads the DOE’s MicroBiospheres Scientific Focus Area. The DOE laboratory offers Fontana the opportunity to leverage a stable isotope technique called NanoSIMS to track variation in stable isotope composition at the micron-scale level.

The project, “Tracking Carbon Flow in Cyanobacteria Biofilms and Their Mineral Byproduct,” explores “how carbon moves through cyanobacterial biofilms and the extent to which this carbon contributes to minerals they make, like carbonate, that eventually turns them into rocks, like stromatolites,” she explains, adding that her work is especially meaningful in the context of developing next-generation biotechnologies in which cyanobacteria and their biofilms may be an innovative foundation for bioeconomy products.

Charting the future of NASA astrobiology

Additionally, after a highly competitive open-call application, Fontana was selected as one of nine early-career scientists to serve on the 49-member NASA-DARES Task Force 2. Composed of members of the astrobiology community, NASA-DARES, or NASA’s Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy, will serve as a roadmap for the organization’s future astrobiology research, which aims to understand life’s origins, evolution and distribution across the universe.

Since January, NASA-DARES Task Force 2 has been building on the nine major focus areas—which include comparative planetology to understand habitability and astrobiology in society, among others—identified by Task Force 1 by gathering community input through virtual webinars and public discussions. Task Force 2 is currently synthesizing community perspectives into a document outlining contemporary astrobiological interests, available opportunities and the diverse scientific approaches and disciplines in motion across NASA Science.

As the executive secretary of Focus Area 8, Early Career and Workforce Development, Fontana has worked with her team to solicit and synthesize community input regarding how NASA can best support early-career astrobiologists and develop the field over the next decade.

“As an early career researcher passionate about the future of astrobiology, I am profoundly honored to be part of NASA-DARES,” says Fontana. “As the only early-career member of the ‘Early Career and Workforce Development’ focus area, I feel a strong responsibility to represent early-career voices and perspectives. This role provides me with a unique opportunity to help shape the chapter’s findings and contribute to pivotal conversations about the future of astrobiology.”

NASA-DARES is still soliciting feedback: The public comment period for NASA-DARES is open this month and close July 2. The final NASA-DARES document will be shared at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in December.

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Earth science PhD candidate Catherine Fontana will pursue cyanobacterial biofilm research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

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