CU News
News from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
CU Boulder FACULTY LEAD $7 MILLION INITIATIVE AIMED AT MILITARY VEHICLE SAFETY
Aug 11th
University of Colorado Boulder engineering faculty are leading a $7.2 million multidisciplinary research initiative on soil blast modeling and simulation for the U.S. Department of Defense.
The research, which starts this month, is aimed at creating a more accurate representation of the impact of buried landmines and improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, on light-armored military vehicles so that the vehicles can be better designed to withstand such blasts.
The award is administered by the Office of Naval Research as part of the defense department’s competitive Multi-University Research Initiative or MURI program, which supports basic science and engineering research at U.S.universities related to long-term national security needs.
MURI awards are provided to accelerate progress in cutting-edge research areas by supporting multidisciplinary teams with larger and longer awards than other DOD research programs.
The grant will provide $4.2 million to CU-Boulder and $3 million to co-investigators at four other institutions. The other schools involved are the University of California, Berkeley; University of Texas at Dallas; University of Tennessee Knoxville; and the University of Utah.
Richard Regueiro, assistant professor in CU-Boulder’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, is the principal investigator. CU-Boulder professors Ronald Pak, John McCartney and Stein Sture of civil engineering, and Oleg Vasilyev of mechanical engineering, also areinvolved.
The research initiative will involve experiments using CU-Boulder’s large 400-g ton geotechnical centrifuge coupled with computational modeling. The objective is to develop and validate a model that accurately represents explosive blasts of varying charges, depths and soil types.
CU-Boulder’s proposal was one of 27 MURI awards made to academic institutions in different topical areas in 2011. The proposals, which are being funded with a total of $191 million over five years, were selected from a field of 332 proposals, including 17 on the topic of soil blast modeling and simulation.
GIFT ESTABLISHES ENDOWED CHAIR IN FINANCE AT CU’S LEEDS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Jul 7th
The Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder announced today that alumnus Richard “Dick” M. Burridge Sr. (’51 finance) has made a $2.5 million gift that, combined with other commitments, will establish a new chair, the Burridge Chair in Finance, the first to be established within the school.
“This endowed chair is one major step in my drive to advance not only the finance division, but the entire Leeds School to the forefront of business education,” said Dean David Ikenberry. “Given the remarkable Colorado-based investment community, it is fitting and appropriate that this gift be named for one of the pre-eminent experts in investment finance and that, in turn, it will help Leeds educate future leaders in key areas of finance. Gifts such as this are indeed vital for the Leeds School to compete at the highest level.”
Through this gift, Burridge, whose early philanthropic efforts in 1997 also helped establish the Burridge Center for Securities Analysis and Valuation at Leeds, is extending his ongoing support for the school and the center through volunteering and philanthropy. “My gift enhances the efforts of new dean David Ikenberry to expand the depth and quality of the school’s finance faculty,” said Burridge. “It will also help the dean realize the goal of being one of the top business schools in the country.”
The center creates and shares knowledge relating to financial markets, principally the U.S. financial markets. The center also encourages professional investment managers, finance scholars, policymakers and the investing public to exchange ideas, and ultimately helps stimulate relevant financial research to help both markets and investors.
“Dick Burridge Sr. is a longtime supporter of the Leeds School as well as the University of Colorado Boulder campus,” said Phil DiStefano, chancellor of CU-Boulder. “His investment in the endowed chair will enhance the visibility and reputation of the school and further elevate an already very strong finance faculty.”
“Over the past three decades, no one has had a greater commitment to the success of the university, and the Leeds School in particular, than Dick Burridge,” said Michael Leeds, co-chair of the Creating Futures campaign for the Leeds School of Business.
“He has been a true partner to the school and the CU Foundation as the Investment Policy committee chair. It is no surprise that Dick is spearheading the recent public announcement of the Creating Futures campaign with this wonderful gift,” said Leeds.
The Burridge gift is one of the first major gifts announced during the public phase of the Creating Futures fundraising campaign launched in April 2011. Since inception in 2006, the campaign has raised over 200,000 gifts toward a goal of $1.5 billion to support teaching, research, outreach and health programs on the University of Colorado’s four campuses.