CU News
News from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
CU-Boulder student treated for meningitis
Oct 17th
A 21-year-old female student at the University of Colorado Boulder was diagnosed late on Friday with meningococcal meningitis according to county and university health officials. The student, who is a junior living off campus, is in stable condition at Boulder Community Hospital.
Boulder County Public Health officials are investigating the single case. No other cases of the disease have been confirmed by county or state officials at present.
Meningococcal meningitis is a serious bacterial infection that causes infection of the tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Meningococcal disease may be spread to others; however, this is uncommon.
“Most of those CU community members who have had close contact with this student have already been contacted and offered treatment by Boulder County Public Health,” said Dr. Don Misch, CU-Boulder assistant vice chancellor for health and wellness.
The risk to other people is minimal and is confined to those who have had close contact with the patient. Close contact includes kissing; sharing cigarettes, drinks, glasses or eating utensils; and being exposed to secretions from the nose or throat of the infected person.
“Others, particularly undergraduate students who have never been vaccinated for meningococcal meningitis or have not been vaccinated in the past five years, should consider getting the vaccination,” Misch said. “On a university campus, those at greatest risk in general for meningococcal meningitis are students living in residence halls, so these individuals should especially consider vaccination at Wardenburg Health Center or from their personal health care provider.”
“Vaccination is the most effective way to protect against this severe disease,” said Murielle Romine, Boulder County Public Health communicable disease control program coordinator.
Symptoms of meningococcal meningitis can include fever, severe headache, stiff neck, irritability, sleepiness, nausea, vomiting, rash, disorientation and confusion. A person may be infected for one to 10 days, and most commonly three to four days, before showing any symptoms.
The last reported case of meningococcal meningitis at CU-Boulder was in March 2006. That student, a male, recovered fully.
Those who are interested in getting the vaccination can go to Wardenburg Health Center from 8:30 to 11 a.m. and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Wardenburg Health Center is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Parents of all incoming freshmen receive a letter during the summer with information about the recommendation for immunization.
For more information on meningococcal meningitis and the vaccination, check the Wardenburg website at http://healthcenter.colorado.edu or http://www.BoulderCountyHealth.org, and click on Meningococcal Information.
CU prof gets $875,000 fellowship
Oct 14th
CU-BOULDER PHYSICS PROFESSOR
AWARDED PACKARD FELLOWSHIP
AWARDED PACKARD FELLOWSHIP
Cindy Regal, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of physics and associate fellow of JILA, has been awarded a prestigious David and Lucile Pack
ard Fellowship for Science and Engineering.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation established the fellowship “to allow the nation’s most promising professors to pursue science and engineering research early in their careers with few funding restrictions and limited paperwork requirements.” This year, 16 fellows were selected from 100 applicants at 50 leading universities.
The five-year, $875,000 fellowship will fund Regal’s work in experimental atomic physics. She is interested in developing techniques to control single neutral atoms with lasers and create small quantum gases that can be manipulated at the single-atom level, for applications in quantum information science and in modeling physics of complex materials.
CU names McPhee for Stegner award
Oct 12th
AUTHOR JOHN MCPHEE TO RECEIVE STEGNER AWARD
FROM CU’S CENTER OF THE AMERICAN WEST ON OCT. 27
FROM CU’S CENTER OF THE AMERICAN WEST ON OCT. 27
John McPhee, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Encounters With the Archdruid” and “Coming Into the Country,” will receive the Wallace Stegner Award from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center of the American West on Oct. 27.
The center’s highest award will be presented at a 7 p.m. event in the Old Main Chapel on the CU-Boulder campus. The evening will feature a discussion with Mc
arch typical Druid
Phee conducted by Patty Limerick, professor of history and chair and faculty director of the Center of the American West, and Charles Wilkinson, d
The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and people are encouraged to arrive early.istinguished professor and Moses Lasky Professor of Law at CU-Boulder.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of McPhee’s “Encounters With the Archdruid,” a book Limerick has long heralded as the Center of the American West’s “founding text” because of its inspiring demonstration of civil dialogue on contentious issues. McPhee also is the author of “Basin and Range” (1981), “In Suspect Terrain” (1983), “Rising from the Plains” (1986), “The Control of Nature” (1989) and “Assembling California” (1993).
“Each time I have assigned to a class, I take great pleasure in reading it again,” said Limerick. “Since I assign it in nearly every course I teach, that means I may be coming up on my 50th reading of it. If there is anyone who cares about the West but who has not read this book, it’s time to take action.”
Each year, the Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, or lore of the West. Past recipients include Tom McGuane, Sandra Day O’Connor, Ivan Doig, John Echohawk, Billy Frank, Terry Tempest Williams, John Nichols, Vine Deloria Jr., Ted Turner and many more. This year’s award was made possible by Alan and Carol Ann Olson.
CU-Boulder’s Center of the American West addresses a variety of regional issues, including water management, relationships between federal agencies and communities and economies, land planning, Native American identity, recent art and literature, and the balance of power between tradition and innovation in Western life. The center takes as its mission the creation of forums for the respectful exchange of ideas in pursuit of solutions to the region’s difficulties.
For more information visit the Center of the American West’s website at http://www.centerwest.org or call 303-492-4879.
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