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Gov. Hickenlooper to present awards for High-Impact Research
Oct 5th
Annual CO-LABS awards recognize achievements at Colorado’s 24 federal labs and other research facilities
Oct. 4, 2012
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will present the annual awards for “High-Impact Research” on Oct. 25 to teams from six Colorado-based research centers for breakthroughs in hurricane forecasting, oil-spill air quality assessment, Lyme disease prevention, energy efficiency, detection of aquatic invaders and crop science.
CO-LABS, the nonprofit that informs the public about the breakthroughs and impacts from the 24 federal labs in Colorado, is sponsoring the 2012 Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research, to be held at the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, University of Colorado Boulder, beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 25.
Colorado is a global leader in natural resource management, climate science, renewable energy, photonics, materials science, astrophysics, telecommunications and earth science. “Researchers in Colorado laboratories are working together and finding solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems, which is reflected in the Governor’s awards and the commitment that Colorado has to its federal and state organizations,” Bill Farland, chair of CO-LABS said.
The annual reception is the major CO-LABS event to showcase the research facilities and the work of the CO-LABS organization. Award recipients include:
Deepwater Horizon Atmospheric Science Team, a partnership of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
Honored for their work in atmospheric science will be Thomas Ryerson, Joost de Gouw, and researchers from NOAA and CIRES who joined together to form the Deepwater Horizon Atmospheric Science Team that under urgent circumstances assessed the potential air quality risks posed by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The team calculated independent estimates of the oil leak rate and analyzed the fate of the leaked oil in the environment. Using NOAA research aircraft, they also were able to advance scientific understanding of the chemistry of the atmosphere in the unique environment.
Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere/Advanced Technology Source, Colorado State University
Scientists from CIRA and ATS, led by Mark DeMaria, will be honored for creating advanced software that allows them to make direct comparisons between satellite observations and model forecasts to give a complete picture of tropical storms and their environments. The forecast tools developed by the Hurricane Forecast Intensity Program help transform cutting-edge observations and theory into better forecasts of hurricane intensity for operational meteorologists, saving lives and property.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins
An award will be presented to Robert D. Gilmore, Toni G. Patton, Kevin S. Brandt, and their colleagues at the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases for discovering a gene that, when inactivated, prevents the bacteria that causes Lyme disease from producing an infection following a tick bite. The finding was the first demonstration of a borrelial gene essential to the process of transmitting infection via ticks. Understanding how the organism functions in both ticks and mammals may help in identifying new targets for vaccines and other therapeutics.
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
Using a process-level computer model, Laj Ahuja and the team of researchers made several breakthroughs in helping farmers choose summer crops, evaluate performance of new bio-energy or forage dryland crops, manage water better, and explore potential adaptations to climate change, among other applications. The RZWQM2 computer model can extend short-period field research to long-term weather conditions, and different climates and soil; evaluate long-term effects of various management practices on water conservation, crop water use, and production under dryland and irrigated conditions; develop a decision criteria to select a summer crop which gives maximum net return to the farmer; help farmers in different Colorado counties make better decisions about irrigation; and evaluate effects of projected climate change on water demand.
Bureau of Reclamation
Denise M. Hosler and her colleagues at Reclamation’s Invasive Mussel Research Laboratory at the Denver Federal Center will be honored for advances in the early detection of zebra and quagga mussels and evaluation of potential control methods. Early detection at the larva stage provides reservoir managers with evidence that a water body is being exposed to mussels and gives them time to prepare for potential mussel impacts before noticeable problems arise. It also gives managers the opportunity to implement additional public education and boat inspection and cleaning programs that may prevent further exposure and reduce the chances of an infestation.
U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Honors will go to NREL senior scientist Matthew Keyser and his colleagues in the category of Foundational Technology for developing the Large-Volume Battery Calorimeter (LVBC) that can detect heat loss and determine efficiency in the large batteries being used to power electric vehicles. NREL’s LVBC is a crucial tool for automakers and battery companies, the only isothermal calorimeter capable of measuring the thermal efficiency of batteries for today’s and future generations of advanced vehicles. NREL’s calorimeter was recently used to identify the source of a potential 17% gain in battery power, which could ultimately deliver a dramatic improvement in vehicle performance.
CO-LABS advances awareness of Colorado’s federal research laboratories scientific resources and resulting research impacts. Colorado boasts 24 federally funded scientific research laboratories with a high concentration of renowned scientists whose work has global impact in a number of areas including natural resource management, climate change, renewable energy, photonics, and astrophysics. The laboratories work closely with Colorado’s research universities on basic research and development as well as the deployment of technologies. The CO-LABS consortium includes Colorado federal research laboratories, research universities, state and local governments, economic development organizations, private businesses and nonprofit organizations. It conducts economic analysis, encourages technology collaboration
Simple math: Release less CO2 or face catastrophic consequences
Oct 2nd
We can burn 565 more gigatons of carbon and stay below 2°C of warming — anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. The problem is, the fossil fuel corporations now have 2,795 gigatons in their reserves, five times the safe amount. And they’re planning to burn it all, because the industry thinks that their bottom line is worth more than a livable planet like the one we grew up with.
All of the climate catastrophes we witnessed this summer — the nation’s breadbasket drying out, the historic Arctic melting, and fires sweeping the West — are the product of that calculation by the fossil fuel industry.
This November, Bill McKibben and 350.org are embarking on a nationwide trek — the Do the Math Tour — that will explain the scary math of climate change, and lay out the plan to take on the fossil fuel industry before they trade away our future for a quick buck.
On December 2nd, Bill McKibben, and 350.org will be in Boulder — and we want you to be there with us. The energy is already running high (a few of the other tour dates are beginning to sell out) — in the future, you’ll look back to this night. You’ll remember it as the moment things really kicked into high gear, when we laid the groundwork for the epic fight ahead of us.
Can you join Bill in Boulder? Click here to RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/event/4507249304
This will be a different kind of event. For one, it’s not just Bill talking — we’ll have music and special guests both in person and via video, plus all of the best climate organizers we can find in and around Colorado.
It’s also the springboard to the next phase of climate change organizing in the US. All across the country people are planning new campaigns targeting the fossil fuel industry’s financial might, using divestment, civil disobedience and strategic pressure campaigns. It’s quite a task — and if we expect to have a shot at success, we’ll need everyone we can find to be working together.
I hope that you’ll be with us. Click here to RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/event/4507249304
CU led mission to study past climate on Mars enters final phase before slated 2013 launch
Sep 11th
The mission, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, passed the critical agency milestone known as Key Decision Point-D, or KDP-D on Monday, said NASA officials. The key decision meeting moving MAVEN forward was held at NASA Headquarters in Washington and was chaired by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
“The spacecraft and instruments are all coming together at this point,” said CU-Boulder Professor Bruce Jakosky, the MAVEN principal investigator and associate director for science at the university’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, or LASP. “Although we’re focused on getting everything ready for launch right now, we aren’t losing sight of our ultimate objective — getting to Mars and making the science measurements.”
NASA’s $670 million MAVEN mission will be the first devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. The goal of MAVEN is to determine the role that loss of atmospheric gas to space played in changing the Martian climate through time. Clues on the Martian surface, including features resembling dry lakes and riverbeds as well as minerals that form only in the presence of water, suggest that Mars once had a denser atmosphere that supported liquid water on the surface, Jakosky said.
“I’m incredibly proud of how this team continues to meet every major milestone on schedule on its journey to Mars,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “Being ready for the start of system level integration and test is critically important to ultimately being ready for launch on November 18, 2013.”
KDP-D occurs after the project has completed a series of independent reviews that cover not only technical health of the project but also programmatic health, including schedule and cost. KDP-D represents the official transition from the Phase C development stage to Phase D in the mission life cycle. During Phase D, the spacecraft bus is completed, the science instruments are integrated into the spacecraft, spacecraft testing occurs and the MAVEN mission launches late in 2013.
The huge amount of public interest in NASA’s Curiosity Rover, which landed on Mars Aug. 6 and is currently being driven remotely around the planet, is no surprise to Jakosky. “Mars has a lot of similarities to Earth,” he said. “It’s the closest planet, it has similar day lengths, and it has an atmosphere, weather and geologic processes similar to those on our own planet.
“But the real kicker is the potential for life,” said Jakosky, who also directs the Center for Astrobiology at the University of Colorado. “Because of that, I think Mars has always held a special place in the hearts and minds of the public.”
Jakosky, also a professor in CU-Boulder’s geological sciences department, cautioned that there is much more work to be done before launch. “This decision by NASA marks the start of integration of all of the instruments on the spacecraft. It’s cool to see the spacecraft coming together, but there is a lot of work still to go and a lot of challenges to solve between now and when the spacecraft is ready for launch.”
The next major review for the MAVEN team is the Mission Operations Review in November 2012. This review assesses the project’s operational readiness and its progress towards launch. The project will continue to work with partners to deliver all instruments in the next four months.
“CU-Boulder’s participation in Mars exploration missions goes back decades, beginning with NASA’s Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 missions launched in 1969,” said Vice Chancellor for Research Stein Sture. “LASP is a proven training ground for students seeking hands-on experience in building, testing and flying space hardware and is the only institute in the world to have designed and built instruments that have been launched to every planet in the solar system.”
The MAVEN spacecraft will carry three instrument suites. The Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California at Berkeley with some instrument elements from CU’s LASP and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet.
The Remote Sensing Package built by LASP will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, while The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by NASA Goddard, will measure the composition and isotopes of neutrals and ions.
MAVEN will launch during a 20-day period in November-December 2013. It will go into orbit around Mars in September 2014, and, after a one-month checkout period, will make measurements from orbit for one Earth year.
In addition to leading the mission and providing instrumentation, CU-Boulder will provide science operations and direct education and public outreach efforts. NASA’s Goddard manages the project. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., is building the spacecraft and will perform mission operations. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena provides program management via the Mars Program Office, as well as navigation support, the Deep Space Network and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.
The MAVEN science team includes three LASP scientists from CU-Boulder heading instrument teams — Nick Schneider, Frank Eparvier and Robert Ergun — as well as a large supporting team of scientists, engineers and mission operations specialists.
MAVEN will include participation by a number of CU-Boulder graduate and undergraduate students in the coming years. Currently there are more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students working on research projects at LASP, which provides hands-on training for future careers as engineers and scientists, said Jakosky.
For more information about MAVEN visit http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/ and www.nasa.gov/maven. For more information on LASP visithttp://lasp.colorado.edu/home/.