Posts tagged President Barack Obama
U.S. SENATE CONFIRMS CU PROFESSOR CARL LINEBERGER AS MEMBER OF NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD
Aug 5th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in CU News
The U.S. Senate has voted to confirm University of Colorado Boulder Distinguished Professor Carl Lineberger as a member of the National Science Board. He was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama in April.
The National Science Board’s duties include establishing the policies of the National Science Foundation and serving as an advisory board to the president and Congress on issues involving science and engineering.
Lineberger also is a fellow of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In addition to Lineberger, the U.S. Senate this week also confirmed Dan Arvizu, chief executive of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. Both of their terms expire in 2016.
“Colorado is home to some of the best and the brightest in the country, supporting and inspiring top-notch scientific work across Colorado and the country,” U.S. Sen. Mark Udall said in a statement. “Carl has contributed decades of pioneering research to the fields of physics and chemistry, and Dan has played a key role in Colorado’s leadership in renewable energy. I am proud these two eminent thinkers have been recognized and entrusted with helping shape the course of science and engineering fields in our country.”
Lineberger is the E.U. Condon Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at CU-Boulder. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and currently serves on the Report Review Committee of the National Research Council and the NRC Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space. His graduate students and postdoctoral associates hold major research-related positions throughout the world.
Lineberger has chaired the National Science Foundation Advisory Committees on Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Science and Technology Centers, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, and the NAS/NRC Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Applications. He recently completed service on the National Academy of Sciences Council, the NAS/NRC Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy and the NRC Governing Board.
“It is truly an honor for us when our nation’s leadership taps the knowledge and expertise of CU-Boulder faculty to serve our country and society,” said CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “Distinguished Professor Lineberger is the third faculty member in three years to receive a prestigious White House appointment, which underscores our national reach in scientific research and public policy.”
Last September, CU-Boulder Distinguished Professor and JILA Fellow Carl Wieman was confirmed as associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and former CU-Boulder Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson in September 2008 was nominated by President George W. Bush and subsequently appointed to serve on the National Science Board.
For more information about the members of the National Science Board visit http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/members/.
CU-BOULDER TO PARTICIPATE IN NASA MISSION TO LAND ON AN ASTEROID
May 27th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in CU News
The mission, called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, is being led by the University of Arizona and is slated to approach, map and collect samples from a primitive asteroid for return to Earth. Professor Daniel Scheeres of CU-Boulder’s aerospace engineering sciences department is the radio science team leader on the OSIRIS-REx mission, which is expected to bring more than $3 million in research funding to CU-Boulder over the mission lifetime.
The NASA selection of the asteroid mission as part of the New Frontiers Program was a disappointment for CU-Boulder scientists at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics led by Professor Larry Esposito, science team leader on a proposed, unmanned mission to land on Venus as part of the program. In 2009 the LASP-led SAGE mission to Venus was named one of three finalists along with OSIRIS-REx and a proposed effort led by Washington University in St. Louis to sample and return material from the far side of the moon.
As the leader of the OSIRIS-REx radio science team, Scheeres and his colleagues will characterize the asteroid’s mass and gravity field as a way to better understand its internal structure. “We essentially will be weighing the asteroid to see how the mass is distributed across it,” he said. “We need to know the mass and gravity field of the asteroid before the spacecraft comes in contact with it.”
Scheeres said that at least one CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher and additional graduate students will be involved in the mission operations, software development and research.
Slated to launch in 2016, the spacecraft will fly to within three miles of the asteroid — dubbed “1999 RQ36 — in 2020 and begin a six-month, comprehensive mapping project, said Scheeres. The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft will subsequently conduct a “touch-and-go” on the asteroid, spending about 10 seconds on its surface as a robotic arm collects several ounces of asteroid material for return to Earth, he said.
The mission, excluding the launch vehicle, is expected to cost about $800 million, according to NASA officials.
The mission is in line with objectives outlined by President Barack Obama to reach beyond low-Earth orbit to explore deep space, according to NASA officials, evolving from robotic missions like OSIRIS-REx to future manned missions to asteroids and beyond.
A 2010, study by Scheeres and his colleagues showed that asteroids were not just giant rocks lumbering about in orbit, they are instead constantly changing little “worlds” than can give birth to smaller asteroids that split off to start their own lives as they circle the sun.
For more information about OSIRIS-REx visit http://www.nasa.gov
President Obama: Memorial in Arizona, Speech, Video #boulder
Jan 13th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in News
This is an extraordinary speech by president Obama, probably his best yet. it is about the fallen.