Posts tagged service
CU APPLIED MATHEMATICS PROFESSOR HARVEY SEGUR TO RECEIVE 2011 HAZEL BARNES PRIZE
May 2nd
Harvey Segur, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been selected to receive the 2011 Hazel Barnes Prize, the highest faculty recognition for teaching and research awarded by the university.
Segur will receive an engraved university medal and a $20,000 cash award, the largest single faculty award funded by CU-Boulder. He will be recognized at a reception in his honor next fall and at the winter commencement ceremony on Dec 16.
The prize recognizes Segur’s highly cited and influential research on nonlinear waves, along with his exceptional teaching record as a CU-Boulder faculty member since 1989.
“Professor Segur’s transformational teaching and curriculum enhancements in service to our students embodies our Flagship 2030 Strategic Plan to redefine education for the 21st century,” said Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “It is because of faculty like Professor Segur that learning and teaching is one of our pillars of impact at CU-Boulder. But this honor also recognizes his influential scholarly work and service and that is why it is our highest faculty honor.”
Segur is helping to transform undergraduate education at CU-Boulder, focusing on improved student performance in lower-division calculus. The subject is a gatekeeper for majors and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields, according to Segur.
To bolster student success in introductory calculus courses, Segur, instructor Mary Nelson and others in the applied mathematics department have implemented more reflective discourse in the classroom through oral assessments. They also expanded CU-Boulder’s Calculus I curriculum to include a two-semester alternative to the usual one-semester course, with the alternative designed to help students with weak mathematical backgrounds. Several universities across the United States are now adopting these reforms.
Segur received a 1994 Teaching Excellence Award from the Boulder Faculty Assembly and was awarded the Minority Engineering Program’s Faculty Award in 1995.
In 1998, Segur was named a President’s Teaching Scholar by former CU president John Buechner. He also served as chair of the applied mathematics department from 2000 to 2003.
Segur was selected to give CU-Boulder’s 97th Distinguished Research Lecture in 2005, the highest honor bestowed by the Graduate School on a faculty member, recognizing an entire body of research and creative work. His talk was on fluid dynamics, describing several types of ocean waves, including common, wind-driven waves and much rarer tsunami waves.
Segur has authored several books and numerous journal articles. He has been a principal lecturer at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. He also has been a guest lecturer in 15 countries including Germany, Russia, Japan, China and Denmark.
Segur has conducted research in various mathematical fields for the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, NATO, the Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Army Research Office. He also has worked extensively in private industry.
Segur received his master’s and doctoral degrees in aeronautical sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to CU-Boulder he was a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology, an associate professor at Clarkson College of Technology in Potsdam, N.J., and a professor at State University of New York, Buffalo.
The Hazel Barnes Prize was established in 1991 to recognize the enriching relationship between teaching and research. The prize was named in honor of CU-Boulder philosophy Professor Emerita Hazel Barnes, who taught at CU-Boulder from 1943 to 1986 and is noted for her interpretations of the works of French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre. Barnes died in 2008 at the age of 92.
For more information on the Hazel Barnes Prize and a list of recipients visit http://www.colorado.edu/chancellor/awards/index.html.
– CU –
Get ready for some crappy tasting Water Boulder
Apr 29th
City of Boulder News Briefs
Residents may notice a change in taste of water starting Monday, May 2
Residents may notice a change in taste of water starting Monday, May 2
City of Boulder water customers in Gunbarrel, Heatherwood, Hoover Hills and areas north of Arapahoe Avenue and east of Foothills Parkway may notice a slight change in water taste on Monday, May 2, when the Utilities Division switches water sources from Boulder reservoir to the Boulder Feeder Canal.
Water source changes are a normal part of water treatment and distribution operations. No service interruptions are expected while the water source change occurs.
The possible taste change is due to differences in source water chemistry between Boulder Reservoir and the Boulder Feeder Canal.
For more information, contact the city’s Betasso Water Treatment Facility at 303-441-3249.
Tour to help Boulder residents reduce water use
On Wednesday, May 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Responsible Bathroom Water Conservation Tour is bringing water-saving solutions to Boulder residents and businesses. The national tour features a full-size, showroom truck equipped with water-saving products and information on how to save water, energy and money.
This free, public event will be held at the Boulder Winnelson Company, located at 3777 Pearl St.
Partnering with local water utilities and municipalities across the country, the tour is bringing conservation information to agencies that offer rebates for the purchase of water-efficient products. City Water Conservation staff will be available at the event to provide information about the city’s rebate program. This event will coincide with Boulder’s celebration of National Drinking Water Week, highlighting the vital role water plays in our daily lives.
For additional information, contact the Water Conservation Program at 303-413-7407 or visit www.bouldersaveswater.net.
Boulder Yamagata Sakura Project and Parks and Recreation Department to plant cherry trees for sixth consecutive year
The Boulder Yamagata Sakura Project and the Urban Forestry unit of the City of Boulder’s Parks and Recreation Department will be planting 28 Somai Yoshino cherry (Sakura) trees on Saturday, April 30, at Martin Park, 36th Street and Eastman Avenue. The Boulder Yamagata Sakura Project has donated more than190 cherry trees to the City of Boulder over the past six years in honor of the commitment between Boulder and its sister city of Yamagata, Japan.
Activity schedule for Saturday, April 30:
10 a.m. to noon – City staff and Yamagata Sakura Project volunteers will plant 28 cherry trees in Martin Park, 36th Street and Eastman Avenue.
Noon – A Japanese Tea Ceremony will be performed by the Boulder Yamagata Sakura Project
12:30 p.m. – Volunteers will be served a light lunch provided by Sushi Zanmai restaurant.
Contact:
Sarah Huntley, Media Relations, 303-441-3155
Mike Banuelos, Public Works, 303-441-4073
Shelly Ruspakka, Parks and Recreation, 303-413-7214
www.bouldercolorado.gov
DOZENS OF CU STUDENTS TO DISPLAY SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS ON APRIL 25
Apr 22nd
University of Colorado Boulder senior Kendra Stone spent part of the past semester in one of her classes tutoring Boulder High students, some of whom were struggling in the classroom due to a language barrier, while others were excelling but needed to overcome other obstacles.
Stone, a senior molecular, cellular and developmental biology major, is one of dozens of CU-Boulder students who will have booths at an event highlighting local service learning projects they completed this spring as part of the Program for Writing and Rhetoric’s “Writing Initiative for Service and Engagement” project.
The free, public event will be held Monday, April 25, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the University Memorial Center, room 235. Anne K. Heinz, associate vice-chancellor for outreach and engagement, will give the keynote address.
“During the semester, I helped students with biology papers who were explaining complicated processes, while also helping students who could barely speak English write simple essays,” Stone said. “Throughout this experience I gained a deeper appreciation of the education I have received. It also has motivated me to keep furthering myself and to keep giving back as well.”
Each semester about 350 CU-Boulder students participate in community-based writing courses through the Program for Writing and Rhetoric, contributing well over 5,000 hours of their time to local community and nonprofit organizations, according to CU-Boulder Senior Instructor Sally Green, who teaches a course that partners her students with Arapahoe Ridge High School and Boulder High School students.
“This experience gives students the opportunity to develop and apply their communication skills in authentic contexts,” Green said. “They complete valuable projects for their community partners and gain an understanding of social, environmental and economic issues which informs their entire college education.”
In Green’s service learning class, “Writing on Science and Society,” her students tutor Boulder at-risk high school students in math and science for a total of 15 hours throughout the semester.
“They bring their own recent experience as high school students and their expertise and enthusiasm about their subjects to the tutoring experience,” Green said.
Students who take Program for Writing and Rhetoric service-learning courses learn about a number of issues including sustainability, food, education, the elderly, poverty and hunger while gaining practical experience in grant writing and document design. They also work with an array of organizations: schools and afterschool programs, community gardens, homeless shelters, organic farms, food banks and Boulder Parks and Recreation.
“Through the coursework, we want students to gain an understanding of a social issue, community dynamics, problem solving and written advocacy,” Green said.
After graduation on May 6, Stone will work as a research technician in a campus laboratory. She then plans to apply for medical school, with the long-term goal of being a surgeon.
More than 13,000 CU-Boulder students participate in some form of community service each year, and more than 3,500 are engaged in academic service learning, a teaching strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction. For more information about CU-Boulder’s civic engagement efforts visit http://www.colorado.edu/news/reports/civicengagement/.
-CU-
