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The Student Organization for Alumni Relations selected six outstanding ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder students during Homecoming weekend Sept. 25-27 to receive awards for academic acheivement, leadership and community service. Two students received Academic Excellence awards, psychology majors Adrienne Ellis and Joseph Urgemah. Ellis, a senior, has a grade-point average of 3.99 and holds positions with the Campus Crusade for Christ and Alpha Phi Omega.

The University of Colorado's applied mathematics department has been awarded $2.3 million from the National Science Foundation for a research and training grant designed to bring faculty and students together at all levels. The highly competitive grants, known as the Vertical Integration of Research and Education, or VIGRE, were awarded to only five other universities: Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Pennsylvania State and the University of Washington.

A substantial gift of computer equipment has been presented to the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder by Sun Microsystems, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., according to engineering Dean Ross Corotis. The donated equipment, which will be used to support education in software engineering, includes a Sun Enterprise 3500 file server and 20 Sun Ultra10 workstations with 17-inch color monitors.

The University of Colorado at Boulder has received a $2.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund an innovative, interdisciplinary graduate training program in optical science and engineering.

The Getty Conservation Institute of Santa Monica, Calif., has signed a contract with the Salvadoran Ministry of Education to protect the ancient buried village of Ceren, which has been under excavation by the University of Colorado at Boulder since 1976.

The Sewall Symposium Series at the University of Colorado at Boulder will present a lecture by Benjamin R. Barber, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in Old Main Chapel. The lecture, titled "Civil Society or Uncivil Markets: Can Democracy Survive in a World of Global Capitalism," will focus on the role of the United States in the global community.

Note to Editors: Bruce Jakosky will give a free public talk about his new book at the ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Museum on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be provided. The potential for the evolution of past or present life in the universe reaches beyond Mars and even our own solar system, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder space scientist.

The ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ-Boulder Graduate School is sponsoring a computer modeling and simulations symposium in the Duane Physics Building on Saturday, Oct. 3, to enhance research opportunities among different departments and institutes. The symposium will highlight a number of cutting-edge computer modeling and simulation efforts, from the effects of El Nino on monsoons and DNA-protein interactions that regulate gene expression to modeling the physics of the human body and even simulating seismic effects on structures.

At the age of eight, Richard Byyny decided to become a competitive swimmer, a decision the would have a profound impact on his life. Byyny, chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, was inducted into the Long Beach City College Hall of Fame Oct. 1.

Bernard Lane, editor of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, will visit the University of Colorado in mid-October to meet with faculty, students and local tourism professionals and to give a public talk on tourism Thursday, Oct. 15. Lane's talk, "Sustainability and Tourism: The Great Dilemma," will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 15 in room 154 of Fleming Law School. Lane, who lives in Bristol, England, will serve a brief residency at the newly established Center for Sustainable Tourism in the College of Business.