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The 2025 RIO Faculty Fellows cohort at a January retreat in Estes Park

With a foundation of education and specialized training augmented by years of hands-on experience leading a classroom, lab or studio in their area of expertise, faculty from universities like CU Boulder are critical to solving society’s toughest challenges and cultivating the next generation of thinkers and problem-solvers.

Now, more than ever, we need to invest in equipping our best minds to help us create our brightest future.

University researchers, scholars and artists are intellectually gifted and display exceptional capacity for hard work and perseverance. But that’s not all. Though less widely acknowledged, such individuals thrive in dynamic environments that foster collaboration across disciplines, expanding both their vision and impact. It takes multi-disciplinary approaches, collaboration, creativity and leadership to achieve breakthroughs in areas such as sustainability, health and wellness, national security, artificial intelligence, and quantum science and technology.

As a destination of choice for researchers and students alike, CU Boulder cannot leave this to chance, and is deeply invested in promoting the growth and success of our faculty. This is the overarching goal of the Research & Innovation Office Faculty Fellows program: to equip our gifted early- to mid-career faculty to achieve extraordinary success.

The RIO Faculty Fellows program provides a proven programmatic approach that builds on the natural talents and commitment of our most promising faculty, helping them realize their full potential and exponentially grow their societal impact. The program focuses on expanding the skills and capacity of faculty to create strong and successful collaborations, this translates to students at all levels, and to the progress made in their respective fields. These are the types of successes that make CU Boulder a world leader in addressing societal challenges.

Here are a few examples of how the program has helped faculty reach new heights.��

Jennifer Balch—professor of geography and director of the Environmental Data Science Innovation and Inclusion Lab (ESIL)—joined the inaugural 2018 faculty fellows cohort and has established herself as one of the nation’s foremost experts on wildfires.��

Balch’s societal impact is underscored by her insights on the 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles. Her Jan. 10 Washington Post op-ed “Fires are moving much faster now. Here’s how to prepare.” provided invaluable insights to the public in and beyond California, which is facing increased risk from wildfires. Balch has also taken the helm of a $20 million federally funded research center that combines workforce development, cutting-edge data analytics, and innovative tools for cyberinfrastructure with longstanding environmental data sets to help mitigate the increasing risks of wildfires.

Greg Reiker—professor of mechanical engineering and co-founder and chief technology officer for LongPath Technologies, Inc.—was also part of the 2018 faculty fellows cohort.��

Rieker and his team of students and collaborators have adapted quantum-powered Nobel Prize-winning frequency comb technology to efficiently identify methane leaks in oil and gas fields. In this application, the technology is demonstrating the ability to protect industry, local communities and the environment from the harmful impacts of escaped methane. LongPath recently won a $162.4 million loan package from the Department of Energy. When Rieker joined the faculty fellows program, he was an exceptional researcher who wanted to further expand his collaboration and communication skills. As a Faculty Fellow, he honed new approaches that helped advance his startup while excelling as a researcher and mentor to graduate students interested in protecting communities and the environment or harnessing the power of quantum science and technology to benefit the public.

Stefanie Johnson—associate professor in the Leeds School of Business and director of CU Boulder’s Center for Leadership—conducts research and teaches about topics like the effectiveness of women in leadership roles in business.��

The 2020 faculty fellows cohort offered Johnson new opportunities to connect across campus, enabling her to create an extended network that is vital to her success at the Center for Leadership. In addition to continuing to conduct innovative research on leadership, Johnson has created a platform to help students in every corner of the campus—not just in business, but in fields like engineering, the sciences, sustainability and the humanities—as they strive to become leaders in their own fields. Through her scholarship, she is advancing knowledge while cultivating CU Boulder students into accomplished leaders who can shape our future.��