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The University of Colorado at Boulder and Sun Microsystems have signed an agreement for a pilot program that initially will allow applied mathematics and computer science students at CU to become Sun Microsystems Certified Instructors.

Justin Anthony Colonna, Tuan Linh Vu Nguyen, Eric Mitchell Smith and Jeong Uk Noh will receive posthumous degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder during commencement ceremonies May 11 and May 12. Colonna, a fifth-year senior at CU-Boulder, was killed in an avalanche on Dec. 18, 1999, in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. He will receive bachelor's degrees in communications and humanities. Ann Colonna, Justin Colonna's sister, will accept the degree on May 12 at the recognition ceremony for communications majors at 3:30 p.m. in the Mary Rippon Theater.

After five years spent building an entrepreneurship program that was recently ranked 16th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, CU-Boulder Entrepreneurship Director Denis Nock is retiring effective this month. "It has been my privilege to work with the faculty, advisory board and the entrepreneur community to serve and benefit students," said Nock. "This has been, without question, the most enjoyable and satisfying assignment I have had in my entire career. I am truly grateful to have had this opportunity."

Two University of Colorado at Boulder professors are recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on researchers at the start of their careers. Gregory Asner, assistant professor in the geological sciences department and the Environmental Studies Program, and Linnea Avallone, assistant professor in the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Sciences, were among 60 people receiving the award last month in a White House ceremony.