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Aswad Allen is the new director of the CU-Boulder College of Business's Diversity and Minority Programs, business Dean Steven Manaster announced. "We created this position because diversity is a top priority of our school," Manaster said. "Aswad's experience will help advance the college's goals of implementing a broader scope of initiatives. He brings a comprehensive background of leading diversity programs and will help us move this priority to the next level."

Two decades after questions about safety and the disposal of radioactive waste effectively halted the development of nuclear power in the United States, the nuclear industry is once again being considered as a viable source of energy. But investors planning to climb on the nuclear bandwagon should be aware of the significant cleanup costs that these plants will incur in the future, according to a new study published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics.

Randy A. Bartels, a doctoral researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was selected by the Department of Energy to attend the 51st convention of Nobel laureates in Lindau, Germany, from June 25 to June 29. An electrical engineering doctoral student from the University of Michigan, Bartels is pursuing his doctoral dissertation research at JILA in the field of ultrafast optics. JILA is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology based on the CU-Boulder campus.

The University of Colorado at Boulder will host the 2001 Summer Boulder Campus Blood Drive in the south parking lot of the Administrative and Research Center, 3100 Marine St., on the East Campus. The blood drive is open to the public and will be held June 15 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Those interested in donating should sign up for an appointment by calling (303) 492-5473 through June 14 at 3 p.m.

The wonders of the summer sky and tips on observing the International Space Station will be presented at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Fiske Planetarium during the live astronomy show "Boulder Skies" on Tuesday, June 19, at 8 p.m. Fiske lecturers Sanlyn Buxner and Deidre Brucker will guide the audience on a tour of Boulder's magnificent view of the heavens and will discuss upcoming celestial events.

Dr. Hobart M. Smith, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, received the 2001 W. F. Blair Eminent Naturalist Award from the Southwestern Association of Naturalists at the association's annual meeting in Fort Hays, Kansas, in April. The association presents the Blair Award in recognition of excellence in a lifetime of commitment to outstanding study or conservation of the flora or fauna of the Southwest.

The University of Colorado at Boulder is hosting a weekend of festivities allowing participants to share in Arapaho culture through art, stories and songs as well as the opportunity to learn the Arapaho language from June 7 through June 10. The first-ever Arapaho Nation Cultural Festival and "No-eeckoohuut-Coming Home" Pow Wow celebrates the culture and homeland of the Arapaho Tribe in the Boulder Valley and Colorado.

Editors: Reporters and photographers are welcome to attend any of the sessions on June 5. The 10:30 a.m. physics presentation will feature explosions and other visual effects. The tour of Henderson Museum beginning at 12:40 p.m. will feature a live owl and an educational talk. More than 300 seventh graders from middle schools throughout Colorado will get a glimpse of campus life and a pitch to go to college at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Tuesday, June 5, as part of the state's GEAR-UP initiative to get low-income youths into college.

New observations with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii indicate three of the youngest massive star clusters yet detected each are swaddled in dust cocoons at least 600 trillion miles across, providing new clues to the evolution of the early universe.

Note to Editors: Contents embargoed until Monday, June 4, at 9 a.m. PDT. The AAS Press Room telephone numbers are (626) 844-6037, -6038 and -6039. The vast majority of wannabe planets in the universe are likely destroyed by cosmic forces long before they have a chance to evolve from dusty disks circling their parent stars, according to University of Colorado at Boulder researchers.