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Twenty undergraduate arts and sciences students at the University of Colorado at Boulder will receive the prestigious Jacob Van Ek Award for outstanding academic achievement and contributions to the university. The award includes a gift certificate from the University Book Store. The recipients were honored May 14 along with the faculty members they named as the persons who most inspired and encouraged their work. The award was established in 1973 to honor Jacob Van Ek, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1929 to 1959. Van Ek died in 1994 at the age of 97.

Seven outstanding faculty, staff and students have received the 1998 Equity and Excellence Awards at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The awards are given annually to those faculty, staff and students who exemplify excellence in their professions and in education, and who have demonstrated a strong commitment to equity and diversity issues on campus and in the broader community.

Five University of Colorado at Boulder physics professors have been selected among the nation's 200 most outstanding speakers on physics by the American Physical Society. They were the only physics professors to be cited in Colorado, and among only seven physicists to be cited in the state.

The volume of the world's glaciers outside of Antarctica and the Greenland Ice Sheet continues to decline and the rate of ice loss continues to accelerate, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. "In the last century, there has been a significant decrease in the area and volume of glaciers, especially at mid- and low-latitudes," said Professor Emeritus Mark Meier of the geological sciences department. "The disappearance of glacier ice is more pronounced than we previously had thought."

The sounds of music -- how they are created and the rules of physics they follow -- will be the subject of the May 30 CU Wizards science show for children to be held at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Physics Professor Jim Faller will use a group of homemade instruments to demonstrate various aspects of "The Physics of Music." The instruments will be constructed from a wide range of materials including bamboo, garden hose, plastic pipe, redwood, funnels and doorknobs.

A panel discussion on "The Future of Ranching in the West" will be held May 29 at 3:30 p.m. in the Boulder Public Library Auditorium, followed by a barbecue and square dance. The event is co-sponsored by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Boulder Public Library Foundation. The panel discussion and square dance are free and open to the public. The panelists are: oMel Coleman, president and founder, Coleman Natural Beef oBetty Shawcroft, former president, Colorado Cattlewomen

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a joint release of Brown University, Carnegie Institution of Washington D.C., National Science Foundation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Colorado, University of Oregon, University of Washington, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Visuals are available (see end of release). Under the South Pacific, a new picture emerges of Earth's most volcanically active area.

Theresa Hernandez, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is one of 16 people in the nation selected to participate in a special two-year national security program. The Defense Science Study Group is designed to inform outstanding scientists in their early careers about technical aspects of national security issues, especially in fields that have not traditionally been associated with critical defense needs. It is run by the Institute for Defense Analyses for the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Child Learning Center in the department of speech, language and hearing sciences at CU-Boulder has completed construction of a new classroom loft donated by the Flatirons Kiwanis Club in Boulder. In 1996 the Flatirons and the Foothills Kiwanis Clubs merged and the Flatirons club donated its remaining funds to build the loft in the Child Leaning Center. The loft is in memory of Everett Luce and Les Grote, two former Flatirons Kiwanians who volunteered much of their time and energy to the children at the center.

The University of Colorado at Boulder has been selected by NASA as one of 11 initial members of the space agency's new Astrobiology Institute that will focus on interdisciplinary research regarding life in the universe. The 11 academic and research institutions were selected from 53 proposals submitted to NASA. CU-Boulder's new Center for Astrobiology, which will be headquartered at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics under the direction of LASP Research Associate Bruce Jakosky, will be funded by a five-year, $3 million NASA grant.