Draper named vice chancellor
Frances Draper, associate vice chancellor for strategic relations, was promoted to the post of vice chancellor for strategic relations on Sept. 16.
The appointment is effective on Oct. 1 and will raise her salary from $153,000 to $175,000 a year.
The new position will oversee all external and internal communications, branding, alumni activities, government and business relations, reputation management and strategic relationship development for the campus. Draper will report to Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Ric Porreca.
Draper holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.
CU’s sobriety challenge weekend on tap
From Sept. 22 to Sept. 26, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Oasis student group and counseling and psychological services department will present the third annual “Live Free Weekend,” a sobriety challenge to the campus community.
Students, faculty and others who participate will give up all alcohol and recreational drugs for 96 hours. The weekend will feature free activities such as open mic talent shows, dances and intramural sports.
The athletics department will kick off Live Free Weekend with a free lunch for participants on Thursday, Sept. 22, beginning at noon outside the south entrance to Balch Fieldhouse. The lunch will allow last-minute registration for the sobriety challenge and will provide an opportunity for participants to meet each other.
To sign the pledge and see a complete list of events, visit www.colorado.edu/livefreeweekend.
CU monitoring sea ice decline
The University of Colorado Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), which is primarily funded by NASA, has discovered that the blanket of sea ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean appears to have reached its lowest extent of the year, and is the second lowest recorded since satellites began measuring it in 1979.
The Arctic sea ice extent fell to 1.67 million square miles on Sept. 9, which is more than 1 million square miles below the 1979-2000 monthly average for September.
Most scientists involved in the analysis say the shrinking Arctic sea ice is tied to warming temperatures caused by an increase in human-produced greenhouse gases pumped into Earth’s atmosphere. The NSIDC plans to issue a full analysis of the 2011 results and a comparison to previous years.
Science project lands award
The PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder was named as a laureate of The Tech Awards 2011 for applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change.
The Tech Awards, a program of The Tech Museum of San Jose, Calif., is presented by Applied Materials Inc. The PhET project was selected from among hundreds of nominations from 54 countries. The project provides students of all ages with more than 100 interactive, research-based simulations of science and math concepts.
Drug testing tool to be commercialized
SuviCa Inc. of Boulder and the University of Colorado recently completed a license agreement for a CU drug screening technology used to identify novel therapies for cancer.
The patented drug discovery tool, developed by CU-Boulder Associate Professor Tin Tin Su of the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department, uses a genetically modified Drosophila fruit fly model to screen for compounds effective against various types of cancer, either alone or in combination with existing therapies.
The screening technique will be used to identify new clinical candidates using a method that is time-efficient and cost-effective.
SuviCa Inc. is an early-stage cancer drug discovery and development company co-founded by Su.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
