Division of Natural Sciences

Harnessing the abundant resource of sunlight

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 17:55:24 +0000

Harnessing the abundant resource of sunlight Rachel Sauer Tue, 06/24/2025 - 11:55

Arindam Sau , Amreen Bains and Anna Wolff

Light-powered reactions could make the chemical manufacturing industry more energy-efficient

Manufactured chemicals and materials are necessary for practically every aspect of daily life, from life-saving pharmaceuticals to plastics, fuels and fertilizers. Yet manufacturing these important chemicals comes at a steep energy cost.

Many of these industrial chemicals are derived primarily from fossil fuel-based materials. These compounds are typically very stable, making it difficult to transform them into useful products without applying harsh and energy-demanding reaction conditions.

Arindam Sau, a Ph.D. candidate in the ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ Department of Chemistry, along with Colorado State University research colleagues Amreen Bains and Anna Wolff, have been working on a system that uses light to power reactions commonly used in the chemical manufacturing industry.

As a result, transforming these stubborn materials contributes significantly to the world’s overall energy use. In 2022, the industrial sector consumed 37% of the world’s total energy, with the chemical industry responsible for approximately 12% of that demand.

Conventional chemical manufacturing processes use heat to generate the energy needed for reactions that take place at high temperatures and pressures. An approach that uses light instead of heat could lower energy demands and allow reactions to be run under gentler conditions — like at room temperature instead of extreme heat.

Sunlight represents one of the most abundant yet underutilized energy sources on Earth. In nature, this energy is captured through photosynthesis, where plants convert light into chemical energy. Inspired by this process, our team of chemists at the Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis, a research center funded by the National Science Foundation, has been working on a system that uses light to power reactions commonly used in the chemical manufacturing industry. We published our results in the journal Science in June 2025.

We hope that this method could provide a more economical route for creating industrial chemicals out of fossil fuels. At the same time, since it doesn’t rely on super-high temperatures or pressures, the process is safer, with fewer chances for accidents.

How does our system work?

The photoredox catalyst system that our team has developed is powered by simple LEDs, and it operates efficiently at room temperature.

At the core of our system is an organic photoredox catalyst: a specialized molecule that we know accelerates chemical reactions when exposed to light, without being consumed in the process.

Much like how plants rely on pigments to harvest sunlight for photosynthesis, our photoredox catalyst absorbs multiple particles of light, called photons, in a sequence.

These photons provide bursts of energy, which the catalyst stores and then uses to kick-start reactions. This “multi-photon” harvesting builds up enough energy to force very stubborn molecules into undergoing reactions that would otherwise need highly reactive metals. Once the reaction is complete, the photocatalyst resets itself, ready to harvest more light and keep the process going without creating extra waste.

Designing molecules that can absorb multiple photons and react with stubborn molecules is tough. One big challenge is that after a molecule absorbs a photon, it only has a tiny window of time before that energy fades away or gets lost. Plus, making sure the molecule uses that energy the right way is not easy. The good news is we’ve found that our catalyst can do this efficiently at room temperature.

Enabling greener chemical manufacturing

CSU chemistry researcher Amreen Bains performs a light-driven photoredox catalyzed reaction. (Photo: John Cline/Colorado State University Photography)

Our work points toward a future where chemicals are made using light instead of heat. For example, our catalyst can turn benzene — a simple component of crude oil — into a form called cyclohexadienes. This is a key step in making the building blocks for nylon. Improving this part of the process could reduce the carbon footprint of nylon production.

Imagine manufacturers using LED reactors or even sunlight to power the production of essential chemicals. LEDs still use electricity, but they need far less energy compared with the traditional heating methods used in chemical manufacturing. As we scale things up, we’re also figuring out ways to harness sunlight directly, making the entire process even more sustainable and energy-efficient.

Right now, we’re using our photoredox catalysts successfully in small lab experiments — producing just milligrams at a time. But to move into commercial manufacturing, we’ll need to show that these catalysts can also work efficiently at a much larger scale, making kilograms or even tons of product. Testing them in these bigger reactions will ensure that they’re reliable and cost-effective enough for real-world chemical manufacturing.

Similarly, scaling up this process would require large-scale reactors that use light efficiently. Building those will first require designing new types of reactors that let light reach deeper inside. They’ll need to be more transparent or built differently so the light can easily get to all parts of the reaction.

Our team plans to keep developing new light-driven techniques inspired by nature’s efficiency. Sunlight is a plentiful resource, and by finding better ways to tap into it, we hope to make it easier and cleaner to produce the chemicals and materials that modern life depends on.

Arindam Sau is a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Chemistry; Amreen Bains is a postdoctoral scholar in chemistry at Colorado State University; Anna Wolff is a PhD student in chemistry at Colorado State University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Light-powered reactions could make the chemical manufacturing industry more energy-efficient.

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��ý�Ļ��Ʒ scientist receives $1.25 million award for cancer research

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 17:12:44 +0000

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ scientist receives $1.25 million award for cancer research Rachel Sauer Wed, 06/18/2025 - 11:12

Edward Chuong is one of five researchers nationwide awarded funding to pursue ‘daring, paradigm-shifting research’ on cancer immunotherapy treatment

Edward Chuong, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and a BioFrontiers Institute scientist, has been awarded $1.25 million by the New York City-based Cancer Research Institute (CRI) to pursue his cancer immunotherapy research.

Chuong was one of five researchers nationwide who received the unrestricted funding over a five-year period, which CRI said is designed to allow researchers to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects that could redefine cancer treatment. The organization called the researchers “scientific leaders poised to reshape cancer immunotherapy through daring, paradigm-shifting research.”

Edward Chuong, a ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and a BioFrontiers Institute scientist, recently was awarded $1.25 million by the Cancer Research Institute to pursue cancer immunotherapy research.

“These are people who are hitting their stride scientifically and career-wise, and this is where you really want to put some jet fuel in the tank as they are getting established,” said Dr. E. John Wherry, associate director of CRI’s Scientific Advisory Council.

Echoing Wherry’s sentiment, Dr. Alicia Zhou, CRI chief executive officer, added, “Each of these researchers brings fearless curiosity and a willingness to challenge assumptions – the very qualities that drive breakthroughs. They aren’t just advancing cancer science; they are reinventing it.”

Chuong said he was surprised and honored to receive CRI funding for his research.

“As someone from an evolutionary biology background, this award means my outsider ideas are being welcomed into the cancer research community. It’s a huge boost,” he said.

Chuong’s research focuses on the role that ancient viral fragments in human DNA, called transposons, play in regulating immune cell signaling.

“Our lab started out exploring the evolution of transposons—bits of DNA derived from genetic parasites—and discovered they may function as hidden switches in our immune system,” Chuong said. “With this support, we’ll investigate how cancer cells hijack these switches to escape detection, and use that knowledge to develop new markers and therapies that make immunotherapy work better for more patients. I’m grateful to the Cancer Research Institute for supporting this unconventional perspective and I’m incredibly excited to see where it leads.”

Each year, CRI awards funding for scientists to pursue their research through its grant-making program honoring its founding scientific and medical director, Lloyd J. Old. The organization said its Lloyd J. Old STAR program—Scientists TAking Risks—is designed to provide long-term funding to mid-career scientists, giving them the freedom and flexibility to pursue research “at the forefront of discovery and innovation in cancer immunotherapy.”

CRI said its awards are given out based upon its “exceptional track record of identifying and supporting people who have had a major impact in immunotherapy.” The organization said its grants are not tied to a specific research project but rather support outstanding researchers based upon the quality and promise of researchers’ overall work.

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Edward Chuong is one of five researchers nationwide awarded funding to pursue ‘daring, paradigm-shifting research’ on cancer immunotherapy treatment.

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Farm-diversification research wins top international prize

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:03:33 +0000

Farm-diversification research wins top international prize Rachel Sauer Tue, 06/17/2025 - 10:03

Clint Talbott

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ’s Zia Mehrabi is one of three researchers named international champions of the Frontiers Planet Prize for research that finds environmental and social benefits of agricultural diversification

Widespread agricultural diversification could improve the health of the world’s environment and that of its people, a landmark study published last year found.

Zia Mehrabi, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been named one of three international champions in the Frontiers Planet Prize, the Frontiers Research Foundation announced today. Mehrabi and his team will receive $1 million in funding to advance their research.

The Frontiers Planet Prize celebrates breakthroughs in Earth system and planetary science that “address these challenges and enable society to stay within the safe boundaries of the planet’s ecosystem.” The prize puts scientific rigor and ingenuity at its heart, helping researchers worldwide accelerate society toward a green renaissance, the Frontiers Research Foundation says.

Zia Mehrabi, a ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ assistant professor of environmental studies, has been named the U.S. national champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize.

Professor Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, said the planet faces immense threats that require bold, transformative solutions rooted in evidence and validated by science.

“Innovative yet scalable solutions are the only way for us to ensure healthy lives on a healthy planet,” Burgelman said. “By spotlighting the most groundbreaking research, we are helping scientists bring their work to the international stage and provide the scientific consensus needed to guide our actions and policies.”

Mehrabi, who leads the Better Planet Laboratory, was recognized, alongside his co-authors, for an article published last year in the journal Science titled “Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture.”

Laura Vang Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Ingo Grass of the University of Hohenheim in Germany were lead authors of the paper, which had 58 co-authors. Claire Kremen of the University of British Columbia was a senior author and co-principal investigator on the study.

The researchers found that diversifying crops and animals and improving habitat, soil and water conservation on individual farms can improve biodiversity while improving or, at a minimum, not coming at a cost to yields. Additionally, diversified farming can yield social benefits and improve food security—showing improved food access or a reduced number of hungry months, for example, particularly in smallholder systems.

The more diversification measures farms employed, the more benefits accrued, researchers observed. Essentially, the team found evidence to move toward agriculture that more closely reflects natural systems.

“If you look at how ecosystems operate, it’s not just plants growing alone. It’s not just animals or soil,” Mehrabi said last year. “It’s all of these things working together.”

Using data from 2,655 farms across 11 countries and covering five continents, the researchers combined qualitative methods and statistical models to analyze 24 different datasets. Each dataset studied farm sites with varying levels of diversification, including farms without any diversification practices. This allowed the team to assess the effects of applying more diversification strategies.

Diversified farming differs from the dominant model of agriculture: growing single crops or one animal on large tracts of land. That efficient, “monoculture” style of farming is a hallmark of agriculture after the Green Revolution, which reduced global famine by focusing on high-yield crops that rely on fertilizers and pesticides.

“The Green Revolution did many, many great things, but it came with a lot of costs,” Mehrabi says, noting that synthetic fertilizers and pesticides harm the environment.

Also, to increase labor productivity, large farms rely on mechanization, which tends to “replace people with machines.”

“So, the idea of trying to engineer nature into our agricultural systems is somewhat antithetical to the whole way we think about agricultural development,” Mehrabi says.

Making a case for a different way of doing agriculture is one thing. Implementing it on a widespread basis is something else. The dominant view, fostered by “big ag” (short for agriculture), is that “if you want to do ag, you’ve got to do it this way,” Mehrabi says.

“If you look at how ecosystems operate, it’s not just plants growing alone. It’s not just animals or soil. It’s all of these things working together,” says Zia Mehrabi.

“Our work challenges that idea, but it’s a bit of a David-and-Goliath situation,” he adds. “We have the stone, but it hasn’t yet landed.”

But it’s necessary to confront Goliath, Mehrabi contends, noting that agriculture affects all the things people care about environmentally, including climate change, water security, biodiversity, pollution, land use and habitat destruction.

A third of the Earth’s land is used for agriculture, and about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture, he notes. Climate change has reduced agricultural yields by as much as 5% to 10% in the last four decades, research has shown.

“If we want to do something about environmental issues, agriculture is one of the big buckets that we need to really, really start in.”

Separate from the research published in Science, Mehrabi has done modeling of the future state of agriculture globallyif the world continues business-as-usual farming. He found that in the next century, the number of farms is likely to be cut in half and the average size of farms would likely double.

Given that, along with what scientists know about the loss of natural ecosystems as farm sizes increase, “the future looks a little bit bleak,” Mehrabi says. But this new research shows it could be different.

Though he does not suggest that all farms must be small farms, he does advise that agriculture strive to diversify systems that have been “massively depleted and massively simplified.”

About the Frontiers Planet Prize, Mehrabi says he and his team are gratified to be recognized as one of three international champions. Additionally, he underscores the importance of the Frontiers Research Foundation’s financial commitment to this kind of research, calling it a “signal” to other funding entities that might follow suit.

“We need to really think about innovation in agriculture,” Mehrabi said. “We all need food to eat. We really need to innovate, and we should put money behind that. It’s worth it.”

Launched by the Frontiers Research Foundation on Earth Day 2022, the prize encourages universities worldwide to nominate their top three scientists working on understanding and putting forward pathways to stay within the safe operating space of nine planetary boundaries that are outlined by the Stockholm Resilience Center.

These nominations are then vetted at the national level, and the top scientists face an independent jury of 100—a group of renowned sustainability and planetary health experts chaired by Professor Johan Rockström—who vote for the National and International Champions.

Read a guest opinion by Zia Mehrabi and co-authors at this link. See a Q&A with Mehrabi about adding carbon-footprint labels on food at this link.

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Alum’s resumé: veterinarian, reality TV star, stand-up comic

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 17:15:10 +0000

Alum’s resumé: veterinarian, reality TV star, stand-up comic Rachel Sauer Mon, 06/09/2025 - 11:15

Bradley Worrell

As he muses about conservation, 1970s Boulder and how Keith Richards prompted him to finish his college career, Kevin Fitzgerald still has his sights on crafting the perfect joke

Did you hear the one about the veterinarian who is also a stand-up comedian?

It’s no joke.

It’s the very real-life story of University of Colorado Boulder alum Kevin Fitzgerald, who is a staple of the Denver comedy scene and who has opened for such nationally recognized acts as Joan Rivers, George Lopez, Jeff Foxworthy and Saturday Night Live alums Kevin Nealon and Norm Macdonald.

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ alumnus Kevin Fitzgerald (right) with the late Norm Macdonald (left), for whom Fitzgerald opened. (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald has spent the past four decades working as a Denver veterinarian who specializes in treating exotic animals and has become something of a celebrity as one of the featured vets on Animal Planet’s popular TV series “Emergency Vets.”

Fitzgerald is also a wildlife conservationist—and with the recent publication of his autobiography It Started with a Turtle—he adds “published author” to his growing list of job titles.

The Denver native enjoys talking about his experiences as a comedian and a veterinarian, but most of all he enjoys reminiscing about his time at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ, where he earned his undergraduate, master’s and PhD degrees. He says the lessons he learned in the classrooms—and in the local music venues where he worked security—shaped him into the man he is today.

“Boulder is a magical place,” he says. “Boulder has a different feel than other college towns—and the campus is absolutely beautiful. I first visited when I was in high school and I decided then and there that it was the place for me.”

Raised in a working class home, Fitzgerald says receiving a scholarship for being on the swim team made it possible for him to be able to attend college starting in 1969.

For his undergraduate degree, Fitzgerald majored in biology, and he credits biology Professor Dick Jones; Professor Hobart Smith, then chairman of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Professor David Chiszar, who was an internationally renowned herpetologist known for his work with rattlesnakes; and history Professor Charles “Chuck” Middleton, whom Fitzgerald says made history come alive, with being mentors.

“Even back then, ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ was known as a party school, but if you wanted to, you could get a great education there,” he says. “They didn’t so much teach you as inspire you. I had wonderful mentors who wanted me to succeed.”

Fitzgerald says his initial plan upon entering college was to get his bachelor’s degree from ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and then attend Colorado State University to receive a veterinary degree. However, there was a waiting list to get into the CSU veterinarian program at the time, so Fitzgerald says Jones convinced him to continue pursuing his education at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ by obtaining his master’s and PhD degrees, which he did.

“I’m still reaping the benefits of that wonderful education every day,” he says.

Working security for a hamburger and $1.35 an hour

To earn extra money for school, not long after arriving on the Boulder campus Fitzgerald took a job working for Chuck Morris (the future CEO/president of national concert promoter AEG Live), who hosted concerts at local music venues including Tulagi and The Sink.

“There were so many great venues in Boulder at the time,” Fitzgerald recalls. “There was Tulagi, the Blue Note, The Olympic, Shannon’s, the Good Earth and J.J. McCabes. The music venues were legendary—and they hosted a lot of great bands before they became famous. Not just rock bands, but soul bands and country bands, so there was something for everyone. There was just so much great music.”

Kevin Fitzgerald has been a staple of the Denver comedy scene for many years. (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Fitzgerald’s job working as a bouncer for local music venues led to jobs working security for concert promoters Bill Graham and Barry Fey, who produced nationwide shows featuring musical acts including The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, The Eagles, The Who, Jethro Tull and The Rolling Stones.

Years later, Fitzgerald still recalls Fey’s simple job pitch: “I’m going to pay you a buck-thirty-five an hour and give you a hamburger every shift and you’re going to meet more girls than Frank Sinatra.”

Fitzgerald says he has many fond memories of those times and particularly of the bands who performed—especially The Rolling Stones, who he says never forgot their roots and gave selflessly for some special fans.

“Back in the day, before handicapped seating was widely made available, people in wheelchairs didn’t get good seats at concerts and they were stigmatized by making them all sit together. It was awful,” he recalls. “So, before every show The Rolling Stones did, Mick Jagger would ask me: ‘How many (handicapped) chairs are there, and in which section, Kevin?’

“‘I’d say, ‘23 chairs and they’re in section three.’

“Jagger would grab 23 cassette tapes and 23 concert T-shirts. He’d put a towel over his head or put a hoodie up and he’d personally go to the wheelchair section and hand out a cassette tape and a T-shirt to each person. He’d say, ‘Thanks a million for coming; we couldn’t do it without you,’” Fitzgerald recalls. “He didn’t do it as a photo op; he specifically kept himself covered up so the rest of the concertgoers wouldn’t know what he was up to.

“People can say whatever they want about The Rolling Stones, about Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but they didn’t forget where they came from,” he adds. “And Mick would always say, ‘We’re blessed. You know, Kevin, we can’t forget how lucky we are.’ That really made an impression on me.”

What’s more, Fitzgerald credits Richards with prompting him to go back to college to get his veterinary degree.

“I remember we were in Philadelphia for a show, with more tour dates coming up, and I was unsure what I should be doing with my life. I was talking about it with my boss, Jimmy Callahan, who was the head bouncer, and he said, ‘Why don’t you ask Keith?’

“I knew Keith, so I asked him: ‘Should I stick with you guys, or should I go back to school?’

“And Keith said, ‘Oh, no, go back to school. Do you really want to be a bouncer at (age) 50?’

“When Keith Richards says something, he’s the coolest cat in the world. So, I got on a plane and I came back to Denver,” Fitzgerald says. “My brother picked me up at the airport, and I said, ‘Keith told me to get a grip on my life and go back to school.’ And my brother said, ‘Well, when Keith says something, you better do it.’ So, I applied to veterinarian school again and I got in.”

Becoming a vet … and a reality TV star

Kevin Fitzgerald has been a veterinarian in Denver for the past four decades and is one of the featured vets on Animal Planet’s popular TV series “Emergency Vets.” (Photo: Kevin Fitzgerald)

Fitzgerald obtained his degree in veterinarian medicine from CSU in 1983. He later took a job with the Alameda East Veterinary Hospital in Denver, where he has been working for the past 40 years.

“Veterinary medicine is a harsh mistress. It asks a lot of us (vets), but it’s very rewarding,” he says. “It’s been a wonderful career for me. To be successful, you have to love animals, but you also have to love people.

“Sometimes people would tell me, ‘My daughter would be a great veterinarian. She hates people but she’s great with animals.’ And I would always say, ‘No, no, no. People have to trust you when they bring their animal to you, so it’s important that you are able to connect with them.’”

Fitzgerald’s role at the Denver animal hospital became much more widely recognized starting in 1998, with the launch of the Animal Planet’s TV show Emergency Vets. At the time, the TV series ER was hugely popular, and the producer believed a reality show about veterinarians treating all types of animals would appeal to Animal Planet viewers, Fitzgerald says. That proved to be the case, as the show and its successor, E-Vet Interns, ran for a combined 11 seasons, and were two of the network’s top-rated shows.

“For me, it was just too weird to watch myself on TV, but it was quite an experience,” Fitzgerald says. “People started recognizing me from the show. Once, I was at the Denver airport and this young kid was staring at me. Finally, he said, ‘You look like that guy from the TV show on Animal Planet.’

“I said, ‘I am that guy,’ and the kid says, ‘Yeah, you wish,’” Fitzgerald says with a laugh.

He says his work as a veterinarian led naturally to his conservancy work. He has served on the Denver Zoo’s board of directors since 2009 and has been involved in several projects, including the creation of a huge nature conservancy in Mongolia.

“There’s 10 million other forms of life on this planet besides us, and we were given this wonderful biodiversity. Those animals are waiting for us to use our intellect to save this place,” he says. “We’re borrowing this planet from our grandchildren, so we have to win this one, because we’re given just this one planet. Realizing that, that’s how I went from veterinary medicine to conservation.”

‘Like being shot out of canon’

While being a veterinarian, an Animal Planet reality TV star and conservationist might seem to all naturally fit together, Fitzgerald acknowledges becoming a stand-up comedian is a less obvious choice to add to the mix. He says he was inspired to do so in part by watching comedians perform as the opening act for bands where he provided security and by seeing one of his friends perform.

“I started doing stand-up in 1986. At the time, a friend of mine was doing comedy, and he didn’t seem that funny to me, but he was getting paid to do it. I told myself, ‘I can at least be as bad as that guy,’” he says with a laugh.

The appeal for doing stand-up comes partly from the enjoyment of making people laugh and partly from the exhilaration of being on a stage, Fitzgerald says, explaining, “The feeling is like being shot out of a cannon.”

It took some trial and error in the beginning, Fitzgerald admits, before he developed his own comedic timing. The strategy he settled on involved trying to tell as many jokes as he could in rapid-fire succession at the start and telling jokes that would appeal to the broadest audience demographic.

“My job is to tell jokes that make everyone laugh—the old guy and the young guy, the black guy and the white guy, the man and the woman sitting next to him,” he says. “I don’t think it works to say, ‘This is a young person’s joke; you wouldn’t understand.’ The best jokes touch everyone.”

Fitzgerald’s brand of comedy was on full display during a recent Sunday evening show at a south Denver comedy club, where he was zinging his audience with one-liners about being an old guy:

“Our lives are short, but they are beautiful. My whole life, whatever I’ve done, has been small and beautiful. The fate of the Western world doesn’t hang on the balance of what I do in the exam rooms with people and their animals, but I try to make my little side of the street better as a veterinarian and also with my conservation efforts.”

“I’m so old my kindergarten had a smoking section.”
“I’m so old I can remember Preparation A.”
“I’m so old that I can run for president in a few years.”

Bathed under white stage lights, Fitzgerald’s flowing white hair gave credence to his position as a veteran of standup comedy, but those jokes about his age (he’s 73) were just a warm-up to a set that ran more than an hour long, and which also included several humorous stories about being a veterinarian and a reality TV star and concluded with a reading from his new book talking about the importance of being kind to animals and people.

Sharing life lessons in print

Fitzgerald says he’s accumulated so many stories and bits of wisdom over the years that he wanted to share with people in a book, but he says that his active veterinary practice and many civic and social commitments made that difficult to do. That changed, however, once COVID-19 pandemic brought much of the world to a yearlong standstill.

“It seemed like the perfect time to get my thoughts down on paper,” he says, adding, “We only have so many days, so we have to make them count.

“Our lives are short, but they are beautiful. My whole life, whatever I’ve done, has been small and beautiful. The fate of the Western world doesn’t hang on the balance of what I do in the exam rooms with people and their animals, but I try to make my little side of the street better as a veterinarian and also with my conservation efforts.

“And I’m not done yet,” he adds. “I still think I’m going to write the perfect joke. I’m 73 and I’m still going to see my pet patients every workday. I can’t bounce anymore, but I still love listening to music.”

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As he muses about conservation, 1970s Boulder and how Keith Richards prompted him to finish his college career, Kevin Fitzgerald still has his sights on crafting the perfect joke.

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��ý�Ļ��Ʒ prof named Boettcher Investigator

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 18:38:17 +0000

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ prof named Boettcher Investigator Rachel Sauer Fri, 06/06/2025 - 12:38

Assistant Professor Jennifer Hill is one of seven Colorado researchers to be recognized by the Boettcher Foundation for their pioneering biomedical research

The Boettcher Foundation and Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) have named Assistant Professor Jennifer H. Hill with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and BioFrontiers Institute as one of seven outstanding early-career biomedical researchers.

Each scientist will receive a $250,000 grant through the Boettcher Foundation’s Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program to support up to three years of independent scientific research, with total grant funding reaching $1.75 million.

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ scientist Jennifer Hill, an assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, has been named a 2025 Boettcher Investigator.

“It’s a huge honor to be selected as one of this year’s Boettcher Investigators, especially given the depth of groundbreaking biomedical research in Colorado,” Hill said. “The award gives my lab the resources to explore the relevance of our work in human tissues, bringing us closer to our goal of preventing type 1 diabetes in children. As a young investigator, receiving funds like these goes a long way to help offset some of the anxiety and uncertainty in the current federal funding landscape.”

This year’s class represents the next generation of scientific excellence and marks another milestone in Boettcher Foundation’s 16-year commitment to strengthening Colorado’s biomedical research ecosystem, according to the Boettcher Foundation. The Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards provide crucial early-career support and position recipients to compete for additional private, state and federal research funding.

“We are delighted to support our 2025 Boettcher Investigators, and as champions of their work, we are confident that these researchers will continue to spark new discoveries and drive innovation in medicine,” said Katie Kramer, president and CEO of the Boettcher Foundation. “The far-reaching impact of our Investigators’ research extends well beyond the lab—each advancement sets in motion a ripple effect that benefits patients, strengthens Colorado’s scientific community, and inspires future breakthroughs. We are proud to invest in these remarkable scientists, whose dedication and creativity are shaping a healthier future for all.”

Hill is a microbe scientist who studies the connection between the pancreas and microbes in the gut, examining microbiota in the development of insulin-producing beta cells. Four Boettcher Investigators with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and two with Colorado State University are pursuing research into fields including osteoarthritis, autism spectrum disorder, cancer and autoimmune diseases, and developmental and neurological disorders.

Since its inception, the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program has supported 113 Boettcher Investigators, including this year’s class, and awarded close to $27 million in grant funding. These researchers have gone on to secure more than $150 million in additional research funding from federal, state and private sources, according to the Boettcher Foundation.

“Colorado BioScience Association is grateful to the Boettcher Foundation for its continued investment in the next generation of scientific leaders in our state,” said Elyse Blazevich, president and CEO of Colorado BioScience Association. “The Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards provide essential early-career funding that empowers researchers to remain in Colorado and advance their discoveries within our world-class academic and research institutions. We are honored to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2025 class of Boettcher Investigators.”

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Assistant Professor Jennifer Hill is one of seven Colorado researchers to be recognized by the Boettcher Foundation for their pioneering biomedical research.

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Tree rings offer clues to small-population growth

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:54:21 +0000

Tree rings offer clues to small-population growth Rachel Sauer Thu, 06/05/2025 - 09:54

Daniel Long

In a recently published paper, PhD student Ellen Waddle and her coauthors provide some clarity on a decades-old problem

When researching what drives the growth of small populations, ecologists consider several factors, says Ellen Waddle, a PhD student in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

“There’s climate. There’s density, which can be thought of as both the total number of individuals in a population or how crowded or spread out individuals are. And then there’s stochasticity, which is this big word that just means variance” or random chance.

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ scientists Ellen Waddle (left), a PhD student in ecology and evolutionary biology, and Dan Doak (right), a professor of environmental studies, and their research colleagues found "that climate data alone did a pretty poor job of predicting population growth (in small tree populations)."

But whether any of these drivers matters more than the others is a question that has challenged researchers since at least the 1950s, and one that Waddle and her coauthors Mark R. Lesser, Christopher Steenbock and Dan Doak take up in a paper recently published in Ecology and Evolution.

Time and perspective

Researchers have tended to fall into opposing camps with this question, Waddle explains.

“There’s a lot of people that think if we can perfectly predict what the climate’s going to be in an area, we’re going to be able to perfectly predict how that population is going to grow through time. And then you have another set of ecologists that argue, well, it also really matters how many individuals you have in the population.”

Yet in their paper, Waddle and her coauthors come to a less divisive conclusion. By analyzing the rings of two long-lived tree species, Ponderosa pine and limber pine, “we found that climate data alone did a pretty poor job of predicting population growth. We needed to include other drivers (in our predictive models), like competitive density effects and stochasticity, to accurately reconstruct population dynamics over time.”

This means that no individual driver proved more influential than the others. They all mattered.

Which was somewhat surprising, Waddle says, considering the long timescale she and her colleagues were dealing with—many hundreds of years. (The oldest tree they sampled dates back to 1470, half a century before Queen Elizabeth I was born.)

“We're averaging over such a long timeframe that you might be tempted to think that random fluctuations and stochasticity are less important, but this sort of study highlights that that's not always true. There's a lot of uncertainty in how long it's going to take small populations to grow.”

“The most important aspect of our work, to my mind,” adds Doak, professor of environmental studies at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and head of the Doak Lab, “is showing that simplifying assumptions we often make about population growth don’t seem to hold up.”

‘The entire history of a tree’s life’

Tree rings, says Waddle, are a gold standard for measuring a tree’s history, one with which most people are familiar. The center, or pith, signifies when the tree established, or secured its roots and became capable of growing on its own, and each concentric ring around it represents a year of growth.

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ researchers studied small populations of Ponderosa pine (seen here) and limber pine to better understand how drivers such as climate data and competitive density affect growth. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

But for their study, Waddle and her coauthors used tree rings—in the form of tree cores, or centimeter-wide rods extracted from living tree trunks—a little differently.

“What we did, which has not been done often, was to core every single tree in the population,” says Waddle, which enabled her and her coauthors to get a clearer picture of how tree populations changed over time than they would have gotten coring only a handful of trees.

“Another way to put it: The tree core data basically allows us to reconstruct annual censuses of population from start (1400s-1500s) through present day because we can know exactly how many individuals were alive in each year and when each individual first established.”

The tree-core samples themselves came from Bighorn Basin, a mountain-encircled plateau region in north-central Wyoming about 500 miles from Boulder. Waddle collected some of the tree cores herself in 2017, while an undergrad at CU, for what turned out to be her first camping experience.

Yet the bulk of the core samples owe their existence to Lesser and Steenbock. Lesser alone cored around 1,100 Ponderosa pines between 2007 and 2008, in hot, sometimes tense conditions.

“We (Lesser and an undergraduate field technician) would start hiking to the first trees of the day typically around 5 a.m. to avoid the worst of the heat,” Lesser recalls. “Trekking up dry streambeds to reach the trees we would encounter multiple rattlesnakes each morning and on one occasion a mountain lion that set us on edge for the rest of the day! Many days we would core fewer than 20 trees due to the low density of the population and the ruggedness of the terrain—getting from one tree to the next often took an hour or more negotiating cliff faces, ravines and steep slopes.”

But the effort, he says, was worth it.

“Coring the trees itself was an incredibly rewarding experience—sizing up the tree to get a sense of its shape and where the pith was and then extracting the entire history of its life!”

Pick a species, any species

This research on small-population growth is no small matter, says Doak, “because all populations start small,” and “understanding what controls the growth of new populations has a new urgency as we try to predict whether wild species can shift their ranges to keep up with climate change.”

“Pick some species you care about,” says Waddle, who is currently writing her dissertation on how mountain terrain affects plant species’ ability to follow their preferred climate. “What I care about might be different than what someone else cares about, but there’s probably a species that matters to you, whether it’s a food species or your favorite animal.

“If we want to help keep those populations on the landscape, we need to know how small populations grow and how they persist.”

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In a recently published paper, PhD student Ellen Waddle and her coauthors provide some clarity on a decades-old problem.

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But how’s the atmosphere there?

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 18:10:46 +0000

But how’s the atmosphere there? Rachel Sauer Wed, 06/04/2025 - 12:10

Rachel Sauer

In newly published research, ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ scientists study a rocky exoplanet outside our solar system, learning more about whether and how planets maintain atmospheres

In June 2019, Harvard astrophysicists discovered a rocky exoplanet 22 light years from Earth. Analyzing data from the Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS), they and other scientists around the world learned key details about the rocky exoplanet named LTT 1445 A b: It is almost 1.3 times the radius of Earth and 2.7 times Earth’s mass and orbits its M-dwarf star every 5.4 days.

What they couldn’t ascertain from those data, however, was whether LTT 1445 A b has an atmosphere, “and that’s a big general question even in our own solar system: What sets how much atmosphere a planet has?” says Zach Berta-Thompson, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences. “Atmospheres matter for life, so before we go searching for life on other planets, we need to understand a very basic question—why does a planet have atmosphere or not have atmosphere?”

Pat Wachiraphan (left), a PhD student in the ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, and Zach Berta-Thompson (right), an assistant professor in the department, collaborated with colleagues around the country to study JWST data about rocky exoplanet LTT 1445 A b.

Now, after detailed analysis of data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a lot more is known—and was recently published—about LTT 1445 A b, whether it has an atmosphere and what its atmosphere might be if it has one. ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ researchers partnered with astrophysicists around the country to build on previous research that ruled out a light hydrogen/helium-dominated atmosphere but could not distinguish between a cloudy atmosphere, an atmosphere composed of heavier molecules like carbon dioxide or a bare rock.

The paper’s first author, Pat Wachiraphan, a PhD student studying astrophysical and planetary sciences, Berta-Thompson and their colleagues analyzed three eclipses of LTT 1445 A b from the JWST, watching the planet disappear behind its star and measuring how much infrared light the planet emits. From this, they were able to rule out the presence of a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere like the one on Venus, which has about 100 times more atmosphere than Earth. This highlights an important aspect of science: Sometimes just as much is learned from understanding what something isn’t as from defining what it is.

“What I think should be the next step, naturally, is to ask whether we might detect an Earth-like atmosphere?” Wachiraphan says.

Not like Venus

LTT 1445 A b is one of the closest-to-Earth rocky exoplanets transiting a small star, Wachiraphan notes, and thus one of the easiest to target when studying whether and how it and similar rocky exoplanets hold atmospheres.

The JWST is more sensitive to atmospheres of transiting exoplanets around smaller stars, and LTT 1445 A b transits one of the smallest known type stars—about 20 to 30% the radius of Earth’s sun.

In November 2020, Berta-Thompson and several colleagues submitted a proposal to the Space Telescope Science Institute, the international consortium that decides where JWST is pointed and for how long, “before the telescope had even launched,” he says. “Scientists from all over the world send in anonymized proposals where we make our case for why (JWST) should spend hours looking at this particular patch of the sky and what we would be able to learn from that.

“A panel reads through the proposals, ranks them, from which a lucky 5% to 10% will be selected as the best possible scientific use of the telescope. It is such a precious resource that we care really deeply that the choices about who gets to use the telescope are made fairly; every minute of its time is accounted for.”

Rocky exoplanet LTT 1445 A b is in a three-star system; the star it orbits is an M-type star, also known as a red dwarf. (Artists' illustration: Luis L. Calçada and Martin Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory)

Studying data from three eclipses sent back by JWST, Wachiraphan, Berta-Thompson and their colleagues were able to chart thermal emission consistent with instant reradiation of incoming stellar energy from a hot planet dayside. “This bright dayside emission is consistent with emission from a dark rocky surface, and it disfavors a thick, 100-bar, Venus-like CO2 atmosphere,” the researchers noted.

“So, you can imagine that if you have a planet that is just a rock, with no atmosphere, it would be hot on day side and cold on the night side, but if it has atmosphere, then the atmosphere could redistribute heat from day to night,” Wachiraphan says.

In the case of LTT 1445 A b, “we were basically putting an infrared thermometer up to the planet’s forehead and learned its average temperature is around 500 Kelvin,” Berta-Thompson says. “The whole planet is like the inside of a hot oven, basically.

Based on the data sent back by JWST, there could be several ways to detect atmosphere on LTT 1445 A b. “We came up with an observation with this planet passing behind its star. When the planet is behind its star, we’d just get light from the star itself, but before and after the eclipse we’d get a little contribution from the planet itself, too.” Wachiraphan explains. “But you can also detect an atmosphere when a planet passes in front of its star. “The starlight coming out could pass through the atmosphere of the planet and get absorbed, and we could observe that absorption.”

More observations are currently planned for LTT 1445 A b, led by other scientists and using this complementary method of observation, Berta-Thompson says—of collecting data as the planet transits in front of its star. “There’s a lot more we can learn using different wavelengths of light and different methods that allow us to more sensitively probe these thinner atmospheres.”

Like the inside of a hot oven

One of the most fascinating questions for researchers studying exoplanets, Berta-Thopson says, is “what does it take for a planet to retain or maintain atmosphere? Learning more about that is an important step in the process toward finding a planet maybe like this one—that has a surface, has an atmosphere, is a little farther away from its star, where you can imagine it has liquid water at the surface. Then you’re asking, ‘Is this a place where life could potentially thrive? Is there a place where life is thriving?”

These questions are so interesting, in fact, that they’ve prompted the formation of the Rocky Worlds Program, with which Wachiraphan and Berta-Thompson will work closely, to support international collaboration on the next phases of exploration of rocky exoplanets using satellite data.

“Using this really magnificent telescope that is the collective effort of thousands of people over decades, let alone the broader community that found this planet, is the kind of thing that is under threat right now,” Berta-Thompson says. “All of this science and this discovery requires a really long, big, sustained investment in telescopes, in scientists, in education.”

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In newly published research, ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ scientists study a rocky exoplanet outside our solar system, learning more about whether and how planets maintain atmospheres.

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Rocky exoplanet LTT 1445 A b tightly orbits its parent star, which in turn orbits two other stars in a three-star system. (Artist's rendering of LTT 1445 A b: Martin Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory)

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You said a moth-ful

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:09:34 +0000

You said a moth-ful Rachel Sauer Wed, 06/04/2025 - 10:09

Ryan St Laurent

It’s miller moth season in Colorado—an entomologist explains why they’re important and where they’re headed

It is spring on the Front Range of Colorado, which means before long the region will receive an influx of many, many moths.

Colorado is home to thousands of species of moths, many of which are hatching out from a winter of hibernation, known as diapause.

At night, porch lights, stadium lights and street lamps are regularly visited by moths, a collective term for most of the nocturnal members of the insect order called Lepidoptera. Butterflies are also part of this order, but they are mostly diurnal, or active during the day. Butterflies are actually just a subset of moths, so all butterflies are moths, but not all moths are butterflies.

Ryan St Laurent is a ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and CU Museum curator of entomology.

The Front Range lies on the path of a springtime migration of a particularly familiar species of moth, usually referred to in this part of the country, including Colorado and neighboring states, as “miller moths.” Miller moth caterpillars are often called the “army cutworm,” a whimsical name referring to the caterpillars’ tendency to reach large numbers that march across fields and roads to find food. Both the moths and their caterpillars are rather drab and brown in color, though the moths are variable in patterning.

Many people find miller moths to be a nuisance, and the caterpillars can be a pest. But miller moths are a native species to Colorado and play important roles across the plains and up into the high country.

I am an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology as well as the curator of the entomology collection at the University of Colorado’s Natural History Museum in Boulder. I study moths from around the world. I have a particular fascination for the large moth group known as Noctuoidea, the superfamily to which miller moths and their relatives belong.

As an entomologist, I crisscross the state looking for moths for my ongoing evolutionary, classification and life history studies. During miller moth migrations, they may swarm my moth traps, which are made up of a bright light in front of a white sheet. The crush of miller moths makes finding the less common species that I am looking for all the more challenging in a sea of dusty brown.

What makes miller moths so unique?

In temperate regions like most of North America, most moth species hibernate in the cold winter months. During this time, they are in a dormant pupal stage. Some species spin cocoons. They then hatch into adult moths, mate, lay eggs, and those caterpillars grow during the spring and summer. Come fall, the cycle starts over.

While miller moths also have a hibernation period, it is not like that of most moths. Miller moths instead spend their winters on the plains of eastern Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska and nearby states as partially grown caterpillars, rather than a pupa, having gotten a head start on feeding in the late summer. This puts the caterpillars at an advantage. As soon as the weather warms and low-lying crops like wheat and alfalfa produce new, nutrient-rich foliage during the early spring, the caterpillars are right there ready to feast and may cause serious damage to the crops in outbreak years.

Pupation then occurs later in the spring, and unlike in most Lepidoptera, the adult moths hatch without an extended pupal diapause, and instead begin to migrate west. They travel more than 100 miles (roughly 160 kilometers) toward higher elevations to seek out flowering plants, feeding on nectar and pollinating as they go.

To spot and trap moths, entomologists set up bright lights in front of a white background. (Photo: Ryan St Laurent)

This migration is where folks on the Front Range become all too familiar with these weary travelers, who seek out narrow spaces to rest, often crawling into gaps in cars and homes. Inside a home, miller moths don’t feed, reproduce or lay eggs. Sudden agitation of the resting moths may cause them to fly about to seek out a new spot to hide – that is, if your house cat doesn’t see them first. If they do make their way inside, they can be easily swept into a cup or jar and let outside.

People on the Front Range experience a second run-in with these moths after they finish their summer of feeding in the mountains and head back to the plains to lay their eggs in the fields from August to September.

The call of the night

The importance of pollinators is familiar to many Coloradans. The state offers many resources and groups to help create spaces to attract butterflies and bees, including an initiative that designated Interstate Highway 76 as the “Colorado Pollinator Highway.”

But pollination does not stop when the sun goes down. In fact, moths make up the largest percentage of pollinators in terms of number of species globally – more than bees and butterflies combined. But scientists have yet to figure out which plants miller moths pollinate.

Despite the importance of moths as pollinators to agriculture and ecology, by comparison to bees, for example, we know exceedingly little about nocturnal pollinators. Of the thousands of moth species in Colorado, many hundreds remain unknown to science. One of the reasons scientists study moths is to literally shed a light on these insects in the environment to see what they are doing.

My work aims to understand what certain moths eat in their caterpillar stage, but other researchers, and my colleague Dr. Julian Resasco, at the University of Colorado Boulder, study what plants the adults are feeding on as they pollinate.

Colorado moths

Moths are among the primary airborne insects at night, playing a significant, and perhaps leading, role in insect-feeding bat diets. During their migration to the mountains, there are so many miller moths that they are a substantial protein- and fat-rich meal for animals as large as bears.

Considering that we still know so little about moths, it’s important to realize that light pollution, habitat loss and agricultural chemicals are all impacting moth numbers, resulting in annual declines in these insects globally.

So, the next time you see a miller moth in Colorado, or any moth at a light anywhere on Earth, remember that it’s working the night shift. Turn out that light so it can go about its way.

Ryan St Laurent is an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and CU Museum curator of entomology the at the University of Colorado Boulder.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

It’s miller moth season in Colorado—an entomologist explains why they’re important and where they’re headed.

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��ý�Ļ��Ʒ physicist wins Brown Investigator Award

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 19 May 2025 16:00:00 +0000

��ý�Ļ��Ʒ physicist wins Brown Investigator Award Rachel Sauer Mon, 05/19/2025 - 10:00

Physics Professor Cindy Regal is one of eight investigators recognized for curiosity-driven research in chemistry or physics who will receive up to $2 million over five years

Cindy Regal, professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been named a 2025 Brown Investigator, the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech announced today.

Regal, who is also Baur-SPIE Chair at JILA, a joint institute of ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and NIST, is one of eight scientists to gain this distinction, which carries up to $2 million in support over five years.

Brown Investigator Awards are given to mid-career faculty working on fundamental challenges in the physical sciences, particularly those with potential long-term practical applications in chemistry and physics, the institute stated.

Cindy Regal, a ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ professor of physics, has been named a 2025 Brown Investigator.

Regal aims to use the research support to demonstrate quantum entanglement—a connection between particles like photons or atoms that persists despite their physical distance—with objects of larger mass than have been entangled before.

Regal said the Brown Investigator Award is a thrilling opportunity for her research group. “The Brown Institute’s focus on fundamental and risky studies will allow us to explore quantum mechanical phenomena in a regime that is enticing to physicists and for future impact, yet also exceedingly difficult to achieve in the laboratory,” she said, adding:

“We are keen to try a new concept in precision optical measurement and control that we hypothesize will generate quantum states in ever-larger and more tangible mechanical excitations. These explorations would not be possible to embark on without the unique resources provided to Brown Investigators.”

Regal earned a BA in physics summa cum laude from Lawrence University in Wisconsin in 2001 and a PhD in physics from ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ in 2006. She did postdoctoral research at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ and at the California Institute of Technology before joining the ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ faculty in 2010.

She won the Cottrell Scholars Frontiers in Research Excellence and Discovery Award in 2020, was named fellow of the American Physical Society in 2017 and won the CO-Labs Colorado Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research in 2016.

The Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech, established in 2023 through a $400-million gift to the Institute from entrepreneur, philanthropist and alumnus Ross M. Brown (BS '56, MS '57), seeks to advance fundamental science discoveries with the potential to seed breakthroughs that benefit society—a goal it shares with Caltech.

"Mid-career faculty are at a time in their careers when they are poised and prepared to make profound contributions to their fields," Brown said.

"My continuing hope is that the resources provided by the Brown Investigator Awards will allow them to pursue riskier innovative ideas that extend beyond their existing research efforts and align with new or developing passions, especially during this time of funding uncertainty."

Brown established the Investigator Awards in 2020 through the Brown Science Foundation in support of the belief that "scientific discovery is a driving force in the improvement of the human condition," according to its news release from the Science Philanthropy Alliance, which helped guide Brown in realizing his philanthropic vision.

"We're delighted to partner with Ross Brown and the members of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences to identify and support outstanding investigators in fundamental chemistry and physics," said Caltech Provost David A. Tirrell, Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair and Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

A total of 21 investigators were recognized in the first four years of the program, including eight in the 2024 class, the first cohort to be installed under the auspices of the Brown Institute for Basic Sciences at Caltech.

Brown Investigators from all cohorts are invited to an annual meeting that offers opportunities to share ideas. The second annual meeting was held at Caltech in February 2025.

To determine the new cohort, a select number of research universities from across the country were invited to nominate faculty members who had earned tenure within the last 10 years and who are doing innovative fundamental research in the physical sciences.

Nominees were then evaluated by an independent scientific review board that recommended grant winners. In administering the program, Caltech refrains from nominating its own scientists for Brown Investigator Awards. In return, the Institute draws other funds from the Brown gift to support fundamental research in chemistry and physics.

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Physics Professor Cindy Regal, also of JILA, is one of eight investigators recognized for curiosity-driven research in chemistry or physics who will receive up to $2 million over five years.

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When the homework is happiness

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 09 May 2025 13:30:00 +0000

When the homework is happiness Rachel Sauer Fri, 05/09/2025 - 07:30

Clint Talbott

June Gruber’s Science of Happiness course doesn’t map the way to unmitigated joy; on the contrary, the science of emotional wellness is more nuanced, and her students are sharing this message outside the classroom

The Declaration of Independence famously extols the “pursuit of happiness.” But what, exactly, is happiness, and how should one pursue it? Also, should we even view it as something to be pursued?

Those questions underlie countless magazine articles, TV documentaries and self-help courses. More rigorously, they’re the focus of a popular Science of Happiness course taught by June Gruber, a professor of psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Gruber’s course does not unfold a map to unmitigated delight. Rather, Gruber’s course pores over the developing research—some of it Gruber’s own—that reveals a more nuanced view and even a “dark side to happiness.” The course also asks students to summarize and share the science of happiness for “outreach” to general audiences.

June Gruber (front row left, checked blazer) and her Science of Happiness students pause for a class photo on the last day of the semester. (Photo: June Gruber)

As Gruber has shown in her peer-reviewed research, a TEDx talk and this ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ course, it is not that happiness is bad. Rather, evidence suggests that happiness is one of several human emotions to which people should be open, and excesses of apparent happiness can signal problems such as mania (or bipolar disorder), excessive spending, problem gambling or high-risk sexual encounters.

Perhaps counterintuitively, Gruber cites a growing body of evidence that the act of pursuing happiness can leave the pursuers, paradoxically, less happy. They report being less able to be emotionally present in moments that could be happy, and they are more likely to experience mood difficulties and anxiety. That’s one “dark side” of happiness.

New evidence for old advice

As it happens, modern science reflects ancient wisdom. In the final class of her spring 2025 semester, Gruber showed her class a quotation from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, “Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

The English philosopher John Stuart Mill, whom Gruber quotes, said, “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness: on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.”

And that “pursuit of happiness” phrase from the Declaration of Independence was lifted from the philosopher John Locke, who said the “highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty.”

Locke himself was influenced by Aristotle and Epicurus, who viewed happiness as a laudable goal but who defined happiness as leading a purposeful and contemplative life. Happiness, Aristotle said, “is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

Gruber discusses this older concept of happiness, sometimes called eudaimonic wellbeing, vs. hedonic wellbeing. Unlike purposeful and meaningful experiences, hedonic pleasures, which tend to be those people in Western societies equate with happiness, are peak experiences, like watching a stunning sunset or blissing out to the “Ode to Joy.”

Putting lessons into practice

In addition to reviewing researchers’ findings and ruminating on ancient wisdom, students in the Science of Happiness course (PSYC 4541) complete weekly “science-to-life” exercises, which apply the theories and practices learned in class to everyday existence.

For instance, students kept gratitude journals, performed random acts of kindness and completed the UPenn Authentic Happiness Inventory. Students also took “awe walks,” in which they visited novel, physically vast spaces and observed their surroundings mindfully.

Beyond the exercises and coursework, the students also have done outreach projects, the goal of which is to share the science of happiness outside the classroom and in the broader community.

One student, Franco Devecchi, produced a flyer highlighting research on the potential benefits of music therapy for those with autism. The flyer cites studies showing evidence that music therapy can strengthen autistic individuals’ sense of well-being, helping them feel more confident, accommodated and socially acceptable.

Devecchi conversed with people in campus buildings in which he distributed the flyers. In one case, Devecchi spoke with another person with autism, recalling, “We bonded over how developmentally important music was for us growing up and discussed the gap in research when it comes to autistic adults!”

Another student, Indiana Wagner, completed an outreach project on the intersection of awe, psychedelics and well-being. Wagner made a presentation to Naropa University’s Intro to Psychedelics Studies course.

Wagner noted that the transformational mechanisms of awe (which can foster happiness) “have a lot of crossover with the transformational mechanisms of the psychedelic experience.”

Wagner added, “Both awe-inducing experiences and psychedelic experiences have the ability to create a sense of ‘mystical experience,’ which can be followed by these transformations; there's a lot of interesting literature, particularly within Johns Hopkins University, on the mystical experience from psilocybin being associated with positive changes.”

Wagner said many of the Naropa students seemed very interested after the presentation and asked questions relating to the subject of awe, how to incorporate it, practice it and Wagner’s own experiences with it.

And student Kate Timothy produced an outreach project on the relationship between sleep, happiness and well-being. Timothy, who completed an honors thesis about sleep disruptions and their effect on Alzheimer’s biomarkers, wanted to further understand how sleep affects well-being and share that knowledge with others.

She developed a trivia event for college students in which the questions focused on how to improve sleep and thus happiness. Timothy is a dormitory worker, and her audience was the dormitory population. “I just asked students as they went by some trivia questions and also passed out some chocolate prizes,” she said. “It was a fun and easy way to get important information about sleep to my peers!”

Gruber has been recognized for her teaching. She is a President’s Teaching Scholar, has won the Boulder Faculty Assembly Teaching Excellence Award, the UROP Outstanding Mentor Award and the Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction. The last award is named for and funded by Craig Cogswell, a three-time alumnus of ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ, who says Gruber is an “amazing educator and teacher.”

Gruber also has developed a free online Coursera #TalkMentalIllness course to tackle stigma and mental health and has written articles for Teaching Current Directions in Psychological Science about the importance of teaching students about the positive side of psychological disorders. She also shares career and professional advice for students in Science Careers. She is currently co-authoring a textbook on the science of happiness with Dacher Keltner and colleagues at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

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