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Three University of Colorado at ÐßÐßÊÓƵ programs receive special recognition in the recently released 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges, including a Top 10 ranking as "environmental studies schools that should be on your radar."

Distinguished Professor Carl Wieman of the University of Colorado at ÐßÐßÊÓƵ has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Dark-colored dust that settles on snow in the Upper Colorado River Basin makes the snow melt early and robs the Colorado River of about 5 percent of its water each year, says a new study co-authored by researchers from the University of Colorado at ÐßÐßÊÓƵ-based Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES.

The University of Colorado Board of Regents today awarded three professors the university's highest faculty honor, designation as Distinguished Professor.

The Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the third-lowest recorded since satellites began measuring sea ice extent in 1979, according to the University of Colorado at ÐßÐßÊÓƵ's National Snow and Ice Data Center.

A team from the University of Colorado at ÐßÐßÊÓƵ has been awarded $6.7 million from NASA to design, develop and test instruments for the fastest space probe ever built, one that will orbit 22 times closer to the sun than Earth and well inside the orbit of Mercury to better understand how the sun ticks.

The University of Colorado at ÐßÐßÊÓƵ's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, or RASEI -- a joint venture with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory -- will partner with Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. in a field study of household experiences and the technical impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHVs, in a "smart grid" environment.

A new University of Colorado at ÐßÐßÊÓƵ study sheds light on the brain mechanisms that allow us to make choices and ultimately could be helpful in improving treatments for the millions of people who suffer from the effects of anxiety disorders.

Professor Thomas Veblen of the geography department can address the ecological effects of wildfires in Colorado; climate change and wildfires; fires and bark beetles; and wildfires. He can be reached at 303-492-8528 or Thomas.Veblen@colorado.edu . E-mail is the best way contact him. Jane Bock, retired professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, can address western wildfire ecology. She can be reached at 970-593-0343 or 303-579-9739, or by e-mail at Jane.Bock@colorado.edu .

Observations made with NASA's newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope of a nearby supernova are allowing astronomers to measure the velocity and composition of "star guts" being ejected into space following the explosion, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at ÐßÐßÊÓƵ.