Sustainability

The History of Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship at CU Boulder

Anna Tolette — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 21:24:05 +0000

The History of Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship at CU Boulder Anna Tolette Mon, 03/09/2026 - 15:24

Sarah Kuta

For years, North Denver residents complained about bad smells wafting through their neighborhoods, but nothing ever seemed to change. Then, they got in touch with Shelly Miller, a CU Boulder professor emerita of mechanical engineering who studies urban air quality.

Miller took their concerns seriously and sprang into action. Working in collaboration with residents and local community organizations, she conducted research to identify the sources of the odors and determine whether and how they might be affecting air quality. As suspected, the pungent aromas were coming from nearby industrial facilities, including a pet food factory, an oil refinery, a roofing plant and an animal rendering plant. Miller’s research also detected higher-than-normal concentrations of air pollutants during stinky periods.

In 2016, as a result of her findings, and with continued lobbying from residents, the City of Denver strengthened its odor ordinance. The new rules didn’t completely solve the problem, but they were a step in the right direction — one that helped make North Denver residents feel seen and heard.

Miller’s efforts are an example of public and community-engaged scholarship, or research that connects with and involves individuals beyond the university and, often, contributes to public conversations and policies.

“A lot of my projects up to that point had been lab-based or more controlled setups,” said Miller. “I started thinking about my contributions to science, and I realized I really wanted to impact people’s lives today.”

For CU Boulder, this kind of research has been crucial to the university’s ethos since its inception 150 years ago. It continues today with innovative scholars like Miller, who are committed to studying and solving real-world problems — everything from reducing wildfire risk to bridging the political divide.

“It’s really essential to our identity as Colorado’s public flagship university,” said David Meens, executive director of the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES), which has helped fund Miller’s air quality work. “The spirit of service is so strong, and it really comes from the ground up. People here want the scholarship they’re producing to be of value to people.”

PACES can involve community members directly in research projects

Engagement with the community was seen as essential for any public institution to be viable.

— David Meens, executive director of the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES)

Engagement Origins

In 1861, Colorado’s first territorial legislature passed a bill to establish the university, though the plans took more than a decade to materialize in Boulder. These lawmakers commissioned the university to educate students, but they also had a much broader goal in mind: serving every resident of Colorado. That charge was later stipulated in a federal land grant and enshrined in the state’s constitution.

“Engagement with the community was seen as essential for any public institution to be viable,” said Meens. “It would take an understanding of its value and buy-in from really diverse communities — geographically, demographically — because its authorizing charge was really about supporting public life in Colorado.”

In 1912, the university established a new extension office to help bring that vision to life. The unit’s first director, Loran D. Osborn, felt the university’s resources were so valuable they should be made available to “individuals who cannot come within the college walls and communities which are seeking information and guidance in solution of the complex problems of modern life,” he wrote in the first University Extension Bulletin in February 1912.

In the ensuing decades, the unit greatly expanded CU Boulder’s footprint throughout Colorado, with offerings like correspondence courses, public lectures, citizenship programs, radio broadcasts and clinics throughout the state. By the 1970s, CU Boulder had become a major national research institution, an identity shift that also broadened its community engagement focus. CU Boulder researchers began pursuing national and international projects, in addition to those closer to home.

That same ethos has carried through to the modern era. In 2001, the university created a new hub to support its community engagement activities, both in Colorado and beyond — the Office for University Outreach, which is now PACES.

Over the last 2.5 decades, PACES has awarded more than $8 million to various projects, from dance programs in rural Colorado communities to clean water initiatives in Africa — a project that ultimately gave rise to Engineers Without Borders USA, now a well-known and longstanding nonprofit.

CU Boulder scholars have also taken a stand against bullying using live theater, worked to make classrooms more inclusive for all students, and helped Rocky Mountain National Park develop new Indigenous history exhibits and programs. They’ve taught underrepresented youth how to code, helped rural communities maintain their historic water distribution philosophies, and delivered free fossil kits to schools around the state.

“We’re really interested in hearing from people directly and listening to the issues they have,” said Meens. “We want to know what’s going on so we can identify resources and folks on campus who might be able to help. We bridge that gap and put those pieces together.”

In addition to addressing the needs of Colorado communities, this type of work benefits CU Boulder students, faculty and staff.

“Engaging in real-world contexts makes research better and more interesting,” said Meens. “Students who participate in these types of experiences learn more, and they have a more positive experience overall. Really, community-engaged scholarship is a tremendous value-add across all of the university’s core activities.”

Force for Good

In November 2025, Chancellor Justin Schwartz moved PACES into the newly formed Outreach and Community Engagement unit within his office — a move that elevates and reaffirms the university’s commitment to public and community-engaged research, teaching and creative work for the years to come.

Externally, PACES will continue fostering authentic relationships across Colorado and beyond. At a time when public confidence in higher education is waning and communities are facing numerous challenges, Meens believes public and community-engaged research will remain a force for good.

“We have a real opportunity,” he said. “We’re in a moment where folks understand the value of collaboration and working to achieve bigger things in ways that are beneficial to everyone. There’s so much more we can achieve.”

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Photos courtesy Shelly Miller

Research involving the community has been crucial to the university’s ethos since its inception 150 years ago.

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Cyborg Jellyfish at CU Boulder

Anna Tolette — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 21:12:40 +0000

Cyborg Jellyfish at CU Boulder Anna Tolette Mon, 03/09/2026 - 15:12

Julia MacLean

It’s not uncommon for people to frequently stop in front of assistant professor Nicole Xu’s mechanical engineering lab, mesmerized by the giant aquarium of drifting moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita). Inside, Xu’s team has created “cyborg” jellies, fitting them with tiny microelectronic devices that steer their movements with pacemaker-like pulses. The technology could transform deep-sea exploration by offering an energy-efficient way to gather climate data in remote waters — and inspire the next generation of ultra-efficient underwater vehicles.

500 million+ years

evolutionarily unchanged

20 years

captive lifespan

2 years

wild lifespan

Data Divers

Energy-efficient

Most efficient swimmers on earth.

Future upgrades

Sensors for temperature, pH, salinity.

Health and safety

of the jellies are prioritized.

Small cameras

enable the study of animals in their natural environments.

Data collection

Information can be collected by swarms of jellyfish at higher spatial and temporal resolutions.

Biohybrid Robots

Moon jellyfish fitted with tiny electronic devices.

Control and steering

Devices simulate swimming muscles like a pacemaker.

Safe

Stinging cells can’t penetrate human skin.

Small sensors

measure changes in the ocean to track climate change.

CU Boulder Program

Part of a Denver Aquarium partnership, which includes well-being checks on the jellies by aquarists.

Goal is affordable, sustainable ocean monitoring.

91��Ѽ Aurelia Aurita (Moon Jellyfish)

Size

As small as one centimeter (half of a penny) or larger than a dinner plate.

Environments

Found in a wide variety of ocean habitats around the world.

Diet

Zooplankton, crustacean larvae, small fish.

Anatomy

No brain, but sensory nerves for movement.

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Photos by Glenn Asakawa

Pioneering research helps us understand more about our oceans.

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CU Research Finds Human Rights Under Threat

Anna Tolette — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 21:11:21 +0000

CU Research Finds Human Rights Under Threat Anna Tolette Mon, 03/09/2026 - 15:11

Yvaine Ye

Deforestation in the Maranhão state of Brazil, July 2016

More than 99% of the world’s 7.7 billion people face at least one threat to their environmental rights, according to a new study.

In 2022, the UN formally recognized that everyone on the planet has the right to a healthy environment. But according to the most comprehensive analysis of environmental inequality to date, CU Boulder researchers found that nearly half of the global population lives in regions facing three or more of the five environmental threats analyzed: polluted air, unsafe water, extreme heat, food insecurity and biodiversity loss.

“Over the years, communities around the world have been fighting for local environmental justice,” said first author Naia Ormaza-Zulueta (PhDEnv St’25), a researcher in CU Boulder’s Better Planet Lab. “We want to stitch their stories into a single, undeniable global tapestry.”

For their study, Ormaza-Zulueta and Zia Mehrabi, a data scientist in the Better Planet Lab, calculated whether an individual in a given location around the world is experiencing, or has recently experienced, any of the five environmental threats that violate their rights.

The team found that almost everyone on Earth lives in a place that has recently experienced at least one of these environmental threats. The report indicated that over 45%, or 3.4 billion people, have at least three rights threatened, and 1.25%, or 95 million people, experienced all five environmental threats studied.

Disadvantaged populations, such as those with lower incomes and those living on Indigenous lands, are far more likely to experience poor air quality, excessive heat and limited access to clean water.

Many of the poor environmental conditions around the globe result from the activities of wealthy nations, the study found. For instance, the large demand for products in the United States and Europe has caused biodiversity loss and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

“No matter where we live, our rights are inherently connected to those of people in other parts of the world,” Ormaza-Zulueta said.

The analysis was published in September 2025 in Environmental Research Communications.

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Photo by Ibama from Brasil

Billions live in environments that violate human rights.

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Deforestation in the Maranhão state of Brazil, July 2016

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Helping Rural Communities Thrive

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:27:13 +0000

Helping Rural Communities Thrive Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:27

In rural Colorado, outdoor recreation is a powerful tool for economic development as it encourages visitors to spend more time and money in local communities. But developing these assets can be an arduous process.

The Rural Technical Assistance program (RTAP) provides pro bono assistance to these small towns with the help of graduate students and faculty in CU Boulder’s Masters of the Environment (MENV) program, federal and state agencies and other higher education partners. Together, they offer community workshops and goal-oriented action plans centered on boosting outdoor recreation.

In the close-knit Colorado community of Beulah, located southwest of Pueblo, neighbors Linda Overlin (Edu’71) and Joel David May (Arch’80) saw the potential of outdoor recreation to enliven their 600-resident town. Supported by the RTAP program, including a two-day graduate student-facilitated workshop, the community prioritized ways to develop its outdoor recreation economy.

Already, they’ve created partnerships with a land conservancy and private landowners to explore how conservation easements and trail developments could help preserve Beulah’s rural ranchlands. The goal is to provide greater connectivity between downtown and Pueblo Mountain Park, which consistently draws many tourists and visitors.

Eight other communities — Keystone, La Junta, Huerfano County, Lake City, Rangely and Dinosaur, Leadville, Hayden, and Cripple Creek — have participated in RTAP.

“Beulah has taught me so much about what ‘community’ means,” said Emily Glass (MEnv’25). “When designed meaningfully,community-engaged work is an opportunity to weave together different perspectives, ideas and expertise that otherwise may not have come together.”

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Photo courtesy Raven Maps & Images

Outdoor recreation can bring more people to small Colorado towns.

CU Boulder’s Rural Technical Assistance Program helps small Colorado towns like Beulah leverage outdoor recreation to boost their local economies.

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Spruce Gulch: Grounds for Discovery

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:23:57 +0000

Spruce Gulch: Grounds for Discovery Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:23

Jess Winterley

It was a hot summer day in the early 1990s when Linda Holubar Sanabria (A&S’67) spied the enemy. Tall and deceptively pretty, bearing its hallmark lavender-colored, black-tipped flowers: the spotted knapweed. This noxious weed had quietly claimed Holubar’s family ranch as its home, and she soon discovered it was taking up residence on at least 50 acres of the sprawling 493-acre property — of which 476 acres are now known as the Spruce Gulch Wildlife and Research Reserve — which Holubar inherited from her family in 1994.

For the next 15 years, Holubar dedicated the quiet of dawn and the cool of dusk to eradicating the invasive plant, which arrived via contaminated batches of grass seed dispersed by the U.S. Forest Service after a 1988 fire. Leaving the knapweed unchecked was not an option for Holubar and her spouse, Sergio Sanabria (A&S’66; Arch’70; MArtHist’75), as they knew this would result in soil erosion, displaced vegetation and overall devastation to the land. So, for thousands of hours, Holubar labored over the acreage.

“At first, I felt very small as I began removing one plant after another from an endless sea of them,” said Holubar. “They ranged from taller than me to tiny seedlings.”

Though she made substantial progress, the effort needed a boost — not from harmful herbicides, which would contaminate the water and land, but from a more creative (and hungry) solution: weevils.

A Symbiotic Friendship

In 2001, during the thick of her weeding efforts, Holubar learned about a successful experiment at CU Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). The project demonstrated that biocontrol insects (in this case, weevils) could greatly reduce densities of an invasive knapweed — similar to the unwelcome foe on Holubar’s land.

Putting her hope in these knapweed-eating weevils, she called the lead scholar of the experiment, ecology and evolutionary biology professor (now emeritus) Tim Seastedt.

“Field ecologists don’t pass up opportunities to leverage a new field site, and Spruce Gulch is special,” said Seastedt. He noted that the innovative insect approach, in addition to preserving good vegetation, could save landowners thousands of dollars in management costs.

Through a combination of hungry weevils and volunteer weeding efforts, the project proved successful over time and demonstrated the effectiveness that non-chemical methods can have on an invasive plant species.

The experiment also opened the door for additional ecology projects on the property — marking the start of what would become a 24-year symbiotic friendship between the university and land, and what would eventually result in a landmark gift.

Volunteers from a co-sponsored U.S. Forest Service event remove invasive spotted knapweed from an upland meadow on the Spruce Gulch Reserve.

Inheriting a Legacy

Holubar’s connection to the wildlife reserve began nearly a century ago, when her maternal grandmother, Irma Freudenberg, purchased part of it in 1927. With the help of her children, Freudenberg established a ranch on the picturesque land that Holubar’s parents, Alice (A&S’33) and LeRoy Holubar (ElEngr’36), later expanded in 1962.

Boulder’s mountainous terrain fostered the family’s passion for the outdoors. Holubar’s parents were pioneers in developing and sourcing climbing and expedition gear through their business, Holubar Mountaineering (which an interim owner later sold to The North Face). LeRoy Holubar, a CU mathematics professor, also helped establish the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group and the first Boulder climbing school.

Upon Freudenberg’s death, Holubar’s parents inherited part of the land and expanded it to what is now the Spruce Gulch Reserve. The site has been sculpted by history — from serving as hunting grounds for Indigenous peoples like the Arapaho, to sustaining mining and logging operations, grazing and agriculture, plus wildfires and floods.

“Having grown up on this land and having it be a part of my family for almost a century, I view it as my heart and soul and want nothing more than to protect it,” said Holubar.

Her love for the reserve and dedication to conservation meant diligently seeking out its next caretaker — a role that, after withstanding weeds and weevils together, CU Boulder was ready to undertake.

Acres for Academics

Primed to steward Holubar’s family legacy of environmentalism into the future, CU Boulder assumed ownership of Spruce Gulch in June of 2025. Holubar’s generous 476-acre land donation was accompanied by endowment funds, as well as a conservation easement with Boulder County.

The site and funds, valued at a combined $10.4 million, are managed by INSTAAR and support studies across the sciences, humanities and fine arts. From biologists to visual artists, the reserve and its endowment will enrich and support studies by academics from many departments, opening new educational possibilities across disciplines.

“Sergio and I wanted to discourage an inevitable disciplinary blindness by opening the site to as many different worldviews as possible,” said Holubar.

For her commitment to conservation and ensuring the protection of the wildlife reserve, Holubar received Boulder County’s 2025 Land Conservation Award. And, for their outstanding community partnership and collaboration on the Spruce Gulch project, Boulder County Parks & Open Space was awarded the Blue Grama Award by the Colorado Open Space Alliance.

A living laboratory, Spruce Gulch features canyons and cliffs intermixed with forest, savanna and prairie meadows. Its abundance of research opportunities has already aided CU faculty and students in producing 29 scholarly publications, plus chapters in six doctoral dissertations, three master’s theses and four undergraduate honors theses.

“The acquisition of Spruce Gulch allows us to pursue essential science relevant to the grasslands and foothills region, where most of us live,” said Seastedt, director of the reserve. “Therein lies the magnitude of this gift.”

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Photos courtesy Tim Seastedt

Ecology and evolutionary biology professor (now emeritus) Tim Seastedt.

Linda Holubar Sanabria gave a $10.4 million donation to CU Boulder, creating a 476-acre wildlife and research reserve.

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Fruits of History and Sustainability

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:22:49 +0000

Fruits of History and Sustainability Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:22

April Driver

The seeds of history took root in the Boulder Apple Tree Project and are now blossoming in the Buffs Backyard Orchard.

In 2017, the Boulder Apple Tree Project began as a way to locate, catalog and preserve the rich apple history of the city, dating to before the turn of the twentieth century, when Colorado ranked as one of the top apple-producing states. To support the project, community members share the location and photos of Boulder apple trees through an app, and the information is cataloged in an online database, complemented by an interactive map.

Within a year of launching, students and researchers identified more than 200 types of apples in Boulder, and each species was sequenced using the trees’ DNA.

Today, the project has grown. “We have sequenced another 75 apple specimens, with a big push this summer to add 200 more,” said Katherine Suding, CU Boulder ecology professor. “I am also proud that we have tagged over 1,200 trees from the area in our database.”

This effort provides training for CU Boulder’s budding scientists. Over the past eight years, 160 students have contributed to the project, ranging from first-year science students to those completing honors theses and several graduate students.

Last spring, students inspired by the project obtained a $93,000 sustainability grant that has funded the Buffs Backyard Orchard at CU Boulder’s 30th Street greenhouse. The vision for the orchard, which was planted by volunteers, is to create a living lab combining history and sustainability by conserving heirloom trees and developing regenerative orchard systems. The orchard is home to 15 varieties of apples, according to Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine, including Wolf River and Colorado Orange.

For Suding, the core of the project is the people.

“Having students and community members jointly doing research reflects a shared commitment to ecological stewardship,” she said. “It has been a lesson in the power of people working together.”

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Photo courtesy Matt Talarico

The Boulder Apple Tree Project has grown into the Buffs Backyard Orchard, a student- and community-driven living lab.

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Blazin’ Joe: Brewing a Sustainable Startup

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:20:32 +0000

Blazin’ Joe: Brewing a Sustainable Startup Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:20

Julia MacLean

Maddie Cataldo and Maya Nefs with their Blazin' Joe firelogs

In 2019, when freshman Maddie Cataldo (Mgmt’23) showed up to her first CU Boulder club hockey practice, she didn’t know anyone. But a spontaneous locker room conversation about skydiving ignited a friendship.

Maya Nefs (Mgmt’23), then a sophomore and fellow Leeds School of Business student, didn’t hesitate: “What are you doing next week? Let’s go.”

They went, tumbling into the air over Longmont, Colorado.

Years later, that same adventurous spirit fuels their company, Blazin’ Joe, which transforms coffee waste into sustainable firewood alternatives. Their business started in a college oven and now operates out of Nefs’ garage in Golden, Colorado.

Cataldo and Nefs’ journey as business partners is rooted in their shared CU experiences: business classes, a love for the outdoors and hockey.

“Being teammates really helped us work together,” Cataldo said. “We’re both super competitive, and there’s a level of bluntness that’s good and healthy to have. You could yell at each other on the ice and grab a beer right after.”

They’re also candid about the challenges of going into business together.

“I wouldn’t say it’s super easy going into business with a close friend,” Cataldo said. “We have a contract that tells us we need to spend a certain number of hours not talking about Blazin’ Joe, but just hanging out.”

Nefs added: “We’ll go play tennis or grab a happy hour drink. One of the most important aspects of the business is keeping our friendship healthy.”

It’s a priority that pays off personally and professionally.

“I wouldn’t be doing this with anyone else,” Nefs said. “Maddie has such a positive attitude, and I definitely find myself aspiring to carry the same positivity.”

The idea for Blazin’ Joe began in Cataldo’s senior capstone course, the New Venture Launch, taught through the business school’s Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. Her class project pitch centered on a fire log made from used coffee grounds, which was inspired by her father’s entrepreneurial research in biofuels.

Blazin' Joe firelogs

“I remember using the oven in my college house 24/7 to dry coffee grounds,” said Cataldo. “My roommates were awesome because the house always smelled like coffee — even our clothes.”

Cataldo’s professor, Brad Werner, saw something unique in her.

“She wasn’t just presenting a business idea — she was sharing something she truly believed in,” Werner said. “I look for students who demonstrate genuine customer obsession — not just talking about their product, but showing they truly understand their customers’ pain points.”

Cataldo’s team won the pitch at the end of the capstone class, impressing Werner with their compelling presentation, and walking away with first-place recognition.

After graduation, Cataldo tried running the business alone until Nefs stepped in.

“She was thinking of putting it on pause,” Nefs said. “I told her, ‘Don’t do that. I’ll work on it with you.’ The company had so much potential, and people were buying the product; it just needed two people behind it.”

Today, Blazin’ Joe makes fire logs and fire starters from coffee chaff — the light, flaky skin of the coffee bean discarded during roasting. It burns clean, hot and efficiently, without the toxic chemicals found in traditional fire-related products.

“We started out using coffee grounds,” Cataldo said, “but realized drying them used too much energy. Chaff was the game-changer: it’s dry, burns well and it’s a huge waste stream in the industry.”

They now collect chaff from local Colorado roasters like Sweet Bloom Coffee, Otis Craft Collective and Copper Door Coffee Roasters. They use about four pounds of chaff per log, Cataldo said, and grind it down and press it to shape in Nefs’ garage.

“I’m grateful for the setup,” Nefs said. “We’re not paying rent on a space, and for a small startup, that’s critical. We’re growing sustainably, on our own terms.”

Since launching into retail in January, Blazin’ Joe has found traction in farmers markets and local stores like McGuckin Hardware and Lucky’s Market. In May, they also won the Next Cycle Colorado Pitch, which supports companies repurposing waste streams in Colorado.

Cataldo is eager to grow the business more.

“Our ultimate goal is to work towards making the coffee industry circular,” she said. “We’d love to partner with bigger roasters on a larger scale and repurpose as much waste as possible.”

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Photos courtesy Graham Gardner (Sparrow Creative)

Maddie Cataldo and Maya Nefs turned a shared love of adventure and entrepreneurship into Blazin’ Joe, a sustainable startup that transforms coffee waste into firelogs and fire starters.

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The Reaches of CU Boulder Research

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:17:21 +0000

The Reaches of CU Boulder Research Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:17

Kelsey Yandura

At its core, research is the disciplined pursuit of a single question: “What if?”

What if measuring space dust could tell us something about our place in the cosmos?

What if we could grow whole human organs from just a few cells?

What if we could transform plastic into fertilizer?

These are the kinds of questions driving work within and among CU Boulder’s 12 research institutes and more than 75 research centers, employing 3,000 researchers, students and staff whose fields span environmental studies to cognitive science. In 2024, their work contributed to more than $742 million in research support, including nearly $500 million in federal funding.

When paired with time, attention, resources and a serious tolerance for failure, these seeds of curiosity can develop into something revolutionary, sometimes well beyond their original vision. And while some of the finer points may be hard to grasp, the reach of this research is not abstract — it can be traced, quite literally, through the layers of our world. It moves inward, reshaping the delicate architecture of the human body. It arcs out into space, collecting data from distant planets. It extends downward, into the soil and water systems that sustain our ecosystem.

To capture even a hint of the scope of research taking place at CU Boulder, we explore three different research projects that showcase a unique dimension of impact, both on campus and beyond.

At A Glance

>>One of 38 U.S. public research institutions in the Association of American Universities

>>5 Nobel Laureates since 1989

>>Only university to send space instruments to every planet in the solar system

>>12 research-based institutes and 75+ centers

>> 3,000+ faculty, researchers, students and staff support the institutes

Journey of New Horizons

>>Past

2006 _ Launch

2015 _ Pluto flyby

2019 _ Arrokoth flyby

2024 _ 60 AU milestone

>>Future

2050 _ Edge of heliosphere

>>The onboard Student Dust Counter is the farthest-operating dust detector in history

Exploring New Horizons <LASP>

When it comes to measuring the reach of research, the vision behind the New Horizons mission has always been far-flung.

Launched in 2006, the New Horizons spacecraft spent nine years hurtling through the darkest reaches of our solar system to capture the first-ever recorded glimpse of Pluto and its moons up close.

“The expectation was that it was going to be a boring chunk of dark ice,” said Mihály Horányi, physics professor and LASP scientist. “But we were in for a big surprise. It’s very active. It has flat regions, mountain regions and floating icebergs...all kinds of unexpected things.”

But for New Horizons, Pluto was just the beginning. The spacecraft pressed deeper into space. In 2019, the Hubble Space Telescope onboard captured what would become the most distant and primitive object yet to be explored by a spacecraft: a reddish, oddly snowman-shaped object called Arrokoth. Nothing like it has been found anywhere else in the solar system.

And it’s still going. As of October 2024, New Horizons passed 60 times as far from the Sun as Earth is — twice as far out as Pluto was in 2015.

But the reach of New Horizons takes on another dimension than just physical distance. Onboard the spacecraft is nestled a device called the Student Dust Counter (SDC), the first NASA science instrument ever designed, built, tested and operated almost entirely by students. Its impact has been both interstellar and interpersonal.

“At the time, the idea was unconventional,” explained Horányi, who has served as the instrument’s principal investigator for more than two decades.

Approval required long rounds of advocacy up and down NASA’s decision-making chain. The condition? Students would be held to the same rigorous standards as the professionals.

From the outset, students at CU rose to the challenge. In 2002, about 20 students (both undergrad and graduate) worked to design, engineer and build every piece of the dust counter, from building to testing to calibration.

When the time came for delivery and testing, the SDC was the first instrument completed and delivered to New Horizons. It underwent the same demanding NASA design reviews as veteran instrument teams.

“Sometimes,” recalled Horányi, “the students performed better than the professionals.”

Today, the spacecraft is over 60 astronomical units from the Sun — more than 5.5 billion miles away — making SDC the farthest-operating dust detector in history. And it is still operated by students.

The measurements have been full of surprises. Dust densities in the outer solar system turned out to be higher than expected, prompting new debates about the structure and extent of the Kuiper Belt, which contains Pluto, other dwarf planets and comets. SDC data now informs studies on whether there’s a “second belt” beyond Pluto, how far the Kuiper Belt extends, and how our solar system’s dust environment compares to those around other stars.

And while the science is groundbreaking, Horányi is just as proud of the human impact.

More than 30 students have served as SDC team members since its inception. Many went on to prestigious graduate programs and major research institutions. Others have followed entirely different paths, including one electrical engineer who became a Buddhist priest.

“They all did something important,” Horányi said. “Something bigger than getting an A in a class.”

The current lead, Alex Doner (Physics’26), will soon hand the reins to Blair Schultz (Physics’28), who will guide the mission’s next phase. The instrument will likely operate into the early 2050s, potentially detecting the edge of the Sun’s influence — the heliosphere — and the transition to true interstellar space.

Engineering Organoids <BioFrontiers Institute>

Meanwhile, across campus at CU’s BioFrontiers Institute, scientists are working to explore and traverse the limits of a different kind of landscape: the inner workings of the human body. The questions they’re asking sound like science fiction, but have immediate and vital application — what if we could reliably make miniature, lab-grown versions of human organs? The results could change the medical world as we know it, offering new ways to test drugs, study disease and someday possibly replace failing organs.

“There’s been a lot of excitement in the past few years about being able to take a patient’s stem cells and grow them into a miniature version of one of its tissues or organs,” said Kristi Anseth (PhDChemEngr’94), a CU Boulder professor of chemical and biological engineering who is leading the organoid research. “Making complex mimics of organs would open doors for screening new types of drugs or trying to better understand the evolution of diseases, like cancer.”

One of the trickiest parts of growing organoids is their three-dimensional shape — they tend to grow unpredictably.

“It is a stochastic, or random, process,” said Anseth. “We were talking to clinicians and biologists who were growing these organoids, but each looked a little different, and these differences can lead to different behavior or function.”

This “snowflake problem” has been a major roadblock against some of the most exciting possibilities of organoid research — transplants, for example, wouldn’t work if the organ couldn’t be reliably grown to fit the patient.

Anseth’s team, in collaboration with stem cell biologist professor Peter Dempsey at the Anschutz Medical Campus, set out to make this random process into a predictable one, designing biomaterials — specifically, highly tunable hydrogels — that serve as scaffolds for these cells to grow in three dimensions.

“Being engineers, we thought, ‘Well, it’s going to be really important for the usefulness of these [organs] to make them the same way.’”

They started with the human intestine, where these hydrogel scaffolds successfully helped guide organoid growth into precise, reproducible sizes and shapes. That consistency means researchers can run large-scale, apples-to-apples experiments in a way that’s reliable enough for both science and medicine.

“We’re taking something that’s been unpredictable and making it precise, scalable and useful,” said Anseth. “You could use it to screen for new ways to deliver drugs. Wouldn’t it be great if you could take more drugs orally? Or get diagnosed at an earlier age?”

And while the team has made exciting progress, the crux of this work is still on the horizon. The ultimate goal of creating full-size replacement organs from organoids is likely years away.

“Now, we’re thinking of all the ‘what if’s,’” said Anseth. “It’s time to start solving the more complicated problems.”

For now, Anseth’s “mini-intestines” are helping illuminate a path toward more efficient drug testing and more accurate disease models. But she sees this as just the beginning.

“We already have ways to repair cartilage, to heal bones faster — things that didn’t exist a decade ago,” she says. “Now, the next direction is targeting complex diseases that happen in our hearts, our brains, our livers. That’s the promise of organoids...We’ll find interventions that can both improve and save lives.”

It’s time to start solving the more complicated problems.
Kristi Anseth, CU Boulder professor of chemical and biological engineering, who received the National Academy of Engineering’s 2025 Simon Ramo Founders Award.

Organoids

Miniature versions of human organs grown from stem cells in labs

>>Goal

Improve and save lives by targeting complex diseases in vital organs

>>Uses

Drug testing, disease modeling, regenerative medicine

>>Challenges

Inconsistency in shape, behavior and function

The Plastics Problem

>> Part of nearly every aspect of modern life

>> 400M+ tons produced globally each year

>> 91��Ѽ 11M tons end up in lakes, rivers and streams annually

>> Microplastics found in human tissue, oceans and soil

>> Most compostable plastics require industrial facilities

Plastics to Fertilizer <ATLAS Institute>

At CU’s interdisciplinary ATLAS Institute, researcher and assistant professor Carson Bruns is proving that the insights gleaned from the tiniest of molecules can change the very ground beneath our feet.

At Bruns’ Laboratory for Emergent Nanomaterials, the building blocks get the spotlight. By examining and structuring materials at very small scales, the team designs what he calls “molecular machinery” — new materials that, when scaled up, have the potential to display novel properties and functions.

Currently, thanks to a Research & Innovation Seed Grant, the team is applying these methods to one of the most controversial materials of our time: plastics.

From grocery bags to medical packaging, petroleum-based plastics are woven into nearly every aspect of modern life. But their convenience comes at a staggering cost.

“I believe we’re in a plastics crisis,” said Bruns. “We need to shift to a new paradigm, and the more people working on solutions, the better.”

Bruns explained that microplastics show up everywhere, even in human tissue. Plus, most plastics, even the “greener” compostable ones, are carbon-based — which means that, upon breaking down, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Most also require specialized, high-temperature industrial composting facilities to break down properly. In Boulder, these shortcomings prompted the city’s main composting partner, A1 Organics, to stop accepting biodegradable plastics altogether.

“Our aim is to create plastics that can safely biodegrade — eliminating the microplastics problem — but without heavy CO2 emissions,” said Bruns.

True to nanoengineering form, the team is rethinking the entire process, starting with source materials.

“We’re looking at agricultural waste as a raw material source,” said Bruns. By using runoff from vegetable washing or ash from burned plant matter, these new and improved plastics would biodegrade into elements like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur that already have value in the soil, releasing minimal carbon dioxide. The solution is cost-efficient, to boot.

“We know how to make high-performance plastics, but they’re too expensive to scale,” said Bruns. “Our goal is to make eco-friendly plastics that are as strong, tough and flexible as petroleum plastics.”

This research is still in its early stages, and collaboration has been key. To test biodegradability and soil impact, Bruns partnered with ecology professor Merritt R. Turetsky, director of arctic security. This cross-disciplinary work — melding nanotechnology, materials science and environmental biology — has already yielded promising early results.

“I’m excited about the collaboration,” said Bruns. “I think this problem requires many perspectives. Nobody can solve it alone, so working together across fields is really energizing.”

The team’s goal for the 18-month grant period is to develop at least one material that not only holds up in everyday use, but also demonstrably fertilizes soil. If successful, the applications could range from packaging films and plastic bags to plates, utensils and even foams that mimic Styrofoam.

In the long term, Bruns envisions a circular system: after use, the plastic could enter a specialized recycling stream for processing into fertilizer — or, ideally, degrade naturally in a backyard compost heap. Either way, it would close the loop between creation and decomposition, consumption and renewal.

“It’s about finding a better ending for these materials,” he said. “If we can make something useful in life and beneficial in death, that’s a win for both people and the planet.”

Our Shared Future

“My little part today, or this week or this month, is part of a bigger picture,” said Andrew Poppe (Phys’06; PhD’11) a research scientist at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California Berkeley who worked on the Student Dust Counter as both an undergraduate and graduate student.

“Do we want to be the type of society that just wakes up in the morning, goes to work, does the work, comes home, has dinner and repeats? Or do we want to be the type of society that is naturally curious about the world around us, whether that is the smallest things you put under a microscope or the biggest things that you can see through a telescope?”

These research projects are just a glimpse into the scope and scale of innovation taking place around campus. Individually, each has its own trajectory of impact. Together, they create a mosaic of possibilities for our shared future.

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Illustrations by John Provencher

CU researchers across space science, bioengineering and nanomaterials are turning “what if” questions into transformative discoveries.

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Andrew Mayock Joined CU to Accelerate Climate Solutions

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:08:00 +0000

Andrew Mayock Joined CU to Accelerate Climate Solutions Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:08

Christie Sounart

In March 2025, Andrew Mayock joined CU Boulder as its first vice chancellor for sustainability. Mayock previously served as chief sustainability officer for the United States government, where he led the Biden administration’s efforts to decarbonize federal operations and accelerate clean energy adoption.

What spurred you to work in higher education?

I see it as a really critical piece of my work to help grow the next generation of leaders in climate sustainability. At CU Boulder, it is a great opportunity to do that at scale. In considering this role, I found CU has an extraordinary foundation of sustainability work that goes back decades, and pent-up demand to build on that legacy.

Where do you see CU Boulder already excelling in sustainability?

We have extraordinary existing efforts and assets across research, education, operations and community engagement — for instance, the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research’s (INSTAAR) work in critical longitudinal atmospheric carbon studies, the Mountain Research Station, the two sustainability master’s degrees recently approved through engineering and business, eliminating single-use plastic beverages campuswide and much more. Also, the kind of progress we’re making in embedding sustainability in the curriculum is taking it right back to where it all belongs — with the students.

What opportunities do you see for improvement?

There were places where we were once at the frontier, but we haven’t kept pace. It’s time for a recharge in these areas, so we can be a leader again. And then there’s areas where we’re at the frontier, and we need to accelerate and define a new frontier. The newly created Buckley Center for Sustainability Education is redefining leadership opportunity, for instance. The Buckley Center is going to help us respond to student demand for more sustainability in the curriculum and experiential learning, and it is also going to serve students interested in non-sustainability-related majors and disciplines across campus.

How do you see CU Boulder leading the way in sustainability to become recognized globally?

One clear initiative is to gain more recognition in work that we’re already doing. I’m thinking of engineering professor Evan Thomas (AeroEngr, Jour’06; MEngr’06; PhD’09) and the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience’s work improving clean water supply in east Africa, for example. Here, through many others’ work, we’re having an outsized global impact across the planet, and we plan to amplify this work in places such as November’s COP 30 climate conference in Brazil and September’s Climate Week NYC.

What role do students have in CU sustainability?

Students are at the center of the efforts. My draw to Boulder included seeing the efforts already underway by the student community, like Ralphie’s Green Stampede or the EcoVisits. Now, it’s time to take it to the next level. The vision is to make this university more of a living lab, bringing research to education on campus and enabling students to help make progress on the Climate Action Plan.

Are there specific innovations or technologies you’re excited to explore at CU?

Boulder startups are moving cutting-edge research from lab to market, like the carbon-negative cement company Prometheus Materials. Their innovation and dynamism are helping solve the climate crisis through research-driven products. [Bill Gates’] Breakthrough Energy’s selection of the university as a new partner is another example of this work. Boulder is approaching the quality and vibrancy of Stanford.

What else should we know about campus sustainability?

It’s a top priority of the chancellor and our office to double down on how CU Boulder delivers sustainability solutions for Colorado communities. We have an ability and obligation, due to the talent and programming we have here, and we have a need in this urgent moment to be an even stronger partner to our state communities.

What are your interests outside of work?

I generally try to keep up with my 10- and 12-year-olds in their many pursuits, like soccer and the arts. We’ve also had the opportunity to get to the mountains, including Eldora and Snowmass, and experienced some of the great hiking and birding and rafting Colorado has to offer.

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Photos by Glenn Asakawa

Andrew Mayock has joined CU Boulder as the university’s first vice chancellor for sustainability, aiming to elevate its global leadership in climate action.

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CU Boulder in the Spotlight: Rankings, Research and Innovation

Anna Tolette — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:06:50 +0000

CU Boulder in the Spotlight: Rankings, Research and Innovation Anna Tolette Mon, 11/10/2025 - 11:06

Julia MacLean

Herd

A Leader in Free Speech

CU Boulder ranked fifth nationally for its free-speech climate, the highest in the state. The assessment, based on input from more than 68,000 students, comes from the 2026 College Free Speech Rankings by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and its survey partner College Pulse.

Authors Earn Spotlight

Historical horror novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by CU Boulder English professor Stephen Graham Jones made former President Obama’s 2025 summer reading list. Meanwhile, Ann Schmiesing’s The Brothers Grimm: A Biography earned acclaim as one of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2024 and a New Statesman Best Summer Read of 2025. Schmiesing is senior vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and professor of German and Scandinavian Studies.

Water Reckoning

Emerging CU Boulder research shows that human pollution, including greenhouse gases and aerosol emissions, has been driving the prolonged megadrought in the U.S. Southwest by altering the Pacific Ocean’s natural cycles that normally bring rain to the region. As a result, the Southwest is experiencing its driest period in over 1,000 years. Study author Jeremy Klavans, a postdoctoral researcher in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences department, suggests that water planners need to prepare now by building stronger water systems and exploring new options, such as desalination plants.

Campus Talk

“I want people to understand that a first-gen student like me — who didn’t have much — can do it if [they] bring passion, grit and skills to the table.”

-Marco Campos (CivEngr’98) and the Campos Foundation donated $5 million to support the Campos Student Center, formerly the BOLD Center, in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. The gift will secure the center’s long-term future and bolster its programming to help amplify student success.

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Photo by Casey A. Cass

Digits

Elimination of Plastic Single-Use Beverage Containers

7/7

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Start of CU Boulder’s elimination of plastic beverage containers from campus

100%

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All single-use, sealable plastic beverage containers to be eliminated from campus, including vending machines

10yr

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Pouring agreement with PepsiCo Beverages

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Intended percentage of campus emissions by year 2050, per the CU Climate Action Plan

CU Boulder news on free speech, faculty author recognition, megadrought research and sustainability initiatives.

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