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Clusters of sunspots form their own weather patterns on the sun, according to new observations by a team of University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ researchers. Professor Juri Toomre of JILA said large complexes of magnetic sunspots cause downdrafts in their vicinity that are fed by winds flowing into the sun from the surface and dissipated by strong winds flowing out from deep below the sunspots.

"Environmental Responses to Anthropogenic Perturbations" is the topic of a day-long symposium to be offered by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ Friday, Feb. 21. Registration is required by Tuesday, Feb. 18, but the symposium is free and open to the public. All sessions will be presented by a CIRES fellow in the Old Main chapel. Sessions begin at 9 a.m. and extend until 5 p.m., each lasting 35 minutes. The day opens with a continental breakfast in Old Main at 8:30 a.m.

The CU Parents Association has awarded $40,000 in grants to programs designed to enhance the experience of undergraduates on the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ campus. Preference was given to projects that met the association's goals of enriching student life, building community, promoting diversity, improving student safety, enhancing career counseling and improving communication with parents and students.

Editors: A complete Diversity Summit agenda can be found at http://www.Colorado.EDU/cu-diversity/ . The University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ's Eighth Annual Campus Diversity Summit, "Bias, Blame and Bigotry: Stressors on Diverse Communities," will be held Feb. 19-21.

The CU-Â鶹ӰԺ Leeds School of Business has appointed Lisa Nelson as director of the school's awards programs. Her appointment was effective Jan. 23. As director, Nelson's responsibilities include the creation and facilitation of a national awards program to recognize corporations that engage in socially responsible and environmentally friendly business practices.

The many discoveries of the Galileo spacecraft in its journey through space and around Jupiter will be explored at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ's Fiske Planetarium on Friday, Feb. 21, and Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ Professor Fran Bagenal will present her live show "Galileo: Mission to Jupiter," as part of the planetarium's monthly astronomy talks. The live talks are given by CU-Â鶹ӰԺ professors and guest lecturers.

The annual Off-Campus Housing Fair for students, staff and faculty at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ will be held Wednesday, Feb. 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Glenn Miller Ballroom at the University Memorial Center. The event allows participants to collect information on housing opportunities for next year from a variety of property management companies and landlords, according to Susan Stafford, director.

Kristi Anseth, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ, has been selected to receive the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award from the American Society of Engineering Education. The award, given to only one young engineering faculty member across the country each year, recognizes Anseth for her "outstanding and far-reaching work on exploring, designing and characterizing new generations of photopolymerized bio-materials for medical applications."

Note to Editors: The event is closed to the public but media are invited to attend. The morning lectures will be held at Fiske Planetarium. The top high school science students representing many of the 50 states will visit the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ Feb. 13 to meet with CU-Â鶹ӰԺ's top researchers, including Nobel laureates and MacArthur "genius grant" recipients.

Tim Long, a writer and co-executive producer of the long-running animated series "The Simpsons," will give a public talk at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ on Thursday, Feb. 20. Long, who will be on campus Feb. 19-20 as a guest of the World Affairs Athenaeum, will speak at 7 p.m. in the Mathematics Building, room 100. The event is free and open to the public.