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The CU Heritage Center, the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ's history museum, is launching a History Buffs group with a kick-off event on Wednesday, Feb. 24, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the third floor of Old Main. University of Colorado President John C. Buechner will open the event by introducing CU historian and humorist William "Bud" Davis (PE '51, Ph.D. '63). Davis will give a talk on CU-Â鶹ӰԺ history.

A quiz bowl for Colorado and Wyoming high school students centered on ocean processes and events will be held on the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ campus on Saturday, Feb. 27. The regional competition is part of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, intended to broaden the awareness and understanding of high school students, educators and the public regarding the value of ocean research.

The CU Wizards series at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ will present its next program on the topic of "Speed" on Saturday, Feb. 27. CU-Â鶹ӰԺ Professor Eric Cornell will present the show in Duane Physics room G-1B30 at 9:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public. Cornell is a fellow of JILA, a joint institute of CU and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a staff scientist at NIST and a professor in the CU Department of Physics. This will be his second CU Wizards presentation on speed.

New computer models that indicate the climate of Venus has wavered radically in its relatively recent past may prove valuable to scientists tracking Earth's changing climate, according to two University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ researchers.

Some of AmericaÂ’s best-known "pure abstractionists" will be featured in a unique art exhibit, "Geometric Abstraction: Selections From the Colorado Collection," on display at the Ft. Lupton Public Library, part of Ft. Lupton High School, from Feb. 22 through March 22. The exhibit is organized and circulated by the CU Art Galleries at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ.

The University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ spring blood drive will be held on Feb. 23, 24 and 25 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the University Memorial Center west ballroom. Donors may sign up for an appointment by coming to the UMC Loggia Feb. 17, 18, 19 and 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or by calling 303-492-5473 through Feb. 22 at noon. Walk-ins will be accepted. Donors should be in good health, weigh at least 110 pounds and not be in one of the at-risk behavior groups. They should eat within four hours of donating and drink lots of fluids before and after donating.

University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ aerospace engineering Professor Martin Mikulas Jr. has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, joining eight other faculty from the campus who have been elected since the academy's formation in 1962. Peter Teets, president of Lockheed Martin and a 1963 alumnus of the College of Engineering at CU-Â鶹ӰԺ, also was elected to NAE, the academy announced Feb. 16.

NASA's Office of Space Science has selected a group of University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ researchers to spend three years mapping the polar ice on Mars using satellite data.

Professor Stephen Schneider of Stanford University, one of the world's top scientists on global change and the global warming debate, will speak at the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ Feb. 17. Schneider's talk will focus on the contrasting goals of the media, politicians and scientists in defining the probable extent and outcome of global climate change.

Daniel Baker, director of the University of Colorado at Â鶹ӰԺ's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, will give a talk Feb. 17 on a satellite under construction that will study the Van Allen radiation belts girdling Earth. The $12.8 million project, known as the Inner Magnetosphere Explorer, or IMEX, will be designed, built and operated by LASP in cooperation with the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.