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The University of Colorado at Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science is accepting applications for its annual High School Honors Institute to be held on campus Aug. 2 to Aug. 5. The college will accept applications through June 19 from high school juniors with an interest in math, science and engineering. Hands-on sessions for participants will include bridge construction, solar energy projects, aerodynamics experiments and activities covering the principles of space flight, biotechnology, robotics, supercomputers, artificial intelligence and electronic circuitry.

Children will no longer be lost in space after the June 13 CU Wizards science show at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Professor Katy Garmany of astrophysical and planetary sciences will use special effects at Fiske Planetarium for the 10 a.m. Saturday presentation on "Finding Your Way Around the Sky." The one-hour show is intended for children in grades five through nine and is free and open to the public.

CU-BoulderÂ’s Fiske Planetarium will present a series of Friday evening programs beginning June 12 through Aug. 14 on space phenomena ranging from cosmic collisions -- a summer movie theme -- to a comparison of Mars and the solar systemÂ’s other planets. Special features of the summer program will include two live presentations, in June and July, by two CU-Boulder astronomers, and two daytime matinees for children every week between June 9 and Aug. 14 on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. The special presentations by CU astronomers will feature:

Twenty undergraduate arts and sciences students at the University of Colorado at Boulder will receive the prestigious Jacob Van Ek Award for outstanding academic achievement and contributions to the university. The award includes a gift certificate from the University Book Store. The recipients were honored May 14 along with the faculty members they named as the persons who most inspired and encouraged their work. The award was established in 1973 to honor Jacob Van Ek, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1929 to 1959. Van Ek died in 1994 at the age of 97.

Seven outstanding faculty, staff and students have received the 1998 Equity and Excellence Awards at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The awards are given annually to those faculty, staff and students who exemplify excellence in their professions and in education, and who have demonstrated a strong commitment to equity and diversity issues on campus and in the broader community.

Five University of Colorado at Boulder physics professors have been selected among the nation's 200 most outstanding speakers on physics by the American Physical Society. They were the only physics professors to be cited in Colorado, and among only seven physicists to be cited in the state.

The volume of the world's glaciers outside of Antarctica and the Greenland Ice Sheet continues to decline and the rate of ice loss continues to accelerate, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. "In the last century, there has been a significant decrease in the area and volume of glaciers, especially at mid- and low-latitudes," said Professor Emeritus Mark Meier of the geological sciences department. "The disappearance of glacier ice is more pronounced than we previously had thought."

The sounds of music -- how they are created and the rules of physics they follow -- will be the subject of the May 30 CU Wizards science show for children to be held at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Physics Professor Jim Faller will use a group of homemade instruments to demonstrate various aspects of "The Physics of Music." The instruments will be constructed from a wide range of materials including bamboo, garden hose, plastic pipe, redwood, funnels and doorknobs.

A panel discussion on "The Future of Ranching in the West" will be held May 29 at 3:30 p.m. in the Boulder Public Library Auditorium, followed by a barbecue and square dance. The event is co-sponsored by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Boulder Public Library Foundation. The panel discussion and square dance are free and open to the public. The panelists are: oMel Coleman, president and founder, Coleman Natural Beef oBetty Shawcroft, former president, Colorado Cattlewomen

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a joint release of Brown University, Carnegie Institution of Washington D.C., National Science Foundation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Colorado, University of Oregon, University of Washington, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Visuals are available (see end of release). Under the South Pacific, a new picture emerges of Earth's most volcanically active area.