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Civil engineering faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder have received a $1.98 million grant from the National Science Foundation as part of a national effort to improve experimental facilities for earthquake research. The national effort also will create a collaborative network to speed the design of structures that minimize earthquake damage and loss of life.

The first phase of the redevelopment of Grandview Terrace will be officially launched Feb. 10 with a public notice announcing that 12 bungalows in the area are available for relocation. The notice will be published in the Daily Camera.

Editors: A complete schedule of events is attached. The University of Colorado at Boulder will offer a variety of events in February in honor of Black Awareness Month. Event organizers hope to provide students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members with an enriching experience.

Gail Siegel has been named Director of Community Affairs at the University of Colorado at Boulder, according to Bobbi Barrow, executive director of University Communications. The appointment is effective Feb. 12. Siegel, an 11-year CU-Boulder employee, spent nine years with the CU Art Galleries doing special events, outreach programs and publications before joining the University Communications group in October 1998.

Valentine's Day is a time of year when cupid, flowers and candy-shaped hearts can signal the most romantic day of the year. Many couples take the occasion to evaluate where the relationship is, but according to Cindy White, an assistant professor in the University of Colorado at Boulder's communications department, many couples have a difficult time evaluating their relationships because of poor communication skills.

University of Colorado experts from a dozen disciplines will reappraise the relationship between human society and wildfires in two public programs presented by the Center of the American West on Saturday, Feb. 17. "Facing Fire: Lessons From the Ashes" will examine current understanding of wildland fires in the West and explore whether combining knowledge from different viewpoints might produce new strategies for wildfire management.

Chancellor Richard L. Byyny will deliver the annual address on the status of women at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. in Old Main Chapel. The chancellor will address some of the key issues contained in the Status of Women Report issued by the Chancellor's Committee on Women. He and committee members will take questions, comments and suggestions from the audience afterward. The public is invited to attend the address and the reception in the Heritage Center immediately following.

A $6.8 million study at the University of Colorado at Boulder will examine three generations of families in an effort to determine the influence of genetics in problem alcohol use. The five-year study also will collect extensive information on environmental factors such as marital status, education and employment in an attempt to disentangle the influences of the environment and genetics on problem alcohol use.

Editors: Media are welcome to attend the balsa wood glider contest, boat-building and racing event, and other activities this Thursday, Feb. 8. Contact Carol Rowe, (303) 492-7426, for a detailed schedule of events. Up to 200 high school students from 20 schools throughout Colorado will apply their skills to building boats and flying gliders of their own design during the Colorado Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Spring Fling 2001 at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Feb. 8-9.

A collection of 36 posters celebrating women scientists will be the focus of a public reception at Fiske Planetarium on Thursday, Feb. 8, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The poster collection is the work of Pamela Davis Kivelson from the UCLA Science and Art Center, part of the university's physics department. "This reception is really a celebration of the strong presence of women in the sciences at CU-Boulder, as well as the arrival of this wonderful collection," said astrophysical and planetary sciences Professor Fran Bagenal.