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The University of Colorado at Boulder-based Membrane Applied Science and Technology Center has announced the appointment of mechanical engineering Professor Alan Greenberg as the new co-director of the center. Greenberg joins chemical engineering Professor Richard Noble, MAST's other co-director, in administering the unique cooperative research center. The center is supported by the National Science Foundation and industrial sponsors in addition to the university.

Novelist, essayist and disability studies scholar Georgina Kleege will present "HK: Dead Letters to Helen Keller," a free lecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder on March 23 at 7 p.m. in University Memorial Center rooms 157A-B. Kleege has been legally blind since the age of 11. Kleege is an assistant professor in the English department at Ohio State University. Her book, "Sight Unseen," is acclaimed for demonstrating that the plight of the blind is partly its own reality and largely due to the creation of the normally sighted.

If you are one those people who despise math and "feel physically ill at the sight of an equation," Professor Edward Burger of Williams College may be able to help remedy the problem at a special CU-Boulder lecture March 21. Burger, who was a visiting CU-Boulder mathematics professor from Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., during the 1998-1999 school year, packed the house in his April 1999 CU-Boulder talk on "Why I Hate Math But Love Museums."

Richard L. Byyny, chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, agreed today to meet on Wednesday with students concerned about the campusÂ’ licensing policies. Byyny sent the students a document to guide the discussion, which he said he hopes will be both civil and productive. The issues the chancellor wishes to cover are principles in licensing that relate to human rights and human dignity, the development of a campus licensing advisory board to guide and evaluate compliance, and campus opportunities for education and airing of the issues.

Complex scientific concepts of light, polarization and optics will be explained using a giant soap bubble, sunglasses and scarab beetles, among other things, at the March 25 Wizards show on "Liquid Crystals." Physics Professor Noel Clark and chemistry Professor David Walba, both at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will present the entertaining multi-media show at 9:30 a.m. in Duane Physics room G1B30. The free hour-long show, which combines physics, chemistry and engineering, is intended primarily for students in grades five through nine.

The University of Colorado at Boulder Parents Association awarded $40,000 in grants to university groups and organizations to fund programs to benefit the undergraduate student community this year.

University of Colorado at Boulder students, faculty and staff members are encouraged to participate in the 2000 United States Census, which begins this month. "Participating in the census is in everyone's best interest," said CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard Byyny. "People who answer the census help their communities obtain federal funding and valuable information for planning for hospitals, roads and more."

The University of Colorado at Boulder has created a new program for 150-200 of its most intellectually committed students. The Undergraduate Academy provides a range of special activities and advising opportunities for its members, who are chosen for their excitement about learning and their academic success. The three main goals of the UA are to expand the education of top students outside the classroom, build a sense of intellectual community among them and help prepare them for post-graduation opportunities.

University of Massachusetts at Amherst Distinguished Professor Lynn Margulis, one of the most renowned biologists in the world, will give a public lecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder on March 15. Her talk, titled "Gaia and Microcosm: Living Earth From Space," deals with the Gaia theory, which she co-developed with British scientist James Lovelock. The theory is based on the premise that the physical and chemical properties of EarthÂ’s atmosphere are actively regulated by the metabolism, growth and evolution of organisms.

Tomoko Masuzawa, a leading theorist in the study of religion and culture, will deliver the second annual Lester Lecture on the Study of Religion at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Thursday, March 16. Masuzawa is lecturing on "The Question of Universality: Counting the 'World Religions' in the 19th Century" at 7:30 p.m. in Hale Science Building room 270. The event is free and open to the public and is presented by the CU-Boulder religious studies department. A reception will follow the lecture.