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Baritone Patrick Mason, a University of Colorado at Boulder associate music professor who has been nominated for a Grammy Award this year, will perform in three free campus concerts as part of the annual music faculty series. On Feb. 6, Mason will perform songs by U.S. and British songwriters, including Roger Quilter, Noel Coward, John Harbison and John Musto, during a concert titled "Crossing the Pond." Pianists Mutsumi Moteki, Robert Spillman, Margaret McDonald and Charles Koslowske also will be featured.

Hip hop has the potential to be a vehicle for powerful social and political change, says a University of Colorado at Boulder professor who is using the musical genre to teach a new generation about African-American history. "Why are we as a generation overlooking the contributions of the civil rights movement?" said Reiland Rabaka, an assistant professor of African-American studies. "There's a lot we can learn."

A new podcast produced by the University of Colorado at Boulder News Services office features safety expert Mike Morrison of the department of Environmental Health and Safety talking about the safe use of disposable masks in the event of a flu pandemic. To access the podcast go to www.colorado.edu/news/podcasts/index.html and click "play" on "Use of Fitted Masks in Case of a Flu Pandemic." Recent podcasts on "Safe Schools" and "CU-Boulder Passes Peace Corps Milestone" also are posted on the Web site.

Several University of Colorado at Boulder scientists involved in editing or authoring sections of the report of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change slated for release Feb. 2 in Paris are available for media interviews.

The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to design and build a small student satellite to study variations in Earth's atmosphere and its effects on spacecraft.

The Colorado Hispanic Bar Association awarded Lorenzo Trujillo, assistant dean at the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Law, the Chris Miranda Outstanding Hispanic Lawyer Award for 2006. "Each year the association presents the award to an outstanding Hispanic attorney who has shown a continual commitment to the Hispanic community and the principles of the legal profession," said Awilda Marquez, president of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association.

The reasons that compel some business leaders and executives to behave in ways that damage their careers or risk the financial viability of their companies are examined in a new book by CU-Boulder business Professor Mathew Hayward.

Donna Gerren, engineering instructor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has received the 2007 Faculty Advisor Award presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the organization's January meeting in Reno, Nev. The award was presented to Gerren during the 2007 AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit Jan. 8-11. Gerren was honored "for outstanding and sustained commitment and enthusiasm for student education and involvement in the AIAA Student Branch at the University of Colorado at Boulder."

Ken Adelman, a former United Nations ambassador and arms control director for the Reagan administration and an adviser to the U.S. Department of Defense, will participate in a series of panel discussions on political intrigue and family dysfunction in Shakespeare's "King Lear." The University of Colorado at Boulder and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts will co-host the panels on Jan. 28 and 29.

A University of Colorado at Boulder faculty member has received a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop new technologies to improve the performance and economics of clean power generation systems. The grant received by Christine Hrenya, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering, is aligned with the goals of FutureGen, a 10-year project aimed at creating the world's first coal plant with near-zero emissions.