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The Chancellor's Committee on Women at the University of Colorado at Boulder is holding a series of meetings in February and March to get feedback about the campus environment for women. The series of "town-hall" style meetings was organized to get feedback from women on campus about issues such as gender equity, harassment and intimidation, opportunities for leadership and advancement, and balancing the demands of work and private lives.

Note to Editors: Contents embargoed until 1:45 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb 20. Massive solar storms that hammered Earth's space environment in fall 2003 and turned a normally safe region for satellites into a hazardous zone of energetic particles may not be as cyclic as once believed, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder professor.

The University of Colorado at Boulder's Community Relations office and Moe's Broadway Bagel are sponsoring a book drive with free bagels at Boulder-area Moe's stores. People who bring in new or gently used children's books to either of the Boulder Moe's locations will receive a free bagel with cream cheese. The offer is limited to one bagel per customer per visit. The drive, which starts on Feb. 18 and continues through Feb. 25, is being hosted in celebration of the National Education Association's Read Across America Day on March 2.

CU-Boulder will begin a maintenance project in early March to repair the existing wire fence along its west and south property boundaries at CU-Boulder South. The existing fence has been in place for more than 20 years and is broken in many areas, according to Jeff Lipton, executive director of the Facilities Management department, which will perform the repairs. The existing fence will be replaced with similar materials, and fence openings will still be in place to allow the public access to the property.

Linda Watkins, a professor and researcher in the University of Colorado at Boulder's psychology department and Center for Neuroscience, has won a national award in part for her continuing work to stop chronic pain. The American Pain Society will honor Watkins with its 2005 F.W.L. Kerr Memorial Award on April 2 during the organization's national meeting in Boston. The $10,000 award recognizes Watkins' achievements and contributions to the field of pain research over the span of her career.

The Parents Association at the University of Colorado at Boulder has awarded $40,269 in grants to 16 campus programs that help enrich student life. The grants are awarded annually to CU-Boulder organizations whose projects build community, promote diversity, improve student safety or meet other association goals. Projects and programs receiving awards include:

E-mail scams designed to collect social security and bank account numbers are among the current threats to computer security outlined in a new awareness campaign at the University of Colorado at Boulder. CU-Boulder Information Technology Services has begun a yearlong educational effort focusing on computer security and will address a specific topic each month. Organizers are focusing on privacy and identity-theft issues during February. Campus ITS experts said that in most cases, computer security is all about what you do rather than what you buy.

Due to popular demand, CU-Boulder Professor Emeritus Al Bartlett will give his celebrated talk, "Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101" on Saturday, Feb. 26. Bartlett, of the University of Colorado at Boulder physics department, has given the lecture over 1,540 times since 1969. The talk warns of the perilous effects of population growth and of growth in rates of consumption of nonrenewable resources. The talk will begin at 10 a.m. in room G1B30 in the east wing of the Duane Physics building on the CU-Boulder campus.

MEDIA ADVISORY More than 100 students from four state university campuses will promote higher education at a news conference Wednesday, Feb. 16, at 11 a.m. on the west steps of the state Capitol as part of a campaign in support of higher education in Colorado. The coalition has designated Wednesday "I Love Higher Education Day" and has planned several events in Denver around that theme.

The scientific concepts of light, polarization and optics will be explained through a number of experiments, including creating a giant soap bubble, during the Feb. 19 CU Wizards show "Light, Polarization and Liquid Crystals." University of Colorado at Boulder physics Professor Noel Clark and chemistry Professor David Walba will present the show at 9:30 a.m. in Duane Physics room G1B30. The show, aimed primarily at students in grades five through nine, is free and open to the public.