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Vice President Al Gore announced this week the declassification of 59 reconnaissance images of the Arctic Ocean for use by scientists studying climate change, including teams from the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder and the University of Washington.

University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder geological sciences Associate Professor Paul Weimer has been named the Bruce D. Benson Endowed Chair of Petroleum Geology, pending approval by the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Board of Regents Aug. 5. Weimer, a petroleum geologist, has played a key role in mapping underwater sites in the northwest Gulf of Mexico in partnership with several private oil companies in recent years. He specializes in seismic and sequence stratigraphy and basin analysis and their applications to petroleum exploration and development.

Zan Johns, a long-time employee of the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder, has been named director of human resources, pending approval by the Board of Regents at their Aug. 5 meeting. The appointment will be effective Aug. 6. Johns has been interim director since November 1997, when former Director Shari Robertson transferred to a new position to lead the Office of Sexual Harassment Policy.

The University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Board of Regents will be presented Thursday, Aug. 5, with a Grandview Terrace development plan that reflects a compromise reached between Historic Boulder and the Boulder campus with participation and involvement by the City of Boulder. Grandview Terrace is a transitional area between the city and the main campus of the university, north of University Avenue and east of Broadway.

The W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles has awarded the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder $1 million to bridge the gap between molecular and cellular structures, a project expected to lead to significant advances in biomedicine.

Charles Wilkinson, a distinguished ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder professor of law who is recognized as a champion of the American West through his decades of writing and legal work, will be the first featured speaker in a ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder lecture series hosted at The Academy beginning Wednesday, Sept. 8. This fall, the series will highlight faculty from ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-BoulderÂ’s Center of the American West (including its co-founders Wilkinson and Patricia Limerick) and the Natural Resources Law Center. All talks will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel at The Academy, located at 970 Aurora Ave. in Boulder.

The prestigious Morris K. Udall Scholarship has been awarded to two undergraduate students at the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder for their commitment to pursuing careers in environmental public policy, health care or native American tribal public policies. Jamie Hunt, 22, and Seth Peacock, 27, are two of the 75 Udall Scholars nationwide who will receive $5,000 to cover costs of tuition, fees, books and room and board for the 1999-2000 academic year.

David Hawkins, distinguished professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder, will deliver the main address at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥Â’s commencement ceremony on Aug. 7. Hawkins retired in 1982 after a 35-year teaching career at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder during which he won numerous prestigious honors and awards. A year before his retirement he received a $300,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation, the so-called "genius grant," the first awarded to a ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ faculty member.

The University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at BoulderÂ’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and the Residential Academic Program in Baker Hall are teaming up this fall to facilitate undergraduate participation in faculty research.

Fighting is far from over in that area of Eastern Europe generally referred to as the Balkans, according to Stephen Fischer-Galati, professor emeritus of history at the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ at Boulder. Fischer-Galati labeled the recent conflict in Kosovo a "disaster" and said that he viewed the future in that region with "profound pessimism." The level of destruction inflicted by western air strikes has resulted in a non-functional economy shackled to an antiquated industrial system which could not hope to compete economically with other nations.