精品SM在线影片 distinguished professor and Marine veteran Richard Jessor reflects on what the planting of the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi Feb. 23, 1945, meant for the country and for him personally

Eighty years later, Richard Jessor vividly recalls hitting the beach on Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945.

鈥淭he island had been under severe bombardment from U.S. aircraft and our Navy ships offshore,鈥� says Jessor. 鈥淏oth types of bombardment had been going on for quite some time, and the sense was that Iwo Jima could be taken in three or four days because nothing could have survived such a massive bombardment from American forces.鈥�

The first three waves of Marines landed on the beach without taking enemy fire.

鈥淏y the time we in the fourth wave hit the beach, the Japanese鈥攚ho were concealed, waiting for us鈥攑ulled their artillery out of the caves and had every inch of the beach registered, so when our tractor hit the beach, we were under severe fire,鈥� recalls Jessor, then a 20-year-old Marine. 鈥淥ur tractor got stuck at the beach edge and could not move us up, so we jumped out of the tractor into the water.

鈥淎s I hit the beach, I looked over and there was a Marine lying on his back, a bubble of blood coming out of his mouth. He died there, and that was my first exposure to combat.鈥�

Jessor was hit in the back by shrapnel during the first day ashore but was able to continue fighting. After four days of fighting, he and his company were pulled back from the front line and told they could write one letter.

He wrote a letter to his parents, thanking them for everything they had done for him. He also said his goodbyes, 鈥渂ecause I didn鈥檛 think anyone was going to get off the island alive,鈥� he says, explaining, 鈥渢here was carnage all of the time, every day, and you felt every day that it was going to be your last day.

鈥淲e were constantly being fired upon by the Japanese, who would come to the openings of their caves and fire, and then withdraw, so we didn鈥檛 see the enemy, and that was a huge source of frustration,鈥� he adds. As it turned out, the Japanese had heavily fortified the island and had a dense network of tunnels from which they could launch attacks.

The flag raised atop Mount Suribachi

Back on the line the morning of the fifth day, Jessor looked at the opposite end of the island to see something in the distance atop Mount Suribachi, the dominant geographical feature on Iwo Jima.

鈥淎s I looked, I suddenly saw the American flag flying. I couldn鈥檛 see anything else that was that far away, but I saw the flag flying and I started shouting, 鈥楾he flag is up! The flag is up!鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淭he other Marines around me began turning around to look. Seeing that made us realize that our rear was now being covered, because we had been under attack from behind as well as in front.

鈥淔or me, it was a moment of being able to say to myself, 鈥楳aybe I will get out of this alive,鈥欌�� he adds. 鈥淚n that sense, it was transformative for me, and I remember it well.鈥�

The flag raising lifted the spirits of the Marines on the island, and later it did the same for a war-weary American public at home, when the image of Marines raising the flag was captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. Rosenthal won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for photography, and the photo has is one of the 

Jessor says the photo symbolized the Marines鈥� perseverance in the face of one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and it helped shape the public鈥檚 sentiment that victory in the Pacific was at hand. However, it also may have inadvertently created a false impression among the public, he says.

鈥淪ome people may think that when the flag went up the island was secure鈥攁nd that was absolutely not the case,鈥� Jessor explains. 鈥淲hen the flag went up, on day five, we still had 31 more days of fighting鈥攁nd most of the casualties took place after the flag raising. Close to 7,000 Marines were killed in the 36-day battle.鈥�

Meanwhile, as the Marines advanced, they sometimes came across the bodies of dead Japanese soldiers, whom they searched for souvenirs. Marines were particularly interested in Japanese 鈥済ood luck flags,鈥� which bore well wishes from friends and family and which were often tied around soldier鈥檚 waist.

鈥淥ne morning, when I looked out my foxhole, I saw a dead Japanese soldier. I walked over to him to see whether he had a flag under his shirt, and as I bent over, I saw he had letters in his shirt pocket,鈥� presumably from his family, he says. 鈥淲ell, I had letters from family in my pocket鈥�and suddenly I was struck by the fact that in so many ways we shared the same humanity. I couldn鈥檛 blame him any more than I could blame myself for being in the same situation. It gave me pause about how stupid it was to be engaged in this kind of activity (war).鈥�

An epiphany amidst combat

Jessor called that moment an epiphany. He made two vows then and there: that he would never go to war again and that he would go on to do something meaningful with his life.

First, though, he had to get off the island alive.

His next challenge came a few days later, when he was ordered to take a Japanese soldier captured at the front lines under his guard to the beach, where interpreters could question the prisoner about the placement of weapons facing the Marines.

鈥淎s I said, there was a great deal of frustration that we could not see the enemy we were fighting, so I anticipated there could be some attempts on my prisoner as I started walking him back through the rear lines,鈥� Jessor recalls. 鈥淎s we got through the rear of the lines, where our artillery was, a Marine jumped up, running toward me and my prisoner, saying, 鈥業鈥檓 going to kill that son-of-a-bitch.鈥�

鈥淚 had to point my rifle at his head and say, 鈥業 have orders to shoot anybody who touches my prisoner,鈥� and so he stopped and finally backed off. And the same thing happened a second time before I got the prisoner to the beach and turned him over to command headquarters,鈥� he says.

鈥淎s I鈥檝e ruminated these 80 years, I鈥檓 not sure whether I would have shot that fellow Marine if he had not desisted from his threat, and it worries me that I might have done that.鈥�

Finally, the objective is achieved

After 36 days, the Marines secured Iwo Jima. A short time later, U.S. aircraft were able to use its runway, which鈥攃ombined with the island鈥檚 proximity to the Japanese mainland鈥攎ade it a strategic military objective.

鈥淐apturing Iwo Jima had immediate consequences for the approach to Japan,鈥� Jessor says. 鈥淲hat was happening was that our bombers were leaving from Saipan or Tinian, and some of those bombers would get hit over Japan and not be able to make it back, so they would have to ditch in the sea, and many were lost. So, the fact Iwo Jima had a landing strip on it was important for that reason, as well as serving as a base for the projected attack on Tokyo.鈥�

But the victory came at a tremendous cost to the Marines.

鈥淲e were destroyed. As I said, almost 7,000 Marines were killed on that island,鈥� Jessor says. The scale of the loss was on display when Jessor and fellow Marines retraced their steps to the landing beach, which was arrayed with crosses where Marines were temporarily buried after falling in combat.

The Marines were shipped back to their training grounds in Maui for their next mission鈥攖he planned invasion of Japan.

They spent their days practicing landing craft invasions. At night, Jessor says he and a few of his fellow Iwo Jima veterans would gather in their tent to relive details of the battle, which he believes had a cathartic effect.

Jessor also recalls being on Maui when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

鈥淲hen the bomb dropped, we all thought it was a great thing,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淲e were saying to each other, 鈥楴o more war! We get to go home!鈥欌��

However, in retrospect, as the scale of the death and destruction in those cities became known, Jessor says he reevaluated his opinion about that fateful decision. At the same time, Jessor says he developed a deep disdain for politicians who were so easily willing to put American troops in combat.

鈥淭hey talk about it like it鈥檚 a game,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey haven鈥檛 the slightest sense of what combat is like and what it does to people and the destruction it causes. Even for the many people who survive the experience, their lives are changed forever.鈥�

After the war

After he was discharged, Jessor made good on his promise to himself to make a difference for the better. After earning his doctorate, in 1951 he accepted a position as an assistant professor of psychology at 精品SM在线影片.

During his ensuing 70 years at 精品SM在线影片, he co-founded and later directed the (its building was recently renamed in his honor); wrote in January 1970 critiquing the lack of diversity on campus and making suggestions for positive changes; wrote a report in the 1960s that took the CU Board of Regents to task for being unresponsive to students and faculty, which earned him the ire of former Regent Joe Coors; and wrote 10 books. He retired as a distinguished professor in 2021, which makes him the university鈥檚 longest-serving professor.

Like many World War II veterans, Jessor rarely spoke of his experiences during the war, even to close friends and his own family. That changed for him after he saw the World War II movie , which opens with a scene of American soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy, France, under intense fire from German soldiers.

鈥淎s a trained clinical psychologist, I didn鈥檛 want to share my experiences with others, so I didn鈥檛 talk much about having been a Marine,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd then one day, my wife, Jane, and I were in Aspen. It was raining, so we couldn鈥檛 go hiking, so instead we went to the movies and saw Saving Private Ryan.

鈥淭he Steven Spielberg-directed movie was the real thing,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen the invasion scenes start at the beginning, I was sobbing, and the tears were running down my face. And while that was happening, I鈥檓 saying to myself, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e a psychologist and you didn鈥檛 know that you still had this inside you?鈥� And obviously, I didn鈥檛.

鈥淭he movie brought it all back to me, and so I began talking about it from that point on.鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 ever want to forget that experience, because it strengthened me in many ways. Sometimes I would say to myself, 鈥業f I can get through Iwo Jima, I can get through anything.鈥� But in other ways, it reminds me what war is all about and what has to be done so they don鈥檛 happen anymore.鈥�

Jessor had hoped to return to Iwo Jima last year. The  in New Orleans offered to cover all expenses for him and his wife to attend a Pacific war theater travel lecture tour series it offers to patrons, which was to include a visit to Iwo Jima. However, the island is open to visitors only one day a year, and volcanic activity on the island at the time resulted in the tour being cancelled. Noting his age鈥攈e is 100鈥擩essor says he鈥檚 unsure he will ever have the opportunity to return to the island, despite his strong desire to do so.

Reflecting on the past

These days, Jessor keeps some mementos on his work desk to remind him of his time on Iwo Jima: a deactivated Japanese hand grenade he took home from the battle and a jar containing black sand from the beach where he landed. The jar of sand was given to him by a friend who visited the island in 2002.

鈥淪ometimes I鈥檓 barely aware they are there, and then other times I鈥檒l look over and see the grenade or the vial of sand and it all comes back to me. It鈥檚 a reminder that I value a great deal,鈥� he says.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 ever want to forget that experience, because it strengthened me in many ways. Sometimes I would say to myself, 鈥業f I can get through Iwo Jima, I can get through anything.鈥� But in other ways, it reminds me what war is all about and what has to be done so they don鈥檛 happen anymore.鈥�

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Xuedong Liu of 精品SM在线影片 is one of 170 鈥榚xceptional inventors鈥� who are helping to 鈥榩ropel us into the future,鈥� academy says

Xuedong Liu, a 精品SM在线影片 professor of biochemistry, has been named a member of the 2024 Class of Fellows by the , the group recently announced.

Liu is one of an elected group of 170 鈥渆xceptional inventors鈥� honored in 2024.

The 2024 cohort of fellows exemplifies the academy鈥檚 belief that groundbreaking innovation knows no bounds and inventors can be found everywhere, the NAI said, adding that the honorees represent 39 U.S. states and 12 countries.

鈥淭his year鈥檚 class of NAI Fellows represents a truly impressive caliber of inventors. Each of these individuals are tackling real-world issues and creating solutions that propel us into the future. Through their work, they are making significant contributions to science, creating lasting societal impact and growing the economy,鈥� said Paul Sanberg, NIA president.

He added: 鈥淣AI Fellows as a whole are a driving force of innovation, generating crucial advancements across scientific disciplines and creating tangible impacts as they move their technologies from lab to marketplace.鈥�

Liu鈥檚 laboratory works to understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying cell-cell communication. Aberrations of normal signaling networks can lead to human diseases such as cancer. The Liu laboratory is developing novel therapeutic solutions for treating cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

Liu is co-founder of OnKure Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OKUR) and founder of Vesicle Therapeutics. His lab discovered and patented a profile-specific histone deacetylase inhibitor, which has entered phase II clinical trials, and a new type of drug delivery system.

He received his PhD in genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994 and was a National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Liu joined the 精品SM在线影片 faculty in 2000 and won the university鈥檚 Inventor of the Year Award in 2013.

"I am deeply honored to receive this recognition,鈥� Liu said. 鈥淭his accolade not only validates the impact of our team's work but also highlights the indispensable contributions of my trainees, collaborators, colleagues and co-founders over the years. More than a personal milestone, it is a testament to the collective effort and dedication that have driven our innovations in tackling challenging problems. Additionally, this accomplishment reflects the entrepreneurial spirit cultivated by Venture Partners at our university, whose support has been essential.鈥�

The 2024 Class of Fellows will be honored and presented their medals by a senior official of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) at the  on June 26 in Atlanta.

The NAI Fellows Program was established to highlight academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.

The NAI Fellows Program has 2,068 fellows worldwide, representing more than 300 universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes. Collectively, the Fellows hold more than 68,000 issued U.S. patents, which have generated more than 20,000 licensed technologies, 4,000 companies and created more than 1.2 million jobs. In addition, more than $3.2 trillion in revenue has been generated based on NAI Fellow discoveries, the academy said.

Among all NAI Fellows, there are more than 170 presidents and senior leaders of research universities, governmental and nonprofit research institutes; about 755 members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine; about 63 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame; 70 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation and U.S. National Medal of Science; and 57 Nobel Laureates.

The  is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to academic inventors. The full list of 2024 Fellows can be found .

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精品SM在线影片 distinguished professor recognized for 鈥榯ransformative contributions to restoration ecology鈥�

Katharine Suding, a 精品SM在线影片 distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, has won The and Prize for Achievement in Science and been named a Franklin Institute Laureate.

Suding is recognized for making 鈥渢ransformative contributions to restoration ecology by increasing our understanding of degraded ecosystems and their recovery dynamics. Her work addresses urgent environmental and societal challenges, and guides policies and practices of ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation and sustainable ecosystem management,鈥� notes The Franklin Institute.

The Bower Awards honor extraordinary excellence in science, technology and business. Suding and her eight colleagues in the 2025 Franklin Institute Laureate cohort are cited as 鈥渢rue visionaries, pushing the boundaries of innovation to find solutions to some of the world鈥檚 most pressing challenges鈥攁nd their achievements are transformative.鈥�

鈥淚 am incredibly honored to receive The Franklin Institute鈥檚 Bower Award for Achievement in Science,鈥� Suding said. 鈥淓cosystem restoration is tasked with solving complex environmental challenges facing the world today, a discipline that well represents Benjamin Franklin鈥檚 spirit of innovation and application. I could not have done this work if not for amazing collaborations with students, postdocs and colleagues, as well as indispensable partnerships with restoration practitioners. This award is for them, for the field and for everyone working to bring back nature.鈥�

Suding is a plant community ecologist who works at the nexus of ecosystem, landscape and population biology. Her research aims to apply cutting-edge 鈥渦sable鈥� science to the challenges of restoration, species invasion and environmental change. She and her work with a range of conservation groups, government agencies and land managers to provide evidence-based solutions that take into account biodiversity, human well-being and management opportunities.

They employ a combination of long-term monitoring, modeling and experimental approaches in settings that range from alpine tundra to oak woodlands to grasslands. Common themes of their work include plant-soil feedbacks, functional traits, species effects on ecosystem processes and non-linear and threshold dynamics.

Founded in 1824, The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia strives to honor the legacy of Benjamin Franklin by presenting awards for outstanding achievements in science, engineering and industry. As the oldest comprehensive science and technology awards program in the United States, The Franklin Institute Awards Program has recognized more than 2,000 of the most pioneering scientists, engineers, inventors and innovators from around the world.

Previous laureates include Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Pierre and Marie Curie, Max Planck, Orville Wright, Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ruth Patrick, Jacques Cousteau, Stephen Hawking, Martin Rees, Gordon Moore, Shuji Nakamura, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Blackburn, Bill Gates, Jim West and Gerhard Sessler, Cornelia Bargmann, John Goodenough, Jim Allison and Frances Arnold.

Suding and the other members of her laureate cohort will be honored in Philadelphia the week of April 28鈥揗ay 2. Awards will be bestowed during a ceremony at The Franklin Institute on May 1 hosted by Chief Astronomer Derrick Pitts.

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Roselinde Kaiser, a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist, is being recognized for her research on the science and treatment of adolescent depression

Roselinde Kaiser, a 精品SM在线影片 associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, has been named a winner, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their independent careers.

鈥淧ECASE embodies the high priority placed by the government on maintaining the leadership position of the United States in science by producing outstanding scientists and engineers and nurturing their continued development,鈥� according to the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), which was commissioned in 1996 to create PECASE.

鈥淭he awards identify a cadre of outstanding scientists and engineers who will broadly advance science and the missions important to the participating agencies.

In honoring scientists and engineers who are early in their research careers, the PECASE Awards recognize 鈥渆xceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge during the 21st century. The awards foster innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the nation's future,鈥� according to the NSTC.

Kaiser is a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist who studies the science and treatment of adolescent depression. With her research group, the Research on Affective Disorders and Development Lab (RADD Lab), she conducts research that asks questions such as: How can brain functioning and behavior help us to understand the experience of depression in adolescence and over the course of human development? Can we use brain or behavioral markers to better predict depression鈥攐r to predict resilience? How can we enhance brain and behavioral functioning to promote emotional health and wellness throughout the lifespan?

The mission of the RADD Lab is to gain insight into the brain and behavioral processes that reflect or underlie depression and other mood experiences, with the goal of leveraging research discoveries to foster emotional health. This year, in partnership with an interdisciplinary team of scientists, educators and young people, Kaiser and her team are launching an initiative to scale and translate scientific discovery into high-impact programs aimed at promoting mental health.

鈥淚 am delighted and honored to receive the PECASE, which truly reflects the dedicated efforts of our research team and the commitment to innovation at the University of Colorado,鈥� Kaiser says.

鈥淵outh depression is an urgent public health priority; in our research, we are advancing new paths to promote healthy mood through interdisciplinary discovery achieved with and for young people. The PECASE recognizes the promise and innovation of this work and is a launchpad for research that will develop and scale programs for personalized health insight and wellness promotion. We are enthusiastic to begin the next chapter in research discovery and real-world impact.鈥�

Also recognized with a PECASE award was , JILA fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology physicist and 精品SM在线影片 physics professor and Jerome Fox,  a 精品SM在线影片 associate professor of chemical and biological engineering.

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NEH funding also was awarded for two other humanities projects at 精品SM在线影片

精品SM在线影片 Department of History Associate Professor Henry Lovejoy has won a $60,000 fellowship from the  to allow him to research and write a book about involuntary African indentured labor between 1800 and 1914.

Lovejoy鈥檚 research focuses on the political, economic and cultural history of Africa and the African Diaspora. He also has special expertise in digital humanities and is director of the Digital Slavery Research Lab, which focuses on developing, linking and archiving open-source data and multi-media related to the global phenomenon of slavery and human trafficking.

Additionally, Lovejoy spearheaded the creation and update of the website , a living memorial to the more than 700,000 men, women and children who were 鈥渓iberated鈥� but not immediately freed in the British-led campaign to abolish African slave trafficking.

The term 鈥淟iberated Africans鈥� coincides with a now-little-remembered part of history following the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 by the United Kingdom鈥檚 Parliament, which prohibited the slave trade within the British Empire (although it did not abolish the practice of slavery until 1834).

Around the same time, other countries鈥攊ncluding the United States, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands鈥攑assed their own trafficking laws and operated squadrons of ships in the Atlantic and Indian oceans to interdict the slave trade.

However, in a cruel twist of fate, most of those 鈥渓iberated鈥� people weren鈥檛 actually freed鈥攂ut were instead condemned as property, declared free under anti-slave trade legislation and then subjected to indentures lasting several years.

Lovejoy said the NEH fellowship is allowing him to take leave from work to write his book, focused on lax enforcement of anti-slavery laws, migratory patterns of African laborers, their enslavement and subsequent use as indentured laborers around the world from 1800 to 1914.

鈥淚鈥檓 deeply grateful for being awarded this opportunity, as the NEH plays such a vital role in supporting the humanities by funding projects that foster our cultural understanding, historical awareness, and intellectual inquiry,鈥� he said.

Meanwhile, Lovejoy said he is also writing a biography about Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a 鈥渓iberated African鈥� who was apprenticed by Queen Victoria, after conducting research in royal, national and local archives in England, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Lovejoy also wrote the book , a biography of an enslaved African who rose through the ranks of Spain鈥檚 colonial military and eventually led a socio-religious institution at the root of an African-Cuban religion, commonly known as Santer铆a. 

Lovejoy鈥檚 NEH fellowship was one of three NEH awards to 精品SM在线影片 faculty. Other awards granted were:

Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures Professor Patrick Greaney won a $60,000 fellowship to research and write a book about German manufacturer Braun, National Socialism and the creation of West German culture between1933-1975, focusing on Braun from the beginning of the Nazi regime through the 1970s in the Federal Republic of Germany. Greaney鈥檚 research focuses on literature, design and modern and contemporary art.

Wilma Doris Loayza, teaching assistant professor at the Latin American and Latinx Studies Center, and affiliated faculty of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies, along with co-project directors Joe Bryan, Leila Gomez and Ambrocio Gutierrez Lorenzo, won a two-year, $149,925 grant to develop course modules and educational resources about Quechua and Zapotec language and culture as part of efforts to expand and strengthen the Latin American Indigenous Languages and Cultures program.

The awards to 精品SM在线影片 faculty were part of $22.6 million in grants the NEH provided to 219 humanities projects across the country. The awards were announced Tuesday.

鈥淚t is my pleasure to announce NEH grant awards to support 219 exemplary projects that will foster discovery, education, and innovative research in the humanities,鈥� said NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe.

鈥淭his funding will strengthen our ability to preserve and share important stories from the past with future generations, and expand opportunities in communities, classrooms, and institutions to engage with the history, ideas, languages, and cultures that shape our world.鈥�

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Fileva, a 精品SM在线影片 associate professor of philosophy, won a 2024 Public Philosophy Op-Ed contest

Iskra Fileva, an associate professor in the 精品SM在线影片 Department of Philosophy, has won a 2024 Public Philosophy Op-Ed contest from the American Philosophical Association for her blog 

Fileva鈥檚 article was originally published in 2023 in , for which she is a regular contributor. With her permission, the article was later reposted on the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine website.

Iskra Fileva, an associate professor in the 精品SM在线影片 Department of Philosophy, has won a 2024 Public Philosophy Op-Ed contest from the American Philosophical Association.

Fileva specializes in moral psychology and issues at the intersection of philosophy, psychology and psychiatry. She also studies aesthetics and epistemology. Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophers鈥� Imprint, Philosophical Studies and Synthese.

In addition to her academic work, Fileva writes for a broad audience, including op-eds for the New York Times. She writes a column in Psychology Today that has addressed a wide variety of topics, including perfectionism, self-sabotage, parents who envy their children, asymmetrical friendships, love without commitment, fear of freedom, death, dreams, despair and many others.

In announcing the award, the American Philosophical Association noted that winning submissions 鈥渃all public attention, either directly or indirectly, to the value of philosophical thinking鈥� and were judged in terms of sound reasoning and 鈥渢heir success as examples of public philosophy,鈥� as well as their accessibility to the general public on topics of public concern.

Fileva said she鈥檚 pleased with the reception the article received and honored to be recognized by the American Philosophical Association.

鈥淩eceiving the public philosophy award was a very nice way to end the year,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t also drew attention to the essay, and I heard from people who read it and who likely would not have found it otherwise. It took me a day or so to re-read it as I don鈥檛, in general, know what I would think of anything I鈥檝e written several months ago, but I did re-read it, and I was happy to discover that I still agreed with what I鈥檇 written.鈥�

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The American Mathematical Society recognition supports mid-career female researchers whose achievements demonstrate potential for further contributions to mathematics

Katherine Stange, a professor in the 精品SM在线影片 Department of Mathematics, has been named the 2025-26 American Mathematical Society (AMS) Joan and Joseph Birman Fellow.

The  is a mid-career research fellowship that aims 鈥渢o address the paucity of women at the highest levels of research in mathematics by giving exceptionally talented women extra research support during their mid-career years,鈥� according to the AMS. Fellows are those 鈥渨hose achievements demonstrate significant potential for further contributions to mathematics.鈥�

Katherine Stange, a 精品SM在线影片 professor of mathematics, has been named the 2025-26 American Mathematical Society (AMS) Joan and Joseph Birman Fellow.

鈥淚 am both honored and humbled by this award,鈥� Stange says. 鈥淎s my career has unfolded, I've learned the incredible value of community in mathematics, and I feel a great debt of gratitude to my amazing collaborators and the support of my mathematical community.

鈥淛oan and Joseph Birman's vision, to support the careers of women reconciling the many aspects of work and life, goes beyond these individual awards; and so, I hope to support those around me, just as I have been privileged by the support of so many.鈥�

Fellows can use the $50,000 award in any way that most effectively enables their research, including child care, release time, participation in special research programs and travel support.

Stange, a number theorist, earned her bachelor of mathematics degree at the University of Waterloo and her PhD at Brown University under the mentorship of Joseph H. Silverman. She held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University, Stanford University and the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Simon Fraser University and is a fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics.

Describing her research, Stange says, 鈥淚 enjoy simple-seeming questions that lead to a richness of structure; and arithmetic questions with geometric and especially visual access points.鈥�

Her areas of interest include elliptic curves, Apollonian circle packings, Kleinian groups, algebraic divisibility sequences, Diophantine approximation, continued fractions, quaternion algebras and quadratic and Hermitian forms. Stange is especially interested in cryptography, including elliptic-curve and isogeny-based cryptography, as well as quantum algorithms, 鈥渋n part for the surprising way mathematical structures can have an outsize influence on human affairs,鈥� she notes. 鈥淚 enjoy problems that involve experimental, algorithmic and especially visual mathematics, using a computer and other tools.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a great deal of hidden beauty in number theoretical problems waiting to be illustrated.鈥�

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College of Arts and Sciences leadership and peers recognize history professor鈥檚 service, teaching and research with the award

Paul Sutter, a 精品SM在线影片 professor of history, has been named the 2024 College Professor of Distinction by the College of Arts and Sciences in recognition of his exceptional service, teaching and research.

The college presents this prestigious award annually to current faculty members who are scholars and artists of national and international renown and who are recognized by their college peers as teachers and colleagues of exceptional talent. Honorees hold this title for the remainder of their careers in the College of Arts and Sciences at 精品SM在线影片.

鈥淏eing named a Professor of Distinction is a career honor, and I am deeply appreciative of my wonderful colleagues in the History Department who nominated me for this award, and those around campus who supported my nomination,鈥� Sutter notes.

Sutter鈥檚 research focus is U.S. and global environmental history. He is the author of (2002) and  (2015).

精品SM在线影片 Professor Paul Sutter is the author of many accalimed essays and books, including Driven Wild: How the Fight against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement and Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies: Providence Canyon and the Soils of the South. 

In Driven Wild, Sutter details an aspect of his longtime intellectual fascination with wilderness and U.S. environmental history: 鈥淗istorians had long studied the centrality of the wilderness idea in American history, from its importation as a filter for viewing the colonial landscape to its role as a shibboleth of the postwar environmental movement, and I was fascinated by the same questions that preoccupied many of these scholars: How was it that a nation founded upon an antipathy for the wilderness had come to cherish and protect it? What had produced this intellectual and cultural sea change?鈥�

In addition, Sutter is the co-author of  (with Leon Neel and Albert Way, 2010), and the co-editor of Environmental History and the American South: A Reader (with Christopher Manganiello, 2009) and Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture: Environmental Histories of the Georgia Coast (with Paul Pressly, 2018).

His current book project, Pulling the Teeth of the Tropics: Environment, Disease, Race, and the U.S. Sanitary Program in Panama, 1904-1914, is an environmental and public health history of the construction of the Panama Canal.

In addition to his books, Sutter has also written a number of influential essays on environmental historiography, including a state-of-the-field essay in the Journal of American History (June 2013), and he is the series editor for , published by the University of Washington Press. He has received major fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the Huntington Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health,  the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, and the National Humanities Center. 

Sutter earned his BA in American studies from Hamilton College and his PhD from the University of Kansas. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia from 1997 to 2000 and a member of the History Department at the University of Georgia from 2000 to 2009. He joined 精品SM在线影片 as an associate professor of history in 2009 and was named professor in 2016.

Sutter served as Department of History chair from 2017-2021. He is a faculty affiliate in the Department of Environmental Studies and in the Center of the American West, and he has just joined the Advisory Board of the Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism.

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Actor and theater scholar Tamara Meneghini brings the long-ruling monarch to life in a solo performance that earned rave reviews at the recent Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Historical figures are so easily flattened into two dimensions鈥攁ll stiff pleats and inscrutable expressions rendered in oils.

The challenge for artists and scholars, then, is how to lift these figures from the canvas鈥攖o regard them in three dimensions, to allow them foibles and failings and humanity.

For Tamara Meneghini, that meant more than just donning a red wig and pounds of brocade as one of the most famous women in Western history. It meant studying the time in which Elizabeth I of England lived鈥攔esearching what influenced her behavior in her time period, how she interacted with people, what games she played, how she followed the rules and how she broke them.

Tamara Meneghini, an associate professor in the 精品SM在线影片 Department of Theatre and Dance, performed to rave reviews as the titular monarch in "Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words" at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

To become Elizabeth I onstage, Meneghini had to understand the monarch as a human woman and bring her to life for modern audiences who may believe there鈥檚 nothing new to understand about her.

So, audiences at Scotland鈥檚 in August were surprised and then delighted to rediscover the queen they thought they knew. Playing the not-so-popular-in-Scotland monarch in the one-woman performance 鈥淓lizabeth I: In Her Own Words,鈥� Meneghini performed before full theaters and to glowing reviews.

鈥淭he key to fringe festivals is audiences want you to connect,鈥� explains Meneghini, an associate professor in the 精品SM在线影片 Department of Theatre and Dance. 鈥淵ou have to connect. The audience can鈥檛 be just audience. The way our piece was set up, it worked really nicely that audience felt like A) they were in the presence of the queen and B) they could not leave, they were there with me in the moment, in this meta sort of space. I was interacting with them as the queen, but in a very specific circumstance we had created.鈥�

Becoming Elizabeth

Meneghini鈥檚 interest in Elizabeth I grew, in part, from her interest in styles and plays from different time periods鈥�"the ways in which we behave in those time periods, how changes in clothing, dances, culture, protocols can affect behavior,鈥� she explains.

While working at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, where she taught before joining the 精品SM在线影片 faculty in 2008, Meneghini developed a concert of early Renaissance music that involved era-specific instruments such as sackbuts and crumhorns. However, she also wanted to bring in elements of theater and approached , a pre-eminent scholar of Elizabeth I and women in the Renaissance era.

鈥淐arole was pivotal because what we created was a fictitious meeting between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots,鈥� Meneghini says. 鈥淧art of that was crafting this improvisation with students that was really cool. It ended up being a combination of theater and film and history, and it was just a blast.鈥�

Fast forward to 2016, when 精品SM在线影片 was honored as a stop for the first-ever national touring exhibition of Shakespeare鈥檚 First Folio.

Tamara Meneghini as Elizabeth I outside Edinburgh's Craigmillar Castle (left) and onstage (right) as the long-ruling monarch.

鈥淲hen the Folio came through, I was doing a period styles class, and I was asked to create something for the Folio visit,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 immediately thought of Elizabeth I鈥攖he idea of Elizabeth, the time period, Shakespeare鈥檚 plays. I know they never met, but she certainly influenced his plays, so I started working on this thing based on Carole鈥檚 series of lectures that she did about Elizabeth.鈥�

The initial performance was a duet, with Meneghini playing Elizabeth in front of projected images from the time period to which Levin had access. Meneghini and her acting partner鈥擝ernadette Sefic, a 精品SM在线影片 BFA/acting graduate and recent MFA graduate of the Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program鈥攑erformed at universities and sometimes in community theaters, and in costumes designed by theater colleague Markas Henry.

鈥淎s the costume as story went on, Elizabeth is becoming more and more like a real person,鈥� Meneghini says. 鈥淭he portraiture that we have of her was largely staged by how her council and her parliament wanted her to look. We wanted this piece to be an opportunity to see Elizabeth as the woman, as the human, as someone audiences could relate to.

鈥淢arkas and I talked a lot about this costume coming apart, and he made this thing that鈥檚 close to 30 pounds鈥攖he costume is immense鈥攖hat gradually sheds layers through the performance.鈥�

Fringe opportunities

Two years ago, 精品SM在线影片 graduate Penny Cole, founder of , approached Meneghini about creating a solo show and put her in contact with a Scottish theater scholar who asked whether she鈥檇 be interested in performing at Edinburgh Fringe.

   What: "Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words"

  Who: Tamara Meneghini, associate professor in the 精品SM在线影片 Department of Theatre and Dance

  When: 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19

  Where: Savoy Denver, 2700 Arapahoe St.

Meneghini sought Levin鈥檚 expertise, as well as that of Denver-based theater guru Sabin Epstein, to craft a solo play from what began as lectures. The 55-minute play, for which Levin is credited as writer, is based on Elizabeth鈥檚 own writings. It eschews the projected images of the original duet performance鈥攁 lot of which featured the men in Elizabeth鈥檚 life鈥攖o create an intimate space between Elizabeth and the audience, Meneghini says.

She performed 鈥淓lizabeth I: In Her Own Words鈥� several times in New York City before her 14 performances at Edinburgh Fringe, where it was a hit.

鈥淧eople there are crazy about their royals,鈥� Meneghini says with a laugh. 鈥淓lizabeth is not a popular monarch in Scotland; in fact, she鈥檚 almost an antagonist. So, when I first performed it in New York, people went nuts about it, but I didn鈥檛 think they were going to like it as much in Scotland, so that was a happy surprise.

鈥淚n fact, I went to do this photo shoot at Craigmillar Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots convalesced and planned her husband鈥檚 murder, and people were coming up to me鈥擨 was in full regalia鈥攁nd saying, 鈥極h, Queen Mary, Queen Mary.鈥� So, I had to say, 鈥楴o, I鈥檓 Elizabeth,鈥� and they鈥檇 run away.鈥�

Thanks to the play鈥檚 reception at Edinburgh Fringe, Meneghini is now developing it into a full, 120-minute performance. She also will perform it Oct. 19 in the And still, she says, there鈥檚 always more to learn about Elizabeth.

鈥淥ne of my biggest takeaways (from performing at Edinburgh Fringe) was people came out of the show saying, 鈥極h, my gosh, I have a totally different perspective of her as a person. She wasn鈥檛 this awful woman, she really struggled with these decisions that she made,鈥欌�� Meneghini says. 鈥淲hat I鈥檝e learned in my own research with her is that she was a complicated person like we all are, didn鈥檛 take any of the decisions that she had to make in her life lightly. When I鈥檓 doing the show鈥攚hether it鈥檚 here, when I was in Edinburgh鈥擨鈥檓 constantly reading more about her, and every day is bringing something new.鈥�

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In her Distinguished Research Lecture, 精品SM在线影片 Professor Christy McCain will highlight how certain traits in some mammal and insect populations indicate who is at greatest risk from climate change

Colorado鈥檚 small, mountain-dwelling mammals are moving higher鈥攏ot for better views or real estate, but because climate change is forcing them to.

This finding is based on a 13-year study of 27 rodent and four shrew species in Colorado鈥檚 Front Range and San Juan mountains鈥攔esearch that included trapping, tagging and releasing the various mammals to better understand their range.

While the findings are more complex than a simple trend of animals moving up the mountain, they spotlight the sobering possibility that climate change could force some mammals from Colorado entirely.

Christy McCain, a professor in the 精品SM在线影片 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and curator of vertebrates in the CU Museum of Natural History, will discuss mountain biodiversity and climate change in her Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 14.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been talking about climate change in the Rockies for a long time, but I think we can say that this is a sign that things are now responding and responding quite drastically," Christy McCain, lead author, in Feb. 2021.

McCain, a professor in the 精品SM在线影片 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and curator of vertebrates in the CU Museum of Natural History, uses mountains as natural experiments to study biodiversity, ecological theory, global change, montane ecology and range limits.

She will discuss mountain biodiversity and climate change in her Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 14, highlighting the research her lab has done to understand how animals鈥攎ostly vertebrates and insects鈥攁re distributed on mountains around the world.

She and her research colleagues have found that different groups of animals, driven by their evolutionary history and climate, show distinctive patterns. For example, mountain biodiversity for rodents, salamanders and moths is quite different from birds, bats and reptiles. 

The conservation priorities for each group of mountain organisms are closely tied to elevational diversity patterns, land-use change and complex interactions with a rapidly warming and drying climate. McCain will explore these topics through case studies of mammal populations in the Front Range and San Juan Mountains and carrion beetles鈥攅xamining how various physiological traits like heat and desiccation tolerance may be critical to responses to climate change.

About Christy McCain

McCain received dual bachelor鈥檚 degrees in wildlife biology and studio art from Humboldt State University, was a natural-resources and protected-areas specialist in the Peace Corps Honduras and earned her PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Kansas.

She was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California Santa Barbara before coming to 精品SM在线影片 as an assistant professor in 2008.

   What: 124th Distinguished Research Lecture, Mountain Biodiversity and Climate Change

  Who: Professor Christy McCain of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and CU Museum of Natural History

  When: 4-5 p.m. Nov. 14, followed by a Q&A and reception

  Where: Chancellor's Hall and Auditorium, Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE)

McCain studies how montane organisms are distributed on mountains around the world and how those populations and species are influenced by human land use and climate change. Her research spans topics across ecology and evolution to understand and conserve biodiversity.

Funded by the National Science Foundation through several grants, her research has appeared in more than 60 peer-reviewed journals, including Science, Ecology Letters, Ecology and Global Change Biology, among others.

McCain is the curator of vertebrate collections in the CU Museum of Natural History, where she is a steward for the continued protection and use of museum specimens for understanding and conserving the world鈥檚 biodiversity. Over the years, she has taught mammalogy as well as other topics in field biology, creative conservation messaging and mountain ecology and conservation.

About the Distinguished Research Lectureship

The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors given by faculty to a faculty colleague at CU Boulder. Each year, the Research and Innovation Office requests nominations from faculty for this award, and a faculty review panel recommends one or more faculty members as recipients. 

The lectureship honors tenured faculty members, research professors (associate or full) or adjoint professors who have been with 精品SM在线影片 for at least five years and are widely recognized for a distinguished body of academic or creative achievement and prominence, as well as contributions to the educational and service missions of CU Boulder. Each recipient typically gives a lecture in the fall or spring following selection and receives a $2,000 honorarium.

McCain and Jamie Nagle, a professor of physics, have been recognized with 2024-25 Distinguished Research Lectureships. Nagle will give his lecture Feb. 6, 2025.

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