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Nobel laureate Tom Cech is returning to the University of Colorado full time this month after a 10-year stint as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a nonprofit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Md., and one of the nation's largest philanthropies.

University of Colorado at Boulder students will be at the controls of one of NASA's most intriguing missions in recent years following the scheduled March 6 launch of the Kepler spacecraft to hunt down Earth-like planets in other solar systems.

Across the University of Colorado at Boulder campus students are sharing answers, checking their responses to questions against those of their neighbors and making adjustments to those answers in hopes of earning a better grade.

In the largest research contract ever awarded to the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics has been selected by NASA to lead a $485 million orbiting space mission slated to launch in 2013 to probe the past climate of Mars, including its potential for harboring life over the ages.

The University of Colorado at Boulder is teaming up with a Boulder biotechnology company to use pythons, which dramatically increase their heart size for a short time after swallowing prey, as models for new therapeutics to treat cardiac diseases.

Assistant Professor Hang (Hubert) Yin of the University of Colorado at Boulder's chemistry and biochemistry department has been selected to receive a prestigious Kimmel Scholar Award from the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research in Baltimore, the first such award received by a CU-Boulder scientist.

The University of Colorado at Boulder has received a grant of up to $2.4 million to improve teacher education in math and science following a nationwide competition that included submissions from more than 50 universities. CU-Boulder's grant is one of 12 being awarded by the National Math and Science Initiative to implement programs modeled after UTeach, a highly successful math and science teacher preparation program at the University of Texas at Austin.

A growing program at the University of Colorado at Boulder is working to combat what many experts call a looming crisis brought on by a shrinking pool of new K-12 science teachers. Known as the Colorado Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Learning Assistant project, its goal is to improve introductory math and science classes at CU-Boulder and to recruit and train future K-12 science teachers, according to Valerie Otero, director of the program and an assistant professor in CU-Boulder's School of Education.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter will deliver the keynote commencement address for the University of Colorado Law School on Friday, May 11, at_11:30 a.m. to 165 law school graduates. The class of 2007 is the first to graduate since the opening of the new Wolf Law Building. Commencement ceremonies will be held in Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus. Doors to Macky will open at 10:45 a.m. for family and friends. Gov. Ritter is a 1981 graduate of the law school. This is the governor's first commencement address since taking office in January.

A growing program at the University of Colorado at Boulder is working to combat an impending crisis brought on by a shrinking pool of new K-12 science teachers. Known as the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics-Teacher Preparation project, it involves a collaboration between the School of Education and six campus science departments.