Five University of Colorado researchers have been named to the 2025 class of Boettcher Investigators, each receiving a $250,000 grant from the Boettcher Foundation’s Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards Program. This year’s class, announced May 22 by the Boettcher Foundation and the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA), represents the next generation of scientific excellence and marks another milestone in the Boettcher Foundation’s 16-year commitment to strengthening Colorado’s biomedical research ecosystem.
The research of June Gruber, Ph.D., examines happiness and positive emotion, words that might bring to mind a smiling face. It’s no surprise, then, when she describes her CU Boulder lab – the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology (or PEP) Laboratory – as a fun, collaborative and creative space. Positive emotion also plays a role in mental illness, which Gruber and her team also study. The work is not eternal sunshine. "There really can be too much of a good thing when it comes to positive emotion," she said. "And that’s one of the central ideas in our work: that positive emotions, while often helpful and adaptive, can also have a darker side when experienced in excess or in the wrong context."
The University of Colorado Staff Council (UCSC) recently honored 10 exceptional employees across the CU system with the 2025 Staff Excellence Awards. CU staff members – two from each campus and system administration – received the honors presented annually to recognize those who go above and beyond their job duties and consistently surpass expectations. Each received a $250 award.
The 2025 Excellence in Leadership Lecture and Luncheon examined leadership and teamwork, as Excellence in Leadership program (ELP) alumni and current program participants gathered on April 4 at the Benson Hotel on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Ann Schmiesing, interim vice chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and professor of German at CU Boulder, gave the keynote speech at this year’s luncheon. Cathy Bradley, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health at CU Anschutz, received the 2025 Excellence in Leadership Award.
CU’s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year came into sharper focus Friday with the Board of Regents voting to approve the administration’s recommendations on tuition, student fees, and faculty and staff compensation. The figures will be used to determine CU’s annual budget, which the board will vote on in June.
The Office of Academic Affairs and the Open CU Committee recently honored five outstanding individuals with the 2025 OER Champion Awards, recognizing their commitment to creating and using open educational resources (OER) to improve student learning and reduce costs. Each honoree received a $1,200 award and was recognized by President Todd Saliman at the awards presentation March 17 at 1800 Grant St. This year also marked a significant milestone with the introduction of a Student OER Champion Award, highlighting the role students play in advancing open education.
For Cathy Bradley, collaboration embodied an integral part of her first major leadership position. As a department chair tasked with setting up a new department at Virginia Commonwealth University, she quickly realized she needed to build connections with other university departments to ensure her incoming faculty would have collaborators and mentors, and form productive teams.
