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CU Boulder Chemical and Biological Engineering—Georgia Tech associate professor and 2025 Schmidt Polymath Saad Bhamla will join CU Boulder’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the BioFrontiers Institute this August. Known for pioneering ultra-low-cost scientific tools and bio-inspired devices, Bhamla plans to collaborate across campus and spin out new companies leveraging CU Boulder’s innovation ecosystem.

CU Boulder Environmental Engineering Program—Mark Hernandez is serving as a commissioner of the newly launched Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air to elevate indoor air as a critical public health priority and drive coordinated global action and solutions.

CUbit Quantum Initiative—Svenja Knappe (CU Boulder Mechanical Engineering) is collaborating with scientists from the CU Anschutz Medical Campus to advance the use of quantum sensors into real-world health applications. These quantum sensors could aid in more effective diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of brain disorders.

Technology Networks—Daniel Acuña, a CU Boulder computer scientist and founder of CU Boulder startup ReviewerZero, led development of an AI tool that analyzed ~15,200 open-access journals and flagged roughly 1,400 as potentially problematic, with over 1,000 confirmed to exhibit questionable publishing practices.

Eleven teams of University of Colorado entrepreneurs, faculty researchers and graduate student innovators will compete for a combined $750,000 in startup funding grants in this year’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) Showcases at the Dairy Arts Center. Judges from Venture Partners at CU Boulder’s entrepreneurial network will hear Shark Tank-style pitches across two nights, one for innovations in biosciences and another for physical sciences and engineering.

Infleqtion’s star continues to rise as Colorado’s quantum hub grows. The company of firsts, spun out of CU Boulder as ColdQuanta, seems to be everywhere these days, including outer space, while commercializing pioneering research to address needs across several critical markets including positioning, navigating and timing, global communication security and efficiency, resilient energy distribution, and accelerated quantum computing. 

CU Boulder Today—Sanghamitra Neogi, an associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences department, is exploring ways to protect semiconductors and microchips from heat damage. She specializes in nanoscale semiconductors, which are so tiny their parts are measured in nanometers (billionths of a meter).

The New York Times—CU Boulder entomologist Sammy Ramsey is leading international efforts to combat the Tropilaelaps mite, a newly identified parasite threatening honeybee populations worldwide. His research highlights the urgent need for global biosecurity measures to protect pollinators essential to food systems and ecosystems alike.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected 27 innovators and entrepreneurs to join the latest cohorts in its Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP). Kian Lopez of CU Boulder startup OsmoPure Technologies will join the West Gate Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The Conversation—Over the past several months, universities have lost more than $11 billion in funding. Research into cancer, farming solutions and climate resiliency are just a few of the many projects nationally that have seen cuts. The Conversation asked Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at CU Boulder, to explain how these cuts and freezes are impacting the university and Colorado’s local economy.