Students

  • A photo with a dark, black background showing orange and blue fire embers
    PhD student Laura Shannon, alongside Professors Greg Rieker and Peter Hamlington of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering are setting fires inside wind tunnels to gain a better understanding of how fire spreads across different terrain. The team says their findings could help keep communities safer in a world where climate-driven wildfire is becoming more common—and more dangerous.
  • Elle Stark smiling with a T-shirt underneath an open button-down shirt.
    Elle Stark, a PhD student in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, was recently awarded a prestigious Gallery of Fluid Motion (GFM) Award for a video describing her research.
  • Ethan Coleman stands in front of a scientific research poster titled “A Model for Diffusiophoretic Particle Transport in Acid-Base Reaction Fronts.” He is smiling, wearing a light blue shirt and dark pants, with a conference badge around his neck. A backpack and poster tube rest on the floor beside the display in a large convention hall.
    The recognitions reflect Coleman's work as a teaching assistant for six classes; his strong academic performance—including three graduate-level classes—and his research, where he served as first author on two papers stemming from his undergraduate thesis. It also reflects his time spent as a ChBE student ambassador.
  • Caroline Mumm walking on a shaded path smiles back at the camera.
    Caroline Mumm, an architectural engineering major, represented CU Boulder during a summer abroad program at Freie Universität Berlin International Summer ³Ô¹ÏÍø (FUBis). Mumm returned with a deeper understanding of the diverse challenges and innovations in sustainable building worldwide.
  • A person holding a soil sensor above a patch of dirt and leaves
    Soil is comprised of an intricate network of bacteria and other microbes that humans depend on, but this complex environmental system is constantly shifting, making it difficult for scientists to measure. Associate Professor Gregory Whiting and his team of researchers are developing reliable, inexpensive and easy-to-deploy sensors that monitor soil in real time to help farmers optimize their use of fertilizers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money in the process.
  • The rocket at liftoff.
    Go for launch!ÌýThe 12-foot-tall rocket roared off the pad, streaming higher and higher until it was barely more than a pinprick in the morning sky.ÌýAt 9:15 a.m. on Sunday, October 12, the ³Ô¹ÏÍø of Colorado Boulder Sounding Rocket Lab
  • AISES National Conference 2025
    The Advancing Indigenous People in STEM (AISES) has named CU Boulder as one of the top 200 colleges for Indigenous students in its 2025-2026 national rankings. AISES is a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing the representation of Indigenous peoples of North America and the Pacific Islands in STEM fields.
  • Five college students stand and smile beside their competition poster and small wheeled car model on a table. The poster, titled “Don’t Zinc and Drive,” is displayed on a board behind them inside a large indoor event hall with high ceilings and bleachers in the background.
    The win came at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ international Chem-E-Car competition in Boston, where CU Boulder’s poster stood out among 56 teams.
  • Arianna McCarty with her chin resting on her folded hand and blurred trees in the background.
    Arianna McCarty, a chemical and biological engineering senior, has distinguished herself through a remarkable combination of academic and research excellence, earning the Astronaut, Boettcher and Goldwater scholarships. Her research spans computational genomics, the respiratory microbiome and tissue engineering aimed at improving heart health.
  • Shellene Redhorse with OPTIMISM rover
    Shellene Redhorse, an aerospace engineering student and president of CU Boulder’s chapter of Advancing Indigenous People in STEM (AISES), took her passion for space science beyond the classroom to NASA’sÌýJet Propulsion Laboratory this summer.
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