William Barry Wood III, Ph.D., who was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in MCDB, passed away at the age of 86 on May 9 in Boulder. In 1972, following important discoveries early in his career, Wood at age 34 became one of the youngest researchers ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Later, Wood also emerged as a pioneer in the shifting field of science education. His innovations contributed important ideas and methods for improving the teaching of science at all levels.  

Bill Wood came to CU Boulder in 1978, leaving a professorship at Cal Tech to serve as MCDB department chair. He continued in this department as teacher, researcher and administrator until his retirement in 2008. In addition to his spectacular career in Developmental Biology and Genetics, he was a masterful guitar player, song writer, and folk musician throughout his life. Indeed, in high school, he played in a group with John Hartford, who went on to an impressive career as a revered banjo musician and composer. While still an undergraduate at Harvard in the late 1950s, Bill teamed with Joan Baez on her historic first recording, entitled “."  He passed on his musical tradition to his sons, Oliver and Christopher, who have gained international musical recognition as “The Wood Brothers.”

Toward the end of his career, Wood turned his full attention to research on science education. In harmony with work spearheaded by Bruce Alberts from the National Academy of Sciences and by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman in the physics department at Boulder, Wood helped to develop a “questions” approach to teaching, suitable for any science pedagogy.

To challenge and assist college-level science teachers, he worked with Dr. Jo Handelsman, who later became a science advisor for President Obama. The pair started the National Institutes of Undergraduate Education in Biology. This thriving organization has had far reaching affects, helping to train thousands of faculty, especially at R1 institutions, how to apply active learning-based teaching.

This approach has been adopted widely, and it follows the Chinese principle of instruction, stated as a motto in Wood’s first biochemistry book: “I hear, and I forget; I see, and I remember; I do, and I understand.” In 2016, the Genetics Society of America bestowed on Wood its Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education, calling him “a pioneer in the reform of science teaching.”

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Breaking up is hard to do, but it seems the brain may have a mechanism to help .

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“What we have found, essentially, is a biological signature of desire that helps us explain why we want to be with some people more than other people,” said senior author Zoe Donaldson, associate professor of behavioral neuroscience at CU Boulder.

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Professor Nausica Arnoult was awarded the Lab Venture Challenge, which will provide her lab support for the development of a new drug to target breast and ovarian cancers.

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CU Boulder researcher Jesse Kurland shows in new study that aging is a complex process affecting genetic networks, and altering one gene won’t stop it

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The ICIS-Regeneron New Investigator award (formerly Milstein Young Investigator Award) is granted to new investigators who have made notable contributions to basic or clinical research in the area of cytokine biology.

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Gia Voeltz, is recognized as a leader in the study of the endoplasmic reticulum. 

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Dr. Joyita Bhadra, postdoc in , on Science Friday.

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“For the first time, we have a platform to begin screening for drugs that could, for example, replace the beneficial effects of exercise,” Xue said. “That could be really good for elderly people or others who aren’t able to exercise.”  

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The Boulder Faculty Assembly has recognized Professor Meredith Betterton with their Excellence In Research, Scholarly and Creative Work award. Dr. Betterton studies the physics and biophysics of cell division. The award committee said "given the extraordinary quality of the submissions, the selection committees had to make difficult choices." The MCDB department congratulates Dr. Betterton for this well earned recognition from her colleagues here at the University of Colorado at Boulder!

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