Awards October 25, 2013

New Sky Energy, a Boulder-based clean-tech firm, won first place in the Green-tech division of the 2013 SXSW Eco Challenge. New Sky was selected from among 12 finalists and three alternates who were chosen from an initial pool of nearly 200 clean-technology and clean-web companies. The SXSW Eco Challenge recognizes innovative clean-technology startups. After a full day of investor pitches by global clean-tech companies SXSW Eco awarded New Sky first place for its patented process of transforming industrial waste streams and carbon dioxide into acid, base and carbon dioxide negative carbonates.

The Town of Erie’s Parks and Recreation Department received the 2013 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management. The American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration, in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association, presented the award during the NPRA Congress and Exposition Oct. 8 in Houston. Agencies are judged on their ability to address the needs of those they serve through the collective energies of citizens, staff and elected officials. Erie Parks and Recreation won the Grand Award in Class V for agencies with a population of less than 25,000.

Amgen Inc. received a state goal-achievement award for energy efficiency at its operations in Longmont and Boulder. The award came from the Colorado Energy Office as part of Amgen’s participation in the Colorado Industrial Energy Challenge. Amgen had set a goal of reducing energy consumption by 20 percent from 2007 to 2012. The biotech company’s actual reduction was 20.9 percent, according to a press release. The company made the improvements by revamping machine, heating and air-conditioning controls, circulation systems, lighting and other components. The CIEC is a voluntary annual program managed by the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, or SWEEP, for the Colorado Energy Office. SWEEP is a regional energy-efficiency public interest group.

Researchers win High-Impact Research awards

Researchers from four Colorado-based federal laboratories were recognized Oct. 10 with a 2013 Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research. Categories and award recipients were:

Atmospheric Science: Dr. Pieter Tans and his team of researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division, developed the Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, a collection of atmospheric observations to create a long-term record of atmospheric trace gases that is helping scientists around the globe understand how humans are changing the dynamics of the climate.

Sustainability: Dr. Klaus Wolter, a researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a joint institute of the University of Colorado-Boulder and NOAA, discovered connections between El Nino and drought that will support water-resource management and drought planning in the Colorado and throughout the Southwest. El Nino refers to warmer-than-normal sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean that impact global weather patterns.

Public Health: Research by Dr. John T. Roehrig and his colleagues at the Center for Disease Control’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins, has led to new ways to diagnose and treat human arboviral infections. Arboviral infections are transmitted by arthropods, such as mosquitoes and ticks that lead to West Nile virus, yellow fever, dengue and Japanese encephalitis. His lab developed reagents that are commercially available to produce diagnostic tests.

Foundational Technology: The team of Drs. John Kitching, Svenja Knappe and Elizabeth Donley from the National Institute of Technology’s Chip-Scale Atomic Device Team made discoveries that bring the precision associated with atomic clocks to a wide range of applications, from time-keeping to magnetometry to medical imaging using atoms to create ultra-miniature devices.

An honorable mention in Foundational Technology was awarded to the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics for the work of Dr. Daniel Baker and his team in uncovering new structures in a planet’s radiation belts.

An honorable mention in Sustainability was awarded to the National Center for Atmospheric Research for the work of its Wind Power Forecasting Team for the development of a wind power forecasting system to optimize integration of renewable energy into the power grid.

The event is the nonprofit CO-LABS’ annual event to showcase Colorado’s research facilities. CO-LABS is an acronym for Colorado leveraging assets for better science.

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