CO-LABS has announced the winners of the 听for High-Impact Research, and University of Colorado Boulder researchers contributed to all three winning projects. is a non-profit organization that supports the state鈥檚 federally funded research centers and runs an annual competition to highlight some of Colorado鈥檚 most high-impact science.
Cheesman Dam spills water down its spillway, a 220-foot high wall of boulders, in June 2019. Photo: Denver Water.
In the 鈥淧athfinding Partnerships鈥� category, CO-LABS recognized researchers from the Renewable And Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) at CU Boulder, the in Boulder, and the at CU听Boulder. This team developed an instrument based on Nobel Prize-winning technology developed at , NIST, and CU Boulder, which can pinpoint small methane leaks from more than one mile away. The team ruggedized and commercialized a dual-comb spectrometer for use in oil and gas fields: In 2018, members of the team and local business experts founded LongPath Technologies听to provide monitoring services to oil and gas partners.
The award recognizes 13 people, four of them affiliated with various departments and group at CU Boulder: Greg Rieker, Caroline Alden, Sean Coburn, and Robert Wright. Their colleagues are from NIST and LongPath Technologies.
鈥淭hese creative partnerships helped the team do the unthinkable: leverage Nobel-Prize winning technology into something that the oil and gas industry could use daily to听improve its environmental footprint, save lives and save money,鈥� said Terri Fiez, CU Boulder鈥檚 Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation.
In the 鈥淢anifestation Mastery鈥� category, the winning team includes CIRES researchers working in the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory鈥檚听听补苍诲听.听Along with their federal colleagues, this team was recognized for a data sleuthing effort that revealed violations of the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to protect the planet鈥檚听ozone layer. The work resulted in China recognizing and taking听steps to address this violation.
In 2018, the researchers, led by NOAA scientist and CIRES Fellow Stephen Montzka, discovered an unexpected global increase in emissions of CFC-11, one of the main chemicals responsible for the Antarctic ozone hole, beginning in 2013. Their research, published in Nature, implied outlaw production of the chemical. A 2019 Nature paper confirmed the findings of the original study听and presented strong evidence that China was violating the Montreal Protocol.
In response to this team鈥檚 work, the international body that oversees the Montreal Protocol has been working to better听understand the problem, incorporating input and advice from its main advisory bodies into an effective global response, and the Chinese government has presented a national-scale plan to听reinvigorate their efforts to comply with the Protocol. CIRES听scientists comprised 9 members of the 14-member NOAA-CIRES team: Geoff S. Dutton, Eric Ray, Pengfei Yu (now at the Institute for Environment and Climate Research at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China), Debra Mondeel, Carolina Siso, David Nance, Lei Hu, Fred Moore, and Ben R. Miller.
Also in the category of 鈥淧athfinding Partnerships,鈥� Jeff Lukas from the CIRES and Eric James, a CIRES scientist who works in , were recognized for their work on a multi-agency, public-private collaboration to estimate probable maximum precipitation and frequency of extreme events above dams In Colorado and New Mexico, to enhance safety and community resilience efforts and inform the Colorado State Engineer and Army Corp of Engineers' priorities and urgent projects. The project leads are Kelly Mahoney from and William McCormick from the .
Colorado has one of the highest per capita concentrations of听federal science, research and engineering facilities in the nation, according to CO-LABS, a consortium of federally funded scientific laboratories, universities, businesses, local governments, and community leaders organized to showcase Colorado鈥檚 research facilities. CO-LABS launched the听Governor鈥檚 Award for High-Impact Research in 2009. This year鈥檚 awards will be presented on Nov. 12 at the Denver听Museum of Nature & Science.
