UO alumni Bret Jacobson, 33, and Ian Spencer, 29, have formed an Arlington, Va., company called Red Edge, which offers digital services for politically conservative causes.

The two worked on the Commentator, the UO’s conservative alternative paper, where they learned about media messaging. Jacobson served as the Commentator's publisher and ran unsuccessfully for ASUO president in 2001. Spencer was the paper's editor-in-chief in 2005.

Lauren Lindstrom, an associate professor in Family and Human Services at the University of Oregon's College of Education, represented the UO recently at the annual Zero Project Conference in Vienna, Austria.

If the conscious mind—the part you consider you—accounts for only a fraction of the brain’s function, what is all the rest doing?

David Eagleman will answer that during a free public lecture, “The Secret Lives of the Human Brain,” at 7:30 p.m. March 5 in 182 Lillis Hall, 955 E. 13th Ave.

Our behavior, thoughts, and experiences are inseparably linked to a vast, wet, chemical-electrical network called the nervous system, said Eagleman, a neuroscientist and director of the Laboratory for Perception and Action at Baylor College of Medicine.

Silicon Shire, a consortium of over 150 technology companies in the Eugene-Springfield area, hosted a business mixer earlier this year at the University of Oregon's Ford Alumni Center.

The well-attended event gave UO students and faculty a chance to mingle with representatives from local tech firms specializing in computer gaming, biotech, web and media, mobile and embedded applications, networking and security, business and educational software, and industrial optimization – all located in the university's backyard.

Twenty-two University of Oregon professors will receive this year's Faculty Research Awards from the UO's Office of Research, Innovation and Graduate Education.

The recipients were among a total of 37 applicants for the annual awards, which will support research activities during the 2014 fiscal year than begins July 1.

“As in past years, the submissions we received for this award program are a testament to the breadth of scholarship at the UO," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, the UO's vice president for research and innovation.

An internal search for a new Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies will begin soon, Provost James Bean said, in a recent message to the campus community.

The Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies leads undergraduate initiatives and oversees undergraduate programs that include Academic Advising, Disability Services, First-Year Programs, the Teaching and Learning Center and initiatives relating to General Education.

The University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History remained closed for a second straight day on Feb. 28, as unscheduled maintenance was conducted.

The museum, at 1680 East 15th Ave., will reopen as soon as the maintenance is completed.

This year’s Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, “Earth Too Big to Fail,” not only has one of the best slogans in the event’s 31-year history, but a plethora of panels, internationally-known speakers and young minds agitating for legal environmental reforms.

Joshua Roering's study of the Umpqua River basin in the Oregon Coast Range helps explain natural processes behind the width of valleys.

The University of Oregon School of Music and Dance will host participatory Balkan folk dance, as well as a public master class with celebrated violinist Stefan Jackiw. The school will also host the opening event of Eugene’s annual Irish Cultural Festival with a traditional Irish music concert by international artists the Paperboys, and will welcome Adam Unsworth, a hornist from the University of Michigan, for a concert and master class.