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Institute of Behavioral Science

News

All news items, blog posts, and feature stories.

Post pandemic, older adults are still pulling back from public life

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Two elderly women look out on a large picture window with curtains. The window has a view of a tree outside with yellow fall leaves.

Jessica Finlay, assistant professor of geography and IBS fellow, has found more than half of older adults are continuing to spend more time at home than they did pre-pandemic. In her recent papers published here, Finlay notes these adults fear infection and more hostile social dynamics in public spaces. This “epidemic of loneliness” has long term effects on older adults health, particularly those who are immune compromised. Lisa Marshall, science writer for CU Boulder Today, shares more about Finlay’s findings in her story here.

Beverly Kingston cited in Westword article on Colorado’s increasing juvenile murder rate

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A boy looks lost in a crowd. His face is turned to us while the crowd is turned away.

Over the past 14 years, the juvenile murder rate in Colorado has increased over 200% according to a recent article in Westword. Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Beverly Kingston, believes intervention and prevention tactics provided through community programs can greatly reduce these incidences of violence. However, Kingston warns the community must do more to ensure children receive the support and care they need. 

Women’s History Month Feature: Leslie Root

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Leslie Root smiles with Women's History Month graphic in the background.

Closing out Women’s History Month with our final features! Leslie Root started at IBS in March 2021 as a postdoc. She is now an assistant research professor for the CU Population Center and Population Program!

  1. What do you like most about your position at IBS?

Root: Team science! My dissertation was very much a solo effort, and when I was done, I wasn’t sure if academia was really the right fit for me. I’m so lucky that I had the opportunity to join the Colorado Fertility Project team, because it’s a fantastic group of people working together to do really important and innovative research. I’ve learned so much here.

2. What research project are you most excited about?

Root: Our Colorado Fertility Project work in the Rocky Mountain Research Data Center is so cool. We are able to study U.S. fertility patterns in a way that has never been possible before, and use it to study highly consequential social inequalities and the interventions that reduce them.

3. What’s one thing you hope never changes about IBS?

Root: The amazing mix of folks from different disciplines and departments! …I also secretly like those weird little beetles that get into the building when the weather gets cold.

4. What is your favorite pastime outside of IBS?

Root: In my spare time, I sing and play a few different instruments with a local choir called Planina. We perform traditional music from the Balkans, the Caucasus, and other parts of Eastern Europe and Eurasia.

Women’s History Month Feature: María Fernanda Enríquez Szentkirályi

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María Fernanda Enríquez Szentkirályi sits on a rock with a view of the mountains and pine trees in the background. Snow is on the ground, and she wears a light blue puffer coat.

Continuing the celebration of Women’s History Month with María Fernanda Enríquez Szentkirályi! Enríquez Szentkirályi joined IBS in February 2023 as a senior program manager for the Environment and Society Program. Prior to IBS, she worked in the environmental sector with international organizations in the U.S. and Ecuador. Enríquez Szentkirályi has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Connecticut and has focused on environmental social movements and indigenous peoples research.

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What do you like most about your position at IBS?

Enríquez Szentkirályi: Overall, being part of an institution with a clear mission that produces research with tangible benefits for society is what I appreciate most about IBS. Specifically, from the different aspects of research administration, the pre-award work is one of the most enjoyable. It’s both inspiring and challenging to support research that is being built from the start. For instance, last month we submitted a proposal that will investigate the role of women in wildlife conservation practices in Africa and South Asia (Tanzania, Namibia, and India). This proposal had many aspects to be considered, from the permits to do research in the area, to the on-site consultants who will support the research and translation. Building a budget for this project with the PI (Mara Goldman) was like building a puzzle with many small pieces that need to fit together to have a final product.

What has been the most impactful IBS research you’ve learned about?

Enríquez Szentkirályi: It’s difficult to identify a single specific research topic that is impactful. IBS consistently helps to produce meaningful research, with tangible benefits to society. For instance, the Environment and Society Program researchers focus on issues of artificial intelligence for the management of disasters that directly impact communities in Colorado and beyond. Other researchers investigate ways to help communities adapt to the threats of wildfires–investigating the risks in particular communities and exploring educational tools to adapt to the risks.  Some E&S researchers also focus on the international landscape. This is the case of the GCF Task Force, which works with local governments of 43 states across various countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe to protect forested areas. Still others investigate inequality using archeological data. While this is only a sample of current E&S research, the IBS Speaker Series has demonstrated the diversity and richness of the different research projects across other programs and centers.

What’s one thing you hope never changes about IBS?

Enríquez Szentkirályi: Definitely the colleagues at IBS: the IBS group–both researchers and administrators–are very committed to producing high-quality work.  There is also a lot of support and collaboration. It might not be visible to everyone, but administrators share their knowledge in Teams channels and consistently support each other.  And that helps immensely when you need to figure out creative solutions for research administration problems.

What are you up to outside of IBS?

Enríquez Szentkirályi: I am always walking with my dog and family in the Louisville trails, or I am reading books. I just finished The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut. It is about history, fiction, physics, computers, and artificial intelligence. 

Women’s History Month Feature: Anni Magyary

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Image of Anni Magyare wearing a lime green button down. A graphic of the flatirons and Women's History Month are in the background.

Our next Women’s History Month Feature is with Anni Magyary! Anni joined IBS and CU Boulder in July of 2019. She works as a Proposal Analyst/Outreach Specialist for the CU Population Center and the Health and Society Program.

What do you like most about your position at IBS?

Magyary: So many things! I really enjoy assisting and guiding researchers with their proposal submissions and the appreciation they show me, always making me feel like I’m part of their team and not an outsider. Of course, when their project is chosen to be awarded, that makes it 10x more special and worthwhile! I also LOVE being able to utilize my journalism degree by writing and reporting about all the groundbreaking, cutting-edge research being done for our “CUPC Highlights” newsletter; it makes my job so much fun and enriching.

What has been the most impactful IBS research you’ve learned about? 

Magyary: So much of IBS research is found in the headlines of our nation’s current events – but if I have to choose one area, it’d be what’s dear to my heart – research that’s trying to understand climate change and how it affects us as a population, whether it be our health, vulnerability to natural hazards, and climate migration and equity. Oh, and who doesn’t love gazing at those amazing GIS maps of human settlement, urbanization, and spatial-temporal modeling, especially the animated ones!   

What’s one thing you hope never changes about IBS?

Magyary: Great question: the strong feeling of being part of a community full of talented people with a shared mission!

What have you read lately that you’d recommend to a friend?

Magyary: The million-dollar question – you’re asking somebody who works at the Boulder Public Library downtown on the week-ends! Just stop on by, find me at the front desk, and I’ll recommend a great book according to your taste, whether it be fiction or non-fiction. I just finished the fiction book “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks (a Pulitzer prize-winning author) and couldn’t put it down – loved the historical aspects of a real racehorse during the mid-19th century Kentucky. It won the indie book award last year.

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Tune in next week for another interview with another phenomenal IBSer!

Secrets from the Grave: A Portrait of Sharon Dewitte

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Sharon Dewitte wears a white lab coat and holds a skull with both hands. She stands near a desk.

Professor of anthropology and faculty/fellow of the Institute of Behavioral Science, Sharon Dewitte, was recently featured in the Coloradan Alumni Magazine. Author Lisa Marshall shares how Dewitte’s research helps us learn more about pathogens, their effects on the body, and the structural inequalities that historically led some groups to be more vulnerable to pathogens than others. Read more about Dewitte and her work in the article here.

Women’s History Month Feature: Lori Hunter

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Lori Hunter smiles with a green and blue scarf. In the background, a graphic of the flatirons and Women's History Month text.

Next up in our Women’s History Month celebration is Director of IBS, Lori Hunter! Lori shares about her history with IBS and CU Boulder, her vision for IBS, and hints at an exciting event for IBSers in the works.

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When did you join IBS?

Hunter: I came to CU Boulder in 2000, after four years as an assistant professor at Utah State University following my PhD at Brown in 1997. I have been an IBS Fellow since coming to CU Boulder. I was originally affiliated with the E&S Program given my work in environmental sociology, but I eventually was also affiliated with the Population Program given my training as a social demographer and my research on population-environment interactions.

What do you like most about being director of IBS?

Hunter: Being Director of IBS is my favorite job in 23 years at CU Boulder – actually, it’s my favorite job ever! I have loved becoming more familiar with all the important and innovative research across the Institute and I so appreciate having the opportunity to advocate on behalf of our investigators doing that important and innovative research. I also enjoy reaching across campus — and beyond — to think creatively about bridges we might build to enhance our research and our impact. Finally, I’ve also appreciated the chance to think carefully about how we do our business and how the Institute might better serve our investigators and better support our staff.

What’s something you’re most excited about for IBS?

Hunter: Potential. As I look to the future, I see an Institute that has been responsive to investigator and staff concerns and is poised to step into a future that includes even greater impact and innovation. There are partnerships just waiting to happen. Some are on the Boulder campus – Engineering, Earth Lab, RASEI, CNAIS, and more. Some are at the Colorado School of Public Health – environmental health, indigenous health, rural health, and more. Some are further afield and responsive to funding opportunities at NSF, NIH, and other agencies that are seeking to develop impactful national and international collectives on substantive areas like climate & health. It is my hope that the Institute can support investigators in developing these larger scale initiatives which hold the potential to enhance the sustainability and impact of our important efforts.

What’s one thing you hope never changes about IBS?

Hunter: Community. Even though we’ve been through challenging times, I think our topical foci bring people together out of a desire to expand knowledge and impact across a vast landscape of social challenges. I also hope we have a lot of fun bowling together! (I am hoping to schedule a bowling social later this month).

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Stay tuned for a social invite from Lori, IBSers! And check back soon for another interview!

New insights into the Roman Empire uncovered in an English village ruin

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A river runs through a tall bridge with arches, reminiscent of Roman aqueducts. Across the river is a small English village. People are in the river on small canoes.

In recently published research, Scott Ortman, director of the Center for the Collaborative Synthesis in Archaeology and associate professor of anthropology, and John Hanson, associate professor of Roman archaeology and art at the University of Oxford, have uncovered a new population estimate for the ancient city of Silchester. Now a ruin, Silchester was a Roman-era village in south-central England and its peak population was largely estimated at around 4,000. However, with new excavation techniques, Ortman and Hanson’s research shows the peak population to be closer to 5,500. Blake Puscher writes more about the implications of this increase in his story in the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine.

Impact of early childhood health interventions in Bangladesh felt by future generations

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Two boys in Bangladesh harvest flowers.

Tania Barham, associate professor of economics, along with coauthors Brachel Champion, Gisella Kagy and Jena Hamadani, published a new paper examining the effects of the Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning Programme (MCH-FP) implemented in Bangladesh. Results showed children who experienced MCH-FP had greater height and improved cognition. Remarkably, these benefits spanned generations. The next generation of children were taller and also had greater cognition compared to peers whose parents did not experience MCH-FP.

Daniel Long from the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine at CU Boulder shares more about Barham’s findings here.

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