Google, Intel Founders Support Undersea Research by UMass Amherst Microbiologist

James Holden in his lab. Photo Credit - Jim Gipe

For the first time in James Holden's 25-year career in deep-sea research, his research will not be funded by a government source. Instead, Holden will be funded by philanthropists committed to supporting oceanographic research. His new studies examine microbes living deep in the cracks and thermal vents around an undersea volcano.

Gates Foundation Funds Microbial Fuel Cell Latrine

UMass Amherst Professor Caitlyn Shea Butler, Civil Engineering, has designed and is now field-testing a new “green latrine” that purifies human waste, turning it into compost for farming and generating electricity. Her multipurpose invention is called a “Microbial Fuel Cell Latrine.”

Butler believes her inexpensive green latrine can be deployed throughout places such as rural Africa, transforming the way human waste is treated in areas where sanitation facilities are poor or nonexistent. At the same time, the device can play a key role in preventing waterborne diseases, including diarrhea. “You get a lot out of this system,” says Butler. “The latrine produces electricity. It makes compost. And you protect the ground water source. So you get a lot back for a small investment.”

Keck Foundation awards $1M to study the dynamics of newly discovered solid surfactant films

Physicists Narayanan Menon, Benny Davidovitch and Christopher Santangelo, with polymer scientist Thomas Russell, recently won a three-year, $1 million Keck Foundation grant to develop the basic science needed to spontaneously deliver ultrathin films to fluid interfaces. The W.M. Keck Science and Engineering program funds “endeavors that are distinctive and novel in their approach. It encourages projects that are high-risk with the potential for transformative impact.”

Pew Scholar in Biomedical Science awards Shelly Peyton for her research in Tissue-specific stem cells and breast cancer tissue tropism

Shelly Peyton, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is one of 22 researchers who have been named by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The scholarships provide flexible funding to early career scientists researching the basis of perplexing health problems—including diabetes, autism, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer.

Innovation Accelerator, a start-up company started by UMass Professor Anthony McCaffrey

Creativity and invention have a wild and unpredictable quality to them. Anthony has formed his own company that offers a software package that seeks to tame and rationalize these two important processes.

Anthony McCaffrey has launched his new company, Innovation Accelerator, based in West Brookfield, Mass., and its first product, Analogy Finder software. He has also finalized a licensing agreement with the university’s office of Commercial Ventures & Intellectual Property that allows the company to commercialize the software. McCaffrey is a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for e-Design in the UMass Amherst mechanical and industrial engineering department, a recent doctoral recipient in psychology, and a former elementary school teacher.

Isenberg Student Entrepreneurs Thrive in Innovation Challenge

Isenberg student entrepreneurs were among the top winners in the final round of the 2013 Innovation Challenge, the UMass Amherst campus-wide business plan competition that encourages interdisciplinary student teams to transform innovations--many of them generated on campus--into viable businesses.