News

Doctoral oral exams July 9-13

The graduate dean invites all graduate faculty to attend the final oral examinations for the doctoral candidates scheduled as follows:

Mobin Karimi, Ph.D., Animal Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences. Monday, July 9, 10 a.m., 427L Integrated Science Building. Dissertation: “The Role of Human NKG2D Receptor-Ligand Function in Tumor Immunity and Immune Escape.” Cynthia Baldwin, chr.

Ayse Tuba Ozacar, Ph.D., Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Obituary: Joanne Dwyer, former library assistant

Joanne (Kistler) Dwyer, 78, of Leeds, a former library assistant, died at home June 3.

She was born in Reading, Pa., and was a graduate of Kutztown High School in Kutztown, Pa., and earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Miami University of Oxford, Ohio. Later in life, she earned a master's degree in library science at Simmons College in Boston.

In her early career, she was a schoolteacher in California, Pennsylvania and Thailand, where she lived for a year.

She married William H.

Obituary: Patricia V. Cobb, retired Extension clerk typist

Patricia V. (Belcher) Cobb, 84, a retired senior clerk typist with 4-H Extension, died June 25.

Born in Foxborough, she worked on campus for 13 years before retiring in 1989.

She leaves her husband of 61 years, Justin Lyman Cobb; their two daughters and four sons, Christine Therrien, Paula Goodhind, Justin P. Cobb, Christopher Cobb, Jeffrey Cobb and Paul Cobb, two sisters, nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Friday, June 29 at 10 a.m. in St. Brigid’s Church, Amherst, with burial following in St. Brigid’s Cemetery, Hadley.

In lieu of

Police station is second campus building to receive LEED Gold certification

The UMass Amherst Police Station has been awarded LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).
 
LEED—Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.
 
The building was designed by Caolo & Bieniek Associates, Inc. of Chicopee. The general contractor was CTA Construction Company of Waltham.
 
The station is unique both in terms of LEED certification and building use, according to

Campus researchers, international team, say past periodic warmth in Arctic may be related to melting Antarctic ice sheets

First analyses of the longest sediment core ever collected on land in the Arctic, published this week inScience, provide dramatic, “astonishing” documentation that intense warm intervals, warmer than scientists thought possible, occurred there over the past 2.8 million years.
 
Further, these extreme inter-glacial warm periods correspond closely with times when parts of Antarctica were ice-free and also warm, suggesting strong inter-hemispheric climate connectivity, say the project’s three co-chief scientists. The polar regions are much more vulnerable to change than once believed, they add.

Doctoral oral exams for July 2-6

The graduate dean invites all graduate faculty to attend the final oral examinations for the doctoral candidates scheduled as follows:

Tingxin Yan, Ph.D., Computer Science. Tuesday, July 3, 10:10 a.m., 151 Computer Science Building. Dissertation: “Exploiting Crowdsourcing for Novel Mobile Services.” Deepak Ganesan, chr.

Xiaobing Xue, Ph.D., Computer Science. Thursday, July 5, 10 a.m., 303 Computer Science Building. Dissertation: “Modeling Reformulation as Query Distributions.” W. Bruce Croft, chr.

Michael Bendersky, Ph.D., Computer Science.

Hydrant flushing set to begin July 9

The annual flushing of campus fire hydrants will begin July 9 and continue for five weeks, according to Thomas Fydenkevez, mechanical utility manager at Physical Plant.
 
Flushing will begin at 3 p.m. and run until 9 p.m. every weekday. The perimeter of the campus will be done early in each shift and the core later in the shift. Residential areas, including North Village and Lincoln Apartments, will be notified two days before flushing.
 
Users may notice a discoloration in the water due to the flushing. Users should run water until it clears.
 
For information, contact Tom Fydenkevez at

Obituary: Bertha Baranowski, retired institutional domestic aide

Bertha (Kowal) Baranowski, 97, of Hadley, a retired institutional domestic aide with Physical Plant, died June 11 at the Center for Extended Care in Amherst.

Born in Hadley, she graduated from Hopkins Academy in 1933.

Se joined the campus staff in 1971 and retired in 1982.

She leaves her son, Richard Baranowski of Hadley; two granddaughters, a sister, two nieces and a nephew and two great-nieces.

Memorial donations can be made to the Council on Aging Senior Center, 46 Middle St., Hadley 01035 or to the Dakin Animal Shelter, 171 Union St., Springfield 01105.

 

Obituary: Stephanie J. Staiger, retired dining commons staffer

Stephanie Jeanette (Kulis) Staiger, 94, of Greenfield and formerly of Turners Falls, a retired food service worker, died June 17 at the Buckley Healthcare Facility.

Born in Montague, she graduated from Turners Falls High School and was a lifelong resident of Montague. She was an active communicant of the former St Mary’s Church in Turners Falls.
 
She served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
 
She retired as a head dining room attendant at Berkshire Dining Commons in 1981 with 14 years of campus service.
 
She leaves two daughters, Coleen Smead of Barrington, N.H., Cindi Staiger of San

Dining Services team captures gold in culinary competition

For a second straight year, a team of chefs from Dining Services won a gold medal in the annual Tastes of the World Chef Culinary Conference’s team competition.
 
Pastry chef Simon Stevenson, chef Anthony Jung of Berkshire Dining Commons, chef Shawn Stemp of the University Club, and culinarian Taylor Whittemore of Berkshire Dining Commons topped 12 other teams in the American Culinary Federation-sanctioned event held on campus June 15.
 
The team’s winning four-course meal consisted of pan-fried cod with Meyer lemon parsley vinaigrette, stuffed chicken breast with artichokes, spinach and

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