News

Rockefeller University researcher to present Sinauer Lecture Nov. 28

Cori Bargmann, the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor at Rockefeller University, will speak on "Using fixed circuits to build flexible behaviors" on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 4 p.m. in the Engineering Lab 2 auditorium.
 
Her talk is the annual Sinauer Lecture in the Biology Department in coordination with the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Program and the Neuroscience and Behavioral Program.
 
Light refreshments will follow the talk.
 
 

School of Education awarded total of $21M to help Afghanistan rebuild higher education system

Having traveled to Afghanistan three times in the past five months, the last thing professor David Evans seems to think about is withdrawal.
 
In fact, as the United States prepares to end its military presence in that country 2014, Evans and the project team at the School of Education’s Center for International Education (CIE), which he directs, are ramping up efforts to help create, expand and extend higher education capacity there under a new $11.2 million agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
 
Evans is principal investigator for the CIE’s Higher Education Project

Murray to discuss engaging history in fiction writing

This semester’s Honors Faculty Lecture Series concludes with “The Writer’s Perspective: Literary Imagination and Living History” by English professor Sabina Murray on Monday, Nov. 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Auditorium.
 
Fiction is not always a story of pure imagination. Personal history and the public past inspire the works of fiction writers, including Murray. She has written the novels “Forgery,” “A Carnivore’s Inquiry” and “Slow Burn” as well as the screenplay for the film “Beautiful Country.” Her latest book, “Tales of the New World,” was recently published by Grove/Black Cat.

Early childhood and care scholar Judith Duncan speaks Nov. 28

Early childhood and care scholar Judith Duncan will present the lecture “Standardization and Conformity: A Critique of New Zealand’s Early Childhood Neoliberal Politics” as part of the Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 3:30 p.m. in 917 Campus Center
 
An associate professor of social and cultural studies in education at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, Duncan’s research influences policy for young children and their families in New Zealand and abroad.

Campus symposium to pay tribute to Congressman Olver

A symposium honoring Congressman John W. Olver on the eve of his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives is being held Monday, Nov. 19 from 9:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. in the Campus Center Auditorium.
 
Olver has represented the 1st Congressional District – spanning Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester and Middlesex Counties – since June 1991. He is currently the only member from the Massachusetts delegation serving on the House Appropriations Committee.
 
In 2011, his colleagues named him the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and

Olympic agent and marketing executive Peter Carlisle speaks Nov. 27

Olympic agent and marketing executive Peter Carlisle, managing director of Octagon’s Olympic and Action Sports division, will be the next executive-in-residence at the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management in the Isenberg School of Management.
 
Carlisle, who most notably managed the career of Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Michael Phelps, will speak on "Marketing an Olympic Icon: Behind the Business of a Global Sports Superstar" on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center Auditorium.
 
A member of the Sports Business Journal’s Forty-Under-40 Hall of Fame, Carlisle has

Nagurney honored for contributions to regional science

Anna Nagurney, the John F. Smith Memorial Professor of Operations Management at the Isenberg School, received the Walter Isard Award from the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) last week in Ottawa, Ontario. The award was presented during the annual North American meetings of the Regional Science Association International.
 
The top research award given by NARSC, it was established in 1994 to pay tribute to regional scientists who have made significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of regional science throughout their careers.

Campus sharing $6.24 million NSF grant to improve computer science education nationally

Building on its success in drawing more women and under-represented minority students to study computer science at Massachusetts public colleges and universities over the past five years, the campus’s Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education (CAITE) has won a major grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and will now take a national leadership role in computer science education.
 
CAITE will share the new five-year, $6.24 million NSF grant with Georgia Computes!, a project at Georgia Tech, to create a national resource for other states that want to learn how to

Federal grant supports local efforts to address sexual and domestic violence

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women has awarded $300,000 to the Amherst Police Department that will fund several positions focused on dealing with cases of sexual and domestic violence.
 
The grant was obtained in collaboration with the UMass Police Department, the campus’s Center for Women and Community (CWC) and the Northampton Police Department.
 
The grant will continue to fund a full-time civilian advocate, Ilana Gerjuoy, who currently works on-site with the Amherst and UMass police departments assisting survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

Permaculture Initiative video to air across the country

The UMass Amherst Permaculture Initiative recently learned that its recent video, part three of a series intended to tell the permaculture story in an engaging way to a wide audience, has been picked up by a national television program, “Real Green.” It will be televised across the country on the weekend of Nov. 17-18 and will air locally on WGGB Channel 40 in Springfield at 6 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18. 
 
Campus sustainability coordinator Rachel Dutton says the video, which can be viewed on YouTube, was made for the student-led permaculture group by Maine-based videographer Grant Guliano.

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