News

Obituary: Paul Procopio, professor emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning

Paul Procopio, 94, alumnus and professor emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, died May 12 in Southbridge.

Born in Brockton, he graduated from the University in 1941 with a bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture. During World War II, he was a civilian camouflage designer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
 
He was hired as an instructor of Horticulture in 1947. He earned his master’s degree in Horticulture in 1954.
 
In 1977, he served as acting head of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning.
 
He retired in 1983 as professor A and associate head of the

NEPR airs Springfield Symphony performances

New England Public Radio continues its decades-long tradition of broadcasts of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra with a series of seven concerts starting May 26.
 
The broadcasts can be heard, with one exception, on Sunday afternoons starting at 1 p.m. on WFCR, and will feature conversations on each selection between conductor Kevin Rhodes and New England Public Radio music director John Montanari.
 
The schedule is as follows: 
 
Sunday, May 26, 1 p.m. "Opening Night." Franz Liszt: Festklänge ("Festive Sounds"). Béla Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3, with Peter Serkin, piano.

Football Ambassadors information session is May 29 at Fenway Park

A new UMass Football Ambassadors program is being launched Wednesday, May 29 at Fenway Park’s Absolut Club, where head coach Charley Molnar will discuss this year’s team and the effort to use specially trained, on-the-ground volunteers to execute simple promotions to educate, build fan loyalty and boost attendance at Minuteman games.
 
The event begins at 6 p.m. with mingling, followed at 6:40 with a message from Molnar and an introduction to the Ambassador Program. A optional tour of Fenway is planned for 7 p.m.

Mini Fenway Franks, pulled pork sliders, chicken kabobs, seasonal bruchetta and

Thelwell represents UMass at Nigerian rites for Chinua Achebe

Professor emeritus Ekwueme Michael Thelwell of Afro-American Studies represented his department and the university at funeral rites in Nigeria for writer and former visiting professor Chinua Achebe, who died March 21 in Boston.
 
Thelwell delivered a keynote address at the internal day of tribute on May 20 at the International Conference Center in Abuja, the West African nation’s capital.
 
Thelwell also traveled to eastern Nigeria traditional ceremonies of celebration and burial by Achebe’s family and kinsmen.
 
Achebe taught in the English Department and in Afro-American Studies in the

Bromery remembered as transformational leader

The life and legacy of former chancellor Randolph W. Bromery were remembered May 17 at a memorial gathering hosted by the Chancellor’s Office at the Marriott Center for Hospitality Management in the Campus Center.
 
Bromery, who served as chancellor from 1971-79, died Feb. 26 at the age of 87.
 
The remembrance drew 150 people, including the Bromery family, administrators, faculty, friends and colleagues from other institutions that Bromery led during his long career as a geophysicist and stints as chancellor of Board of Higher Education, interim president of Westfield State College and

Rich addresses Lyme Disease Physicians Forum

Medical zoologist Stephen Rich of the Microbiology Department was an invited speaker on May 16 at the annual Lyme Disease Physicians Forum sponsored by the Barnstable County Cooperative Extension and the Cape Cod Lyme Disease Task Force.
 
About 100 physicians from the Cape and Islands heard leading clinical researcher and physician Benjamin Luft of Stony Brook University speak on diagnosis and treatment; Catherine Brown, the state’s public health veterinarian, speak on incidence and Rich speak about passive surveillance for newly emerging tick-borne diseases.
 
Rich says, “I highlighted the

Deadline extended for Open Source Software Innovation competition

The Institute for Computational Biology, Biostatistics, and Bioinformatics (ICB3) has extended the deadline for letters of intent and submissions for its Open Source Software Innovation competition.
 
Open to all UMass Amherst faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, the program is designed to support and stimulate software development and trans-disciplinary collaborations among computational, statistical and life sciences researchers, showcase campus strengths in these disciplines, and provide a novel mechanism for the dissemination of new knowledge, tools and research.
 
The

Summer yoga classes begin May 20 in Newman Center

The first of two six-week summer sessions of yoga classes in the Newman Center begins Monday, May 20.
 
Led by experienced professional teacher Eric Burri, the classes are open to all. All levels of experience are welcome. Discounted early enrollment package prices are available through the first day of each session.

Schedule:

Monday - Thursday, 3:30-5 p.m.

First session: Monday, May 20 to Thursday, June 27
Second session: Monday, July 8 to Thursday, Aug. 15

Fees (for a six-week session):

2 or more classes per week: $75 ($90 after first day of session)
1 class per week: $50 ($60 after

Doctoral oral exams for May 28-31

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

Barbara Colombo-Adams, Ed.D., Education. Tuesday, May 28, 10:30 a.m., 100 Furcolo. Dissertation: “Media Cues and Gender Connections: The Relations between Young Children’s Media Use, Character Familiarity, & Gender Knowledge.” Sally Galman, chr.

Yuri Ebata, Ph.D., Polymer Science and Engineering. Tuesday, May 28, 1:30 p.m., A110/A111 Conte Polymer Science Building.

Campus licenses microorganism to boost corn and soybean plant health

A recent exclusive license agreement between UMass Amherst and LidoChem, Inc., a New Jersey-based wholesale turf and agricultural nutrient supply firm, means a fungus-fighting bacterium discovered and developed by Haim Gunner, professor emeritus of Environmental Sciences, will now be marketed nationally as part of an eco-management approach to plant disease protection.
 
Gunner, a co-founder of the Environmental Sciences Department in the 1960s, first identified the bacterium Bacillus amyloliquifaciens as a contaminant in a laboratory experiment in the 1990s, when he was trying to grow a

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