A new era for New England Public Radio began March 4 as the station formally broke ground on a new, multi-million dollar production and operations facility at the corner of Main and Bridge streets in downtown Springfield.
The CEO and general manager of NEPR, Martin Miller, was joined at the ceremony by Congressman Richard Neal, Mayor Domenic Sarno, Elizabeth Cardona of the governor’s Springfield office and John Kennedy, vice chancellor for University Relations.
“The choice to move to the heart of downtown Springfield was a very deliberate one for New England Public Radio,” said Miller.
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.”
Randolph Wilson “Bill” Bromery, of Peabody, who served as chancellor from 1971-79 and Commonwealth Professor emeritus of geophysics, died Feb. 26 in Danvers. He was 87.
The Institute for Computational Biology, Biostatistics, and Bioinformatics (ICB3) has launched its inaugural website at 
Women who reported eating a diet rich in iron were 30 to 40 percent less likely to develop pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) than women who consumed lower amounts, in a study reported this week by researchers at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences and Harvard. It is one of the first to evaluate whether dietary mineral intake is associated with PMS development.