Faculty and Staff Campaign raises $764,238 as participation, gifts grow

More than 1,200 members of the campus community contributed $764,238 to the 2012-13 Faculty and Staff Campaign, according to Sarah Sligo, executive director of Annual Giving.
 
The gift total represents a 5 percent increase in donations over last year, while the number of donors grew 6 percent to 1,229, said Sligo.
 
“Our faculty and staff really stepped up for this year's campaign, illustrating in this most tangible way the depth of their support for moving UMass Amherst forward,” said co-chair Robert Feldman, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
 
To help promote a culture

Researchers develop tools for discovering new species

For hundreds of years, naturalists and scientists have identified new species based on an organism’s visible differences. But now, new genetic techniques are revealing that different species can show little to no visible differences.

In a just-published study, evolutionary biologists at UMass Amherst and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) combine traditional morphological tests plus genetic techniques to describe new species. Groups of morphologically similar organisms that show very divergent genetics are generally termed “cryptic species.”
 
Lead authors of an article describing

UMass Innovation Institute forging links between academic research and industry

The UMass Innovation Institute (UMII) is accelerating connections between advanced science and technology available in campus laboratories and private business. Its most recent initiative is a five-year strategic partnership with BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, to develop new advanced materials for the automotive, building, construction and energy industries. The new agreement was announced last week in Cambridge.
 
The agreement between BASF and the UMII along with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is called the North American Center for Research

Brown examines magnetic field reversals in Distinguished Faculty Lecture

Professor Laurie Brown of the Department of Geosciences will be presenting a Distinguished Faculty Lecture titled "Magnetic Field Reversals: The Ups and Downs of Earth's Dipole, as seen from South America" on Monday, March 11 at 4 p.m. in the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center.

While studying an active volcano in the Chilean Andes, Brown discovered lava flows that gave evidence of the most recent reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles. Paleomagnetism, the study of how Earth’s magnetic field is recorded in rocks, suggests that when the field reverses itself, it reduces to a low intensity.

Consultant hired to review residence hall security program

Business Protection Specialists, Inc., an independent security consulting firm based in Canandaigua, N.Y., has been hired to conduct a comprehensive review of the residence hall security program and recommend improvements to ensure a safe campus community.
 
As part of the study, BPS representatives will visit campus during spring break, March 18-22, to tour the 45-residence hall system, inspect technical security measures and current visitor access in the six residential areas. The BPS team will return to campus April 4-5 to observe security procedures while students are on campus.
 

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