University leaders have announced the launch of the campus’ s most ambitious fund-raising campaign ever, “UMass Rising,” in its sesquicentennial year, setting a goal of $300 million to achieve new heights as a leader in the Commonwealth’s and the nation’s innovation economy.
At the April 28 kickoff event, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said, “To excel today, the best universities must adapt. Simply reacting to new circumstances will not do, much more is required.
Professor Andrea R. Nahmod of Mathematics and Statistics has been awarded a Simons Foundation Fellowship in Mathematics by the Simons Foundation. 
Scientists studying how early land vertebrates evolved from fishes long thought that the animals developed legs for moving around on land well before their feeding systems and dietary habits changed enough to let them eat a land-based diet, but strong evidence was lacking. Now, for the first time fossil jaw measurements by Philip Anderson, a senior research fellow in Biology, and others have tested and statistically confirmed this lag.
Thousands of students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends attended festivities marking Founders Day celebration on April 29 on the 150th anniversary of the signing of the campus charter. Among the highlights was the ceremonial cutting of a 150-pound birthday cake created in the shape of the iconic Old Chapel.
A team of Biology Department researchers is proposing a new investigative roadmap for the field of evolutionary developmental biology, or “evo devo,” to better understand how innovation at the genetic level can lead to ecological adaptations over time. Evo devo seeks to understand the specific genetic mechanisms underlying evolutionary change.
With academic pomp and pageantry, Kumble R. Subbaswamy was formally inaugurated April 27 as chancellor during ceremonies at the Mullins Center.