Computer researchers help lay groundwork for White House 'US Ignite' initiative

Senior officials from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and non-government partners announced June 14 the launch of US Ignite, a national “innovation ecosystem” for developing and deploying public sector applications and services on ultra-fast, software-defined networks to enhance the next generation of the Internet.
 
UMass Amherst scientists are among those from nearly two dozen institutions tapped by NSF to take part.

Peregrine falcons take to the sky

The three female peregrine falcon chicks that hatched last month on the roof of the Du Bois Library all successfully began flying over the weekend of June 9-10.

They have been coming back to the box at night to be fed, but they will spend less and less time at the box over the next few days until they completely stop visiting it on a regular basis, according to Richard Nathhorst, capital projects manager in Facilities Planning.

“They are in the flight school phase of their training, following the parents around campus begging for food, learning to fly and hunt for prey and developing

Badgett testifies before Senate panel in favor of employment non-discrimination act

Economics professor M.V. Lee Badgett, director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on June 12 that Congress should pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because lesbian, gay and bisexual people are nearly as likely to file discrimination complaints as those already protected by federal anti-bias laws.

Badgett was one of five witnesses who provided the Senate committee with testimony related to the proposed bill, which would ban discrimination in hiring and other employment decisions based on sexual

Goldman appointed Distinguished Professor

The Board of Trustees voted June 6 to appoint Sheldon Goldman of the Political Science Department as a Distinguished Professor.

The appointment recognizes Goldman's outstanding research, service and teaching over the course of his nearly 47 years on the faculty. During that time, Goldman has become one of the nation's top experts on the politics of judicial selection and confirmation.

Alumna Natasha Trethewey named US poet laureate

Natasha Trethewey, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and 1995 graduate of the MFA Program for Poets and Writers, has been named the U.S. poet laureate by the Library of Congress.
 
Trethewey is a professor of creative writing at Emory University in Atlanta. She was born in Gulfport, Miss., and is the author of three poetry collections, including “Native Guard,” her collection about black Civil War soldiers who helped protect a fort on Ship Island a few miles off the Mississippi coast, that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. She will be the 19thU.S.

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