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
When researchers led by Microbiology professor Derek Lovley discovered that the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens conducts electricity very effectively along metallic-like “microbial nanowires,” they found physicists quite comfortable with the idea of such a novel biological electron transfer mechanism, but not biologists.
As the campus marks its sesquicentennial, two of the major public events will be the formal inauguration of Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy on April 27 and the annual Founders Day cookout on the Goodell Lawn on April 29. 
Students, faculty and staff are being asked to help shape a new mission statement for University Health Services by participating in an upcoming survey, according to James Sheehan, vice chancellor for Administration and Finance.
Results of a new study by memory experts in the Psychology Department suggest that adding symbols such as stars or circles to license plates does not make them easier for adults to remember than the traditional plate with only letters and numbers.
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.
Renée Barouxis, of Westfield, a junior enrolled in Commonwealth Honors College, has been named a finalist for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship. The prestigious award is for outstanding students preparing for careers in public service. She was chosen from a pool of 629 applications from 293 colleges and universities, and vies to be among the 60-65 college juniors to be selected nationwide.
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.
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.