Weekly Bulletin

Doctoral oral exams July 9-13

The graduate dean invites all graduate faculty to attend the final oral examinations for the doctoral candidates scheduled as follows:

Mobin Karimi, Ph.D., Animal Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences. Monday, July 9, 10 a.m., 427L Integrated Science Building. Dissertation: “The Role of Human NKG2D Receptor-Ligand Function in Tumor Immunity and Immune Escape.” Cynthia Baldwin, chr.

Ayse Tuba Ozacar, Ph.D., Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Doctoral oral exams for July 2-6

The graduate dean invites all graduate faculty to attend the final oral examinations for the doctoral candidates scheduled as follows:

Tingxin Yan, Ph.D., Computer Science. Tuesday, July 3, 10:10 a.m., 151 Computer Science Building. Dissertation: “Exploiting Crowdsourcing for Novel Mobile Services.” Deepak Ganesan, chr.

Xiaobing Xue, Ph.D., Computer Science. Thursday, July 5, 10 a.m., 303 Computer Science Building. Dissertation: “Modeling Reformulation as Query Distributions.” W. Bruce Croft, chr.

Michael Bendersky, Ph.D., Computer Science.

Hydrant flushing set to begin July 9

The annual flushing of campus fire hydrants will begin July 9 and continue for five weeks, according to Thomas Fydenkevez, mechanical utility manager at Physical Plant.
 
Flushing will begin at 3 p.m. and run until 9 p.m. every weekday. The perimeter of the campus will be done early in each shift and the core later in the shift. Residential areas, including North Village and Lincoln Apartments, will be notified two days before flushing.
 
Users may notice a discoloration in the water due to the flushing. Users should run water until it clears.
 
For information, contact Tom Fydenkevez at

Science and Engineering Library to close July 16-27

The Science and Engineering Library (SEL) in Lederle lowrise will be closed for renovations from Monday, July 16 through Friday, July 27.   
 
UMass Amherst and Five College faculty, staff and students and UMass State borrower card holders may request books from the SEL collection through the “Request Item” feature in the online catalog accessed through the Library homepage. 
 
Books requested during the closure will be available for pick-up at the circulation/reserves desk on the lower level of the Du Bois Library or delivered to the home library of the Five College requestor.

Plant Diagnostic Lab to bid farewell to Dan Gillman, welcome Nick Brazee

UMass Extension's Plant Diagnostic Lab is holding an open house on Friday, June 29 from 9-10:30 a.m. to bid farewell to plant pathologist Dan Gillman, who is retiring July 16 after 15 years on the staff. The event is also a welcome for Nicholas Brazee, who was hired to succeed Gillman.

The lab is located at 101 University Drive, Suite A7.

According to Kathleen Carroll, director of the Agriculture and Landscape Program, "Nick has been working with Dan for the past month to insure a smooth transition of services. His background includes a Ph.D.

UMass Press author re-reads Emily Dickinson

University at Buffalo professor Cristanne Miller, author of Reading in Time: Emily Dickinson in the Nineteenth Century, published last month by the UMass Press, will read from her work and sign copies of the book on Friday, June 22 at 2 p.m. at the Amherst College Alumni House.
 
The event is free and open to the public.
 
In the book, Miller provides new information about Emily Dickinson in relation to 19th-century literary culture. Miller argues that Dickinson’s poetry is formally far closer to the verse of her day than generally imagined.
 
Miller presents Dickinson’s writing in relation

Renaissance Center on Amherst Historical Society's Garden Tour

The Renaissance Center is part of this year's Amherst Historical Society's Garden Tour on Saturday, June 30 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
 
The center features gardens planted with herbs and flowers and a meadow with views of the hills. This spring, a Renaissance apple orchard, with eight varieties of Renaissance-era apples was planted. Visitors should be sure to walk the Kestrel trail (a loop around the meadow) and the Montague trail, which is in the woods to the front of the center.
 
Handouts explaining all of the gardens will be available the day of the tour.

Doctoral oral exams for June 23-29

The graduate dean invites all graduate faculty to attend the final oral examinations for the doctoral candidates scheduled as follows:

McKinley Melton, Ph.D., Afro-American Studies. Saturday, June 23, 1 p.m., 803 Campus Center Room. Dissertation: “Pen Stroking the Soul of a People: Spiritual Foundations of Black Diasporan Literature.” Michael Thelwell, chr.

Sriram Natarajan, Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering. Monday, June 25, 10 a.m., 109 Knowles Engineering Building. Dissertation: “Security Issues in Network Virtualization for the Future Internet.” Tilman Wolf, chr.

Marina

Muscle Physiology Lab seeks women for study

The Kinesiology Department’s Muscle Physiology Laboratory is seeking women to participate in a study using state-of-the-art techniques to assess how aging affects the muscle and nervous systems and the effects of those changes on muscle function.
 
To be eligible, women should be non-smokers, ages 30-40 or 65-85, who are not involved in an exercise training program.
 
The study requires four visits, one of which must be on a weekend.
 
Volunteers will be compensated $100 for their time.
 
If interested, contact Terri at 545-5305 or visit http://people.umass.edu/muscle/

Sunwheel and sky-watching events mark summer solstice on June 20

The public is invited to join Astronomy professors Judith Young and Steve Schneider to witness sunrise and sunset associated with the summer solstice among the standing stones of the campus Sunwheel on Wednesday, June 20 at 5 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Rain cancels the events. 
 
These Sunwheel events mark the astronomical change of season in the northern hemisphere when days are longest and nights are shortest.
 
At these hour-long gatherings, there will be a talk on the astronomical cause of the sun’s solstice or standstill.

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