Weekly Bulletin

Chancellor to address Retired Faculty Association

Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy will discuss “UMass Amherst’s Future” as the featured speaker during the Retired Faculty Association meeting on Wednesday, April 10, at 11 a.m. in 101 Campus Center.

The business meeting, with coffee and cookies, will begin at 10 a.m. followed at 10:30 by a presentation by Ervin Staub, professor emeritus of Psychology,  on “Overcoming evil: genocide, violent conflict and terrorism.”

Retired Faculty Association

Doctoral oral exams for April 5-12

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

Hongmei Sun, Ph.D., Comparative Literature. Friday, April 5, 10 a.m., 301 Herter Hall. Dissertation: “Translating Trickster, Performing Identity: Representations of the Monkey King (Sun Wukong) in Chinese and Asian American Rewritings.” Elizabeth Petroff, chr.

Nicole Stokes-DuPass, Ph.D., Sociology. Monday, April 8, 10 a.m., W-37 Machmer. Dissertation: “The Politics of Identity in Contemporary Denmark.” Joya Misra & Jennifer Lundquist, co-chrs.

Kelly Ryan, Ph.D.

Knowledge Commons leads discussion about open-access regulations and academic research

The Workshop in the Study of Knowledge Commons is hosting a brown bag discussion titled “WHOA! How the White House Open Access Directive Will Affect You” on Wednesday, April 3 at noon in the Teaching Commons on the 26th floor of the Du Bois Library.

These days everyone from private funders to government agencies seems to be considering how to ensure that research — and data — is openly accessible. For example, the White House has mandated open access for federal agencies, and in Great Britain, all publicly funded scientific research now must be freely accessible to all.

Bromery remembrance scheduled for May 17

The life and achievements of the late Randolph W. Bromery will be celebrated Friday, May 17 from 2-4:30 p.m. in the Marriott Center on the 11th floor of the Campus Center.
 
Hosted by Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, the event will honor the memory of the former chancellor and Commonwealth Professor emeritus of geophysics, who died Feb. 26 at the age of 87.
 
He was chancellor from 1971-79 and later served as interim president of Westfield State College, chancellor of the state Board of Regents for Higher Education, president of Springfield College and president of Roxbury Community College.
 

Offshore Wind IGERT Fellows poster session

The campus community is invited to attend Wind Energy National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) student poster exhibition on Tuesday, April 2 from 6-7 p.m. in the Hadley Room, 1003 Campus Center.

"I am looking forward to seeing what our fabulous students are working on, as well as to the discussions with the community that can lead to new and exciting research directions," said Erin Baker, associate professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and principal investigator.


 

Nicolson speaks on influence of Rachel Carson, Wendell Berry

Craig Nicolson is intrigued by the big ideas that have changed the world. As director of academic sustainability programs in the College of Natural Sciences, he wants to see students  change the world. That, he says, requires them to know whose ideas have already been influential and why.
 
On Tuesday, April 2 at 6:30 p.m.

New course proposal

The following new course proposal has been submitted to the Faculty Senate Office for review and approval and is listed here for faculty review and comment. Comments on any new course proposal should be submitted to Ernest May, secretary of the Faculty Senate, at senate@senate.umass.edu.

NRC 579, “Cree Culture, Natural Resources, and Sustainability,” 3 credits; Instructor: Dr. Paul K.

Amherst College scientist presents Physics colloquium

"Using the Earth as a Polarized Electron Source to Search for Long Range Spin-Spin Interactions" will be discussed by Larry Hunter of Amherst College on Wednesday, April 3 at 4 p.m. in 124 Hasbrouck Laboratory. The talk is part of the Physics colloquium series.

 

Physicist speaks on 'decoherence'

Philip Stamp of the University of British Columbia will speak on "Decoherence" at a Physics colloquium on Wednesday, March 27 at 4 p.m. in 124 Hasbrouck Laboratory.

According to Stamp, "decoherence" is the name commonly given to the destruction of quantum correlations in the dynamics of quantum systems.

Campus hosts adoption research conference April 11-12

Adoption researchers from around the world, with practice professionals and adoptive families will gather on campus Thursday and Friday, April 11 and 12, for the fifth annual New Worlds of Adoption Conference to explore the theme,“Contact between Adoptive and Birth Parents: What Works?”   
 
The 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. conference will meet in the Student Union Ballroom and is open to all interested families, practitioners, researchers, school staff and policy makers.
 
More than 200 people are expected to attend the forum, which will offer workshops and lectures by more than 40 experts from across

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