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News and Events Archive

News Archive

  • Professor Rebecca Spencer to give CNS's NATURES talk

    How does sleep (or lack of it) impact your life? Learn about the function of sleep with Dr. Rebecca Spencer

    The College of Natural Sciences presents “Sleep On It: The Power of Sleep” with renowned sleep researcher Dr. Rebecca Spencer at the NATURES public lecture on April 26, 2012.

    Dr. Spencer, an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at UMass Amherst, studies the impact of sleep on learning and its effect on memory as people age. Her recent findings—covered in scientific publications such as the Journal of Neuroscience and Journal of Sleep Research as well as in media such as The New York Times, USA Today, and O, The Oprah Magazine—include scientific substantiation of the old advice to “sleep on it” when trying to make a decision and not sleeping after a traumatic event can lessen its emotional impact.

    In her NATURES lecture, Dr. Spencer will discuss the impact of sleep on cognitive function across the lifespan.

    Dr. Spencer’s NATURES presentation is at 5:30 PM in the O'Connor Lecture Hall (Room 221) in the Integrated Sciences Building, 661 North Pleasant Street, on the UMass Amherst campus. A reception will follow the presentation.

    NATURES, sponsored by the College of Natural Sciences, is a series of faculty presentations discussing ongoing research that has implications for everyone.

  • Hava Siegelmann elected to office

    Hava Siegelmann was elected a governor of the International Neural Network Society

  • Jason Breves receives Best Postdoctoral Poster Award

    Jason Breves, a postdoc in the lab of Rolf Karlstrom and an associate member of the NSB Program received the Best Postdoctoral Poster Award from the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology.

  • Linda Witt to retire

    Congratulations and best of luck to Linda Witt on her retirement in January 2012, after 30 years of dedicated service to the University, the last 25 of which have been as Program Manager of the Neuroscience and Behavior Program.

  • Distinguished Alumni Awards

    The UMass Amherst Alumni Association recognized the outstanding achievements of alumni, faculty, and friends with its highest honor at the Massachusetts State House on April 14, 2010. This year's recipients share an ongoing passion for their work and for UMass Amherst. Dr. Melinda Novak, Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience faculty member, received the Distinguished Faculty Award.  On April 13, 2011, Dr. Jeffrey D. Blaustein, Director of the Neuroscience and Behavior Program received the Distinguished Alumni Award at the State House in Boston.

  • Nancy Forger - Recipient of Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship

    The Office of Research & Engagement is pleased to announce the following recipients of the 2010-2011 Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Awards:
    Donal A. Carbaugh, Communication
    Nancy G. Forger, Psychology
    Lynnette Leidy Sievert, Anthropology

    The UMass Amherst Samuel Conti Faculty fellowship consists of a cash award of $3,000 and a year's leave of absence to encourage award recipients to concentrate on activities related to graduate education, research, creative work, and scholarly attainment.

  • Distinguished Teaching Award

    Lauri Kurdziel received a 2010 Distinguished Teaching Award. This is a campus-wide award reliant on nominations, evaluations and recommendations from current faculty and students. Each year, faculty, graduate, and undergraduate student committees review well over 100 nominations in a two-step process of data collection and analysis prior to selecting three faculty and two teaching assistant awardees. DTAs receive a monetary prize and are recognized at both the Undergraduate and Graduate Commencements. While at UMass, Lauri has taught or served as the TA for Methods Lab (Psych 241, Fall 2008), Behavioral Neuroscience (Psych 330, Spring 2009), Learning and Thinking (Psych 320, Spring 2009), Statistics (Psych 240, Fall 2009), and Junior Writing (Psych 392, Spring 2010). John Mullin (Dean of the Graduate School) honored Lauri Kurdziel and Brian Yellen (Geosciences) at an award luncheon at the University Club on April 28, 2010.

Colloquia Archive

  • 2012
    May
    9

    NSB Spring Faculty Meeting

    Election of Steering Committee member, discussion of Grad Program Review, Changes, etc.

  • 2012
    May
    2

    A Bioinformatical Approach to the Role of microRNA in Alcoholism

    Andrzej (Andre) Pietrzykowski

  • 2012
    Apr
    25

    Building a better hormone therapy? How understanding rapid effects of estrogens could lead to new therapies for age-related memory decline

    Karyn Frick, PhD

  • 2012
    Apr
    18

    NSB Banquet, Katherine Fite Distinguished Alumn Speaker, Skirmantas Janusonis: Serotonin in brain development and other difficulties; Presentation of Vincent Dethier Graduate Student Award, Campus Center @ 5:30 PM (note change of time and place)

    Skirmantas Janusonis

  • 2012
    Apr
    11

    Execution and modulation of a neuromuscular circuit used in C. elegans sexual behavior

    Rene Garcia, PhD

  • 2012
    Apr
    4

    Regulation of Neuronal G protein Signaling

    Kirill Martemyanov, PhD

  • 2012
    Apr
    3

    Preventing Alzheimer's Disease: What we know and what we don't

    Mary Sano (UMass class of 1974)

  • 2012
    Mar
    28

    This is your brain on steroids: what songbirds teach us about the neural mechanisms of behavior

    Luke Remage-Healey, PhD

  • 2012
    Mar
    14

    Estrogens and the aging brain

    Toni Pak, PhD

  • 2012
    Mar
    7

    Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series - Stress, puberty and mental health: remodeling of the brain’s response to ovarian hormones

    Jeffrey D. Blaustein, PhD