University of Massachusetts Amherst - Office of News & Information

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

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UMass Amherst Offers High School Students Unique Opportunity to Gain Polymer Research Laboratory Experience

November 24, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – The Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is accepting applications from high school students interested in gaining hands-on laboratory experience in polymer science this coming January and February. More...



UMass Amherst Researchers Use ‘TinkerPlots’ to Teach Data Literacy to Middle and Grade School Students

November 24, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – Increasingly, groups and institutions are being held accountable based on performance data, whether it’s teachers judged by student test scores or quarterbacks by passing statistics. To keep up, people must learn to interpret what the numbers mean, a skill that Cliff Konold and Craig Miller of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Scientific Reasoning Research Institute (SRRI) call “data literacy.” More...



UMass Transit Services to Host Second Annual Bus Food Drive Ride to Stop Hunger

November 24, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – UMass Transit Services will hold its second annual Bus Food Drive beginning Monday, Nov. 30. More...



UMass Amherst Physicists Are Back in Business as Beams Restart in the Large Hadron Collider

November 23, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – Particle beams are once again zooming around the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, where a team of University of Massachusetts Amherst physicists run experiments to collect data on fundamental atomic particles. The work could reveal new states of matter and unveil the secrets of dark matter. More...



UMass Amherst Engineer Helps Streamline Triage at Disaster Sites Using RFID Technology

November 23, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – When emergency responders take disaster victims to the hospital, they use the most advanced technology to monitor vital signs. But before they can get victims to an ambulance, EMTs still use flimsy paper triage tags to identify the number and severity of injuries at the disaster scene. In an effort to modernize that tagging process, Aura Ganz, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is aiming to replace the paper tags with high-tech devices that use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. More...



UMass Amherst Chemical Engineer Develops System to ‘Detonate’ Cancer-Killing TRAIL inside Tumors on Command

November 17, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – Experiments at the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute (PVLSI) at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., reported in a recent British Journal of Cancer, confirm that University of Massachusetts Amherst chemical engineer Neil Forbes’ delivery and trigger system has for the first time successfully placed TRAIL, a cancer-fighting protein, directly into solid tumors and on cue, turned it on. The treatment improved the 30-day survival time of mice with mammary tumors from 0 to 100 percent. More...



UMass Amherst Psychological Services Center Offers PTSD Program

November 16, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – The Psychological Services Center (PSC) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is now offering services to veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), focusing on those with experiences living or working in high-risk environments. More...



Fluorescent Microscopy is the Topic of First Gupta Lecture at UMass Amherst on November 19

November 16, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – Christopher Salthouse, the new Dev and Linda Gupta Assistant Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will deliver the first Gupta Lecture on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 4 p.m. in the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center. A reception follows the talk. The event is free and open to the public. More...



UMass Amherst Breaks Ground for $12.5-Million Police Building

November 13, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst broke ground today for a new, $12.5 million police station. The building, located at 585 East Pleasant St. across from the North Fire Station, will be one of the most advanced, energy-efficient structures on campus. More...



UMass Amherst Labor Center Hosts Conference on Immigration and the Future of Work in Massachusetts

November 13, 2009

*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***

DATE: Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

TIME: 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

PLACE: Gordon Hall, 418 North Pleasant St., Amherst

 More...

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UMass Research

UMass Amherst Computer Scientists Create Virtual Laboratory to Test Experimental Weather Sensor Network

AMHERST, Mass. – As modern systems increasingly rely on networks of small, specialized computers and sensors to operate train and bus systems or monitor weather, for example, testing performance and reliability at scale becomes more important. A group of University of Massachusetts Amherst computer scientists recently joined with 61 other teams nationwide to participate in building and deploying a virtual laboratory funded by the National Science Foundation for experimenting with future Internet architectures, or networks.

Mount Kilimanjaro’s Ice Fields and Glaciers Continue to Shrink, says UMass Amherst Geoscientist

AMHERST, Mass. – Ice fields on Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro are rapidly shrinking and thinning, according to a research team including geoscientist Douglas Hardy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with colleagues at Ohio State University. They report in today’s online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that “new aerial photo analysis shows that 26 percent of the area covered by ice in 2000 is now ice-free and whereas 79 percent of the area covered with ice in 1912 was ice-free in 2000, 85 percent now is.”

UMass Amherst Physicists Propose an Explanation for Bizarre Properties of Solid Helium 4, a Likely Supersolid

AMHERST, Mass. – Writing in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters, theoretical physicists Boris Svistunov and Nikolai Prokofiev of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with their student Gunes Soyler, propose a new explanation of certain striking properties of solid helium 4.

Grand Canyon ‘Trail of Time’ Developed by UMass Amherst Geoscientist Lets Visitors Walk 4.6-Billion Years of History

AMHERST, Mass. – Most of the 5 million annual visitors to the Grand Canyon leave with plenty of photographs of the 2-billion-year-old northern Arizona landmark, but with little knowledge of its geologic history. Mike Williams, a geoscientist at University of Massachusetts Amherst, is aiming to change that by creating a walkable trail that teaches visitors about the vastness of geologic time.

UMass Amherst Chem Engineers Propose Model to Improve Hydrogen Storage Capacity for Briefcase-Sized, ‘Green’ Car Batteries

AMHERST, Mass. – Hydrogen fuel, because its only byproduct is steam, should be the ultimate in green alternatives to fossil fuels, but it hasn’t delivered on its promise yet because of one enormous stumbling block, storage. Now a team of chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a computational model that shows that carbon nanotubes may offer a surprising solution. Results are presented in the current online issue of the journal, Applied Physics Letters.

Can’t Lose Weight Even with Exercise? UMass Amherst Kinesiology Researchers Secure Large Grant to Figure Out Why

AMHERST, Mass – Exercise researchers have long wondered why two people following the same exercise program can get different results, one losing weight and the other not, for example. This is one of the questions to be explored by Patty Freedson, chair of the department of kinesiology and leader of a research team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who recently received a two-year, $985,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

UMass Researchers, Psychological Services Center, Have New Program for Families of Hyperactive Preschool Children

AMHERST, Mass. – Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have designed a new program for parents of hyperactive preschool children. The program involves 11 to 14 weekly group sessions and one individual session at the university’s Psychological Services Center.

UMass Amherst Nutrition Researchers Track Down How Soy Reduces Diabetes Risk

AMHERST, Mass. – Nutrition scientists led by Young-Cheul Kim at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified the molecular pathway that allows foods rich in soy bioactive compounds called isoflavones to lower diabetes and heart disease risk. Eating soy foods has been shown to lower cholesterol, decrease blood glucose levels and improve glucose tolerance in people with diabetes.

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