News

UMass Amherst Launches 'Campus Sustainability Explorer' Website

AMHERST, Mass. – A campus that prides itself on hosting a broad array of sustainability projects and programs from green transportation to LEED-certified greenhouses, the University of Massachusetts Amherst this month is introducing an interactive website, the Campus Sustainability Explorer. There, students, faculty, staff and the public can click on more than 100 icons to read about “green” buildings, research programs in sustainability, a student farmers’ market and more.
 
Bill Stanton, the Sustainability Explorer’s lead designer and developer, says, “a powerful tool like this is intended

UMass Amherst Astronomer, International Team Observe 'Hungry Twin' Stars Gobbling Their First Meals

AMHERST, Mass. – Just-forming stars, like growing babies, are always hungry and must “feed” on huge amounts of gas and dust from dense envelopes surrounding them at birth. Now a team of astronomers including Robert Gutermuth, a University of Massachusetts Amherst expert in imaging data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, reports observing an unusual “baby” star that periodically emits infrared light bursts, suggesting it may be twins, that is, a binary star. The discovery is reported this month in Nature.
 
The extremely young object, dubbed LRLL 54361, is about 100,000 years old and is located

UMass Amherst's Julie Caswell and Sheila Mammen of Resource Economics Help Draft Report on the Adequacy of the SNAP Program

AMHERST, Mass. – A new report, drafted by a national panel that included two University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty members, says the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), should consider several factors in determining whether benefits are adequate. These include time constraints on low-income families and their ability to cook healthy meals, differing food prices across the country and the availability of healthy foods from local food stores.
 
The report was drafted by a committee of the Institute of Medicine of the

Canadian Company Acquires Text Analytics Software Developed by UMass Amherst Faculty Member

AMHERST, Mass. - After more than a decade in development, DiscoverText, a cloud-based text analytic software developed by University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty member Stuart Shulman, has been purchased by Vision Critical, a Vancouver-based provider of consumer insight technologies and services.
 
Vision Critical officials announced the deal with Shulman’s company, Texifter, LLC, on Jan.

UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy to Discuss Partnership with Greater Springfield

*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***
 
DATE:            Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013
TIME:             4:30 p.m. 
PLACE:          Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
                       1000 Hall of Fame Ave., Springfield
 
New England Public Radio (NEPR) and the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield are hosting a formal welcome for University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, who will discuss the university’s role in Springfield and the campus’s partnership with the city.
 
Martin Miller, CEO and general manager of NEPR, will speak about the station’s planned

Multicultural Film Festival 'Continuities' Begins Feb. 6 at UMass Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. – The interdepartmental program in film studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is presenting the 20th annual Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival starting Feb. 6 and continuing through April 25.
 
This year’s festival focuses on the theme of “Continuities.” With weekly screenings and events at UMass Amherst and in the Five College area, the entertaining and provocative line-up headlines award-winning narrative features and documentaries from France, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Romania, Spain and the U.S. 
 
Unless otherwise noted,

Science Café Series Resumes with 'Smell: the Secret Sense'

AMHERST, Mass. – The Science Café resumes Monday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. with “Smell: the Secret Sense,” presented by Tom Eiting, a University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate student in organismic and evolutionary biology. The program takes place at the Esselon Café in Hadley.
 
Eiting will spotlight his work exploring how the sense of smell works in mammals, from the anatomy of nasal passages to how smell is perceived. All Science Café events are free and designed for a public audience. Light snacks will be provided and drinks available for purchase. 
 
The Science Café series is organized by

UMass Amherst Archaeologist to Discuss Using Modern Methods and Technologies to Probe History of Pompeii

AMHERST, Mass. – Eric Poehler, assistant professor of classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will speak on “The Roles of Innovation and Imagination in the Archaeology of Pompeii” on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Auditorium.
 
The talk is part of the Honors Faculty Lecture series presented by Commonwealth Honors College and is free and open to the public.
 
Poehler is a classical archaeologist with 16 years of field experience at Pompeii and another seven years at the Pan-Hellenic sanctuary at Isthmia, Greece.

New Research from UMass Amherst Sociologists Dispels Myths about Academic Parental Leave

AMHERST, Mass. – New research from sociologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst counters misconceptions surrounding the use of paid parental leave on university campuses.
 
In a study published in the January 2013 issue of the journal Fathering, UMass Amherst associate professor Jennifer Lundquist (left) and professor Joya Misra, along with KerryAnn O’Meara of the University of Maryland, examined assumptions that men take unfair advantage of parental leave at universities, using the leave as an opportunity to further their research while shirking the responsibility of childcare.

UMass Amherst Chemical Engineer Receives NSF CAREER Grant to Study Advanced Process for Biofuel Production

AMHERST, Mass. – Paul J. Dauenhauer, a chemical engineer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has received a five-year, $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s CAREER program to conduct basic research on the chemical reactions that create biofuel from organic matter such as wood.
 
The funding will allow Dauenhauer and his research team to study in great detail the complex chemical reactions that take place when an ultra-thin sheet of cellulose is quickly heated to 500 degrees Celsius inside a biofuel reactor.

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