AMHERST, Mass. – Qteros, the biofuel company that grew from discovery of the Q Microbe by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been revived by three of the company’s original founders and is primed for success with a new, less capital-intensive business model, says CEO Stephan Rogers of Amherst.
Rogers, a founder in 2007 of SunEthanol, Qteros’s precursor, served as chief operating officer, managed business development, finance, personnel and assisted in raising $35 million for that earlier startup.
AMHERST, Mass. – Scientists studying how early land vertebrates evolved from fishes long thought that the animals developed legs for moving around on land well before their feeding systems and dietary habits changed enough to let them eat a land-based diet, but strong evidence was lacking. Now, for the first time fossil jaw measurements by Philip Anderson at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and others have tested and statistically confirmed this lag.
AMHERST, Mass. – A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is proposing a new investigative roadmap for the field of evolutionary developmental biology, or “evo devo,” to better understand how innovation at the genetic level can lead to ecological adaptations over time. Evo devo seeks to understand the specific genetic mechanisms underlying evolutionary change.
AMHERST, Mass. – Geoscientist Michele Cooke and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst take an uncommon, “Earth is lazy” approach to modeling fault development in the crust that is providing new insights into how faults grow. In particular, they study irregularities along strike-slip faults, the active zones where plates slip past each other such as at the San Andreas Fault of southern California.
AMHERST, Mass. – New recommendations by a National Research Council (NRC) expert panel on green and sustainable building performance could lead to a revolution in building science by creating the first large building performance database, says panel member Paul Fisette, a nationally recognized sustainable building expert at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
AMHERST, Mass. – Evolutionary ecologist Sonya Auer of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has won the Elton Prize, one of only five British Ecological Society (BES) young investigator awards given each year to recognize the best research papers published in the society’s journals by early-career scientists.
AMHERST, Mass. – For a fourth consecutive year, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is among the “100 Best Values in Public Colleges” compiled by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. The 2012-13 ranking cites four-year schools that combine outstanding education with economic value.
AMHERST, Mass. – Building on its success in attracting and retaining women, underrepresented minorities and people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) over the past decade, the University of Massachusetts Amherst has formed a new STEM Diversity Institute (SDI) to serve as a campus-wide umbrella to coordinate diversity efforts, particularly those funded by federal grants. 
AMHERST, Mass. – Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have received a two-year, $867,040 grant from the National Science Foundation to build a high-bandwidth optical data network to handle large amounts of computerized research data. The new network is designed to separate research data traffic from the rest of the data traffic on the Amherst campus.
AMHERST, Mass. – Joseph Goldstein, an engineering professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is part of a research team trying to produce an iron-nickel alloy that is currently only found in meteorites, for use in making supermagnets. The goal of the research is to develop bulk quantities of commercially viable, environmentally sound supermagnets, which can be used in electric vehicles, wind-turbine generators and many other machines.
AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts Amherst officials praised the completion of a two-year, $12.3 million laboratory renovation in the Lederle Graduate Research Center today, saying the project will enhance research in the biological and physical sciences and make the campus competitive nationally.
AMHERST, Mass – The W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is being awarded this year’s American Historical Association’s Equity Award recognizing success in training and placing nearly 100 percent of its minority historians in academia.
AMHERST, Mass. – The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has announced that polymer scientist Maria Santore and biochemist Danny Schnell of the University of Massachusetts Amherst have been awarded the distinction of fellow in an election by their peers to recognize scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
AMHERST, Mass. – All 45 residence halls at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are now protected with fire sprinkler systems, following a massive, voluntary retrofit to protect students in one of the nation’s largest on-campus housing systems. State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan hailed the achievement as an impressive commitment to public safety.
AMHERST, Mass. – An interdisciplinary graduate program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in offshore wind energy engineering, environmental science and policy is now up and running with 25 faculty members from nine departments working with 13 full-time graduate students. The goal of the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Offshore Wind Energy Program is to train researchers who understand the technological challenges, environmental implications, and socioeconomic and regulatory hurdles faced by offshore wind farms.