A balloon designed by University of Massachusetts researchers is being used as part of a major air quality study being undertaken by the International Consortium on Atmospheric Transport and Transformation. Dr. Paul Voss, Department of Geosciences, has developed an efficient and durable aneuric system for precise control of high-altitude balloons and airships over extended periods of flight time. Among many possible applications for this technology are weather observation, atmospheric research, communications, and tracking for homeland security purposes. A patent is currently pending on this technology. Read about it in the news and learn about the research program.

The office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP) has worked closely with Dr. Voss to evaluate the new technology, assess its commercial potential, and protect the intellectual property by drafting and filing a patent application. CVIP is also working to bring the technology to the public through collaborations with industry, further sponsorship of Dr. Voss's research, and the possible licensing of the technology. Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDAs) have been negotiated and executed with several interested companies, and the campus hopes to license the technology to innovative companies who will use it in various applications.

Wondering if your research may have commercial value? Contact Michael Jaremchuk (413)577-6121, in CVIP. CVIP evaluates, protects and licenses UMass research that has potential for commercial applications. Staff help faculty transform their ideas, inventions and creative works into commercially viable products, processes and services that have economic payback to the inventors, the sponsors and the university.

University of Massachusetts Press books continue to win numerous and prestigious awards. The latest, "Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield," written by Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney, is the 2004 winner of the New England Historical Association Book Award. This is the second year in a row that a University of Massachusetts Press book has won this award. Read More...

Founded in 1963, the University of Massachusetts Press serves as the book-publishing arm of the University. Its mission is to support and enhance the University's stature as a major research institution by publishing outstanding books developed by the faculty and by scholars and writers throughout the world. Since its inception, the Press has sold more than 1,900,000 individual volumes. Today, it has over 900 titles in print and generates more than $1 million in sales revenue each year. UMass Press books can be purchased at bookstores, ordered online via the Press website, or through any of the Internet booksellers, or by calling their distributor, Hopkins Fulfillment Services, at 1-800-537-5487.

MassNanoTech, a campus-wide center for nanoscience and engineering, hosted a conference on September 24th that was designed to showcase research and collaboration opportunities to potential industry and academic partners. UMass President Jack Wilson, and David Bishop, vice president for nanotechnology research at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, spoke at the event. Click here for more details.

This month, UMass Amherst will have an opportunity to showcase research and technologies that have application to the medical device industry. On October 15th, President Jack Wilson will host a breakfast meeting for the members of MassMedic called "UMass: Innovation Partner for the Medical Device Industry". The goal of the event, which will take place at the Newton Marriott, is to promote the UMass system as a partner to Massachusetts medical device companies.

Professor Todd Emrick, Polymer Science and Engineering, is the featured speaker from the Amherst campus. His work in New Concepts and Materials for Polymer Therapeutics has the potential for numerous applications, including in-vivo drug delivery. ILED will staff a table at the event in order to distribute information on the campus' competencies in the medical device arena and to help make connections back to the campus.

ILED is very engaged with the state's technology associations. For more information on the MassMedic event or to register, see the event flyer. To have your work represented at the event, call Karen Hayes, ILED at (413)545-2706.

Who do you call for guidance about the policies and regulations that affect your research and teaching activities? It's the responsibility of several Research Area staff to stay abreast of continually-changing state and federal regulations regarding animal care and human subjects, and to provide administrative mechanisms that help keep the research enterprise compliant and moving along smoothly. Here are the folks who make up the Research Area's "compliance team". They are ready to help.

• Hilary Woodcock, Compliance Coordinator, Office of Research Affairs (ORA). Hilary helps ensure that research is conducted in accordance with the complex regulatory environment. Areas covered include animal welfare, research using human subjects, biosafety regulations and guidelines, and responsible conduct of research (research ethics). She publishes the Research Compliance Newsletter, a quarterly e-newsletter that keeps you up-to-date with the latest information about research compliance. Hilary also has administrative responsibility for the Animal Care and Use Committee and the Biosafety Committee and provides "start-up" training for people who will be using animals in teaching and research.
• Margaret Burggren, Associate Director, ORA, oversees the Institutional Review Board that deals with human subjects.
• Steve Plouff, Director, Animal Care Office (ACO). Animal Care staff provide standard and specialized year-round animal husbandry and veterinary care for the animals whose use is justified for teaching and research. Steve provides hands-on training for animal care staff and researchers on an ongoing basis.

Contact: Hilary Woodcock, (413)577-0387; Marg Burggren, (413)545-3428; Steve Plouff, (413)545-0668

Other offices also help to keep the campus compliant with state and federal regulations. The department of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S), for example, is the hub for compliance in areas of radiation and chemical safety, biosafety, environmental health, occupational health safety and others. EH&S is newly located in Draper Hall.

Research Area offices will hold two Open Houses this fall to introduce the campus community to our staff, services and new space.

The University of Massachusetts Press will kick-off its Open House on October 15th with a colloquium talk by Peter J. Givler, Executive Director of the Association of American University Presses. The colloquium, entitled "Freedom of Speech and Speech for Free: University Libraries, University Presses, and the Law," will be held at 3:00 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge, Student Union Building. The Open House will follow at the new offices of the Press in the recently renovated East Experiment Station. See the colloquium flyer for more information.

On November 5th, other offices in the Research Area will host an Open House to introduce the campus to our new home at 70 Butterfield Terrace. More details to come in the next issue of ACCESS.

Each month ACCESS includes a selection of grants and contracts awarded to faculty from across campus in order to give you a sense of what's going on in research at UMass Amherst.

Horst H. Winter

Susan Shapiro
Judaic and Near Eastern Studies
Sponsor: The Center for Cultural Judaism
Title: "A Posen Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellowship in Cultural Judaism"
Total Award: $50,000

Cynthia Baldwin
Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Sponsor: Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service
Title: "Bovine T Cell Functions as Determined by WCI Isoforms"
Total Award: $340,000

Elizabeth Bertone
Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Title: "Environmental Risk Factors and Canine Malignant Lymphoma"
Total Award: $76,639

David Reckhow
The Environmental Institute
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: "CLEANER: Plan for the Blackstone River EFF and the Next Generation Cyberinfrastructure"
Total Award: $86,000

Lawrence Schwartz
Baystate/UM PVLSI
Sponsor: Biomedical Research Models Inc
Title: "Engineering Myoblasts for Transportation"
Total Award: $66,080

Beverly Park Woolf
Computer Science
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Title: "Learning to Teach: The Next Generation of Intelligent Tutor Systems"
Total Award: $434,088