The UMass Impact

As the Commonwealth's flagship public research university, UMass Amherst offers students unparalleled support, top facilities, and opportunities for meaningful research collaborations with leading faculty, multi-industry companies, and technology clusters in the Greater Boston area and beyond.

The Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship provides access to entrepreneurial inspiration, connections, and resources.

The office of Civic Engagement and Service-Learning (CESL) promotes learning for lifelong, democratic engagement, partnering with communities on and off campus to work collectively for a more just society. 

At the Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS), more than 200 faculty-led research groups translate research into innovative product candidates, technologies, and services to benefit human health and well-being. 

Jim Kurose, Distinguished University Professor in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences and Associate Chancellor of Partnership and Innovation, and Lisa Selkirk, professor emerita in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Department of Linguistics, are being recognized this year as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Researchers at UMass Amherst recently announced that they have figured out how to engineer a biofilm that harvests the energy in evaporation and converts it to electricity.

Eighty-seven percent of the UMass Amherst undergraduate Class of 2021 are employed, in military service, continuing their education or gaining additional life experience through volunteer opportunities.

Over the course of the 2021-22 academic year, seven faculty members across the UMass Amherst campus were named the recipients of National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awards.

UMass Amherst last week unveiled UMass Carbon Zero — an ambitious vision to limit the dangers of climate change and power the commonwealth’s 1,500-acre flagship campus with 100% renewable energy by approximately 2032. 

Four Commonwealth Honors College students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have been awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship for their outstanding research and achievements in the natural sciences, mathematics or engineering.

Preliminary round winners have been named for the Innovative Challenge, the university’s premier pitch event in the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship. The teams will now compete on April 13 in the finals, where they can receive up to $65,000 in equity-free funding.

The Public Interest Technology University Network recently announced that UMass Amherst will become a member of the consortium, which includes more than 40 universities across the U.S.

UMass Amherst English professor and poet Martín Espada has won the National Book Award for his book “Floaters,” a collection of poetry that runs from scathing socio-political commentary to homages of family and love.

The analysis by Philadelphia-based Clarivate Analytics, owner of the Web of Science, serves as the basis for regular listings of researchers whose citation records put them in the top 1% by citations for their field and year.

UMass Amherst was among the higher ed institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for having produced the most Gilman Scholarship recipients over the past 20 years in the Large Institution category.

The Baker-Polito administration and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center recently announced that a team led by Extension professor Dwayne Breger at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been selected for a two-year award of more than $228,000.

UMass Amherst’s Jim Kurose, is part of the research team recently awarded a $20 million National Science Foundation grant to build the internet of the future.

Professor Donghyun Kim, College of Information and Computer Sciences, a specialist in dynamic, bipedal motion in robots, is helping to build a robot that can take robotic acrobatics to the next level.

Researchers in polymer science and engineering are used to working at the molecular level, but UMass Amherst professor Thomas P. Russell and his former UMass student and current postdoc Paul Kim are helping to take polymer research to the next level: outer space.