Research to purify drinking water of “forever chemicals” has earned UMass Amherst and the UMass-alumna-founded company, Aclarity, the 2025 Better World Project Award from AUTM, a nonprofit that supports the translation of academic research into products, services and start-ups. 

The winning project is based on research by David Reckhow, research professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Julie Bliss Mullen, who conducted her graduate research under Reckhow’s direction at UMass Amherst. 

An increasing body of research has demonstrated that PFAS exposure is harmful to human health. These substances have been referred to as “forever chemicals” for their ability to persist in the environment, including in drinking water supplies. To address this, Reckhow and Mullen developed an electrochemical treatment capable of permanently destroying PFAS...

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The accelerating growth and societal importance of polymers span academic disciplines—chemistry, engineering, physics, materials, and interfacial science—and now penetrate critically important aspects of healthcare, energy, transportation, and technology sectors. The University of Massachusetts Amherst has played a pioneering role in the evolution of polymer science, helping transform early industrial discoveries into the modern inclusion of polymers in nearly all academic departments in the materials, chemistry, and engineering disciplines. UMass Amherst, originally founded as the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1863 following the federal Morrill Act, celebrated its 160th anniversary in concert with the Polymer Science & Engineering (PSE) Department entering its 60th year of dedication to the polymer field. As such, it is a pleasure to present this special issue of the Journal of Polymer Science, with contributed manuscripts, review articles, and topical perspectives by UMass faculty members (both current and prior) as well as PSE alumni. The subjects of the manuscripts—spanning nanocomposites, biomaterials, interfacial science, theory, and structural characterization—illustrate examples of forefront research in the polymer field.

Read entire article on the UMass PSE news page

Who hasn’t wished for clothing that stays cooler during the sultry days of summer? Thanks to the work of Trisha L. Andrew, professor of chemistry, chemistry graduate student Evan D. Patamia and undergraduate Megan K. Yee, we may all be a little closer to comfort. The team has devised a durable chalk-based fabric coating that cools the air underneath the treated fabric by up to 8 degrees Fahrenheit.

“If you walk out into the sunlight, you will get increasingly hot because your body and clothing are absorbing ultraviolet (UV) and near-infrared (near-IR) light from the sun,” says Andrew. “And as long as you’re alive, your body is generating heat, which can be thought of as light, too.”

To make people more comfortable outside, scientists have been developing textiles that simultaneously deflect the sun’s rays and push out natural body heat – a process known as radiative cooling. Some of those materials have light-refracting synthetic particles, such as titanium dioxide or aluminum oxide, embedded into spun fibers. Others use expensive organic polymers such as polyvinylidene difluoride, which require toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” In each of these cases, production on an industrial scale is simply unsustainable.

Read full article on the UMass New Site