Timeline of Research Breakthroughs

The image, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, revealed a new view of a black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy located 55 million light-years away. It represented the first time that astronomers have been able to measure polarization, a signature of magnetic fields, this close to the edge of a black hole, and is key to explaining how the M87 galaxy is able to launch energetic jets from its core.

Xing, consistently one of the world’s most highly cited researchers in the area of environmental and ecological sciences, has worked to improve soil health and, consequently, food safety through research on a wide variety of soil contaminants—especially those of emerging concern such as antibiotics, pharmaceutical compounds, and engineered nanoparticles.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, with PPE in critical short supply, Peltier conducted research to establish which treatments for decontaminating medical face masks, such as N95 masks, allow these protective devices to be safely reused.

Called Air-gen, it has significant advantages over other forms of renewable energy as it doesn’t require sunlight or wind and even works indoors.

In 2020–21, a year-long seminar course and a symposium were held to explore the life and legacy of Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971, revealing the truth about U.S. government policy in Vietnam.

Learned-Miller, Huang, and Facebook research scientist Tamara Berg were honored with the 2019 Mark Everingham Prize from the International Conference on Computer Vision for their work on one of the most influential face datasets in the world, Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW). It has been used by companies such as Google and Facebook to test their facial recognition accuracy.

Bliss was a PhD student in civil and environmental engineering at the time. The device uses no filters or chemicals, and can even remove metals from water. Mullen was named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30 for Science” all-stars.

NE CASC is one of eight regional centers established by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The climate science centers are charged with understanding how climate change and other landscape stressors could change the face of the United States, and developing tools for climate change adaptation.

UMass Amherst and Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE) collaborated to build the Large Millimeter Telescope on the peak of Cerro La Negra, a mountain in central Mexico. It expanded the reach of astronomers to the edge of the universe by detecting electromagnetic radiation called millimeter waves that were emitted 13 billion years ago.

CASA uses a new paradigm, Distributed Collaborative Adaptive Sensing (DCAS) networks of small radars, to overcome limitations of traditional weather forecasting systems and adapt to changing atmospheric conditions in a way that meets competing end user needs.

The Computer Vision Laboratory, directed by Ed Riseman and Al Hanson, worked with many companies, including Martin Marietta, Lockheed, General Electric, Boeing, Kollmorgen, Harris, Raytheon, and the Bigelow Laboratory. They founded Amerinex Artificial Intelligence Corporation and Dataviews Corporation (formerly VI Corporation). Riseman and Hanson's influential 1998 paper presenting new directions for knowledge-directed vision, is considered a seminal work in the computer vision field.

Seymour led a team in developing screening assessments to distinguish between language variations attributable to linguistic dialect use (such as African American English, Southern American English, Cajun, and Creole) from those due to language delays or disorders.

Haensel taught at UMass from 1991 to 1998 after an impactful career in industry. The award recognized his development in 1947 of the “platforming” process, a revolutionary chemical engineering process that uses platinum to produce clean, inexpensive fuel and material to make plastics from petroleum. Haensel also received the National Medal of Science in 1973 from President Nixon, and was the inaugural recipient of the National Academy of Science Award for Chemistry in Service to Society in 1991 for his outstanding research in the catalytic reforming of hydrocarbons that has greatly enhanced the economic value of our petroleum natural resources.

In the early 1990s, UMass’s Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (CIIR) developed Govbot, the first federal government information portal for a one-stop search site for government information and technology across the entire federal government (all .gov and .mil sites). Using the CIIR InQuery software as their search engine, the Clinton/Gore White House was the first presidential administration to provide a web search capability for presidential speeches, press briefings, and other documents. Search software developed by CIIR was also used by the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, U.S. Library of Congress, Internal Revenue Service, Patent and Trademark Office, and many others.

Associate Professor of Epidemiology Harris Pastides and colleagues published a landmark study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine showing that chemicals being used in the microchip manufacturing process were causing spontaneous miscarriages among factory workers. The bombshell report—first vilified by industry, but later replicated in large studies—led directly to new federal regulations in the chip manufacturing process.

The Institute for North American Trade and Economics is based at Isenberg School of Management.

UMass was the first institution to use beam-forming techniques to probe the atmospheric boundary layer for investigating clear air turbulence. Practical applications of the technology include monitoring ice formations, severe storms, and ocean conditions. Since its establishment, the program has educated and awarded advanced degrees to hundreds of industrial students who work at companies such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric.

Introduced in the late 1970s, IPM uses targeted biological, chemical, and cultural strategies to reduce pest populations to levels below those causing economically significant harm, and aims to use the lowest possible dosage of the least disruptive pesticide in order to reduce negative impacts on the environment and human health. Prokopy published over 400 scientific papers and introduced IPM to tree fruit growers around New England.

Originally called the Women’s Studies Program, it grew out of feminist organizing, anti-Vietnam War activism, and other social movements of the time. On its 25th anniversary in 2009, it was renamed Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies (WGSS) in recognition of the belief that women’s experiences and oppression should be studied in relation to race, class, and sexuality.

In his UMass lab, Heronemus, widely known as the “father of modern wind power,” built some of the first modern wind turbines, taught the first known wind power engineering course and, along with other faculty, conducted research on wind energy and ocean thermal energy conversion. Very few researchers worldwide were looking into these areas at the time. UMass Amherst Wind Energy Program graduates have since gone on to form the core of the U.S. wind industry, both in founding wind energy companies and staffing national agencies, principally the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). In 2010, the historically significant WF-1 Wind Turbine, designed and constructed at UMass between 1973 and 1976, was donated to the Smithsonian Institute.

Called the UMASS (Unlimited Machine Access from Scattered Sites) Time Sharing System, it allowed faculty and students to input a program in BASIC, FORTRAN, or SMALL, and receive an output on a terminal rather than via punch cards and paper.

Later re-named “kinesiology,” today the department offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human movement, investigating components including mechanical, neurological, biochemical, physiological, and behavioral. Graduates from the department are prominent in the health and fitness, health care, and biotechnology industries.

Engineering instruction had been offered on campus since the founding of Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1863, and offerings grew and diversified as the curriculum was expanded. After the School of Engineering began operating in September 1947, about 40 percent of the surging number of veterans returning from the war chose to study engineering. To accommodate the high level of interest, engineering classes were conducted both on the Amherst campus and at Fort Devens until about 1951.

Named in honor of landscape architect pioneer Frank Waugh, it covers most of the UMass Amherst campus. Today it is a living laboratory for university and Five-College research in landscape architecture, botany, horticulture, forestry, ecological restoration and plant sciences, and a resource center for professionals and amateur gardeners alike. It holds a Level IV Accreditation by ArbNet for achieving high standards of professional practices.

The program quickly became a leader in the field thanks to Fellers’ efforts to attract substantial external research funding from food companies and the federal government. This type of external research funding was new to MAC, and was especially remarkable during the Great Depression and, later, World War II, when industry funding for American research universities was rare. Fellers remains a legend in the field of food science, with the field’s most prestigious prize, the Carl R. Fellers Award, named in his honor.

Bringing together disciplines including plant pathology, weed management, water and nutrient management, plant physiology, and entomology, the station remains one of the few centers in the world for research and educational outreach on cranberry production. Its first director, Henry Franklin, is credited with making substantial contributions to the science of cranberry entomology, including pioneering the use of water management and sanding for insect control, laying the foundation for today’s insect monitoring programs, establishing economic thresholds for insect damage on cranberries, and writing the definitive guide of its time, “Cranberry Insects of Massachusetts.” He also developed a frost warning service to predict the minimum on-bog temperature every night and to indicate the temperature threshold that could be tolerated by plants based on their stage of growth and development.

The Massachusetts Legislature created the Massachusetts State Agricultural Experiment Station on campus (East and West Experiment Stations were its original buildings). In 1887, the Hatch Experiment Station was established under the federal Hatch Act. The two stations were merged in 1894. Today, the Experiment Station receives federal funding under both the Hatch Act and McIntire-Stennis Forestry Research Act of 1962 to support faculty research in agriculture, food systems, nutrition, forestry, environment, and other topics.

Through his study of the chemistry of soil and crops, Goessmann is credited with promoting the passage of one of the first laws requiring accurate fertilizer labeling. He later served as the State Inspector of Fertilizers.

President William S. Clarke conducted a famous public weight-lifting squash experiment to demonstrate the power of plant growth, which was observed by tens of thousands of visitors. A giant chili squash was planted in rich compost and fitted with a special apparatus, such that it could only expand by lifting a platform to which weights were continually added. The squash supported around 5,000 pounds—and weighed nearly 50 pounds itself, with a tough three-inch-thick rind, and over 2,000 feet of roots—before the experiment was halted.