The webinars, which will feature five recent research studies from the U.S. and the U.K., will focus on different aspects of life for adopted people as adults as well as policy and practice.

Natalie M. Blais will join the University of Massachusetts Amherst as associate vice chancellor for government relations. In this role, she will oversee state and federal policy and funding initiatives, advancing UMass Amherst’s mission as a driver of social mobility and economic growth in western Massachusetts and the commonwealth.

Research led by alumnus Daniel Ivanov, along with Professor of Astronomy Mauro Giavalisco and fellow alumni Yingjie Cheng and John Weaver, helps constrain the timeframe in which bars, a sometimes-striking visual feature that can play an important role in the evolution of a galaxy, could have first emerged in the universe. 

The award will support a studio project in Boston’s West End neighborhood this spring.

Hertzbach, 88, professor emeritus of physics, died Jan. 3 in Silver Spring, Maryland.