Four undergraduates have received the Pfizer Award from the Society of Toxicology, which will support their registration, lodging, ground transportation, food and travel to the society’s annual meeting in March in Anaheim, California. Each of the 21 national winners will present their honors thesis research at the conference.

The annual Hot Chocolate Run for Safe Passage raised over $632,000 this year, with many UMass Amherst faculty, staff and students participating. The department of sociology organized a team of 11 participants and raised $4,400 dollars for the cause. Faculty, grad students and undergraduates all took part in the event.

Environmental health sciences doctoral student Monika Roy recently received a three-year, $114,072 F31 Predoctoral Fellowship Award from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the liver toxicity potential of the environmental chemical 3,3’-dichlorobiphenyl, or PCB-11. PCB-11 is primarily a byproduct of yellow pigment manufacturing.

A number of international students will have an opportunity to explore life away from campus during the week-long Thanksgiving break in the Boston area. For the first time, the students who would not be able to go home during the break will spend the week on the Mount Ida campus of UMass Amherst.