On Saturday, Oct. 10, at 8 p.m. Franklin Dining Common will close for the semester. On Monday, Oct. 19, the new Worcester Dining Common will open. In the interim, Blue Wall, Harvest Market and BabyBerk will be available dining options.

Professor Li-Jun Ma, biochemistry and molecular biology, has received support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Community Science Program (CSP) to conduct in-depth research on a group of soil fungi, Fusaria, that are economically important because they devastate crops – not only food but biofuel feedstocks. This is a collaborative project between principal investigator Ma and co-principal investigator Robert Proctor, a research microbiologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization.

As part of the Fine Arts Center fall virtual offerings, Hampden Gallery releases two new digital exhibitions, “While You Were Away” and “Imagimenagerie,” to be on view Wednesday, Oct. 14 through Wednesday, Nov. 11 at fineartscenter.com.