UMass alumnus Paul Manning ’77 and his wife, Diane Manning, have committed $1 million through their family foundation to establish the Manning Innovation Program. The program provides three years of support in advancing a robust and sustainable pipeline of applied and translational research projects from UMass Amherst. It will allow the university’s College of Natural Sciences (CNS) to support bold, promising researchers, providing resources for them to innovate in new directions and to develop real-world applications for their discoveries.

At today’s Undergraduate Commencement at UMass Amherst, Governor Charlie Baker reflected on the journey of his own family and encouraged the Class of 2019 to choose well and embrace challenges.

Lumme, an Amherst-based company led by two recent UMass Amherst doctoral recipients, is among 20 startup companies chosen for The University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase on April 10 in Washington, D.C. The company, founded by Akshaya Shanmugam, chief executive officer; and Abhinav Parate, chief technology officer, is developing an addiction treatment platform that targets smoking, alcohol, diet and other harmful behaviors.

The Minutemen hockey team advanced to the first Frozen Four in program history with a 4-0 shutout over No. 3 seed Notre Dame in the Northeast Regional Championship on March 30 at SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Minutemen, who now hold a program record in wins at 30-9-0, will face West Regional Champion Denver in the national semifinals at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York on Thursday, April 11, at 8:30 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on on ESPN2, and numerous watch parties are being scheduled on campus, across the Commonwealth and around the country to watch Massachusetts hockey play for a chance at its first national championship.