On July 30, NASA successfully launched its heaviest and most sophisticated Mars rover, named “Perseverance,” from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard an Atlas V rocket.

Computer science major Brennan Macaig has spent a lot of time on campus the past few months.

Some days, he roams around University Crossing or Fox Hall and chats with fellow students. Other days, he busies himself by stacking one-cubic-meter blocks at University Suites, the residence hall where he was living when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the campus in March.

“Whenever I miss being on campus, I’ll come on and work on stuff,” says Macaig, a junior from Concord, N.H.

Education Asst. Prof. Johanna Tigert has experienced the challenges of learning and teaching multiple languages firsthand.

She grew up in Finland studying several languages, earned a university degree in Russian literature and education, and then moved to the United States and pursued a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language.

Students, faculty and researchers interested in the rich cultural and historical tapestry of Portuguese-Americans in the Merrimack Valley and beyond will soon have access to a digital archive chronicling generations of immigrants, thanks to a $300,000 grant received by the university’s Saab Center for Portuguese Studies.

The grant, from the William M. Wood Foundation, is spread over three years.

The archive will be known as the Greater Boston Portuguese-American Digital Archive (PADA). 

A UMass Medical School researcher in emergency medicine recently received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop telehealth and mobile app programs to reduce suicide among patients seen in emergency departments.

Celine Larkin, PhD, assistant professor of emergency medicine, is co-investigator with Bengisu Tulu, PhD, associate professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, on the $727,201 two-year grant.

UMass Medical School will bring the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science to its next level of innovation and collaboration with the five-year, $30 million renewal of its Clinical and Translational Sciences Award from the National Institutes of Health. The center advances clinical and translational research through education and training, pilot funding programs, research cores, and services.

A new study by researchers at MassBiologics of UMass Medical School published in Nature Communications suggests that COVID specific IgA monoclonal antibodies may provide effective immunity in the respiratory system against the novel coronavirus—a potentially critical feature of an effective vaccine.

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) has announced more than $15 million in capital funding to support life sciences innovation infrastructure, the development of key data repositories and training for scientists across the commonwealth.

Humans are not the only species facing a potential threat from SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to a new study from scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the University of California, Davis.

A UMass Medical School professor is co-directing a first-of-its-kind national program to enhance diversity in the academic biomedical workforce, funded by a $1.3 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to create skills development workshops, mentor training opportunities and institutional culture-change initiatives at universities.