AMHERST, Mass. – In a new study out this week, a team including forest ecologist Malcolm Itter at the University of Massachusetts Amherst reports finding “clear evidence of a contraction of the breeding period” among boreal birds in Finland over a 43-year span for which good quality data were available.

Alyssa Ryan, a Ph.D. student in the transportation program in the department of civil and environmental engineering, has been awarded a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) One-Year Research Grant for Doctoral Candidates. Ryan will conduct research on methods to achieve higher levels of highway safety at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, beginning in October 2020.

AMHERST, Mass. – Jessica Schiffman, associate professor of chemical engineering, is collaborating with researchers at the University of Maine to develop a novel bio-inspired membrane that can capture COVID-19 airborne droplets. 

Schiffman and her UMaine counterparts received grants totaling more than $225,000 from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) early-concept grants for exploratory research program, also called EAGER. Collaborating on the project is UMaine biomedical engineer Caitlin Howell and virologist Melissa Maginnis.

AMHERST, Mass. – A new study by a pair of researchers including Elizabeth Sharrow, associate professor of public policy and history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has found that male student-athletes and those with sexist attitudes exhibit “alarmingly” low levels of support for ensuring the maintenance of equality and sexual harassment policy under Title IX as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on college athletics.

AMHERST, Mass. – Beginning with the spring 2021 term, and continuing for each spring and fall term through spring 2023, the University of Massachusetts Amherst will make standardized tests optional for its first-year entering applicants.

AMHERST, Mass. – In what they believe is the first study of its kind, researchers led by postdoctoral researcher Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta and senior author Kristen DeAngelis at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that shifts in the diversity of soil microbial communities can change the soil’s ability to sequester carbon, where it usually helps to regulate climate.

AMHERST, Mass. – Evolutionary and developmental biologist Craig Albertson and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have identified a molecular mechanism that allows an organism to change the way it looks depending on the environment it is exposed to, a process known as phenotypic plasticity.

UMass Boston announced today that Chancellor-Elect Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and his wife, Carola, have established an endowed George Floyd Honorary Scholarship Fund to provide financial support to talented students who otherwise may find it difficult or impossible to pay for a college education.  Seeded by a $50,000 pledge from Suárez-Orozco, the fund has already exceeded $100,000 in commitments.

The New England Commission of Higher Education has confirmed Baystate Health System in Springfield is included as an instructional location within the accreditation of UMass Medical School.

According to a recent letter to Chancellor Michael F. Collins from NECHE Chair David Quigley, the comprehensive evaluation scheduled for Spring 2022 was also confirmed, consistent with commission policy requiring each accredited institution to undergo a comprehensive evaluation at least once every 10 years.

Haley Schachter, SOM ’22, and Aisling Ryan, RN, DNP candidate in the GSN, are the recipients of the 2020 Mick Huppert Community Health Scholar Award. The award honors the work and mission of the late Mick Huppert, MPH, a UMMS faculty member who was passionate about community health improvement initiatives and public health.