BOSTON — Rebecca Herst, director of the Sustainable Solutions Lab (SSL) at the University of Massachusetts Boston, has been awarded the 2020 Zuckerberg Endowed Leadership Prize for her work in climate adaptation, preparing marginalized communities for the effects of climate change and developing sustainable and equitable solutions that prioritize their needs. 

An entrepreneur who started a plastic-free product shop while a student at UMass Boston has received the top two honors a graduating undergraduate at the university can receive: the John F. Kennedy Award for Academic Excellence and the “29 Who Shine” award. 

Maria Vasco, 22, is an environmental studies and sustainability major in the School for the Environment and a political science minor. Born in Cali, Colombia, she’s lived in East Boston since she was four. She’s in the Honors College and she has a 3.8 GPA.

For nearly three hours on the last night of spring semester’s finals, current and former students of the Music Department gathered online with faculty and friends to cut loose in song. Even the department head chimed in.

The Royal Irish Academy honored a UMass Medical School researcher and world-renowned immunologist with admission as an honorary member, in an online video ceremony on Friday, May 22. 

Joanne Lewis, ACNP-BC, PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Nursing Class of 2020, will serve as class speaker at the GSN Commencement, which will be held virtually on Sunday, May 31, at 10 a.m.

“I’m honored; it’s a big deal to be class speaker,” said Lewis. “It’s nice to be thought of and recognized by faculty who I’ve worked closely with over the years.”

AMHERST, Mass. – Farmers, well known for keeping an eye to the sky and adapting to whatever nature brings, are adjusting to new realities with COVID-19, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Student Farming Enterprise at the Agricultural Learning Center (ALC) is no exception, says director and senior lecturer Amanda Brown.

Elisabeth Hamin, professor of regional planning, has been appointed as the co-chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Task Force on Climate Action.

The Task Force on Climate Action will examine the role for scholarly leadership from ACSP in climate change research and in its programs’ curricula.

The Center for Research on Families has announced the 2020 cohort of the Graduate Student Grant Writing Program. The group of six were selected for the program based on their promising work in family research. Rebecca Spencer, professor of psychological and brain sciences, will lead the 9 month program which supports students through the development of NSF and NIH pre-doctoral fellowship proposals.

The Center for Research on Families (CRF) has announced the recipients of this year's Student Research Awards. 

CRF is committed to supporting students engaged in family research, with student researchers addressing family challenges such as malnutrition in older adults, women’s health in remote regions of the world, health effects of breastfeeding, socioemotional development of the multiracial children, how brain structures affect memory and how young children’s ability to understand language influences brain development.

The campus’s Armstrong Fund for Science has announced its award for 2020 to principal investigator Jun Yao, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Derek Lovley, professor of microbiology – an interdisciplinary team that is developing a device that uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in the air. They will receive a two-year, $40,000 grant to support scaling up the invention for practical applications.