Midway through spring break, students learned that the campus would be switching completely to online classes, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19.

Computer Science Prof. Xinwen Fu has been awarded more than $4.5 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for his research on the Internet of Things, or IoT. This refers to the network of separate physical and virtual devices that communicate with each other wirelessly, without human interaction or intervention.

As CEO and chief scientific officer of Franklin, Mass.-based MRN Diagnostics, Gregory Chiklis has spent the past six weeks in a race against the clock, working on a rapid blood test for COVID-19.

Chiklis, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from UMass Lowell in 1992, has been working with Chembio Diagnostic Systems on a test designed to diagnose antibodies in people who have contracted the virus. His company’s work included creating synthetic antibodies to develop their tests and to run quality controls using safe noninfectious materials.

The announcement came in late June 2018, just as many people were turning their attention to Fourth of July cookouts and summer vacation plans.

The federal agency tasked with solving critical health threats to Americans has chosen the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) as one of only eight business incubators in the nation to help startups develop means of eradicating influenza pandemics and other public health emergencies.

In his March 30 video address to the UMass Medical School community, Chancellor Michael F. Collins recognized the many people who have stepped up to help as everyone copes with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have been inspired by the selfless acts of courage, determination and thoughtfulness,” he said.  “So many are committed to the needs of others! Acts of kindness abound: be they a call to the lonely, a wave at the window, a note from a donor or a friend from days past!  Amidst it all, these are days where inspiration is infused with actions by those who care for others.”

In a letter to UMass Medical School Chancellor Michael F. Collins, the interim chancellor of UMass Boston thanked the entire UMMS community for its distinct role in rising to the coronavirus health care challenge.

“On behalf of the 17,000 students and thousands of employees of UMass Boston, I write to express our collective gratitude for the extraordinary work your physicians, researchers, nurses, administrators and soon-to-be doctors graduating shortly are doing for the people of the commonwealth,” wrote Katherine Newman, PhD.

The old radio tower was the first structure to fall. The demolition team wedge-cut two of the tower’s steel supports and dropped it like a tree.

Then the former Massachusetts Department of Transportation (DOT) District 3 office in Worcester was demolished, bite by bite from the hydraulic maw of an excavator, to make way for the new medical building that will house the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System’s new community-based outpatient clinic (CBOC) at UMass Medical School.

BOSTON – UMass President Marty Meehan and the chancellors of the UMass campuses in Amherst, Boston Dartmouth, and Lowell announced today that the university will adjust student room, board and parking fees following the closure of residence halls in response to the coronavirus threat.

In a statement, President Meehan, UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, UMass Boston Chancellor Katherine Newman, UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Robert Johnson, and UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney said:

UMass Boston’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality (WGS) Studies Department dedicated this Women’s History Month to promoting feminism and activism; however, due to the coronavirus, students and faculty have been working and learning from home since mid-March, halfway through the celebratory month.

Graduate student Rebecca Olivieri usually teaches a group fitness class to around 20 students, faculty and staff every Thursday at noon at the Campus Recreation Center.

Leading the 45-minute interval training class is a nice way for the Milton native to apply what she learns in her Doctor of Physical Therapy program, while also connecting with others and making a little extra money as a student employee.