The black holes of Einstein’s theory of relativity can be described by three parameters: their mass, spin angular momentum, and electric charge. Since two extreme black holes that share these parameters cannot be distinguished, regardless of how they were made, black holes are said to “have no hair”: they have no additional attributes that can be used to tell them apart. 

BayCoast Bank has pledged a $150,000 grant over a three-year period to the Blue Economy Initiative, a collaborative effort between the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the SouthCoast Development Partnership (SCDP) to develop a “blue economy corridor” in Southeastern Massachusetts.

In one room, keynote speaker Gulden Camci-Unal, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, shared her research on how powdered eggshells could be a secret ingredient to healing broken bones.

Oprah Winfrey made quite a splash when she visited campus last year and helped the university raise more than $3 million for student scholarships – including a surprise $1.5 million matching gift of her own.

As with any splash, Winfrey’s generosity created a ripple effect that has already grown from six to 60 students – and will continue on at the university for years to come.

UMass Lowell has opened a new center for cybersecurity education, research and workforce development called the Cyber Range that will help students prepare for careers in the high-demand field. 

Edwin Boudreaux, PhD, has been working to implement screening for suicide in emergency rooms for more than a decade and has published numerous studies that show a large population of patients can be reached through such a process, according to a Nov. 8 article in the Washington Post about his research.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette was on hand for the first WooHealth Hackathon, hosted by UMass Medical School on Nov. 15 and 16. The event brought together students and faculty from nine area colleges and universities to brainstorm innovative solutions for a public health challenge: how to improve physical access to health care.

AMHERST, Mass. – Today a diverse group of scientists including Nilanjana Dasgupta, professor of social psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the campus’s director of faculty equity and inclusion, report their findings and recommendations on how institutions and funding agencies can address and prevent sexual harassment and gender bias in the STEM workforce. Details of their suggested “specific, potentially high-impact policy changes” appear in the current issue of Science.

Alumnus Marcos A. Reyes-Martinez, a materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), was honored by the U.S. Department of Commerce for Hispanic Heritage Month in October. He was chosen as one of only two employees to be spotlighted from among roughly 50,000 workers at the department. 

An interdisciplinary team of students, Arianna Kazemi, Connor Kennedy and Gabri Silverman, undergraduate winners of the American Statistical Association (ASA) Public Health Data Challenge, and their advisor, associate professor of biostatistics Nicholas Reich, have published an article exploring the differences in the death, arrest and reoffending rates for opioid users in the U.S.