With the new year fast approaching, I’m proud to report that 2018 has been another outstanding year for the University of Massachusetts.
This year, we continued our rapid rise into the top tier of public research universities, reaching important new milestones while increasing our impact in the Commonwealth and beyond. Consider just a few of the highlights and top achievements of 2018:
UMass Dartmouth achieved a National Tier 1 designation in the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings released today, jumping from its previous designation as a regional university.
UMass Dartmouth Masters of Fine Arts candidate in painting Robert Najlis (Ridgewood, NJ) has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship. Najlis, who is graduating in May 2019, is among 2,000 people from across the globe who receive grants each year in all fields of study to conduct international research.
October 2, 2006: The University of Massachusetts Medical School's Craig C. Mello, PhD, and his colleague Andrew Fire, PhD, of Stanford University, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2006 for their discoveries related to RNA interference.
University of Massachusetts hockey head coach Greg Carvel has been tabbed the 2019 Spencer Penrose Award winner, given annually to the CCM/AHCA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year, the American Hockey Coaches Association announced on Tuesday. Carvel's honor marks the 11th time a UMass head coach has been selected as a national coach of the year across all sports, with men's lacrosse's Greg Cannella being the previous most recent recipient in 2006.
Today, in coordinated press conferences across the globe including one at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., an international team of astronomers including a team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst reveal that they have succeeded in unveiling the first direct visual evidence of a supermassive black hole and its shadow.
Reforms are needed to ensure the integrity of the medical residency program selection process, according to commentary in the journal Academic Medicine by Chancellor Michael F. Collins and colleagues at UMass Medical School. The authors cite violations of National Residency Matching Program policy during residency interviews, such as women being asked whether they are on birth control and if they have a partner who will support them financially, and applicants being prodded to disclose what order they ranked programs of interest.
Scientists at UMass Medical School have developed technology to give night vision to mammals with a simple injection that contains nanoantennae, allowing the animals to see light beyond the visible spectrum, into the range of infrared light. The vision enhancement is temporary and doesn’t interfere with the animal’s ability to see visible light. The research also opens translational opportunities for exploring neural networks in the brain and assisting with vision repair.
Paul L. Greer, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine, is one of 15 young scientists in the chemical and biological sciences who have been named 2019 Searle Scholars. Dr. Greer will receive $300,000 in flexible funding over the next three years to support his study, A Novel Approach to Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis.
In its recently released 2019 edition, the Black Student's Guide to Law Schools & Firms has ranked UMass Law at UMass Dartmouth as one of the top five law schools for black students in the east, noting its high percentage (8%) of black students earning a JD.
UMass Law shared the honor with the City University of New York School of Law, the University of Connecticut School of Law, Rutgers Law School, and the University at Buffalo School of Law.