News & Announcements
PB PhD student Leannah Hicks selected as NCGA Research Ambassador
PB PhD student Leannah Hicks selected as NCGA Research Ambassador
Leannah Hicks will be part of the 2023–24 Ambassador Program of the National Corn Growers Association, designed for graduate students involved in research relevant to corn production and that demonstrate academic excellence and leadership potential. She will receive a financial award as well as funding to attend scientific conferences. Congratulations, Leannah!
Calling all CNS Grad Students!
Calling all CNS Grad Students!
Happy end of the semester and start of summer! To celebrate, join your fellow grad students for an evening of food, fun, and trivia presented by CNS and Life Science Café and sponsored by your Graduate Student Organizations! Show off your science, UMass, and Sci-Fi knowledge on the 29th of June at 6pm at the Hangar Bar and Grill (10 University Dr., Amherst, MA)
We’ll buy the food and you buy the drinks! We hope to see you there!
Pre-register your trivia team and win an extra trivia point! Make a team ahead of time or join one day-of! Maximum of 8 people per group please. If there are more, feel free to break into two groups!
There will be questions across 5 different topics so get ready to be challenged!
Any questions? Please email: sglasser@umass.edu
Distinguished Professor Elizabeth Vierling elected to the Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences section of the National Academy of Sciences
Distinguished Professor Elizabeth Vierling elected to the Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences section of the National Academy of Sciences
Elizabeth Vierling is Professor at the University of Massachusettes Amherst and Founding Member of the ASPB Legacy Society. She majored in Botany as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, and got hooked on lab research during a junior year abroad Freiburg, Germany. After a brief year as a technician at Northwestern University, she got a PhD in Biology at the University of Chicago studying the biogenesis of photosystem I. Her postdoc with Joe L. Key at the University of Georgia started her on research on heat shock proteins (HSPs), first focusing on chloroplasts. This work continued in her faculty position in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, where work expanded from chloroplast sHSPs to homologues in the cytosol and Hsp101, and then into isolating Arabidopsis thaliana mutants defective in heat tolerance. Projects now encompass not only HSPs, but also how nitric oxide homeostasis impacts growth and fertility and the control of mitochondrial gene expression and respiration. She’s now at the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA, and writes that “My research includes collaborations across the world that have been wonderfully enriching and expanded my research program in interesting and productive ways.”
Le Liu selected to be a CNS Leadership Fellow
Le Liu selected to be a CNS Leadership Fellow
Le Liu, a Ph.D. student in the Plant Biology program, was selected to be a CNS Leadership Fellow. Le will work with Associate Dean Karen Helfer on initiatives related to career preparation as well as on programming addressing diversity, equity and inclusion.
Plant Biology graduate student Jedaidah Chilufya receives Future Leaders Award
Plant Biology graduate student Jedaidah Chilufya receives Future Leaders Award
The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) presented Jedaidah Chilufya with the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award. This award recognizes graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education and who are committed to academic innovation in the areas of equity, community engagement, and teaching and learning.
Professor Mafu Receives Award for Research
Professor Mafu Receives Award for Research
Assistant Prof. Sibongile Mafu is a recipient of the RICHARD AND SUSAN SMITH FAMILY FOUNDATION Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research, and she is using the award to help fund her work discovering new plant-derived enzymes to combat antimicrobial resistance and build more resilient plants.
DeAngelis recieves $2.5M in DoE grants to investigate soil microbes' role in carbon cycle
DeAngelis recieves $2.5M in DoE grants to investigate soil microbes' role in carbon cycle
Kristen DeAngelis, Microbiology, was recently was awarded two grants totaling about $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance understanding of the role of soil microbes in feeding carbon into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. Soils are the largest repository of organic carbon in the terrestrial biosphere and represent an important source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, DeAngelis says. "Our results could lead to new ideas for curbing the effects of climate change, and one of the implications of this research could be remediating soil to improve its ability to store carbon.”
Madelaine Bartlett won the prestigious Marcus Rhoades early career award from the Maize Genetics Community
Madelaine Bartlett won the prestigious Marcus Rhoades early career award from the Maize Genetics Community
She was recognized for her research in plant genetics and the evolution of plant development. Bartlett’s lab studies the genes that control development in maize and Brachypodium distachyon. They are working to determine which genes are important in grass flower development, how they work, and how the evolution of these genes impacts the evolution of floral form.
UMass Amherst Holds Construction Celebration for $7.75 Million Expansion and Modernization Project at Cranberry Station in East Wareham
UMass Amherst Holds Construction Celebration for $7.75 Million Expansion and Modernization Project at Cranberry Station in East Wareham
EAST WAREHAM, Mass. – A $7.75 million project to expand and modernize the UMass Amherst Cranberry Station, an important research facility for the commonwealth’s cranberry industry, was celebrated today with a construction celebration event at the station in East Wareham, Mass. While the coronavirus pandemic delayed the start of construction, work is now under way on the facility with a targeted completion date of August 2022. Read more
Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series Presented by Dr. Kristen M. DeAngelis
Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series Presented by Dr. Kristen M. DeAngelis
Dr. DeAngelis has been selected to present the Distinguished Faculty Lecture "Healthy Soils: Our Hope for a Warming World" on December 8, 2021 at 4:00 PM
Established in 1974, the annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture is dedicated to acknowledging the work of our most esteemed and accomplished faculty members. The lecture series not only honors individual faculty members and their achievements, but also celebrates the values of academic excellence that we share as a community. Each honoree is presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed upon faculty by the campus. Read more