News & Announcements
Researchers Link Fungicides, Bumblebee Decline
Researchers Link Fungicides, Bumblebee Decline
Several bumblebee species have seen their ranges contract and some may face extinction due to several combined stressors, say ecologists Lynn Adler, Professor of Biology, and her former Postdoctoral Fellow Scott McArt, with others. Their recently published research analysis in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. explores the relative importance of multiple factors, and found unexpectedly that greater use of fungicides was the strongest predictor of range contraction in declining bumblebee species. Read More
Susan Han Named Outstanding Teacher of the College of Natural Sciences
Susan Han Named Outstanding Teacher of the College of Natural Sciences
Susan Han, Stockbridge School of Agriculture, has been awared the 2016-2017 Outstanding Teacher of the College of Natural Sciences. More Information
Soil Researchers Quantify an Important, Underappreciated Factor in Carbon Release to the Atmosphere
Soil Researchers Quantify an Important, Underappreciated Factor in Carbon Release to the Atmosphere
Soil plays a critical role in global carbon cycling, in part because soil organic matter stores three times more carbon than the atmosphere. Now biogeochemist Marco Keiluweit at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues elsewhere for the first time provide evidence that anaerobic microsites play a much larger role in stabilizing carbon in soils than previously thought. Read More
Madelaine Bartlett Receives a 5-year National Science Foundation Grant to Study the Evolution of Flowers
Madelaine Bartlett Receives a 5-year National Science Foundation Grant to Study the Evolution of Flowers
With an emphasis on encouraging young women in science, UMass Amherst Assistant Professor of Biology Madelaine Bartlett has received a 5-year, $837,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Grant to study the evolution of flowers—particularly in the economically important grass and grain family. Yet as much as it’s about flowers, Bartlett’s project also is about students: offering summer courses in basic molecular biology for high school students, training undergraduates to do research in molecular biology and evolution in a lab-based class, and involving graduate students in research and outreach. Read More
Plant Biology Graduate Program students take top spots at conference
Plant Biology Graduate Program students take top spots at conference
Stockbridge School of Agriculture students in the Plant Biology Gradaute Program, Samantha Glaze-Corcoran and Rachael Bernstein took first and second place, respectively, in the oral presentation contest at the American Society of Agronomy/Crop Science Society of America/Soil Science Society of America annual conference meeting in Tampa.
LSGRC 7th Annual Life Sciences Graduate Research Symposium, Friday, November 17!
LSGRC 7th Annual Life Sciences Graduate Research Symposium, Friday, November 17!
The 7th annual UMass Life Sciences Graduate Research Symposium will be held on Friday, November 17. The event brings together graduate students from all areas of life sciences research at UMass to present their work in both talks (9:00am - 5:00pm, Life Sciences Laboratories Building, Room S340) and a poster session/lunch (12:30pm - 2:00 pm). This event is open to everyone who wants to learn about the fantastic life sciences work going on at UMass! The schedule for presentations is available on the LSGRC facebook page.
Baskin Receives DOE Grant to Study Plant Growth
Baskin Receives DOE Grant to Study Plant Growth
Tobias Baskin, biology, recently received a $238,000 grant from the Department of Energy to study cellulose and plant control of anisotropic growth, that is, growth rates that are not equal in all directions. Read More
Plants Under Heat Stress Must Act Surprisingly Quickly to Survive
Plants Under Heat Stress Must Act Surprisingly Quickly to Survive
AMHERST, Mass. – In new results reported in The Plant Cell, molecular biologist Elizabeth Vierling at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues in India and China report finding a crucial mechanism that plants need to recover from heat stress. Read More
Cheung, Wu Awarded $1.35 Million to Support Work in Plant Male-Female Interactions
Cheung, Wu Awarded $1.35 Million to Support Work in Plant Male-Female Interactions
Alice Cheung and Hen-Ming Wu, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, have been awarded $1.35 million from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Integrative and Organismal Systems and Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences to support their work in plant male-female interactions, which lead to fertilization and seed production, and in exploring basic mechanisms in plant signal transduction pathways. Read More
UMass Amherst Molecular Biologist Li-Jun Ma Wins Grant to Outwit Plant Fungal Diseases
UMass Amherst Molecular Biologist Li-Jun Ma Wins Grant to Outwit Plant Fungal Diseases
Pathogenic fungi, the kind that cause wilt diseases in more than 100 plants species, can pose serious threats to agricultural productivity. Li-Jun Ma at UMass Amherst, an expert in fungal comparative genomics, has received a five-year, $880,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant to address this problem. Read More