Research News
2009: JAN | FEB | MAY
2008: DEC | NOV | OCT | SEP | AUG | JUL | JUN | MAY | APR | MAR | FEB | JAN
| May 2009 |
Are conflicts of interest policies in clinical psychiatry credible?
Would you trust the world's most influential text on psychiatric diagnosis and therapy if you knew the majority of its authors had ties to the pharmaceutical industry?...continued. May 2009
| February 2009 |
Deciphering the developing mind
When you look into a child’s eyes, what do you see? Zsuzsa Kaldy, assistant professor of psychology at UMass Boston, sees innocence and adventure, purity and mischief, helplessness and determination, anger and pride, envy and happiness, impatience and endurance, serenity and resentment. She also hopes to see the precursors of mental disorders...continued. February 2009
| January 2009 |
Expert entrepreneur guides others with big ideas
In 2005, Josh Anyaosah was a refugee from Sierra Leone pursuing a liberal arts degree at UMass Boston. He wanted to further his studies and become a nurse, but with limited resources and support, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to pursue his dream. But the way became clear after a meeting with Entrepreneur-in-Residence Dan Phillips...continued. January 2009
| December 2008 |
Innovation and economic development spark new collaborations on AASCU campuses
From Massachusetts to Florida, Missouri to California, AASCU campuses across the nation are increasingly involved in entrepreneurial efforts to help foster new businesses and aid their local economies...At the University Of Massachusetts Boston's Venture Development Center...continued. November/December 2008
| November 2008 |
Promoting cross-cultural understanding through information systems
A revolutionary new program based in the College of Management aims to provide its graduates with international experience previously unheard of within the UMass system by supplying them with the proper tools needed to compete in today’s new global economy. November 2008
More than games in Senegal
The correlation between sports programs and youth development has long been known within the U.S. But for developing countries such as Senegal, the benefits of such programs are still being discovered. November 2008
Students of nursing overcome economic challenges to academic success
The Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students Program seeks to take pressure off students by providing them some additional assistance in order for them to succeed. And, with the nation still facing a critical nursing shortage, it is vital to graduate as many nursing students as possible. November 2008
| October 2008 |
Venture Development Center nears completion
After six months of construction, the former cafeteria in Wheatley Hall is in the final stages of its transformation into the Venture Development Center, a collaborative and cross-disciplinary research space that will stimulate collaboration and innovation among students and faculty. October 6, 2008
Grant and sponsored program awards rise again!
Records are made to be broken and once again the faculty, staff, and students of UMass Boston set a new record in FY 2008 for grant and sponsored program awards—$45.4 million, or an 8.77 percent increase from the previous year.
October 2008
| September 2008 |
A rare look at Shakespeare
An exhibit at the Boston Public Library, co-curated by English professors Scott Maisano and Cheryl Nixon, “All the World’s a Page: 400 Years of Shakespeare in Print”—on display in the BPL’s Rare Books Exhibition Room through September 30—raises more questions than it answers, serving as a launching pad for an examination of the assumptions students and scholars alike have about William Shakespeare. September 2008
| August 2008 |
Uncovering lore (and much more) in Skagafjörður
The National Science Foundation funded Skagafjordur Archaeological Settlement Survey led by UMass Boston’s John Steinberg has had to develop novel techniques to understand what happened during the transition of Iceland from chiefdoms to state. August 28, 2008
Supercharging life science
Beacon Hill, with strong backing from the life science industry, has approved a $1 billion, 10-year life science initiative, a cornerstone of Governor Patrick's economic strategy. The surge in authorized borrowing this year has signaled that Massachusetts will not be outdone when it comes to science and technology, and that UMass is a vital part of the state’s strategy. August 14, 2008
| July 2008 |
Twisting your stomach into knots
The studio art faculty at UMass Boston are dedicated teachers of art and dedicated and acclaimed artists as well. Their work also reveals that they, much like their own students, are passionate artists engaged in the process of experiment and discovery. July 31, 2008
Bringing order to the wild west off the Bay State's coast
Massachusetts has been talking about the need for a state ocean management plan for more than fifteen years.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded a three-year $8.2 million grant to the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at UMass Boston, to focus on developing information and tools that improve the integration of natural and social science with ocean management.The grant focuses on science integration efforts that will directly support the state’s formal ocean management planning and decision making processes. July 30, 2008
Thinking critically about the forces of social gravity
Are hard work and persistence the essential ingredients for success in America?
Pepi Leistyna, associate professor of applied linguistics at UMass Boston, challenges his students to think critically about this question. He examines working class representations from American television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows in his documentary film.
July 8, 2008
Another boost for the Venture Development Center
Receiving the only award made in the Boston metropolitan region, the Venture Development Center received a big boost last week with notification of a $1.5 million award from the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA). The recent investments by federal and state economic development agencies underscore the new role of UMass Boston as a source of innovation for the economy. July 1, 2008
Developing bioinformatics tools for conservation science and education
Scientists will find it easier to identify species and manage their data in collaborative environments as a result of software tools developed by UMass Boston's Robert Morris, professor of computer science and Robert Stevenson, professor of biology.
The two researchers want to mobilize "citizen science" to help make the case for biodiversity conservation.
June 27, 2008
Poised for greater growth in clean energy
As clean energy markets begin to develop rapidly around the world, few think about Massachusetts as a hub of such activity, except perhaps for the controversial proposal to develop a wind farm off Cape Cod. In fact, Massachusetts has strengths in at least four sectors related to clean energy production, according to an analysis byresearchers at UMass Boston. June 14, 2008
Moving infant depression out of the shadows
Ed Tronick, an internationally renowned child development specialist and a distinguished university professor at UMass Boston, is always trying to show that depression is a treatable disease. A documentary that he helped to develop, Depression: Out of the Shadows, aired on PBS on May 21. June 11, 2008
Stretching electronic skin across Massachusetts Bay
Electronic skin for Massachusetts Bay is being stitched together by scientists at UMass Boston so that surfers, swimmers, and fishermen are alerted to dangerous bacterial levels in the water. These scientists led by Robert Chen, professor of environmental, earth, and ocean sciences, envision forecasts of beach conditions delivered on demand to mobile handsets. June 9, 2008
Expanding choice for children with learning disabilities
Through his grounbreaking research, Gary Siperstein, a professor of human services and director of the Center for Social Development and Education at UMass Boston, has caused many to step back and ask the question about why social integration of students with disabilities in high school has remained "stagnant." June 6, 2008
| May 2008 |
Ringing alarms about elders' high living costs
The developers of a novel tool at the Gerontology Institute at UMass Boston were inspired to ask the difficult question: how much does it really cost for older adults to live independently, taking into account differing factors such as health, life circumstances, family status, and geography; and what happens to their costs as life circumstances change over time? May 27, 2008
Award winning public radio program answers a universal question
As I Am, the new Asian American public radio program produced by UMass Boston's Institute for Asian American Studies and WUMB,
addresses issues that affect Asian Americans but touches on themes, like the concept of “home,” which transcend race, ethnicity, and nationality. The program recently was awarded with theprestigious Gracie Award. May 22, 2008
A high-tech look into the past
At the landmark Paul Revere House, Allen Gontz, assistant professor of coastal geology and geophysics at UMass Boston, is spearheading the use of surveying systems and software that non-invasively and non-destructively map the subsurface of the ground and the features within it. May 20, 2008
Diversifying the science talent pipeline
Turning a student's early spark of interest in science into a sustained career takes years of study, planning, and dedication. Two researchers from the biology department at UMass Boston have been awarded a
$1.4 million, four-year Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity, or IMSD, grant.The program will focus on increasing the number underrepresented minority students eventually pursing doctoral degrees in biomedical fields. May 15, 2008
A computational tour de force
E8, a symmetrical structure discovered in 1887 by Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie was thought to never be understood. Last year, a mathematical calculation of the structure of E8 was unveiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The mysterious structure was mapped by an international group of eighteen mathematicians, including UMass Boston's Alfred Noel. May 10, 2008
| April 2008 |
Inventive professor achieves optics breakthrough
D.V.G.L.N. Rao, professor of physics at UMass Boston and his protégé post-doc Chandra S. Yelleswarapu finish each other’s sentences as they explain the workings of their invention, the Fourier Phase Contrast Microscope, which images minute organisms more realistically and in greater detail than the microscopes widely used by biologists around the world. April 1, 2008
| March 2008 |
The clatter of subversive knitting
A special software program that lets anyone create a knitting pattern out of a graphic image as well as one that can translate digital video into knitted animation have been developed by an assistant professor of new media at UMass Boston.
The innovator, Cat Mazza, perfectly represents the newest directions in art, now served by computer networking, modeling, and simulation. March 27, 2008
| February 2008 |
New center tackles health disparities in Boston
A team of researchers from UMass Boston and Harvard School of Public Healthcare creating a center devoted to health and healthcare disparities that will provide healthy options, research, interventions, and community organizing.The researchers hope
that their findings will be put into practice in the local community and eventually benefit urban residents across the nation. February 5, 2008
| January 2008 |
How practicing physicists learn physics
Arthur Eisenkraft, a distinguished professor of science education at UMass Boston, believes that students learn math and science the way that practicing scientists and mathematicians do. They learn when something grabs their attention. Eisenkraft's latest book is used by more than 100,000 students across the country. It aims to place physics at the forefront for students whether they be located in rural, suburban, or inner-city districts. January 9, 2008