Campus News

Campus News

$250,000 in state funds was proposed by Chancellor Marty Meehan at a recent press conference, to be used for an initiative that investigates the links between breast cancer and the ties it has to environmental causes. UMass Lowell is partnering with the Silent Spring Institute and the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition on this initiative. Massachusetts has taken the lead among states to investigating the causes of the disease, and reducing the use of carcinogenic chemicals.

Dean David Wegman of the School of Health and Environment has started many new interdisciplinary projects, and they are getting plenty of funding. Known as Signature Initiatives, research, service, and teaching will be combined in these projects. The first two projects are funded on a budget of $28,000 dollars. Based on the results of surveys and focus groups, strategies such as walking and bicycling will be implemented by project leaders, and collaboration with the administration will be necessary to improve the campus environment to support such activities. Awareness of worker health and safety issues, chronic diseases, and obesity will be the primary focus of these projects media-wise.

Professor Mark Hines, chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and his colleagues have recently been investigating the emissions of methane and other non-ecofriendly gasses from marshes and wetlands. Hines recently came back from a five-week trip to Switzerland, where he worked with other colleagues at the Swiss Federal Research Institute to quantify the relationship between methane formation and the distribution of vegetation in Swiss wetlands. Hines' research will be expanded upon later this month, when further studies will take place in the Adriondacks in New York with funding from the National Science Foundation.

A collection of UMass Lowell researchers are developing a new decive that will help to revolutionize airport and general homeland security. The device is basically an electronic nose that sniffs for explosives. The researchers say that the nose will be as sensitive as that of a bloodh0und, and will detect and eliminate the threat of explosives with much more accuracy and precision. This multidisciplinary collaborative effort recently recieved a three-year, $800,000 dollar grant from the National Science Foundation. Researchers hope to come up with a product prototype by 2010.

Energetic particles in space that are a danger to astronauts and satellites are being heavily investigated by the UML Center for Atmospheric Research. The effort is being spearheaded by a group of researchers, led by atmospheric scientist Quiang Xong, co-director Paul Song and researcher Xuzhi Zhou. The European Space Agency's CLUSTER spacecraft is where most of the data was collected for the initiative. The generation of the killer electrons, as well as the velocity at which they move through space, was heavily investigated, and will continue to be expanded on by the team of researchers.


Lastly, the fairly new Technology, Engineering and Math-Sciences, or TEAMS, program has marked its first year anniversary this month, although it still needs lots of support. The program has allowed 270 regional high schools in Massachusetts to take UMass Lowell courses part-time. As it stands right now, 32 specially-selected 11th- and 12th-grade students from 12 local school districts are enrolled in UMass Lowell courses. The four courses being offered — environmental biotechnology, interactive robotics, bat engineering design, and assistive technology and electronics — developed through a collaboration of UMass Lowell faculty and regional high school teachers, are designed to supplement, rather than to replace, advanced high school courses, according to the people running the program. The program has State Senator Steve Panagiotakos to thank for its existence, who offered $650,000 dollars to fund the program, and continued student enrollment for its year-long success. The program is a collaboration of the University’s deans of Education, Engineering and Sciences, and is being overseen by coordinator Donald Rhine, who is also a Tyngsboro High School physics and math teacher.