University of Massachusetts Amherst

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UMass Amherst is home to a thriving international community of researchers, teachers, and students striving to connect their work to the needs of the region, nation, and world from a beautiful setting in western New England.

  • Cool Fuel

    In the fight to reduce our society's dependency on fossil fuels and minimize the ravages of climate change, one weapon stands out: biofuel, made from renewable plant material called biomass. UMass Amherst is proud to count among its own George Huber, a leading biofuel researcher who serves as John and Elizabeth Armstrong Professional Development Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

  • Amherst Named North America's Top College Town

    What's so special about UMass Amherst's home town that it tops some well-known rivals?

  • Outstanding Options

    With applications rising, UMass Amherst is attracting students who thrive on exploring the array of options available at a major public research university.

  • When Maroon is Green

    UMass Amherst boasts two new homes for sciences and arts—near neighbors on campus—designed to promote collaborative learning and sustainable living. By all accounts they’re succeeding.

  • Food Science in the Forefront

    “What is exciting and amazing is that UMass Food Science received the sole number one ranking in two of five dimensions.” This gratifying praise comes from a food scientist unaffiliated with the university, discussing National Research Council rankings of U.S. doctoral programs in the February 2011 issue of Food Technology . She adds: “It would be truly wise for us to study how UMass puts its program together.”

  • Heads in the Clouds

    High performing students, teamwork, intercultural collaboration and communication, technology, research—all the elements that lead to an outstanding classroom learning experience—work together in Gino Sorcinelli’s honors senior seminar Effective Decision Making in the Age of Cloud Computing.

  • UMass Amherst Researchers Find Sleep Preserves and Enhances Unpleasant Emotional Memories

    A recent study by sleep researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the first to suggest that a person’s emotional response after witnessing an unsettling picture or traumatic event is greatly reduced if the person stays awake afterward, and that sleep strongly "protects" the negative emotional response. Further, if the unsettling picture is viewed again or a flashback memory occurs, it will be just as upsetting as the first time for those who have slept after viewing compared to those who have not.

  • Kicking Butts

    "This class will change your life!" That's what students hear, packed into Mahar Auditorium for the start of Microbiology 160: The Biology of Cancer and AIDS.

    Assistant Professor Wilmore Webley '00G, '03 PhD, who teaches the popular General Education course, knows that enrollees are here to fulfill a biological sciences requirement so he exposes them to the intricate disease mechanisms and broader individual, social, and global implications of these two major scourges.