Academics

Info for Alumni

Notes from the Chairman

Dear Alumni and Friends of Biology,

Greetings! I am completing the last year of my term as chair of Biology in August 2010, and I’m pleased to be passing the baton to a very capable teacher and scholar known to many of you, Rick Kesseli. Rick has been at the helm of the Biology graduate programs over the last three years, where he has revitalized our PhD and Masters Programs, instituted an award program to recognize our top teaching assistants, and put forward a new Professional Science Masters degree in Biotechnology. So he comes to the chair with a lot of energy and great ideas. For my part, I can hardly believe that three years have passed so quickly. It has been a time of major change for the Department and the University, which certainly has made the chairmanship lively and challenging. This will continue even more so in Rick’s term.

Among the many new developments, the new Integrated Sciences Complex, a part of the UMass Boston Master Plan, is fully underway. The groundbreaking for construction is still on schedule for Fall 2010 and we hope to occupy our new building in Fall 2013. Other events that promise to enhance the Department’s teaching and research include several successful searches for new faculty. Two young scientists will join us in the upcoming academic year: Jennifer Bowen, a microbial ecologist from Princeton, and Liam Revell, an evolutionary bioinformaticist from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) at Duke University (more on them inside). Also, we are negotiating to bring Roya Khosravi-Far, a senior scientist in Experimental Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School. We hope that she will fill the Brann Endowed Chair in Science and Mathematics and serve as an academic leader in work related to the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy (CPCT) to be established at UMass Boston as a joint effort with the UMB-Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center partnership.

Also, thanks to your kind donations and support, we continue to provide a rich science experience for our students. In particular, two years ago we established the Biology Alumni Fund to directly support undergraduate research activities in the Department. This Spring we awarded research grants in a competitive application process to several undergraduates to help support their independent research projects in the Department. Also we want to thank the family of Dr. Nancy Goranson for establishing the graduate student research fund in her name (http://www.bio.umb.edu/graduate/). This year, for the first time, the endowment provided research funds to five graduate students working towards their MS and PhD degrees. We are indeed fortunate to have generous alumni like you, who remember the fine biology education that UMass Boston provides to its citizens. As always, we are proud of our alumni. We love to hear about where you are, what you are doing and your latest achievements. Please send us a letter or an email to share your news with us and your fellow alumni in the Alumni Newsletter and the updated alumni page on the Biology Department website.

Michael Shiaris
Biology Department

We would love to hear from you! If you would like to share any news with you fellow alums, please email Alexa.