UMASS AMHERST is committed to investing in research that makes a difference in the world.
We've partnered with the World University Network (WUN) to bring our researchers and resources to bear on a number of global challenges whose solutions require an international approach. WUN has identified four global challenges and four cross-cutting research themes that form the key pillars of WUN-supported research. Since the partnership began in 2015, UMass Amherst faculty and students have participated in global-challenge projects ranging from developing inexpensive and easy-to-configure air-pollution sensors for at-risk communities to developing climate-resilient crops that will enable essential foods to grow under increasingly extreme environmental conditions.
- SPRINGFIELD, MASS. – Faculty and students in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences study the social and economic impacts of casino gambling on behalf of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. The city is the site of a new casino currently under construction by MGM.
- CAPE COD, MASS. – The Laboratory of Medical Zoology offers Cape Cod communities free testing for tick-borne diseases. Since 2006, the lab has tested thousands of ticks from 40 U.S. states and Canada.
- WISCONSIN – Northeast Climate Science Center researchers are investigating ecological vulnerability and species response to climate variability and change in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and elsewhere.
- CALIFORNIA – Geoscientist Michelle Cooke and her students have developed mechanical and 3-D models of active faults in Southern California, revealing important information about localized earthquake-hazard risks.
- NETHERLANDS – UMass Amherst engineers are working with Vryhof, a world leader in producing offshore anchoring systems, in developing a new mooring system for floating offshore wind turbines.
- RUSSIA – Alexander Suvorov, assistant professor of environmental health sciences, is leading an international team to increase Russia’s awareness of new toxicology testing techniques that eliminate the use of laboratory animals.
- MEXICO – In collaboration with the Mexican government, UMass Amherst led the construction and subsequent utilization of the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) on the summit of Volcán Sierra Negra. The largest telescope of its kind, LMT is used by international teams to explore the formation and evolution of planetary systems, stars, black holes, and galaxies.
- BRAZIL – Contributing to urgent worldwide efforts to track and slow the spread of the Zika virus, UMass Amherst students in the Integrated Concentration in Science program (iCons) developed new models to predict health and economic consequences of increasing Zika infections in several South American nations, particularly Brazil.
- AFRICA – The UMass Amherst chapter of Engineers Without Borders has worked for 10 years to bring potable, yearlong water supplies to villages in Kenya and Ghana, where clean, sustainable water has dramatically improved villagers’ lives.
- ITALY – Classics professor Anthony Tuck directs excavations of the Etruscan settlement Poggio Civitate, near Siena. Since 2007, Tuck and his students have worked to uncover and interpret the secrets of the rise and fall of this ancient civilization.
- NEPAL– Environmental health scientists studying air quality in Kathmandu have discovered that inexpensive cloth masks worn by people who hope to reduce their exposure to air pollution may not be as effective as previously believed.
- AUSTRALIA – Elena Carbone, nutrition, collaborates with Australian colleagues to conduct maternal health literacy research that will lay the foundation for joint grant proposals to determine how mothers globally develop the skills, knowledge, confidence, and capacity to maintain their health and that of their family.
- ANTARCTICA – Geoscientist Robert DeConto, an international expert in global climate modeling, studies past conditions on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and other areas of Antarctica in order to predict what effect future climate change may have on sea-level rise worldwide.