Inside CNS Gallery

PLSOILIN 321: Environmental Physiology and Biology of Fall Greenhouse Crops is the first of the two-semester course focuses on modern concept and practices that are used to control growth and flowering of ornamental crops. Topics include chemical and non-chemical methods for controlling plant height, photoperiod manipulation of flowering, use of CO2 enrichment to enhance growth, scheduling crops for specific marketing dates, concepts of base temperature and the effects of greenhouse temperatures on crop growth, calculating production cost, and detail discussion of the production of some important floricultural crops. The lab component provide the students a true hands-on learning experience of the production of high quality flowering plants. Professor: Susan Han.

More than 1,400 first-year CNS students attended the UMass Amherst Fall Orientation, which brought students to campus for a weekend of festivities, friend-building, and comprehensive overview of the stellar academic programs and diverse opportunities available at the college and the campus as a whole.

iCons—Integrated Concentration in Science—integrates scientific expertise across departments and gives students the opportunity to work on real-world problems from day one. This completely new, enhanced science education program is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Pictured here is the first cohort of iCons students.

The New Laboratory Science Building is projected to be completed in spring 2012, and will house interdisciplinary research teams and contain facilities for genomics, proteomics, and imaging, as well as a vivarium. It is located next door to the green Integrated Sciences Building, which opened in 2009 with 85,000 sq. ft. of modern classrooms and teaching labs filled with $4M of cutting-edge instrumentation.

Senior Geology major Claire Pless and Geology graduate student Seth Regan examine some of the specimens from the Marvin Rausch Mineral Collection, one of the finest in the country, Rausch, a long-time chemistry professor, bequested many specimens to the Geosciences Department.

The CNS Student Leadership Committee is a group of committed undergraduates, representing all CNS majors, who work closely with the deans and the CNS Advising Center. They help to promote college visibility on and off campus and are an important contact for prospective students and their parents. The group is pictured here at a leadership training session in Beckett, Mass.

Mike Polchlopek '10 BS, Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation, wields a fish he caught while working as a 2010 summer/fall fisheries technician for the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (NSRAA), in Sitka, Alaska.