New England-home of "weather" and new UMass president Caret

It was a bit surreal to be riding the bus Wednesday en route to the inauguration of Robert Caret as the new president of UMass. Surreal because Amherst and the surrounding area had been devastated by a snow storm a few days previous that had felled huge trees, blocked roads, smashed cars and caused sustained power outages throughout the region. I’d lost power for 50 hours—and I was one of the lucky ones!

But the inauguration, despite the challenges of Mother Nature, was an uplifting event. President Caret seems well poised to lead the UMass system to the next level. He’s a New Englander born and bred. He’s a first generation college graduate who went on to earn a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of New Hampshire. He’s been the president of two public universities before coming to UMass. And he’s intent on strengthening even further our already outstanding research productivity and is committed to putting ever increasing emphasis into insure "student success" for all students.

Yesterday I was at the Clean Energy Connections Conference in Springfield. This is the fourth year of this important regional conference that was developed by UMass. The keynote speaker was Jim Robbins who happens to be the guy who developed the two technology incubators that became part of San Jose State University under President Caret's leadership. I think it is clear that we will have a strong partner in President Caret as we work to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship within the College of Natural Sciences.