From the Office of Senator Kerry

Monday, November 22, 2004

WASHINGTON – Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry and Congressman John W. Olver (D-1st District) announced that the omnibus appropriations bill approved by Congress includes $2.389 million in fiscal year 2005 federal assistance for several research projects at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Congressman Olver is a member of the Appropriations Committee and worked with Senators Kennedy and Kerry to secure the funding for UMass in the omnibus bill, which was approved by the House and Senate on Saturday night. The total $388 billion omnibus bill funds the majority of the federal government’s domestic activities. The omnibus now goes to the president’s desk for his signature.

“UMass-Amherst is emerging as a leader in many critical sciences, and I am very pleased we’ve been able to help,” Senator Kennedy said. “From the Pioneer Valley Life Science Initiative to its groundbreaking environmental work with cutting edge green chemistry research and beyond, we can be sure that UMass -Amherst will be a national player in the years ahead.”

“Researchers at UMass are leading the way on everything from a healthy environment to safe food. It’s cutting-edge science that will make a big difference in our daily lives,” said Senator Kerry. “I’m proud of the world-class science being done at UMass. It’s a testament to our state’s pioneering spirit and the kind of innovation that will continue to keep America great.” “UMass continues to be a leader in innovative research that produces enormous benefits for Massachusetts and the nation,” Congressman Olver said. “I applaud the work being done by researchers at UMass on global warming, green chemistry, seafood safety and many other areas. UMass researchers are recognized leaders in their field, and I am pleased that this federal funding can assist them in their efforts.”

Federal assistance in the FY05 omnibus bill for UMass includes:

$750,000 for Climate System Research Center

Research at the Climate System Research Center at UMass focuses on the climate system, climate variability and global change issues. The center works to improve knowledge of the earth’s past and present climate and environment; quantify the forces that cause climate to change; reduce uncertainty in projections of future climate change; understand the sensitivity of ecosystems and human systems to global changes; and examine how evolving knowledge can help manage future climate changes.

This funding will help strengthen and expand research by allowing the center to appoint a small number of graduate and post-doctoral appointments to form research clusters led by established and nationally visible faculty members. Through this strategy, the university’s contributions to national science priorities will be enhanced, and a core group of new researchers will be trained to address these critical issues.

For more information about climate research at UMass, contact Raymond S. Bradley, in the Department of Geosciences at UMass, at 413-545-2120 or rbradley@geo.umass.edu, or go to www.paleoclimate.org.

$500,000 for the New England Green Chemistry Consortium (NEGCC)

The New England Green Chemistry Consortium is a partnership of the University of Massachusetts system and five other land-grant universities in the region and serves as a vehicle for researching, developing and applying green chemistry technologies to allow industry make the transition to a sustainable and more economically competitive future.

Green chemistry is a science-based approach to pollution prevention to reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture or application of chemical products. The consortium will work to coordinate, expand and disseminate green chemistry education, policy and research in New England. The consortium includes UMass, the University of Connecticut, the University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Vermont.

For more information about NEGCC, contact Chad Nelson, director of the National Environmental Technology Institute at UMass, at 413-545-2842 or cnelson@tei.umass.edu. $439,000 for the Safe Seafood Project

The Safe Seafood Project at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst combines food microbiology, chemistry and computer models into a research system that examines issues of seafood safety. Through this research, the project develops strategies for the detection, control and eradication of the hazards associated with fish consumption. Researchers are also collecting, analyzing and interpreting data currently being collected by the seafood industry pursuant to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations.

To date, more than $1.4 million in federal funding has been secured for the Safe Seafood Project at UMass, including $180,000 in FY04, $450,000 in FY03 and $400,000 in FY02.

For more information about seafood safety research at UMass, contact Fergus M. Clydesdale, head of the food science department at UMass, at 413-545-2275. $700,000 for the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Initiative The Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Initiative is a partnership between the UMass, Baystate Medical Center and the City of Springfield. A portion of the project is to construct a new Integrated Science building on the university campus in Amherst to house interdisciplinary research and teaching activities. The goal of the Life Sciences Initiative is to expand the region’s capacity to conduct research in chemical and biological sciences to attract additional investment in molecular biology, medical instrumentation and biomedical engineering.

For more information, contact Steve Bradley, Government Relations, Baystate Medical Center, at 413-794-1016.

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