Spring Laurel for Wrting Program
The Writing Program has received a highly competitive national honor for college writing programs: a certificate of excellence from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. The program serves more than 10,000 students annually with its first-year and junior-year classes as well as its popular Writing Center in the Du Bois Library.

Tech Tops in Licensing
UMass Amherst has emerged as a national leader in technology transfer, earning nearly $41 million from faculty innovations and discoveries taken from the lab to the marketplace.
The campus ranked among the top three institutions in New England and among the top 15 universities in the nation, as measured annually by the Association of University Technology Managers. The campus’s licensing income has grown dramatically, from only $195,000 in fiscal year 1994 to $40.7 million in fiscal year 2007. In recent years, UMass Amherst has launched a number of successful spin-off companies including Qteros, which was formed based on a novel biofuel technology.

Shout Out for Reaching Out
UMass Amherst was recognized nationally for its community involvement through teaching, scholarship, and public service when The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching officially named it a Community-Engaged University. UMass Amherst is one of 194 institutions across the country to earn the designation since 2006. The campus was recognized for its outreach to the region, the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.

Explorer Emerges
Wildlife biologist and conservationist Malik Marjan, a PhD student in natural resources conservation, has been named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. Marjan, who is studying with professor Todd Fuller, has been involved for many years in wildlife surveys in southern Sudan. His fieldwork helped document previously unknown large herds of migrating animals in a war-torn area. As a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, Marjan receives $10,000 for research and exploration.