Person using tech to monitor marine life and their environment
Giving Opportunities

College of Natural Sciences

The College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst is an engine of discovery and learning. Your investment in the college will accelerate scientific progress and support emerging research leaders.

People and ideas that move the world

Higher education is tasked with exploring and testing solutions to pressing societal issues like climate change, mental health promotion, infectious disease transmission, and food insecurity.    

The College of Natural Sciences emphasizes collaboration, innovative research, and community and industry partnerships to tackle local and national problems.

Our Vision

Using the power of science to create a better future

College of Natural Science students and faculty are poised to make breakthroughs that improve lives throughout Massachusetts and beyond. You can help us unleash the power of science with support for faculty research, student access, upgraded facilities, and programming that benefits the common good.

 #1
ranked food science and agriculture programs in the nation
$90.7M
in sponsored research annually
70%
of CNS students participate in experiential learning opportunities 

Initiatives for the College of Natural Sciences

Student scholarships

Eliminating financial need clears a path for ambitious, impact-minded students to choose CNS and expand their career options after graduation.

Undergraduate hands-on research opportunities 

Both endowment and immediate-use funding for high-quality undergraduate research opportunities will ensure that CNS students can participate in both summer and semester projects.

Endowed faculty positions

These positions are powerful tools for recruiting and retaining the nation’s best researchers and teachers, ensuring the faculty’s diversity, and driving UMass Amherst’s major research initiatives.

Graduate fellowships

Fellowship support can equip CNS to attract more talented graduate students—especially those from historically underrepresented groups—who are essential to our research enterprise and undergraduate mentoring.

CNS Research and Innovation Catalyst Fund

This fund, dedicated to early-stage research, will amplify high-risk, high-reward projects that could potentially attract additional external funding.

State-of-the-art research facilities

CNS has planned a new material sciences lab and state-of-the-art biology, microbiology, and geoscience laboratories in the Morrill Science Center, Tobin Hall, and the Food Science Extension facilities.

“I never imagined the opportunities CNS could create for me, but they’ve shown me how much I can truly accomplish in science.”

Lorenzo Hernandez ’22
Research associate, Gritstone Bio, Boston
Lorenzo Hernandez ’22

Campaign Progress: $75,200,000

Goal: $120M
63%
3D model of RNA
Spotlight on Chemistry and Biomedicine

Launching the future of RNA research

Professors in CNS and Engineering are partnering to develop a novel approach to synthesizing strands of specialty “long RNA,” with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Future genetic research, from basic cell biology to advanced therapeutics, depends in part on the complex, modified RNA they are working to make available.

Ready to learn more about the School of Natural Sciences?