As the major research engine of UMass Amherst, the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics generates more than half of the competitive research funding for the campus each year. Our 250 faculty members perform 20 percent of teaching and serve 15,000 undergraduates.

NSM has nine departments: Astronomy, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science (ranked in the top 25 Ph.D. programs by the National Research Council and U.S. News and World Report 2006), Geosciences, Mathematics & Statistics, Physics, and Polymer Science & Engineering (named first in the country by U.S. News and World Report, and second in all materials departments by the National Research Council).

Additionally, NSM sponsors four popular interdisciplinary programs at the Ph.D. level: Molecular and Cellular Biology; Neuroscience and Behavior; Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; and Plant Biology. Other interdisciplinary opportunities for graduate students include the Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program and the new NSF-funded IGERT Program in NanoTechnology Innovation.

Undergraduate majors total 2,226, with 25 percent graduating with honors annually. In 2006, the college's undergraduates garnered two Goldwater Scholarships, a Fulbright Scholarship, and the coveted position of commencement speaker. NSM attracts 722 graduate students (613 of whom are working towards doctorates), and 100 postdoctoral researchers. The College awards more than one quarter of UMass Amherst's Ph.D.s

In February 2007, the College launched a new set of Excellence Initiatives around the following multidisciplinary research themes: Renewable Energy, Clean Water, Nanomaterials, and Biomedicine. At the same time, plans are underway to create Education and Innovation initiatives.