It’s called the New Laboratory Science Building, or NLSB, a $156 million, state-of-the-art facility now taking shape on the UMass Amherst campus. It’s part of a larger, nearly $300 million initiative, which also includes the Integrated Science Building opened in late 2009, to create a life sciences ‘precinct’ or ‘community’ on the campus that is being designed to greatly increase research capacity and facilitate collaborative efforts among science departments

“Precision manufacturing is a critical and growing sector in the region,” said David Cruise, director of Business and Employer Services for the Regional Employment Board. “The majority of local manufacturing companies are working in defense, aerospace, medical devices, and commercial markets.

In addition to her more-than-full-time duties with the Small Business Development Center, she’s also involved with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s Plan for Progress, sits on the task force for the high-performance computing center planned for Holyoke, and volunteers her time for Digital Divide Data, a social enterprise that provides jobs and training to youths in Laos and Cambodia, among other activities.

Kevin Jennings was talking about speed bumps. He used that term while discussing commercial real-estate deals and, more specifically, how much more difficult they are to consummate than they were before this sector entered its prolonged slump roughly two years ago.

Mark Hellstein launched Environmental Compliance Services 28 years ago because he saw an opportunity — in the soaring pace of new environmental site regulations — to guide companies through the often-complicated process of compliance.

For four decades, Human Resources Unlimited has been debunking myths about people with disabilities and helping such individuals become part of the local workforce. As the agency marks its milestone, it reflects on a solid track record of success, but, more importantly, looks ahead, toward developing strategies for doing what it does even better.

Throughout its 41-year history, the Springfield-based law firm Shatz, Schwartz & Fentin has been described using the adjective ‘entrepreneurial.’ Since the days when the three original partners invested in state-of-the-art computer technology to enable it to thrive in the financing arena, the firm has aggressively developed practice areas that have allowed it to not only survive but thrive in any kind of economic climate. And that tradition, or culture, as the partners call it, continues today.

Paul Gelinas admits that he wasn’t ready to sell his company, Chicopee-based Air Express, in 2004 when a private equity group based in Chicago put on a full-court press for the venture.

So the bank, working with institutions ranging from the Economic Development Council of Western Mass. to Greenfield Community College, spearheaded a unique development model that brought together about six property owners, representing more than a dozen buildings, who are using tax-credit financing, facilitated by GSB, to fund renovations of the vacant sites. “It wouldn’t have been cost-effective to do something like that on their own,” Caplice said.

Elaine Sarsynski says she worked on the family vegetable farm in Hadley until she graduated from college — and she has the biceps to prove it.

WestMass Area Development Corp., which marked 50 years of existence this past spring, and is making note of that milestone at ceremonies in October.

Recent statistics show that the Bay State is outpacing the nation when it comes to job creation and economic expansion since the recession officially ended roughly a year ago.

Anderson, a mechanical engineer by trade and formerly a consulting engineer before coming to MassMutual in 2006, has made the trek up to the roof repeatedly over the past several months as work to design and install the solar installations has been completed.

Indeed, while he would like to say that there will always be hockey in Springfield, he knows he can’t really use that phrase with any degree of confidence. “I always like to remain optimistic that we can put something together and remain here long-term, but there are simply no guarantees anymore,” he said, noting that the hockey landscape has changed considerably over the past three decades and especially the past several years, and the challenges to existence, especially in what is now considered a small market, are mounting.

The recently initiated work to build a data center at the site of the former Technical High School in Springfield is unique in that the façade of the 105-year-old building will be incorporated into the design of the $110 million facility.

Shardool Parmar calls it a “fixer-upper — of sorts.” That’s how he described what is now known as the City Place Inn & Suites — formerly named the Inn Place, and known throughout most of its existence as a Holiday Inn — on Dwight Street in Springfield.

Tim Brennan says the Plan for Progress, the comprehensive regional strategic economic plan for Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties, receives a major overhaul every 10 years; the last one came in 2004, a decade after the plan was originally drafted.

The two partners said Viz-Bang is off to a solid start, with growth coming slowly and surely. They have been actively engaged in building awareness of their company, products, and services.

Russ Denver has a number of vivid memories from his ascent last December to base camp at Mount Everest, some 17,500 or so feet above sea level.

Massachusetts’ greatest natural resource is its stock of 535,000 college and graduate-school students. Human capital brings the ideas and entrepreneurship needed for regional success

Rudi Scherff started washing dishes at the Student Prince restaurant, then co-owned by his father, Rupprecht, when he was 12 years old. This means that, among many other things, he has a half-century’s worth of perspective on downtown Springfield.

There are a number of intriguing initiatives underway to help grow and strengthen the region’s precision-manufacturing sector — everything from a project involving UMass Amherst that will drive innovation, to a conference this fall aimed at spotlighting this sector and keeping business in this region.

A renaissance is taking place in downtown Greenfield. Old, vacant buildings are being completely renovated, and new retail, office, and living space, and a performing-arts center, are being created.