Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Asst. Prof. James Heiss and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution were awarded a three-year, $784,000 National Science Foundation grant to study how powerful coastal storms affect the fresh water flowing below the ground along the seashore.

Profs. Mathew Barlow and Christopher Skinner of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences will study the cause of heat waves and droughts in the Northeast and how they interact with each other under a three-year, $478,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Noureddine Melikechi, dean of the Kennedy College of Sciences and a physics professor, is a member of the science team for SuperCam, one of the main instruments onboard NASA's Mars 2020 "Perseverance" rover.

A team of researchers from UMass Lowell and SUNY Albany won a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a computer science curriculum for middle schools in collaboration with school districts in Lowell and Methuen, Mass., and Schenectady, N.Y.