• A young woman in a black and white striped shirt looks at a monitor while working on a laptop while sitting at a desk near a window.

    Computer Science Graduate Student Turns Data into Energy-Saving Action

    As an intern with Facilities Management, computer science graduate student Neha Miryala has built new energy dashboards to raise student awareness of their carbon footprint and developed a data warehouse to help improve the university’s operational efficiency.
    Featured Story
  • food forest Andrew Boules

    Food Forest Blossoms on South Campus

    The food forest on South Campus is being used for research, in academic courses and as a place for the community to gather.
    Featured Story
  • COP28 Student Delegation (Left to Right) William Lefebvre, Victoria Wisniewski, Madison Feudo, Aya Oulal, and Zita Ngagoum Ndalloka

    Gen Z Takes a Seat - and Sets the Table - at COP28

    UMass Lowell students, William Lefebvre and Victoria Wisniewski, investigate how the consequences of industrial expansion and a lack of environmental regulations from past generations has consequences for Gen Z. As both students are part of the Gen Z cohort, they seek to express their concerns about climate change at this year's COP28.
    Boston Globe Department News
  • Rist fellow Caralyn Conrad

    Sustainability Projects Take Shape on Campus

    The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy granted fellowships to mechanical engineering major Caralyn Conrad, industrial engineering Ph.D. student Mahsa Ghandi and Art and Design Assoc. Prof. Kirsten Swenson.
    Featured Story
  • Dillan Patel

    Rist Institute Welcomes Environmental Defense Fund Fellow

    Environmental Defense Fund fellow Dillan Patel has worked with UML’s Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy over the summer to help create a community outreach plan for a geothermal pilot project.
    Department News
  • Winbourne tree research

    Hot in the City

    Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Asst. Prof. Joy Winbourne is researching how trees respond to urban environments and climate change by deploying sap flow sensors throughout Lowell.
    Featured Story
  • COP27 JRV, Tyler and Arie

    COP27 Empowers Students to Address Climate Change

    Three students and three faculty members traveled to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27, the United Nations climate summit, where they were the only delegation from a public university in Massachusetts.
    Featured Story
  • smart thermostat

    Researchers Win NSF Grant to Boost Energy Efficiency

    UMass Lowell researchers have teamed up with local organizations in search of effective strategies that will encourage underserved communities to participate in energy efficiency programs.
    Featured Story
  • Cool Science Alice Lobel

    Local K-12 Students Use Art to Teach Public About Extreme Weather

    The National Science Foundation-funded project Cool Science hosted its 10th annual Extreme Weather Art Competition for students in grades kindergarten through 12th. The winning posters are now displayed on transit buses in the Merrimack Valley and Worcester areas.
    Featured Story
  • How participatory simulation motivates climate action

    How Participatory Simulation Motivates Climate Action

    New research from the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative, which spearheads impact research for the MIT Climate Pathways Project, shows that group deliberation guided by interaction with the C-ROADS model can positively influence high school and college students’ climate change knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.
    Department News
  • A man in a bowtie gestures in his hand while speaking

    Good COP, Bad COP: UML Delegates Reflect on U.N. Climate Summit

    An interdisciplinary group of faculty members from UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative attended the recent United Nations global climate summit, aka COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, where they observed progress being made — but also missed opportunities.
    Featured Story
  • An aerial view of the Merrimack River running through the UML campus

    With NSF Award, New Grad Program Focuses on Protecting Water Resources

    An interdisciplinary team of UML faculty, led by Assoc. Profs. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline and Chris Hansen, have received a nearly $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship award for a new graduate student program focused on developing sustainable materials and chemicals that won’t harm water resources.
    Featured Story
  • Meg Sobkowicz-Kline talks to a student about recycled plastics in the lab

    New Seminar Series Explores Climate Anxiety, Plastics Sustainability and More

    UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, in partnership with the Environmental, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department and the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy, is hosting a virtual spring seminar series featuring experts from across the country.
    Department News
  • Cool Science: K-12 Student Art Competition

    Cool Science: K-12 Student Art Competition

    Cool Science brings an inter-disciplinary approach to the challenge of improving public understanding of climate change science by focusing on issues related to heat transfer, energy and extreme weather. This project aims to engage students, teachers, parents, and the general public with the science of extreme weather.
    Department News
  • Communicating Wildfire Risk to Homeowners

    Communicating Wildfire Risk to Homeowners

    Causing numerous deaths and billions of dollars in damages, recent wildfires in California have raised concerns about growing wildfire risk. As people become more vulnerable to wildfire risk, it is imperative that information regarding such risk is effectively communicated.
    Department News
  • Charlotte Ryan works in collaboration with the Media Research and Action Project (MRAP) (https://www.mrap.info/).

    Communication Activism and Social Change

    How do individuals with a variety of interests and wills form common cause to change society? Working at the interface of media and movements, Charlotte Ryan studies how individuals build learning communities that, in turn, form coalitions and movements for systems change.
    Department News
  • Lori Weeden speaks during the workshop

    It’s Never Too Early to Learn About Climate Change

    The UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative, in conjunction with the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and the College of Education, hosted a professional development workshop for two dozen area K-12 teachers on incorporating climate change education into the classroom.
    Featured Story
  • iStronG: Supporting Stem Interest and Self-Efficacy for Low-Income Students

    iStronG: Supporting STEM Interest and Self-Efficacy for Low-Income Students

    A major goal of this grant is to contribute to research on the potential of systems thinking, place-based curriculum in out-of-school TRIO college access programs, such as Upward Bound, to increase underrepresented students’ STEM interest, self-efficacy, and motivation to pursue STEM degrees/careers.
    Department News
  • Student Media Production for Climate Change Communication

    Student Media Production for Climate Change Communication

    The Climate Education in an Age of Media (CAM) Project brought together a team of scientists, science educators, media artists, and media instructors, to create curriculum materials and resources that give geoscience educators the tools they need to bring student media production into their own climate change education work.