Below you will find details and recordings of past seminars & webinars. If you are interested in upcoming events, please visit our Events Calendar.
Water at the margins: marginal hydrology in a time of changing climate and rising seas.
Christopher Russoniello, April 22, 2025
Hydrodynamically-driven exchange of fluid between surface water and the seabed aquifer is an important and dynamic component of coastal, estuarine, and global fluid budgets. Such “benthic exchange” promotes ecologically important chemical reactions, so quantifying benthic exchange rates, depths, and residence times constrain coastal chemical cycling estimates
Bridging the gap between applied meteorology and climate science: a few urban examples
Dan Li, April 15, 2025
As urban populations grow and the globe continues to warm, the importance of urban climate is not in dispute. The field of urban climate thrives when it draws on and balances insights from both applied meteorology and climate science. However, urban climate studies have predominantly taken an applied meteorology perspective. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how integrating climate science with applied meteorology can deepen our understanding of urban processes and support the development of solutions to pressing urban environmental challenges.
Watch a recording of Bridging the gap between applied meteorology and climate science: a few urban examples on YouTube.
Our Paths to EPA and How to Find a Job in Stem
Victoria Kurker, Maura Gould, April 8, 2025
Victoria and Maura have had very different paths to finding their careers within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but both started at UMass Lowell (UML). Today they’ll share their experiences at EPA, give advice at landing a federal job, and most importantly, share how to find a job you love.
Saint Louis Sponge Park: Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Lowell
Jessica Wilson, April 1, 2025
The City of Lowell has an ambitious plan to transform Centralville's riverfront into a regional destination and model of climate resilience. Using the latest available climate data, this project is exploring nature based solutions and green infrastructure to address urban heat island effect, inland flooding, and other impacts of climate change within a designated environmental justice community.
Watch a recording of Saint Louis Sponge Park: Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience in Lowell on YouTube.
Disentangling the Impact of Radiative and CO2-Driven Vegetation Changes on the Future of Climate Extremes
Ali Fallahmaraghi, March 25, 2025
During recent decades, vegetation structure, phenology, and growing season length are undergoing significant changes, altering surface energy fluxes, air temperature, runoff, drought, and wildfire risk. My research focuses on two key objectives: (1) examining the influence of direct (CO2-vegetation interactions) and indirect (climate) effects of rising carbon dioxide on high-impact climate phenomena and, (2) investigating how shifts in vegetation phenology, such as earlier spring onset and leaf-out, affect summer soil moisture, drought, heatwaves, and wildfire activity. This work advances our understanding of the physical processes that drive climate extremes, aiming to reduce vegetation-driven uncertainties in earth system models. By improving predictions of these events, we can better mitigate their impacts and enhance climate resilience.
Watch a recording of Disentangling the Impact of Radiative and CO2-Driven Vegetation Changes on the Future of Climate Extremes on YouTube.
Resilience in the Anthropocene: investigating how marine organisms survive in the face of climate change
Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn, March 18, 2025
Watch a recording of Resilience in the Anthropocene: investigating how marine organisms survive in the face of climate change on YouTube.
Optimizing Climate-Resilient Energy Systems: Integrating Advanced Power System Modeling with Community-Based Insights
Neha Patankar, March 4, 2025
Transition to zero-carbon energy infrastructure entails collaborative decision-making between utilities, policymakers, and stakeholders with conflicting objectives. In this talk, I develop a framework and a tool that can make it easier for communities to create clean-energy plans that incorporate their community values and identify preferred least-regrets spatial patterns of clean-energy infrastructure deployment. I will use a case study that uses linear programming based on spatially, temporally, and operationally resolved power system capacity expansion model (CEM) to evaluate technology tradeoffs in New York State.
Watch a recording of Optimizing Climate-Resilient Energy Systems: Integrating Advanced Power System Modeling with Community-Based Insights on YouTube.
Double Feature: Soil Carbon & Environmental Justice
Rose Z Abramoff, February 25, 2025
The first half of this talk will focus on soil carbon sequestration and considerations for evaluating different land management practices for the purpose of soil carbon storage. The second part of the talk will provide some resources and start a discussion about what academics can do to serve our communities within the current political context.
Watch a recording of Double Feature: Soil Carbon & Environmental Justice on YouTube.
On the Cost-Effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions for Reducing Disaster Risk
Marta Vicarelli, February 18, 2025
The potential of ecosystem-based interventions, also known as Nature-based Solutions (NbS), for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) is now recognized by major national policies and international framework agreements. However, there is limited scientific evidence about their economic viability and equity impacts. We examined English-language peer-reviewed studies, published between 2000 and 2021, which undertook economic evaluations of NbS for DRR and CCA. Based on our results, 71 % of studies indicated that NbS have consistently proven to be a cost-effective approach to mitigating hazards and 24 % of studies found NbS cost-effective under certain conditions. Studies comparing the cost-effectiveness of NbS and engineering-based solutions for mitigating certain hazards showed that NbS are no less effective than engineering-based solutions. Our findings illustrate a range of factors, including the geographic locations of the NbS analyzed, their contribution to the restoration and increase of biodiversity, their property rights structure, their source of financing, and the economic methodologies employed to assess cost-effectiveness and distributional effects.
Watch a recording of On the Cost-Effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions for Reducing Disaster Risk on YouTube.
Local Perspectives on COP29: A Just Transition to a Green World
February 12, 2025
Watch a recording of Local Perspectives on COP29: A Just Transition to a Green World on YouTube.
Multiple Lines of Evidence on Urban ‘Heat’ Across Scales
TC Charkaborty, February 11, 2025
Cities generally have higher temperatures compared to their background climate. Depending on scale, this urban warming can have public health consequences, prompting the need for urban-scale heat mitigation and adaptation. Cities are also highly heterogeneous, leading to spatial variability in heat hazard, with warmer areas often coinciding with where disadvantaged populations live, particularly in the U.S. In this talk, I will give an overview of urban warming across scales — from city to regional to global — using multiple lines of evidence, including satellite observations, in situ measurements, and numerical modeling. I will also discuss distributional inequality in heat hazard within cities and how it relates to overall urban heat risk. All these results will be framed around a major inconsistency in estimates of the urban warming signal across scales i.e. the variability of surface temperature versus air temperature versus moist heat stress within urban areas and their urban-rural differences (or heat islands) across cities. The talk will summarize the lessons learned from multiple past and ongoing studies to guide future urban climate research priorities and provide some recommendations on how to get more actionable quantitative estimates of physiologically relevant urban heat to inform policy.
Watch a recording of Multiple Lines of Evidence on Urban ‘Heat’ Across Scales on YouTube.
On the Frontlines of the Energy Transition
Reihaneh Irani-Famili, February 4, 2025
Energy is the fabric of our lives, and the energy transition is transforming how we power our communities, economies, and the planet. This complex journey requires rethinking how we generate, transport, and use energy, shaped by advancements in technology, policy decisions, consumer behavior, community involvement, and workforce readiness. In this talk, I’ll share my experiences and insights from the frontlines, exploring the opportunities, challenges, and diverse perspectives driving this transformation.
For more information, watch a recording of Reihaneh Irani-Famil's talk On the Frontlines of the Energy Transition on YouTube.
An Intergenerational Conversation about what the COP28 UN Climate Talks Mean for Massachusetts
November 2, 2023
As world leaders, climate experts, and advocates prepare to gather in Dubai for the COP28 United Nations climate conference, we asked what the international talks mean for climate action at home. This interactive discussion discusses climate action in Massachusetts and the world on the road to the ‘COP28’ UN climate talks. Our panel featured leading state legislators on climate policy and UMass Lowell students who are engaged with COP28 and climate action at home. We asked how Massachusetts can learn from countries around the world and do more to lead on climate.
Watch a video of An Intergenerational Conversation about what the COP28 UN Climate Talks Mean for Massachusetts.
Hydrologic Controls on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Rivers and Streams
Matthew Winnick, April 10, 2023
Over the past decade, rivers and streams have been recognized as important sources of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane to the atmosphere; however, their role in and potential response to anthropogenic climate change remains poorly characterized. In particular, we lack robust representations of the processes that control greenhouse gas production and emissions from these environments. In this talk, I discuss our recent efforts to characterize and develop physical models of carbon dioxide fluxes in stream environments, moving from reach to watershed to continental spatial scales.
Watch a video of Hydrologic Controls on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Rivers and Streams.
Raising Climate Policy Ambition through Engaging Policy
Travis Franck, April 03, 2023
The biggest greenhouse gas emitters – the US, China, and EU – are currently making progress on climate change. But, just below these countries on the emitters list, fast emerging economies that need to take bold action have only taken limited steps because of capacity limits. The Climate Policy Lab at Fletcher is engaging twelve countries (e.g., Indonesia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Vietnam) with its policy gap analysis (PGA) methodology to see what policies work, which don't, and why. This talk will cover the PGA process, talk about results, and discuss evolving partner country engagements.
Watch Raising Climate Policy Ambition through Engaging Policy.
Renewably-Powered CO2 Recycling
Michael Ross, February 13, 2023
Developing novel strategies for using CO2 and synthesizing fuels and chemicals without fossil fuels is critical for further decoupling emissions from growth. This seminar surveys recent work focused on electrochemical CO2 recycling, where renewable electricity can power chemical processes that upgrade or valorize CO2 into feedstocks, fuels, and chemicals. Both the technical and economic impacts of this approach will be discussed, highlighting recent efforts and strategies focused on catalyst and process design.
The NASA/ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission (NISAR): A game changing satellite for monitoring planet Earth
Josef Kellndorfer, January 30, 2023
In January 2024 NASA and the Indian Space Agency ISRO will launch the jointly developed synthetic aperture radar satellite mission NISAR. The speaker Josef Kellndorfer is a member of the NISAR Science Team and has been involved in formulating this mission since its inception. The talk will provide an overview of SAR principles for environmental monitoring with examples from existing missions, the NISAR satellite and mission concept, and how the massive data flow from this mission can be handled with modern cloud computing assets.
Climate Innovation and Action: Blueprints for a Green Future
November 30, 2022
UMass Lowell is accelerating its efforts to lead on climate action that is focused on environmental justice. At the same time, both Massachusetts and the US federal government are taking unprecedented action to accelerate the growth in renewable energy, especially in disadvantaged, or ‘environmental justice’ communities. On Nov. 30 we conducted an interactive event that took stock of the progress made so far, whether it is enough, and how we could do more. We heard from a panel of leading policymakers, faculty experts, and UMass Lowell (UML) students.
UML Reports Back from the UN Climate Conference in Egypt: Barriers and Opportunities for International Climate Action
November 17, 2022
UMass Lowell (UML) faculty and students participated in the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), representing the only delegation from a public university in Massachusetts. Faculty members Juliette Rooney-Varga, Raj Kumar Gondle, and Arie Perliger, Ph.D. student Tyler Harrington, and undergraduate students Riva Chatsman and Madison Feudo reported live from Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt to share their perspectives on COP27 and international climate action.
Watch Barriers and Opportunities for International Climate Action.
UML Students Report from UN Climate Conference in Egypt: A Youth Perspective on the International Climate Negotiations
November 10, 2022
UMass Lowell faculty and students participated in the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), representing the only delegation from a public university in Massachusetts. Faculty members Juliette Rooney-Varga, Raj Kumar Gondle, and Arie Perliger, PhD student Tyler Harrington, and undergraduate students Riva Chatsman and Madison Feudo reported live from Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt to share their perspectives on COP27 and international climate action.
Watch A Youth Perspective on the International Climate Negotiations
Is Science Enough? Forty Critical Questions about Climate Justice
Aviva Chomsky, November 1, 2022
A discussion with Aviva Chomsky about her book, Is Science Enough? Forty Critical Questions about Climate Justice (2022). Aviva is Professor of History and Coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State University.
Watch Is Science Enough? Forty Critical Questions about Climate Justice
Living with Plastics: Problems and Solutions
Meg Sobkowicz-Kline, February 1, 2021
A recent study predicted that 12,000 mega tonnes of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050, costing USD 40 billion annually in lost value. These startling numbers have propelled research activity on plastics recovery, redesign, recycling, and general sustainability in the Plastics Engineering Department at UML. This lecture will discuss the basic issues in plastics sustainability, recent research highlights from the Sobkowicz group, and steps being taken in the department to lower its environmental footprint.
Progress in water quality… but still more work to do
Richard Friesner, February 16, 2021
Progress! We will briefly review the 50-year history of water quality improvements via the Clean Water Act (CWA), examine the CWA framework, and address current events related to our nation’s surface water quality. Be sure to have a glass of water on hand for this session (seriously).
Eco-grief and climate anxiety: managing the crisis
Jennifer Atkinson, February 22, 2021
We usually focus on the physical impacts of climate change, but ecological disruption is also taking a huge emotional toll. This talk explores the mental health dimensions of climate disruption, and offers strategies for navigating the diverse emotions we feel in response to this crisis: anxiety, grief, guilt, fear, apathy, hope and more.
Environmental Racism: Recognizing Its Impact and EJ Groups Creating Change
Sheila Tripathy, March 1, 2021
This lecture is an overview of environmental health and environmental racism with a discussion on the impacts of redlining in Boston as well as an introduction to Pennsylvania based community organization, “Philly Thrive”, and their path towards environmental justice in Philadelphia.
Leading by Example in State Government: Putting Climate Policy into Action
Eric Friedman, March 22, 2021
Program and all of state government are working to help the Commonwealth meet aggressive and far-reaching emissions reduction goals. Learn how state agencies and college campuses are moving forward on building efficiency, renewable energy, and long-term decarbonization planning, while also get an understanding of some of the key challenges facing large institutions as we try to move toward a post-fossil fuel world.
Watch Leading by Example in State Government: Putting Climate Policy into Action
End of History: Climate change, security, and political inaction
Jarrod Hayes, April 26, 2021
Climate change is increasingly recognized as one of, if not the, paramount challenging confronting humanity. Despite this reality, policy action in the United States and globally has been inadequate. This lecture explores the problem from the standpoint of political logics. Using a sense making approach, the lecture addresses two alternative logics of action--security and sustainable development.
Watch End of History: Climate change, security, and political inaction