UMass Lowell has named a newly renovated Ball Hall lecture hall and established a professorship in honor of computing pioneer Edson de Castro ’60, ’78 (H), funded by a gift from his family.

Climate simulation tools can help close the gap between global leaders’ climate knowledge and real-world decision-making, according to first-of-its-kind-research from UMass Lowell, MIT Sloan School of Management, ESB Business School and Climate Interactive

Nearly 100 Francis College of Engineering seniors took the Order of the Engineer oath at a ceremony where plastics engineering alumna Charlotte Ward ’13 urged them to lead with integrity.

The UMass Lowell delegation, consisting of four students and two professors, was the only delegation from a Massachusetts public university to attend Conference of the Parties 30 (COP30).

Over six months, nine local college students gained invaluable career-connected experiences supporting municipalities across the state with clean energy projects as part of the Clean Energy and Environment Legacy Transition (CELT) Municipal Fellowship Program.

The Office of Naval Research awarded UMass Lowell and Stony Brook a grant totaling $6.3 million to advance technologies in areas such as energy infrastructure and storage to enhance the reliability and accessibility of energy systems on land and at sea.

New Francis College of Engineering Dean Susan Roberts, a chemical engineer with a distinguished career advancing interdisciplinary research and graduate education, is excited to lead the college through a new era of research, innovation and collaboration.

The Center for Wind Energy Science, Technology and Research (WindSTAR) continues to receive support from the National Science Foundation.

The System Dynamics Society honored a team of researchers, including Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Professor Juliette Rooney-Varga, for its global climate simulator, En-ROADS.

The Climate Cool Schools program is a collaborative sustainability initiative between the University of Massachusetts Lowell and National Grid.

Two recent pilot studies published in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology and Environmental Health suggest that consuming a soluble fiber supplement regularly with food reduces levels of toxic PFOS and PFOA.

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Assistant Professor Alessandro Sabato has won a $607,855 CAREER Grant from the National Science Foundation to advance his work on an innovative system for monitoring the structural integrity of bridges, dams and wind turbines.

Five peregrine falcon chicks hatched at UMass Lowell in May were deemed healthy and thriving by Massachusetts wildlife officials who visited campus last week. The biologists checked in on the birds in their nest box atop the university’s Fox Hall to fit them with ID bands that enroll them in monitoring and protection programs.

UMass Lowell environmental science alum William Stefanov ’88 is using his Earth science expertise at NASA to coordinate disaster response, train astronauts and advance remote sensing technologies aboard the International Space Station.

The UMass Lowell WindHawks are competing in the final round of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Collegiate Wind Competition, scheduled for May 12-15 in Boulder, Colorado.

The Shah Academy of Innovation and Leadership is helping select engineering students to develop into future industry leaders through scholarships, mentorship and professional skill-building opportunities.

Backed by a $360,000 U.S. Army Research Office grant, Plastics Engineering Assoc. Prof. Wan-Ting (Grace) Chen is studying how biofilms affect the breakdown of plastic in freshwater environments. The three-year project could help prevent the formation of harmful microplastics

Nearly 130 seniors and alumni from the Francis College of Engineering were inducted into the Order of the Engineer, a national association that emphasizes pride and responsibility in the engineering profession.

Three students attended COP29 in Azerbaijan, thanks to funding from the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy.

Outcomes depends on relationship between federal government and states, says Professor Juliette Rooney-Varga.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently awarded a four-year, $744,000 grant to Assoc. Prof. Jonas Baltrusaitis of Lehigh University and Prof. Meg Sobkowicz Kline of UMass Lowell to develop new mulch films for agricultural crops that are not only sustainable and biodegradable but will also help nourish and improve the health of soils and reduce plastic pollution.

The inaugural Department of Chemistry Research Symposium featured talks from green chemistry co-founder John Warner, faculty researchers and industry professionals.

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.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently recognized Chemical Engineering Asst. Prof. Stephen T. Lam with an $876,564 Early Career Research Program award to develop reactor monitoring technology to help to achieve and sustain nuclear fusion reaction for generating power.

Funded by a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Asst. Prof. Christopher Skinner and Prof. Mathew Barlow are studying how changes in vegetation affect climate.

The Massachusetts Gateway Cities Climate Resilience Center seeks to develop a community-driven climate resilience model in Lowell that can be replicated in other cities.

The contributions of Mary Miss and other women artists, like Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Nancy Holt, who redefined Land art in urban environments, are beginning to get recognized, despite facing significant challenges in funding and public art execution.

The UMass Lowell Weather Station is officially online, providing data on air temperature, precipitation and other weather observations.

Mathew Barlow, a climate scientist at UMass Lowell, explains how storms like Debby pick up so much moisture, what can cause them to slow or stall, and what climate change has to do with it.

UMass Lowell researchers, including Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross, have found that combining noble metal nanoparticles with bismuth created a concave shape with beneficial properties for renewable energy.

The June heat wave triggered warnings of a flash drought and caused a surge in ER visits. Many other countries have been facing extreme heat at the same time.

Chemical Engineering Asst. Prof. Stephen T. Lam and researchers from MIT and Stony Brook University recently won a three-year, $1 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to improve our understanding of molten salt reactor systems.

Assoc. Teaching Prof. of Art & Design Regina Milan was commissioned by the nonprofit Pollinator Partnership to create its 2024 poster, leveraging her extensive background in botanical and natural science illustration and her passion for nature and sustainability.

Climate scientist Juliette Rooney-Varga and environmental studies master’s student Lucia Cheney recently presented to local lawmakers at the Massachusetts State House.

The food forest on South Campus is being used for research, in academic courses and as a place for the community to gather.

The National Science Foundation has recognized Asst. Prof. Xinfang Jin of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering with its prestigious faculty early career development CAREER award. Jin is researching ways to greatly increase the production of hydrogen and the long-term storage of energy.

Students in the Radiation Safety and Control course received practical experience assessing, measuring and evaluating simulated radioactive contamination in a controlled environment.

Kaylin Oakes, a sophomore from Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, whose art is teaching people about the climate crisis, is the top winner in the state’s division of UMass Lowell’s Cool Science Contest, in which K-12 students create illustrations that depict the science behind extreme weather, then shares the artwork on transit buses to educate the public.

Students competing in the Climate Mitigation Challenge came up with innovative ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks.

UMass Lowell researchers are gearing up to expand their efforts targeting offshore wind energy as part of ARROW, a collaborative project with UMass Amherst, UMass Dartmouth and other partners that will accelerate research and the deployment and scale-up of domestic offshore wind energy.

Xinfang Jin has been awarded a five-year $648,431.00 U.S. National Science Foundation Faculty Career Development award to strengthen her expertise and position her as a leader in multiphysics modeling with microstructures of heterogeneous materials for energy applications.

Join host Bernice Butler as she explores and unpacks the intersection of Energy Production and Consumption with our Health with David Turcotte with Lowell Healthy Homes Program and Maria Chavez with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross received two Scialog: Negative Emissions Science awards for his greenhouse gas research proposals.

The UMass Lowell Department of Art & Design issues a warning on climate change and extinction in the riveting exhibition "Earth Oracles," an installation by Allison Maria Rodriguez, on display from Jan. 31-March 22 in the University Gallery.

In mid-January 2024, much of the U.S. experienced record-breaking daily low temperatures due to a southward shift in the polar jet stream. Research suggests that climate change may play a significant role in exacerbating the intensity of these events.

Students represented UMass Lowell in Dubai at COP28, the annual United Nations climate summit.

Chemical engineering Assoc. Profs. Dongming Xie and Hsi-Wu Wong were awarded a three-year, $463,000 grant by the National Science Foundation to develop technology that would help reduce waste polyethylene plastic through upcycling.

UMass Lowell students Victoria Wisniewski, Aya Oulal, Maddie Fuedo and William Lefebvre speak about their experiences at the United Nations' COP28 global conference in Dubai.

These helpful tips will have you enjoying the holidays with sustainability in mind.

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.

The Student Society for Sustainability hosted a Thrift Day event with clothes collected from the UMass Lowell community.

Gov. Maura Healey recently signed an executive order to prohibit state agencies from buying single-use plastic bottles effective immediately, a step that she says makes Massachusetts a leader on our plastics problem. But is reducing single-use bottle use enough? The Climate Change Initiative’s Prof. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline explains to NBC Boston that we also need to find safe and effective ways to recycle the plastics that have already been produced.

Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Professor Mathew Barlow spoke to Turkish news outlet, Anadolu Agency, about how the impact of climate change may seem substantial in 2023, but most likely will increase in volatility over years to come.

A trio of professors from the Climate Change Initiative will research how communities of various socioeconomic statuses are able to respond to severe weather events.

The devastating floods in Leominster and other regions serve as a sobering reminder of the link between climate change and extreme weather events. This Boston Globe article, written by Climate Change Initiative professors Mathew Barlow and Juliette Rooney-Varga, emphasizes that these events are not an anomaly but a consequence of human-induced climate change, fueled by the emission of greenhouse gases.

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.

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Asst. Prof. Fanglin Che of the Department of Chemical Engineering as one of 93 rising scientists and engineers from across the country to receive its prestigious Early Career Research Program Award.

Funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant, minority community college students will have an opportunity to learn about nuclear science at UMass Lowell’s Radiation Laboratory.

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.

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.

A team of researchers led by Plastics Engineering Asst. Prof. Aboutaleb (Amir) Ameli was awarded $2.7 million to develop technologies for recovering plastics and natural fibers from mixed, nonrecyclable solid waste that would otherwise go to landfills.

UML climate scientists break down the wildfires in Canada and why the U.S. is feeling its effects.

The New England Consortium at UMass Lowell partnered with the Lowell Community Health Center for the first time to provide disaster preparedness training sessions to the public.

Five projects created by members of the UML community received Sustainability Engagement and Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) funding from the Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy.

A ceremonial planting on South Campus signified UMass Lowell’s new role as a certified arboretum – a place where trees and other plants are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes.

UMass Lowell was the first site selected for National Grid’s geothermal pilot project, which will heat and cool buildings in the area with utility-scale networked geothermal energy.

The Department of Energy has awarded a team of researchers led by Asst. Prof. Subash Sharma and Idaho National Laboratory a $486,000 grant to design and analyze sparging systems for tritium removal from fusion energy liquid breeder blankets.

Tasked with reducing greenhouse gas emissions, students created energy-saving projects for the Rist Institute Climate Mitigation Challenge.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently recognized Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Asst. Prof. Maria L. Carreon with a prestigious faculty early career development grant, called the CAREER award.

A team of university and U.S. Army researchers, led by UML Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Assoc. Prof. Assoc. Prof. Juan Pablo Trelles, has developed a way to extract hydrogen from plastic waste that can be used as clean fuel.

Mechanical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Murat Inalpolat and his team are developing and implementing a continuous, sound-based sensor system for monitoring the structural health and integrity of offshore wind turbine blades.

An international group of experts, co-led by University of Massachusetts Lowell, has developed new criteria to define sustainable chemistry.

Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross’ lab group found that nanoparticles combining post-transition and noble metals absorb higher energies of light. Their discovery is highlighted in Matter, a scientific journal published by Cell Press.

While the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission this week walked back a report saying the agency would seek to ban household gas stoves due to health concerns over emissions, a UMass Lowell expert on the issue maintained “adequate evidence” of ill-health effects exists to take action.

Prof. Meg Sobkowicz-Kline and Asst. Teaching Prof. Akshay Kokil were awarded funding totaling $1 million by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology for projects that aim to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills and the environment each year.

Students taking the newly launched Climate Crisis and Society course worked in partnership with the city of Lowell on a climate resilience project. The work inspired them to develop their own climate projects.

Letting forests grow would support the full range of native biodiversity while removing carbon from the atmosphere.

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.

Do net-zero pledges mean the world is on track to protect the climate? So far, the answer is no, because if, when, and how net zero is reached matters.

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.

Funded by a two-year, $363,211 Office of Naval Research grant, Chemistry Asst. Prof. Michael Ross is exploring new materials that can make the alternative fuel hydrogen in a variety of pH conditions.

When Hurricane Ian hit Florida, it was one of the United States’ most powerful hurricanes on record, and it followed a two-week string of massive, devastating storms around the world. Prof. Mathew Barlow wrote a piece for The Conversation about what’s known about how climate change fuels tropical cyclones.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy awarded fellowships to plastics engineering major Abby Mastromonaco, entrepreneurship Ph.D. student William Zhou and Chemistry Asst. Prof. Juan Artes Vivancos.

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.

The IRA includes a wealth of home improvement rebates and tax credits to help Americans cut their energy use, and Prof. Burek helps highlight which improvements homeowners and renters can make to have the greatest effect with significant savings.

New homes for the Honors College, Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy and Asian American Center for Excellence and Engagement highlight a busy summer of campus improvements by Facilities Management.

Asst. Prof. Alessandro Sabato collaborates with wind energy industry and MassDOT on infrastructure monitoring.

Human-caused climate change is fueling rising temperatures and worsening droughts across the nation. Does this mean Massachusetts will look more like the West?

The National Science Foundation has recognized Mechanical Engineering Asst. Prof. Marianna Maiaru with the agency’s most prestigious faculty early-career development award, for research that could lead to improvements in the performance of everything from booster rockets to sports equipment.

Art & Design Associate Teaching Professor Yuko Oda has a thought-provoking art exhibit that explores themes surrounding climate change, environmentalism and social justice.

Environmental, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Prof. Mathew Barlow led the Storms, Precipitation, Flooding and Groundwater section of a new report that assesses likely climate changes for the Greater Boston area.

The New England Consortium at UMass Lowell will provide safety training courses for hundreds of students looking to work in the offshore wind industry, thanks to a $300,000 state grant administered by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

UMass Lowell has been recognized with the first Outstanding Radiation Safety Program award by the Health Physics Society, an international nonprofit organization of more than 5,000 scientists, physicians, engineers and other professionals.

Prof. Juliette Rooney-Varga and a team of researchers are looking at ways to empower students to address climate change by advancing their climate literacy and STEM efficacy.

Asst. Prof. Christopher Skinner’s research, published in Science and Nature, looks at past changes in climate to help forecast the future.

Prof. David Ryan was recently awarded a patent for catalytic hydrogen production alongside co-inventor Mahesh Jayamanna '16. This invention could help power electric vehicles.

Governments and organizations around the world claim that wood bioenergy is carbon neutral. New research by UMass Lowell's Climate Change Initiative, the MIT Sustainability Initiative, Climate Interactive, and Tufts University uses a dynamic model to determine the carbon - and climate - impact of wood bioenergy.

A new study published in Simulation and Gaming describes the Climate Action Simulation: a game to give people the know-how and a sense of empowerment needed for effective 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.

Seven projects led by students, faculty and staff received a share of the university’s annual $50,000 Sustainability Encouragement & Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) Fund.

Asst. Prof. Yuzhang Lin was recently awarded a five-year, $500,000 faculty early-career development grant by the National Science Foundation to conduct a study that will help better predict and visualize power distribution capacity and consumers’ power demand in real time.

Sixty-five students from Greater Lowell and Shawsheen Valley technical high schools and their teachers got an overview of UML’s computer science and cybersecurity programs and some hands-on experience at the university’s Cyber Range during a recent visit to campus.

UMass Lowell remains the highest-rated campus in Massachusetts for sustainability with a STARS Gold score of 83.37 from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Researchers led by Chemical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong was recently awarded a three-year, $1.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to help reduce waste plastic films.

A competition-based initiative to get students thinking about their residence hall energy usage won the third annual Rist Institute for Sustainability & Energy Climate Mitigation Challenge, which asks students to find ways to reduce CO2 emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks.

The Climate Impacts & Solutions with En-ROADS module is a new, free, multidisciplinary collaboration between The Climate Initiative (TCI) and the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative (CCI).

Asst. Prof. Christopher Skinner recent work published in Nature Climate Change shows that continued use of fossil fuels will increase the risk that multiple regions across the globe experience drought simultaneously.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Asst. Prof. James Heiss a $680,000 faculty early-career development award to understand water and chemical exchanges between groundwater and surface water along the land-sea transition zone.

Asst. Prof. Christopher Skinner, who researches atmospheric rivers, explains why the weather phenomenon has been making headlines recently — and why it’s important to understand them.

UMass Lowell received a Leading by Example award from the state’s Department of Energy Resources for its collaborative efforts with fellow honorees UMass Amherst, UMass Dartmouth and Salem State University to decarbonize their campuses.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a team of researchers from UMass Lowell and Oak Ridge National Laboratory a $400,000 grant to develop machine learning-based approaches for simulating molten salts used in advanced nuclear reactor systems.

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.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy has awarded 2021-22 fellowships to Assoc. Prof. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Cordula Schmid, Analytical Chemistry Ph.D. candidate Elizabeth Farrell and chemical engineering major Andrew Parker.

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.

Science education can help slow the pace of global warming, because people who understand climate science can make informed decisions, says Education Assoc. Prof. Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier. Lohmeier does research on using artwork in informal settings to educate the public about climate science.

UMass Lowell, in partnership with the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, has received a $241,300 grant from the Commonwealth to develop academic pathways that increase the participation of underrepresented populations in the offshore wind industry.

Researchers from the Department of Mechanical Engineering used a drone equipped with an infrared camera to help Facilities Management identify energy inefficiencies in campus buildings and heating systems.

David Turcotte is an authority on sustainability and environmental justice who is leading efforts to improve the quality of life for people in their homes and workplaces. A member of UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, Turcotte can discuss how the phenomenon impacts the incidence of asthma and hazardous-materials cleanup responses as a result of extreme weather events.

With the collaboration between UMass Lowell’s Office of Sustainability and its Athletic Department serving as a model, the America East Conference has created a sustainability network that gives its 10 member institutions an opportunity to share best practices and advance green initiatives.

A plan to boost ridership on Lowell’s city buses won the second annual Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy Climate Mitigation Challenge, which asks students to find ways to reduce CO2 emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks.

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.

Four Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences faculty members and graduate students from the Kennedy College of Sciences presented research at the virtual AGU Fall Meeting, the largest gathering of Earth and space scientists from around the world.

Thanks to a five-year, $6.6 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, The New England Consortium at UMass Lowell will expand its hazardous materials worker health and safety training under the direction of Research Prof. David Turcotte.

Funded by a $1.5M grant from the Department of Energy, Professor Meg Sobkowicz-Kline, along with colleagues Dongming Xie and Hsi-Wu Wong, is working to optimize this enzymatic recycling process for low quality contaminated PET sources and large-scale deployment.

Drought and heat waves both have a range of severe societal and ecosystem impacts. Our research seeks to understand the causes of droughts and heat waves and how they interact with one another to better predict their occurrence and help manage their impacts in the Northeast U.S.

For more than 20 years, the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production’s Chemicals Science and Policy Initiative has been a leading research and strategy effort focused on driving the transition to safer, more sustainable chemicals, materials, and products.

Mechanical Engineering Prof. and Dept. Chair Christopher Niezrecki has been named the 2020 Distinguished University Professor for exemplary teaching, research and service to the university.

Supported by a three-year, $784,000 National Science Foundation grant, a team of researchers led by James Heiss in the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EEAS) are studying the impact of extreme multi-hazard coastal storms on groundwater flow and saltwater-freshwater mixing in beach aquifers.

Climate Change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events and resulting disasters. The New England Consortium (TNEC-CSEA) in partnership with the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) and Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Health and Safety (MassCOSH) received another 5-year NIESH Hazmat Disaster Preparedness Training Program grant to train organizations and their workers who prepare for and respond to climate related disasters.

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.

The Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy has awarded its inaugural fellowships to Asst. Prof. of Economics Kelly Hellman, plastics engineering major Kerry Candlen and chemical engineering major Maria Fonseca-Guzman.

UMass Lowell has received a $100,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources to develop a campus-wide renewable energy master plan that will help advance the university’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

A new honors seminar that helps students think critically about different sources of energy is inspiring research involving renewables, including projects at UMass Lowell’s Haiti Development Studies Center.

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.

UMass Lowell is No. 16 on Sierra magazine’s “Cool Schools” list for 2020, the university’s highest ranking ever in a survey that assesses colleges’ performances on everything from sustainability-focused courses, carbon-neutral energy and land policies, eco-friendly dining halls and student engagement.

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.

A UMass Lowell researcher investigating how to identify damage in wind turbines before they fail has received $1.4 million to develop a solution.

Environmental science students from the Kennedy College of Sciences led free educational sessions on Zoom for middle and high school students who, like them, are stuck at home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a two-year, $1.4 million grant to Mechanical Engineering Asst. Prof. Murat Inalpolat to develop and test a new, sound-based sensor system for monitoring the structural health and integrity of wind turbine blades.

Graduate students from the Francis College of Engineering’s Solar Energy Association are helping the community by inspecting the city of Lowell’s solar-powered parking meter kiosks as part of an extracurricular service-learning project.

This month the City of Lowell and the university announced the Green Community Partnership — an alliance committed to driving down the carbon footprint of the Mill City.

Three student projects proposing ways to reduce the university community’s carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 pounds in 10 weeks received the first-ever Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy (RISE) Student Innovation Awards and a share of $1,000 in prize money.

Climate change was the central issue at the 100th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Boston, where students, faculty and alumni from the Kennedy College of Sciences shared their environmental and atmospheric science research and networked with meteorologists, climate scientists and academics from around the country.

Faculty and student researchers examined what the state must do to incorporate renewable energy sources into the electrical grid to reduce carbon emissions in “The State of Grid Energy Storage in Massachusetts,” a report commissioned by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

The commonwealth of Massachusetts recognized UMass Lowell for its sustainability efforts across campus with a 2019 Leading by Example award, which Chancellor Jacquie Moloney accepted at a State House ceremony.

A UMass Lowell researcher who works to alleviate asthma in senior citizens has received $1 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to advance his work.

Leaders from business, education, government and research will gather next week to discuss the state of energy storage in Massachusetts.

The National Science Foundation recently recognized Asst. Prof. Hsi-Wu Wong of the Department of Chemical Engineering with a prestigious faculty early career development grant, called the “CAREER” award. This highly competitive annual program selects the nation’s best young university faculty-scholars “who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.”

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.

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.

Climate models are used to study how and why atmospheric rivers change as the climate changes. This is the research topic of Chris Skinner’s recent NSF grant: “Elucidating the drivers and consequences of changes in atmospheric rivers from the last glacial maximum to the present day.”

Professor Robert Gamache’s current work aids satellite programs of NASA’s Earth Observing System, missions to Mars and Venus, several satellite programs of ESA, EUMETSAT and CNES, and the study of the atmospheres of exoplanets.

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.

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.

Reactor system fundamentals and technology and advanced reactor designs were just some of the topics discussed at this year’s Intercontinental Nuclear Institute (INI), an annual summer fellowship program organized by UMass Lowell and the Czech Technical University in Prague.

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.

A team of researchers from UMass Lowell, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and China Agricultural University in Beijing has developed a new, sustainable way of converting wet biological waste into diesel-compatible fuel, using heat and water.

The university’s Climate Change Initiative hosted members of the state’s House Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change for a roundtable discussion on climate science and policy at which faculty members shared scientific research and expertise to help inform policy decisions.

The university celebrated a $50 million renovation of Perry Hall, which is home to academics, research and industry partnerships in fields including biomedical, chemical and environmental engineering, as well as biomanufacturing and clean energy.

The university marked two major milestones at its Earth Day celebration: the completion of its $23.1 million Accelerated Energy Program and its latest STARS Gold rating, which moves UML into the top 10 nationally.

Six of the 12 projects to receive a share of the $50,000 Sustainability Encouragement & Enrichment Development (S.E.E.D.) Fund this year were led by students, the most in the fund’s three-year history.

The River Hawk Shop now gives customers recyclable paper bags instead of single-use plastic bags, a move that will eliminate around 10,000 plastic bags from the waste stream each year.

A team of researchers from the Chemistry Department has found a way to safely, cleanly and efficiently produce hydrogen gas that can be used to power the next generation of electric vehicles.

UMass Lowell was named one of the 10 best academic institutions to pursue a degree in renewable or sustainable energy systems, according to Solar Power Authority.