Below you will find a list of current Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology (LoCSST) news and announcements. If you are looking for past ones, please visit our Past News and Announcements page.

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2026 News and Announcements

July 2026:

  • The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) is being held in Copenhagen, Denmark and will take place between July 5-10. Researchers and engineers from around the world will present their work at this event.
    • Graduate student, Michael Jones, will present "Focal plane wavefront correction for dark hole creation with a neural network on PICTURE-D"
    • Paul Horton will present "A modular and distributed readout, control, and on-board novelty detection architecture for Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths (ASTHROS) using RabbitMQ"
    • Joshua Fitzpatrick will present “Analysis of atmospheric wavefront distortions from PICTURE, a balloon-based optical telescope”

May 2026:

  • Professor Supriya Chakrabarti will present "Development and validation of observational and modeling tools for ground-based studies of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere" at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2026
  • Professor Mei-Yun Lin will present “Metallic Ions Near the Moon: Impact of Solar Activity and Lunar Position” and “From Moon to Earth: Transport of Lunar Metallic Ions in the Magnetotail” at the Japan Geoscience Union.

April 2026:

  • Anthony DeVasto defended his Master’s thesis “Investigating High Mass X-Ray Systems Through Spectral Modeling And Light Curve Analysis” on Thursday, April 9. Anthony will graduate in May 2026.
  • Over the next year, Physics graduate student Michael Jones will work part-time for NASA Langley Research Center on the PACE-MAPP-NN (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem - Multi-Angle Polarimeter - Neural Network) project with Dr. Snorre Stamnes. The PACE-MAPP-NN algorithm is designed to run atmospheric retrievals for the PACE satellite and is currently being implemented. Michael will work on optimizing the code and further developing the neural networks being used.
  • Physics Professor and LoCSST Director, Supriya Chakrabarti, gave a live interview to WHCH Channel 7 on Friday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. about ARTEMIS II splashdown
  • Professor Mei-Yun Lin presented LoCSST/Massachusetts Alliance for Space Technology and Sciences (MASTS) to students during the Welcome Day for Admitted Students event on Saturday, April 11
  • On April 9, Professor Supriya Chakrabarti presented “Development and Validation of High-Contrast Imaging and Spectroscopic Technologies” at The 27th Annual Photonics Center Symposium: Photonics in Space.
  • On April 1, LoCSST Director and UMass Lowell Physics Professor Supriya Chakrabarti appeared live on WHDH-TV (Channel 7) during the station's evening news coverage of the Artemis II launch. Professor Chakrabarti provided expert commentary and context for viewers as the mission unfolded.
  • On April 1, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully launched Artemis II — the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years!
  • On April 2, NBC News conducted a live interview with the Artemis II crew aboard the Orion capsule as they became the first humans to view the lunar far side in over 50 years. NBC News: 'Not the moon that I'm used to seeing': Artemis II astronauts describe seeing the far side
Joshua Fitzpatrick presents his poster: Verifications of Sky Brightness Models with Observable Data.

Undergraduate Physics student and LoCSST student researcher, Joshua Fitzpatrick, presents his research poster "Verification of Sky Brightness Models With Observed Data" at the Student Research Symposium.

March 2026:

Maytal Cooper presents her poster: "Parametric Modeling of Stellar Winds".

Physics undergraduate student, Maytal Cooper, presents her research poster "Parametric Modeling of Stellar Winds" at the Student Research Symposium

Anthony DeVasto presents his poster "Investigating High Mass X-ray Binary Systems Through Spectral Modeling and Light Curve Analysis".
Anthony DeVasto presents his research poster "Investigating High Mass X-ray Binary Systems Through Spectral Modeling and Light Curve Analysis" at the Student Research Symposium.
  • Physics graduate student, Charmi Patel, was featured in UMass Lowell Research social media channels in a new series “A Day in the Life of A Student Researcher” which highlighted the LoCSST / Massachusetts Alliance for Space Technology and Sciences (MASTS) space in video format
Ian Davis presents his poster: "Simulating A Parametric Model of Planetary Atmospheres to Quantify Sustainability Over Time".

Physics undergraduate student, Ian Davis, presents his LoCSST research poster "Simulating A Parametric Model of Planetary Atmospheres to Quantify Sustainability Over Time"

A group of Centennial celebrants attending a Robert Goddard Centennial event at the Hanover Theater.

From left to right are Sunip Mukherjee, post-doctoral researcher, Professor Daniel Hastings, President American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Alan Stern, planetary scientist and commercial astronaut, McKenzie Lystrup, former head of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and Professor Supriya Chakrabarti, Professor of Physics and Director of LoCSST.

February 2026:

Women and Girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Day was held at UMass Lowell on Tuesday, February 10:

  • Professor Mei-Yun Lin presented “Space Weather Technology: Prepare for the Space Exploration”
UMass Lowell's Destinee Jeanty and Ananya Sahoo show visiting students research demonstrations.

Undergraduate student, Destinee Jeanty and research scientist, Ananya Sahoo show visiting students research demonstrations.

  • Destinee Jeanty gave a 3-minute lighting talk at the event. She spoke about her journey in a Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field and inspired others!
Undergraduate student, Julie Sage, presenting “Research at UML” to visitors.

Undergraduate student, Destinee Jeanty and research scientist, Ananya Sahoo show visiting students research demonstrations.

  • Ananya Sahoo presented a hands-on outreach demonstration in the science exhibition room using a scaled-down 3D printed PICTURE model and its pointing system
LoCSST team volunteers: Akande, Destinee Jeanty, Julie Sage, Guangfeng Yu, Ananya Sahoo, Charmi Patel.

Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology (LoCSST) team volunteers for the event included  (from right to left) Adedayo Akande, Destinee Jeanty, Julie Sage, Guangfeng Yu, Ananya Sahoo, Charmi Patel, and Mei-Yun Lin (not pictured).

  • Destinee Jeanty and Charmi Patel had a table in the Science Exhibition room for KIWI (Kiwi is a single board bench-top Satellite)
UMass Lowell Undergraduate student, Destinee Jeanty, presenting her research thus far: "What Have I Done".

Undergraduate student, Destinee Jeanty, presenting her research activities thus far as a student at University of Massachusetts Lowell.  She continues her work with Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology (LoCSST) Spring semester.

2025 News and Announcements

UMass Lowell attendees pose for a photo at the America Geophysical Union 2025.

LoCSST attendees at AGU included from left to right Physics Graduate Student Charmi Patel, Professor Mei-Yun Lin, Professor Supriya Chakrabarti, post-doctoral researcher Sunip Mukherjee, Professor Ofer Cohen, and Physics Graduate Student Lukas Hanson.

December 2025: Several presentations were made by LoCSST team members at American Geophysical Union 2025 (AGU25)

  • Graduate student Charmi Patel presented "All-Season Auroral Observations with High Throughput and Multislit Imaging Spectrograph (HiT&MIS): Nighttime Energy and Flux Retrieval of Auroral Electrons and Progress Toward Sunlit Conditions," featuring the High Throughput and Multi Slit Imaging Spectrograph.
  • Doctoral Graduate Sunip Mukherjee presented "Applying newer models and techniques to remote sensing of geophysical conditions."
  • Graduate student Lukas Hanson presented "Probing the Cosmic Shoreline - Modeling the Impact of Enhances Solar Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) and Stellar EUV spectra on Earth-like Ionospheres."
  • Professor Supriya Chakrabarti presented: "Recent Developments and Future Directions of Instrumentation and related Tools for Optical Aeronomy."

Graduate student Charmi Patel presenting "All-Season Auroral Observations with High Throughput and Multislit Imaging Spectrograph (HiT&MIS): Nighttime Energy and Flux Retrieval of Auroral Electrons and Progress Toward Sunlit Conditions," featuring the High Throughput and Multi Slit Imaging Spectrograph.
  • Professor Ofer Cohen is chairing the poster session "The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) – Building a Community for Interdisciplinary Research Across NASA Science Divisions."
  • Professor Mei-Yun Lin presented the poster "Tracing Lunar Metallic Ions into Earth’s Inner Magnetosphere.”
  • Professor Ofer Cohen presented “The Upper Atmospheres of Extrasolar Planets."
Graduate student Lukas Hanson with Professor Ofer Cohen during PhD defense titled Probing the Cosmic Shoreline.

Graduate student Lukas Hanson with Professor Ofer Cohen during his doctoral defense titled "Probing the Cosmic Shoreline: the Role of Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation in Exoplanet Atmosphere Retention".

November 2025: 

  • Congratulations to Graduate Student Lukas Hanson on successfully defending his PhD dissertation titled “Probing the Cosmic Shoreline: the Role of Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation in Exoplanet Atmosphere Retention.”
High Throughput and Multislit Imaging Spectograph Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology logo.

High throughput and multislit imaging spectograph by LoCSST.

  • Professor Mei-Yun Lin presented the talk "Transport and energization of heavy ions in earth’s high latitude ionosphere” at MIT Haystack Observatory.

October 2025: 

  • Following a full recalibration, HiT&MIS (High-resolution optical spectrograph) has been redeployed to Kiruna, Sweden to provide critical ground-based observations for the ORIGINS Rocket Campaign, led by Stockholm University, during its second launch attempt to measure hydroxyl (OH) airglow.
Space Centre Australia Locsst agreement public support turnout.

We were thrilled with the huge turnout of supporters for the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Space Centre Australia and UMass Lowell on October 23 at University Crossing.

Space Centre Australia members visit UML research facilities.

Above: Some faculty, staff, and student members of the LoCSST team with Space Centre Australia guests following Massachusetts Alliance for Space Technology and Sciences (MASTS) lab and Space Lab tours and discussions in Wannalancit.

Below: Jason Martel, Lead Mechanical Engineer at LoCSST, talks about the MASTS Thermal Vacuum Chamber, which tests components under simulated space conditions.

Space Center for Australia visiting research facilities at UMass Lowell including the Fabric Discovery Center.

Above: Professor Alkim Akyurtlu and Assistant Professor Oshadha Ranasingha provided tour of RURI to Space Centre Australia guests.

Below: Professor Ramaswamy Nagarajan and his team at UMass Lowell's Fabric Discovery Center provide a tour to Space Centre Australia guests.

Post doctorial researcher, Sunip Mukherjee, readying remote setup of PICTURE-D for launch at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Post doctorial researcher, Sunip Mukherjee, readying remote setup of PICTURE-D for launch at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

  • CHARIOT, an instrument built by Post-Doctoral Researcher Sunip Mukherjee, successfully flew as a pathfinder and technology demonstration for the Chickadee CubeSat Bus aboard the PICTURE-D gondola. The instrument recorded environmental data and operated nominally throughout the flight. After recovery, CHARIOT was confirmed to remain fully functional, marking an important achievement that raised the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of both its hardware and software systems.
PICTURE-D getting ready to launch at Fort Sumner, New Mexico

PICTURE-D getting ready to launch at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.