Laurie Agel speaks at a podium
Laurie Agel '18
Marine Sciences & Technology

Software engineer Laurie Agel was looking for a career change in her 40s. Fifteen years later, she has her Ph.D. in marine sciences and technology from UML and is working as a post-doctoral research assistant, studying extreme precipitation and flooding in the Charles and Mystic river basins.

I’ve seen many, many people like me – people doing a second career and coming in from another field. And there’s just so much excitement at UMass Lowell. I don’t really feel like a fish out of water.
Read More About Laurie Agel 

News

  • Robert-Gamache

    Professor Emeritus Ranks Among Top Scholars Worldwide

    Robert Gamache, a professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, was recently recognized as being in the top 0.05% of scholars worldwide by ScholarGPS.
    Department News
  • 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
  • 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
  • Arbor Day tree planting

    UMass Lowell Blooms into Certified Arboretum

    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.
    Featured Story
  • Gaschnig glacial deposit sampling

    Research Suggests Earth Became More Habitable 3 Billion Years Ago

    A team of researchers, including Assoc. Prof. Richard Gaschnig of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, found that the Earth’s crust went through a major transition three billion years ago.
    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
  • Four women pose for a photo while standing in front of a window with a dark shade

    Engineering Alum Works to Protect Boston from Flooding

    Civil engineering alum Julie Eaton Ernst ’14, ’17 spoke about her work to make Boston’s waterfront more climate-resilient at the inaugural James B. Francis Lecture on the Built Environment.
    Featured Story
  • Seven Greer and Daniel LeCain

    Science Students Put Concepts into Practice

    Field experience courses offered during the summer allowed students to explore New England, Montana and Idaho while gaining new skills in ecology and geology.
    Featured Story
  • Matt Barlow research

    Scientist Lends Expertise to Greater Boston Climate Assessment

    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. 
    Department News
  • A student looks at their phone while sitting in a red chair outside surrounded by trees

    Already a Tree Campus, UML is Blooming into an Arboretum

    UMass Lowell was once again designated a Tree Campus by the Arbor Day Foundation — and is on track to become classified as an arboretum this fall by the nonprofit organization ArbNet.
    Featured Story
  • River cleanup

    Students, Volunteers Celebrate Earth Day with River Cleanup

    UML’s Society of Environmental Scientists teamed up with two local organizations for a cleanup along the riverbank behind LeLacheur Park. Together, they filled more than 30 60-gallon bags with trash.
    Featured Story
  • James Heiss

    Students, Faculty ‘Spring into Science’

    The Kennedy College of Sciences hosted its fourth annual “Spring into Science” showcase, featuring educational and social events to highlight the importance of the field.
    Featured Story
  • EEAS Asst. Prof. James Heiss

    Environmental Science Professor Awarded NSF CAREER Grant

    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.
    Featured Story
  • Two women hold an award plaque while posing for a photo with five men

    UML Earns ‘Leading by Example’ Award for Decarbonization Efforts

    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.
    Featured Story
  • 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
  • A woman in glasses holds a piece of cardboard that has a rectangular hole in the middle. Her right hand is in the opening.

    Climate Change Lessons Reach Beyond the Science Classroom

    “Integrating Climate Change into the K-12 Classroom,” a free professional development workshop hosted by EEAS Assoc. Teaching Prof. Lori Weeden and the university’s Climate Change Initiative, showed teachers how they can address the topic through a variety of educational lenses.
    Featured Story
  • Prof. Daniel Obrist wearing safety gear

    New Study Reveals Higher-than-Expected Deposition of Toxic Mercury in Forests

    Toxic mercury is being deposited in forests in much higher quantities than previously thought, posing a concern for the health and well-being of people, wildlife and waterways, according to Prof. Daniel Obrist, who is investigating the source of the pollution.
    Featured Story
  • Assoc. Clinical Prof. of Education Sumudu Lewis directs the UTeach program at UMass Lowell

    UTeach Turns STEM Majors into Sought-After Teachers

    The UTeach program, which turns science, math and engineering majors into classroom teachers, is now in its 10th year at UMass Lowell. Graduates are in great demand at local high schools, and one was named a finalist for Massachusetts STEM Teacher of the Year.
    Featured Story
  • Red trinitite

    Researchers Discover New Quasicrystal in Atomic Rock

    A recent discovery by a research team that includes Kennedy College of Sciences Prof. Nelson Eby is shedding light on the debris created by an atomic blast, and it could set the stage for advances in materials research, including potential applications in energy, health care and nuclear forensics.
    Featured Story
  • Juliette Rooney-Varga talking to a class

    Science Professor Works to Depolarize Climate Change Issue

    Environmental Science Prof. Juliette Rooney-Varga, director of UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative, says we must depolarize the politics of climate change — an issue that President Biden has made a top priority in his new administration.
    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
  • Student Javon Bryan takes part in the World Climate simulation with other students

    EEAS Faculty, Students Present at AGU Conference

    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.
    Department News
  • Hurricane Irma

    Researchers to Study the Impact of Coastal Storms on Beach Aquifers

    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.
    Featured Story
  • An aerial view of the UML campus and Merrimack River

    Very Cool! UML 16th on Sierra’s List of Eco-friendly Schools

    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.
    Featured Story
  • Drought photo

    Climate Scientists to Study Droughts, Heat Waves in the Northeast

    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.
    Featured Story
  • Students Fiona Benzi, Lucia Cheney and Kseniya Vialichka pose for a selfie

    Environmental Science Students Give Virtual Teaching a Try

    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.
    Department News
  • James Heiss on beach doing research

    Congratulations to James Heiss for Recent NSF Award

    James Heiss' research aims to understand effects of extreme multi-hazard coastal storms, including surge, heavy precipitation, and coastal erosion, on groundwater flow and mixing patterns in beach aquifers.
    Department News
  • Asst. Prof. Richard Gaschnig conducting field work

    Earth Science Professor Awarded NSF Grant

    Asst. Prof. Richard Gaschnig of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences has been awarded a three-year, $222,600 grant by the National Science Foundation to study the chemical exchange that occurs between the ocean crust and the earth’s mantle during a geological process called subduction.
    Featured Story
  • Richard Gaschnig stands on rock with hammer at feet

    Richard Gaschnig Receives NSF Award

    Richard Gaschnig received an NSF award from the Petrology and Geochemistry program entitled “Collaborative Research: Tracking novel metal isotope signatures during subduction metamorphism.”
    Department News
  • Juliette Rooney-Varga talks with two conference attendees about the En-ROADS climate solutions simulator

    UML Researchers Shed Light on Climate Change Science

    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.
    Featured Story
  • Flooded street in Medford, Mass.

    Flood Prediction Helps People and Fish

    Knowing more about how and when flooding will occur helps us manage our watersheds for the benefit of people and fish.
    NOAA Fisheries In The News
  • CCI members pose with state legislators

    Faculty Experts Brief Legislators on Climate Change

    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.
    Featured Story
  • Prof. Daniel Obrist

    Tracking the Spread of Mercury Across the Planet

    UMass Lowell Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Professor and Chair Daniel Obrist, heads to the forests in search of mercury.
    Boston Globe In The News
  • Hazmat training

    Students Secure Hazmat Certification

    Students majoring in geoscience, civil engineering, environmental science and meteorology got hazmat-certified to broaden their skills, giving them an advantage in the job market.