While most of our course offerings are remote this semester, we are offering several courses through U-Mass University Without Walls. These are asynchronous courses that are taught independently from your regular semester courseload, and can taken by anyone, whether enrolled at UMass or not. They are all listed in SPIRE.
Dr. David Boutt, along with colleagues at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, has been commissioned as part of a cooperative study to investigate how lithium extraction impacts the hydrologic environment in Latin America, especially with regards to lithium brine-fresh water aquifer systems. The goal of the study is to provide companies with better guidance on sustainable lithium extraction.
The Geosciences Department is pleased to announce the November 29, 2020 publication of The Chinese City (Routledge, 2021), by Professor Piper Gaubatz (Geography Program) and Professor Weiping Wu (Director, Columbia University Graduate Program in Urban Planning). This is a completely revised second edition of their 2012 book. The book engages with major recent changes in Chinese cities and urban life.
PhD student Shaina Sedai is lead author on a recent paper published in Science Advances discussing simulations of dramatic climate impacts from higher Antarctic melt. With her co-authors, including alum Dr. Alan Condron (WHOI), and Dr.
U-Mass Geosciences has a strong showing at the (virtual) annual Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union this year, with 43 department members as authors on 39 talks and posters from December 7th - 16th, 2020. If you're attending #AGU2020 this year don't miss out! Here is a schedule of who is presenting and when:
Click here to browse the presentations by author.
Congratulations to students from the UMass Geography Club for winning the 2020 World Geography Bowl at the American Association of Geographers New England-St Lawrence Valley Division Meeting, November 13, 2020.
This was the fifth recent win for the UMass team, which also won with the top score in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, and placed 3rd in 2018 and 2019. Several team members will represent the New England region in the national competition in Spring 2021.
Dr's Julie Brigham-Grette and Steve Petsch published a piece in The Conversation about the warming Arctic, their paleoclimate research on past warm climates, and the implications for our future. Read more...
The International Association for Geoscience Diversity recently named Dr Michele Cooke, geosciences, as the recipient of its 2020 International Association for Geoscience Diversity Inclusive Geoscience Education and Research Award for her work as a “foundational leader in accessible and inclusive geoscience teaching in both the classroom and field for over 20 years, all while maintaining a successful research career in geomechanics and structural geology.
A little over a year ago our beloved faculty member, Dr Sheila Seaman, lost her long and valiant battle with cancer— To honor her dedication to education, research, and the betterment of students, we are launching the Sheila Seaman Student Research Fund. This endowed fund, administered by the UMass Foundation, will, in future years, provide monetary support for Geosciences student research. Although preference will go to students in the fields of mineralogy and petrology, other students will be able to benefit from
Dr Rob DeConto is part of a U-Mass team that has received grants from the NSF EELEVATE program to explore and develop pathways so that the transition to sustainable energy also promotes the socioeconomic equity of communities.
In a new paper this week in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education, geographer Dr Forrest Bowlick and colleagues at Texas A&M offer first-hand accounts of what is required for GIS instructors and IT administrators to set up virtual computing specifically for providing state-of-the-art geographic information systems (GIS) instruction. Read more
Dr Christine Hatch reflects on COVID-19, and the resulting quarantine's, effects on the natural environment for the Daily Hampshire Gazette's Earth Matters column: Read it here...
The Geological Society of America’s (GSA) Continental Scientific Drilling Division (CSD) has named Dr Julie Brigham-Grette as one of its two Distinguished Lecturers for 2020, which means she will be available to give online seminars on her Arctic drilling research to geologists anywhere in the world by request this fall and into spring 2021.
A team of climate scientists and geologists including Dr Robert DeConto recently received a five-year, $7 million grant from the National Science Foundation to drill through the Greenland Ice Sheet and into the bedrock below, where they will be able to evaluate how long it has been since the last ice sheet retreated from the continent. Read more...
USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has awarded a two-year, $300,000 grant to Dr. Brian Yellen to develop tools to estimate the mass of carbon stored in salt marshes.
PhD student Raquel Bryant and her colleague Rehemat Bhatia are featured in The Atlantic this week: speaking about their scientific collaboration, resulting friendship, and buiding networks of mutual support as two of the few women of color in the geosciences. Read More...
Our 2019 department newsletter is now available. Click here to find out about major changes, new faculty, etc... in the deparment and read old newsletters
The UMass Geography Club attended the NESTVAL Geography Bowl on October 18th, 2019, hosted by Framingham State University. UMass competed against five other teams and placed 3rd. Salem State University took the top spot, followed by the University of New Hampshire in second place.
U-Mass Geosciences will be attending the The New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society annual meeting at Framingham State University this week. Dr. Eve Vogel and students will be presenting several papers there on Quebec hydropower and the Northern Pass project, and the U-Mass Geography Club will be competing in the Geography Bowl, defending their previous titles.
The School of Earth and Sustainability (SES) has announced that Curt Griffin, environmental conservation, and Rob DeConto, geosciences, will serve as co-directors of U-Mass Amherst's School of Earth and Sustainability.
PhD student Karin Lehnigk (advisor: Isaac Larsen) has been selected for an NSF GROW-Norway award. GROW (Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide) is a program open to active NSF graduate fellows. Karin will spend Jan-August 2020 in Bergen Norway to study the erosion of Hellemobotn canyon and collect samples for cosmogenic isotope surface dating.
Professor Rob DeConto was in Monaco this week with other members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working on a draft summary for policymakers of their Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.
Graduate students Marsha Allen and Sarah McKnight are representing U-Mass Geosciences this week at the annual meeting of the International Association of Hydrogeologists in Malaga, Spain. Marsha will be presenting her research on groundwater storage assessment and flow path identification in large-scale fractured bedrock aquifer systems, with Sarah presenting her research on hydrologic and stratigraphic impacts to density-driven flo
Several students and faculty from the department are presenting their research at this years annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Phoenix, AZ. A schedule of U-Mass Geosciences presentations are listed below. Be sure to pop by these talks to hear about some great research!
36-24 A DYNAMIC KUROSHIO CURRENT EXTENSION DURING THE PLIOCENE
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) this month announced that 73 scientists from across the nation, Assistant Professor Dr.
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