| Department of Geosciences

Dr. Michele Cooke recognized for leadership in inclusive teaching

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.
Department launches Dr. Sheila Seaman student reseach fund

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
NSF grant to ensure sustainable & equitable energy transition

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.
Dr. Forrest Bowlick publishes guide for teaching cloud-based GIS courses

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 in The Daily Hampshire Gazette on quarantine and the environment

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...
Dr. Julie BG named GSA Distinguished Lecturer

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.
DeConto part of team to drill under Greenland's Ice Sheet

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...
Faculty receive USDA grant to to take stock of 'Blue Carbon' in salt marshes

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.
Department faculty and post-docs create Fort River Watershed Association

Dr.'s Brian Yellen, Christine Hatch, and post-doc Dr. Will Daniels are involved with the formation of the Fort River Watershed Association in Amherst, MA. The Daily Hampshire Gazette recently featured water quality testing they are performing along the river in coordination with the Connecticut River Conservancy in response to high nutrient levels within the watershed. Read more...
Dr. Stan Stevens retires from teaching

Dr Stan Stevens retired this month after a 33 year-long career of teaching, 25 of them at U-Mass Amherst— Dr Stevens research and teaching explores society/nature interaction via political and culture ecological approaches and collaborative fieldwork with indigenous peoples. Find out more about Dr. Stevens, his teaching, and his work here...
Dr. Julie BG collaboration on Mass MOCA exhibit

Dr Julie Brigham-Grette is one of several Arctic scientists who recently colllaborated with Artist Blane De St Croix on his current exhibition How to Move a Landscape, currently at MassMOCA. This exhibition involves years of research-intensive pieces involving years of fieldwork and collaboration with scientists, and includes large-scale installations that incorporate recetn research about the effect
Geomechanics lab studies energy budgets in accretionary wedges

Recent alum Dr Jessica McBeck and professor Dr Michele Cooke are senior authors on a recent paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters studying how the mechanical energy budget in accretionary prisms, a fundamental geological structure at tectonic plate margins, scales from analog models in the lab to real-world examples and its implicat
Studying trace metal release from historic mines in Western Mass

Graduate Student Justin Mistikawy is senior author of a paper with collaborators (including Dr. Justin Richardson) recently published a paper in Environmental Geochemistry and Health
New paper on "Greenland's Grand Canyon"

Recent alum Dr Benjamin Keisling and professor Dr Rob DeConto are senior authors on a new paper discussing the results of Benjamin's work at U-Mass, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for Ice and Climate, on new mechanisms for how and when a network of canyons under the Greenland Ice Sheet formed, especially one that is so deep and long it’s ca
Summer 2020, 2nd Session, online courses are now open!

The Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is offering several online courses for the 2nd session of the Summer 2020 term. These courses begin July 6th and end August 14th.

If you are interested in these courses, please register by June 19th to guarantee that they will have enough students to be run.

UMass Geosciences at AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco

Several students and faculty are presenting their research at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union this week in San Fransisco. Below is a list of when and where you can find them:
U-Mass Geosciences selected to participate in AGU's Bridge Program

U-Mass Geosciences is one of 14 departments selected, among 52 applicants, to participate in the newly inaugurated American Geophysical Union Bridge Program, part of the Inclusive Graduate Education Network, to increase success of URM graduate students in geosciences.
Geosciences PhD students at IPCC COP 25

PhD students Hannah Baranes and Dr. Benjamin Keisling presenting on ice sheet stability models and estimating flood hazards at the COP25 Cryosphere Pavilion at the U.N. IPCC COP-25 meeting in Madrid! See more, including video of their Early Career talks, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6IS3Rnw4I.
Raquel Bryant featured in the Atlantic

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...
New department newsletter now available

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
UMass Geography Club Competes in NESTVAL Geography Bowl

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 at NESTVAL

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.
Dr. Rob DeConto named co-director of School of Earth and Sustainability

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.
Karin Lehnigk selected for NSF GROW-Norway award

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.
Dr. Rob DeConto at 51st meeting of the IPCC, co-authors report

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.