Kwabena Antwi<\/strong> (PhD Geography), Diverse Landscapes, Diverse Risks: Spatio-Temporal Assessment of Climate-Induced Crop Loss and Agricultural Production Dynamics in the Northeastern U.S.<\/summary>\nProject:<\/strong> Diverse Landscapes, Diverse Risks: Spatio-Temporal Assessment of Climate-Induced Crop Loss and Agricultural Production Dynamics in the Northeastern U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFaculty Mentor:<\/strong> Abby Frazier<\/p>\n\n\n\nShifts in seasonal weather patterns and the increasing frequency of extreme events such as droughts, heatwaves, and excessive rainfall threaten global food production. In the United States, crop production has always faced unpredictable weather, but a changing climate brings additional challenges. Research on historical changes in climate-induced economic vulnerabilities and agricultural production remains limited. This study employs geospatial analysis, coupled with climate and statistical trend analyses, to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of climate-induced crop loss and agricultural production in the Northeastern United States from 1990 to 2024. Specifically, the study explores: (i) how farm production has evolved in the Northeastern United States; (ii) how climate extreme events have posed risks to crop production in the region; and (iii) how greenhouse agriculture has shifted across space and time. For producers, crop consultants, agricultural service providers and policymakers, study results will offer opportunities to integrate historical weather and climate-induced agricultural loss into future climate adaptation planning at local, state, and federal levels.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nWen Ting Ooi<\/strong> (PhD Geography)<\/strong>, Urban Island Waterfront Liminalities: Comparing Grey Coastal Climate Infrastructure Between Taiwan and Long Island, New York<\/summary>\nProject:<\/strong> Urban Island Waterfront Liminalities: Comparing Grey Coastal Climate Infrastructure Between Taiwan and Long Island, New York<\/p>\n\n\n\nFaculty Mentor:<\/strong> Mark Davidson<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis project seeks to understand the cultural dimensions of urban waterfront climate adaptation and grey coastal climate infrastructure (GCCI) integration. Urban waterfronts are liminal spaces. Liminality \u2013 broadly understood as an experience of suspension or a threshold \u2013 captures the state of urban socio-cultural GCCI-waterfront integration in a time of changing climate. Waterfront infrastructure liminality manifests in: (1) their location at the intersection between land and sea, and thus shifting, multiple knowledge of that transitionary coastal space, (2) their negotiation of a global eco-city aesthetic with local socio-cultural imperatives in integrating GCCI, and (3) institutional attempts to reconcile past, present, and future imaginations of climate adaptation. By proposing a multi-sited study in Taiwan and Long Island, New York, the project allows for a comparison of varied urban spatial, temporal, and cultural liminalities that are centered around the development and imaginations of GCCI. The expected output for this study is an interactive map and comparison matrix capturing the cultural dimensions of waterfront liminality.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nSpandan Panday<\/strong> (PhD Geography)<\/strong>, Multilevel Climate Governance in Action: Evaluating State-Led Flood Adaptation Projects in Diverse Urban Contexts Across Massachusetts<\/summary>\nProject:<\/strong> Multilevel Climate Governance in Action: Evaluating State-Led Flood Adaptation Projects in Diverse Urban Contexts Across Massachusetts<\/p>\n\n\n\nFaculty Mentor:<\/strong> Rinku Roy Chowdhury<\/p>\n\n\n\nCities are at the forefront of addressing climate impacts through a range of adaptation and resilience measures, yet they remain constrained by limited financial and institutional capacity. State initiatives such as Massachusetts\u2019 Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant program have emerged to address these challenges. This research explores how the MVP program advances local adaptation through financial and institutional support for urban flood solutions, including traditional \u201cgrey\u201d infrastructure (dams, levees, culverts), \u201cgreen\u201d infrastructure or nature-based solutions (e.g., rain gardens, bioswales, living shoreline), and hybrid solutions that integrate both. While the program prioritizes green infrastructure solutions in its grant criteria, such solutions are not always clearly linked to improved or equitable flood resilience. In addition, the MVP program relies on a network of private vendors (engineering firms and non-profit organizations) that enhance cities\u2019 capacity by assisting with grant writing, project design, and implementation. This study examines: (1) how and why municipalities adopt particular flood adaptation solutions leading to varying socio-economic and environmental impacts, and (2) how the involvement of private vendors influences long-term adaptation capacity and shapes urban adaptation outcomes.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nLauren Parry<\/strong> (PhD Biology), Assessing Thermotolerance of the Opportunistic Human Pathogen, Basidiobolus<\/em>, from Massachusetts Waterways<\/summary>\nProject:<\/strong> Assessing Thermotolerance of the Opportunistic Human Pathogen, Basidiobolus<\/em>, from Massachusetts Waterways<\/p>\n\n\n\nFaculty Mentor:<\/strong> Javier Tabima<\/p>\n\n\n\nZoonotic diseases, illnesses transmitted to humans from animal sources, are among the most impactful classes of human diseases. One understudied human pathogenic fungal genus is Basidiobolus<\/em>. Over time, human infections have been reported farther from equatorial regions with higher mortality rates. While most fungi cannot cause human infection as they cannot survive mammalian body temperatures, urbanization and global temperature rise are eroding this pathogen barrier by selecting for more thermotolerant fungi. These fungi may be transferred from animals in natural ecosystems to humans as urbanization expands and natural habitats decline. This project investigates current trends in thermotolerance of Basidiobolus<\/em> isolates from urban and rural waterways in central Massachusetts. This comparison will identify whether isolates from urbanized habitats exhibit greater thermotolerance than those from cooler locations. Findings will clarify whether Basidiobolus<\/em> populations are developing traits associated with pathogenic fungi, help anticipate the potential risk of fungal disease emergence in humans, and inform public policy for recreational waterways.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nCarter Peterson<\/strong> (BA\/MS Biology), A Golden Opportunity: Could Potential Hybridization Between Pleurotus Citrinopileatus<\/em> and Native Pleurotus<\/em> Species Fuel the Spread of the Invasive Golden Oyster Mushroom?<\/summary>\nProject:<\/strong> A Golden Opportunity: Could Potential Hybridization Between Pleurotus Citrinopileatus<\/em> and Native Pleurotus<\/em> Species Fuel the Spread of the Invasive Golden Oyster Mushroom? <\/p>\n\n\n\nFaculty Mentor:<\/strong> David Hibbett<\/p>\n\n\n\nPleurotus citrinopileatus<\/em> Singer, or the golden oyster mushroom, is an invasive wood-decaying fungus introduced to North America from East Asia. Previous studies have shown that the fungus is rapidly expanding its range in the Midwest, and data collected from community science databases indicate that the fungus has recently been expanding into New England. The rapid range expansion of the species has been attributed to its ability to outcompete native Pleurotus<\/em> species and alter the fungal communities present in wood. However, it could also be due to the ability to create novel genetic variants through interspecies hybridization with native oyster mushroom species. The goal of this study is to determine the ability of invasive golden oyster mushroom to hybridize with native Pleurotus<\/em> species from the United States. This research will also determine the fitness advantage of these hybrids over the parent species. An understanding of the hybridization abilities of the golden oyster mushroom could inform new policies to prevent further outbreaks of invasive fungi.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nMikayla Schappert<\/strong> (PhD Geography), Biodiversity through Space, Time, and Sound: Using Bioacoustics Monitoring to Investigate Processes of Landscape Change Effect on Biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil<\/summary>\nProject:<\/strong> Biodiversity through Space, Time, and Sound: Using Bioacoustics Monitoring to Investigate Processes of Landscape Change Effect on Biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil<\/p>\n\n\n\nFaculty Mentor:<\/strong> Florencia Sangermano<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Atlantic Forest of Brazil is a global biodiversity hotspot and conservation priority, with only a small fraction of its original extent remaining due to a long history of anthropogenic landscape changes, such as habitat loss and fragmentation. These processes alter ecosystem function and shape biodiversity outcomes. Understanding the effects of landscape change on biodiversity requires the consideration of not only current landscape pattern, but also historical landscape changes. While many studies investigate historical patterns and individual landscape processes, examining them in isolation can miss important interactions with ecological implications. Additionally, ecological studies typically rely on long-term field surveys to capture these effects, which can be costly in terms of funding, time, and manual labor. Short-term studies, however, often miss underlying mechanisms, especially when landscape history is ignored. Bioacoustic monitoring, an emerging technology, addresses these limitations by offering a low-cost, time-efficient, and scalable way to passively track multiple species. This research aims to understand how landscape patterns and typological processes of change affect biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. By integrating historical landscape trajectories, typological processes of change, and bioacoustic monitoring, this study provides a novel approach to assessing biodiversity responses to landscape transformation.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nHermione Zhou<\/strong> (PhD Geography), A Genealogy of Disaster Response and Recovery Governance Under FEMA<\/summary>\nProject:<\/strong> A Genealogy of Disaster Response and Recovery Governance Under FEMA<\/p>\n\n\n\nFaculty Mentor:<\/strong> James McCarthy<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnthropogenic climate change is intensifying extreme weather events worldwide, leading to more frequent and devastating disasters such as floods, droughts and wildfires. Such urgent and imminent climate-induced disasters put the question of disaster response and recovery at the center of building just, livable, and sustainable societies in the age of the climate crisis. This research focuses on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the backbone of disaster response and recovery in the United States. Such a critical role has subjected FEMA to extensive scrutiny and critique by the public, media, and academic scholarship. For example, FEMA\u2019s reliance on cost-benefit analysis for disaster response has often been criticized for exacerbating social vulnerability. This study takes a step back from these problem-oriented critiques by arguing that the current conjuncture of intersecting climate crisis and FEMA\u2019s institutional crisis calls for a systematic, critical, and historical\u2014taken together, genealogical\u2014understanding of FEMA. Through extensive in-person archival research of materials from the years leading up to its establishment in 1979 through the present, this research seeks to open up new possibilities of solution-oriented reforms of FEMA and disaster governance among scholars, policymakers and practitioners.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nZhiwen Zhu<\/strong><\/strong> (PhD Geography), Mapping Ground-Based Solar Photovoltaic Power Stations and Evaluating Their Environmental Impacts in the New England Area, United States<\/summary>\nProject:<\/strong> Mapping Ground-Based Solar Photovoltaic Power Stations and Evaluating Their Environmental Impacts in the New England Area, United States<\/p>\n\n\n\nFaculty Mentors:<\/strong> John Rogan and Florencia Sangermano<\/p>\n\n\n\nNew England’s rapid expansion of solar energy, a critical tool for climate change mitigation, has created a pressing land-use conflict by converting vital forests and croplands into solar farms. This necessary development, however, poses significant, largely unquantified risks to regional ecosystem services and biodiversity. Specifically, prior work has shown that 49% of solar array fields in Massachusetts were built upon formerly forested regions, leading to potential fragmentation of large forest patches. This research will utilize state-of-the-art deep learning models to map photovoltaic power stations with high accuracy, which will then form the basis for two further analyses: (1) an historical analysis of land use change to quantify the full scale of forest and agricultural land loss to solar development, and (2) an innovative, field-based assessment of biodiversity impacts using the novel method of soundscape ecology. By deploying acoustic recorders at solar farms and nearby control sites, this study will provide a data-driven measure of how solar infrastructure affects local wildlife. The resulting dataset will empower policymakers and planners to better balance renewable energy goals with the critical need for environmental protection, moving society toward sustainable outcomes that protect both green energy production and ecological health.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
\n
Student Research Projects<\/h2>\n\n\n\n \n
\n \n\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t2023 Geller Award recipient Amanda Dye prepares log surface for growing fungi as part of an urban farming demonstration project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tRachel Sorenson, went to Peru over the break supported by the Geller Award to conduct research on solar installations in rural communities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t2023 Geller Award recipient Abby Bielman testing water quality in Coal Mine Brook, a tributary of the Blackstone River.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t2017 Geller Fellow Carlos Dobler – talking with beekeepers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t2018 Beza Ayalew and Christina Zymaris attended the regional CS conference CCSCNE at University of New Hampshire at Manchester where we presented our project ClarkEats: Food Sustainability on Campus at the poster presentation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tGeller Awardee taking woody debris respiration measurements.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t2018 Geller Award Recipient, Paige Myatt – Ali Soofi of WooRides using the electrified pedicab around town.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t2017 Geller awardee – Janae Davis with \u2260Khomani San crafters who work in the local tourism industry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tGeller awardee analyzing water quality in Peru.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tGeller Award recipient, traveled to Peru to conduct research for her master’s thesis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tGeller Awardee Carlos Dobler-Morales<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSarah Dupere Ostro – Geller awardees research<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t2023 Geller Awardee Josaphat Barcenas-Argueta giving a presentation of his research.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\n
2026 Geller Awardee Kwabena Antwi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n