UMass Lowell

Senior criminal justice major Hannah Purcell has already added 20 experiences to her Mosaic, which she plans to use when applying to graduate school.

Students can use Mosaic as a digital résumé to showcase their achievements for future employers or grad schools.

With the Mosaic Builder, students can browse 85 experiences in four categories: academic opportunities; career-connected and experiential learning; engagement and involvement;
and university supports.

Check out the link in our bio to get started on your Mosaic today!

UMass Lowell Student Life hosted their Back to Campus Bingo event on Friday for students to win River Hawk Dollars and River Hawk Shop gift cards.

UMass Lowell Manning School of Business hosted their Student Leadership Kickoff Event at the Boathouse this week.

Not sure how to get around campus or how to get involved? We got you covered! Check out the link below for the best tips and tricks from other UMass Lowell students.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/welcome-back-tips.aspx

Fall Semester 2024 is off to a great start -
Move In Weekend ✅
Convocation 9/3❗️
First day of classes 9/4 ❗️

How to be Demure at Move-In, how to be Mindful, how to be Cutesy…

Business alum Sean Harrington ‘97, a former All-American wrestler for the River Hawks, has turned his passion for old growth trees into a new business, Wolf Tree Wood.

Learn more about how this business alum “branched” out to a new a career at the link in our bio.

RoboXploration, a new summer camp hosted at the UMass Lowell New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center, is introducing middle school students to disciplines ranging from computer science and electrical engineering to fabrication and offering hands-on experiences with robotics.

Read more about RoboXploration camp at the link below.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/roboxploration-summer-camp.aspx

Ariel Grill ’19 spent her undergraduate days in local classrooms gaining experience through the UMass Lowell UTeach program. Now as a math teacher at the Greater Lawrence Technical School, she is paying it forward by mentoring Tanya Kieu ’24 a current UTeach student at UMass Lowell. “These experiences prepare them for the realities of the teaching profession,” UTeach Director Sumudu Lewis says.

Read more about UTeach at the link below.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/uteach-alumni-give-back.aspx

Professor emeritus Robert Gamache, from the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, was recently recognized as being in the top 0.05% of scholars worldwide! He received Highly Ranked Scholar status in spectroscopy based on the quality and impact of his research publications, which have been cited more than 35,000 times.

Check out the link below to read more about Professor Gamache’s work.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/robert-gamache-highly-ranked-scholar.aspx

In an expansion of the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor (LINC) announced in March, UMass Lowell and Mass General Brigham have announced a new collaboration to enhance cognitive and decision-making performance during stressful, complex situations using knowledge developed for top athletes and the expertise of researchers at both institutions.

To learn more about this exciting addition to the LINC project please check out the link below

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/press-releases/2024/umass-lowell-mass-general-brigham-collaborate-to-advance-human-performance.aspx

Big smiles as we congratulate Biomedical Engineering Asst. Professor Chiara Ghezzi who was awarded an NSF CAREER Grant to continue her oral microbiome research.

Read more about her work at the link below.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/chiara-ghezzi-nsf-career-award.aspx

UMass Lowell’s DifferenceMaker program partnered with Lowell High School to host an inaugural Idea Challenge Showcase.

Read more about the creativity and innovation of these students at the link below.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/differencemaker-at-lowell-high-school.aspx

Electrical engineering Ph.D. student Russell Perkins ’18, ’20 has witnessed the devastating effect of criminal scams targeting seniors. When his elderly aunt passed away two years ago, Perkins discovered that she had been defrauded of $1.6 million through a variety of schemes. That inspired Perkins to create SafeGuardian AI, an artificial intelligence-driven, in-home robot that can alert the elderly to scams by monitoring their emails and phone calls.

Perkins developed the idea this spring as part of the UMass Lowell Innovative Fellows Training (LIFT) program, a new business accelerator initiative tailored for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers passionate about aging-related innovations, and received a $1.2M grant from the National Institute on Aging.

Read more about LIFT at the link in our bio.

The UML Library recently hosted its third annual Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, an event where community members come together to improve articles and create new entries on the free online encyclopedia that is used by more than 4 billion people worldwide.

Sara Marks, the library’s assistant director of communications and user experience, started the edit-a-thons at UML as a way for students to make a real-world impact with the skills they learn in the classroom.

Read more about this annual research event at the link belelow.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/wikipedia-edit-a-thon.aspx

After completing her business degree in December, Nicole Wilson ’24 stepped right into her first job as a business development associate for RENEW Energy Partners, a Boston-based decarbonization firm that helps building owners fund major energy efficiency upgrades.

While her finance and management studies in the Manning School of Business have prepared her for the role, Wilson gained something else at UML: a passion for nonprofits. Almost every Wednesday during her senior year, she volunteered at Girls Inc. of Greater Lowell, introducing young girls to business concepts such as financial literacy, marketing and entrepreneurship.

Read more about Wilson’s experience at the link below.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/Profiles/Nicole-Wilson.aspx

Congratulations to UMass Lowell javelin thrower James Kotowski who set a new personal-best of 75.69 meters at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials!

Check out the link below to read more!

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/james-kotowski-olympic-trials.aspx

Loving UML is RHED!

Launched in 2018, RHED is a way for students to take a deep dive into a personal interest that connects with their academics in one of five topic areas: leadership, entrepreneurship, global engagement, community engagement or sustainability.

By completing two preapproved courses and two preapproved experiences, along with guided reflections for each, students receive the RHED credential — and a red braided cord to wear at Commencement.

This year, a record 47 students graduated with RHED distinctions, nearly double the program’s total over its first five years.

Learn more about RHED, River Hawk Experience Distinction, at the link below!

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/rhed-graduates.aspx

“I observed that an optimistic mindset had a positive impact on recovery,” says Yun-Ju Lai, an assistant professor in the Solomont School of Nursing at UMass Lowell.

This experience prompted her to study the connection between optimism and health for her dissertation. Since then, she has conducted and published research that shows that optimism may reduce stroke severity and inflammation. Now she has set her sights on helping UMass Lowell students improve health and well-being.

“The innovativeness of this study lies in its use of virtual reality as a tool for delivering a positive psychology-based intervention to increase optimism and improve mental health outcomes,” says Lai.

Read more about this ‘positively’ exciting research at the link below!

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/optimism-health.aspx

UMass Lowell is proud to commemorate Juneteenth and celebrate this day of freedom.

Today we honor our progress toward equality while we recognize that much work still remains before us.

“I didn’t know anyone who did marine biology, so I thought that’s not really an option,” DeSouza explained. That all changed when she started conducting research with Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn, a biological sciences assistant professor who studies marine organisms.

Caroline DeSouza, a recent graduate who received her bachelor’s degrees in biological sciences and economics, conducted field research in the waters off the coast of the Colombian Island of San Andrés during her undergraduate career. She is now a full-time technician in a biological sciences professor’s lab.

Read more about Caroline’s aquatic expedition at the link below!

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/profiles/caroline-desouza.aspx

The 7th installment of the UMass Lowell Women’s Leadership Conference was an enormous success!

Thanks to the sponsors, speakers and those who worked hard to coordinate this important event. And thanks especially to hundreds of talented, motivated professionals who came to the Tsongas Center to listen to great presentations, share their insights and experiences, and network with each other.

Did you miss it? Be sure to watch our website for future opportunities and details about next year’s conference: https://gps.uml.edu/wlc/

The Chancellor’s Scholarship is awarded to in-state residents who are among the most academically qualified admitted students. Recipients receive an annual award of full tuition and mandatory fees, which allowed Mendum to obtain her bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 2023 with no college debt. For Rebecca Mendum ’23, ’24, attending UMass Lowell was a “no-brainer.”

Through the Bachelor’s-to-Master’s program, Mendum spent the next year working toward a master’s degree in mathematics with an applied and computational mathematics option. She received a full-time teaching assistantship, which covered tuition and fees.

“It’s exciting that I’ve gotten this far without paying for my education,” she says.

Read more about Rebecca’s story at the link below!

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/profiles/rebecca-mendum.aspx

Chemistry Asst. Prof. James Reuther and his research group received an $85,000 grant from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center to develop a sustainable water filtration system that can remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are long-lasting chemicals linked to harmful health effects.

Read more about their groundbreaking research at the link below.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/reuther-pfas-research.aspx

“We make the practicum as close to a real-world environment as we can, so the students face essentially all the challenges they would normally face in an industrial environment, such as a nuclear power plant,” says Radiological Sciences Program Coordinator Mark Tries ’90, ’94, ’00.

Students in Radiation Safety and Control course put skills to the test as exercise simulates a real-world contamination scenario.

Read more about this career-connected work at the link in our bio.

“We’re transforming it into something useful and beautiful for our community,” says Smith of the site, located at 46 Wilder St.

What was once a vacant, roughly 14,700-square-foot lot bordered by homes on South Campus is now blossoming into a vibrant food forest, thanks to the vision of mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Alana Smith ’22.

The idea for a food forest, which is composed of edible plants designed to mimic a natural forest system, came to Smith as she witnessed supply chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then an undergraduate student at UMass Lowell, Smith looked into sustainable food systems and discovered food forests, which provide high food yields on less land.

To learn more about the food forest on UMass Lowell’s South Campus check out the link below.

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/food-forest.aspx?utm_content=linkstream_stream&utm_source=storystream

Whether it’s for the Blue and White or the Green and Gray, the UMass Lowell Tsongas Center loves a good game of hockey! Best of luck to the PWHL Boston’s Team in their Game 5 of the PWHL Finals. 🥅 💙 🏒 💚

“I love what I do every day. I have the flexibility to make it work, and it all started with the experiences and advice I received at UMass Lowell.”

Exercise science alum Alex Sarazen ’17 went on to chiropractic school and now treats athletes at his own clinic. He also teaches classes at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Read more about Alex’s journey at the link below!

🔗 https://www.uml.edu/profiles/alexander-sarazen.aspx

One of UMass Lowell’s great strengths is the City of Lowell, and we’re so proud to host the PWHL BOSTON professional women’s hockey team right here at the Tsongas Center as they play for the league’s first Walter Cup championship!

A team of researchers from Iran, Italy and the United States set out to discover a minimally invasive way of characterizing Shahr-e Sokhteh gemstones. Their findings, which are published in the Nature Portfolio journal Scientific Reports, provide a new method for gemstone identification.

“Our research shows that science can work across borders, across cultures and across time, even with things that are as old as 3200 B.C.,” says Noureddine Melikechi, the Kennedy College of Sciences
dean and a co-author of the paper.

Read more at the link belelow.

https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2024/gemstone-characterization-research.aspx