All posts by: Sarah Hansen, M.S. '15

Bedrock to treetops: NSF awards $4.8M to urban environment study led by UMBC’s Claire Welty

There is an essential resource constantly flowing beneath our feet: groundwater. Urban denizens may not think about it often, or at all, because they don’t rely on wells, “but it’s still there,” says hydrologist Claire Welty, and it’s critical to understanding the health of urban ecosystems. 

Welty is director of UMBC’s Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) and a professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering. Groundwater is just one piece of a complicated puzzle that she and her team will work to put together over the next five years. A $4.8 million Critical Zone Collaborative Network grant from the National Science Foundation will make the large-scale project possible. The grant will support researchers at UMBC and eight other institutions that are part of the UMBC-led Urban Critical Zone Cluster.

Welty’s team will explore Earth’s critical zone, which extends from the tops of trees to the base of weathered bedrock, in urban centers along the Eastern Seaboard. In particular, they’re interested in how natural, geological processes occurring below the Earth’s surface and human-driven processes interact. Human influences include road salt application, polluted stormwater runoff, and soil-disturbing construction. These factors can all significantly influence urban water quality, water chemistry, and weathering processes. 

Most Critical Zone grants are for work in more pristine wilderness areas, because the added effects of urban processes make the research more complicated. But, Welty says, “that’s the most interesting part.”

The Earth’s critical zone extends from the treetops down to bedrock below ground. Image by the National Science Foundation.

Focus on the Fall Zone

The research will take place in four East Coast cities: Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Raleigh. The researchers strategically selected these urban centers because they align in a north-to-south corridor along what geologists call the “Fall Zone.” The Fall Zone exists at the transition from the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain, and is an area of intense interest for geologists.

“We think of this landscape as ancient, but recent research has led to a different understanding about how the Fall Zone in our region has evolved,” says geomorphologist Andrew Miller, UMBC professor of geography and environmental systems and a collaborator on the new grant. Glaciers to the region’s north played a role, and “human activity has also caused profound changes,” Miller says. “All of this forms the background for the work we are planning to do on this project.”

Two researchers stand below a concrete bridge, behind them is a giant green shrubbery and infront of them is sand and water.
Miller (left) and Welty in Catonsville at one of their research field sites. Photo by Victor Fulda.

Philadelphia to Raleigh: An urban corridor

The Fall Zone’s unique topography made it a natural place for some of the first American cities to emerge. Dramatic elevation changes characterize the Fall Zone, “so that’s where waterfalls formed, providing hydropower, so mills were set up,” Welty explains. Population centers grew up around the mills. Elevation changes at the Fall Zone boundary also limited water transport further inland, making it the natural place to build port cities. Today’s I-95 corridor links these urban centers.

The north-south corridor also gives the researchers an opportunity to examine how climate affects the movement of substances, such as sediment and dissolved materials, through the natural and built environments. Natural and human-introduced substances can affect everything from water quality to how quickly the bedrock wears away over time.  

Of the four cities, Raleigh is distinct in ways that offer unique opportunities. As a younger city, it’s laid out differently. It may also have newer water, sewer, and other systems that could affect its underground properties in ways that differ from older, industrial cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia.

The U.S. Northeast and mid-Atlantic at night, showing the urban corridor. Image courtesy NASA Earth Observatory, by Joshua Stevens.

Long-term legacy

Baltimore, in particular, is well-suited to host this research, because scientists have collected environmental data on the region for over twenty years through the Baltimore Ecosystem Study Long-Term Ecological Research Project (BES). The BES team has installed scientific instruments all over the region. Students, faculty, and sensors have been recording data consistently for decades, painting a picture of Baltimore’s watershed, ecology, and social issues related to the environment.  

However, “the subsurface has for the most part been ignored,” Welty says. With funding from other sources, she and her field assistants have drilled 35 monitoring  wells—but there’s more to be learned. 

“We’ve got all this incredible science that’s been going on for 20 years of the BES,” Welty says. With the Critical Zone grant, “Now we want to look at the subsurface to complement all the data and information and instrumentation—you name it, we have it,” Welty says. “We think it’s really important to marry these two together.”

In addition to adding more and different data to an already huge archive, the Baltimore-based team also plans to leverage their existing data in new ways. “We’re going to use stream chemistry as a window into the subsurface,” Welty says. The researchers will also examine land use patterns and analyze bedrock and soil cores. Tools that act like an x-ray or MRI will enable them to visualize the structure and properties of the subsurface that are impossible to observe directly.

Baltimore skyline. Photo by Adam Lindquist, used under CC-BY-NC 2.0.

Putting science into practice

Urban groundwater processes fascinate Welty. She’s driven by a fundamental desire to better understand what’s going on underneath cities in the Fall Zone. And there are practical reasons why this work is important, too.  

“At UMBC, we’re always interested in informing policy with the scientific projects we do,” she says. “We have strong relationships with partners in Baltimore, and folks in the other cities do as well. They pay attention to what we do.” 

Those relationships work in both directions. Sometimes the research informs new policies around development, water treatment, or salt use. Other times, questions from regional leaders inspire additional research, including student projects.

Some public concerns have involved hazards to the urban drinking water supply and salinization of streams, which could be detrimental to wildlife. “We’re making connections and providing a foundation of knowledge,” Welty says, so policymakers can make decisions grounded in science.   

In addition, Alan Berkowitz from the Cary Institute is on the team to help bring these important ideas to K-12 students. Berkowitz will work with the researchers to develop an Earth science module for local schools, which will eventually be available to educators nationwide. Berkowitz will also work with the team to develop a citizen science program focused on the urban critical zone theme. 

“Alan has his ear to the ground on what the schools are interested in, and he knows how to make that translation from the scientific project to this kind of outreach,” Welty says. This work will bring the project full circle, inspiring another generation of minds to explore the world beneath their feet.

Banner image: Claire Welty (left) and Andrew Miller at a field research site in Catonsville. The site is a buried stream that doubles as a storm drain and is part of a restoration project. Photo by Victor Fulda, an engineering technician in UMBC’s chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering department.

UMBC STEM BUILD students conduct and present viral research in reimagined summer program

The 19 members of UMBC’s STEM BUILD Cohort 5 and their instructors had been looking forward to a summer wet lab experience. When that wasn’t possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they worked together to convert their eight-week, in-person program into a successful online learning experience unlike anything they’d tried before.

“It was different,” says Maria Cambraia, postdoctoral teaching fellow in the STEM BUILD program and one of the instructors, “but we kept the main goal. We wanted to offer them an authentic research experience, and we did.”

Independent exploration

This year, BUILD Trainees worked in groups to analyze the genomes of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacterial cells. They also viewed and analyzed phages that previous UMBC students had isolated, including some that were unknown to science before the students discovered them. After some initial analysis, each group came up with its own research question to explore using bioinformatics tools.

“Students gain exposure to research techniques in the Bioanalytical Phage Module, but the larger benefit is their experience in self-directed research without predefined results,” says Steven Caruso, principal lecturer of biological sciences. “Because participants are engaging in real research, the experience is different every year.”

Caroline Moore ’23 (left, offset) presents her team’s research at SURF. (Screenshot from the SURF website)

Caruso has been teaching the Phage Hunters lab to UMBC students since 2008, and he adapted the full-length course for STEM BUILD five years ago. “This experience prepares them for their next step, working with an individual mentor in their own lab,” he says. “It also allows them additional opportunity for productive collaboration with their peers, and for scientific communication during lab meetings and poster presentations.”   

Feedback for success

At the end of the eight weeks, the students presented their findings at UMBC’s virtual Summer Undergraduate Research Fest (SURF). The VoiceThread platform allowed students to give and receive feedback in written, audio, and video format, all in real time.

“Leading up to SURF we practiced using VoiceThread and got tons of helpful feedback from our instructors,” shares Caroline Moore ’23, biological sciences. Even though the online format made some things more difficult, she adds, “I think having such a supportive cohort and instructors helped me push through and end up creating an amazing presentation.”

In addition to practicing with the platform, students presented updates on their work every week throughout the summer and got support with designing their posters. “Dr. Cambraia gave detailed feedback, which allowed us to develop skills for creating the abstracts and posters,” shares Angela Kim ’23, chemical engineering.

“We needed to teach them not just how to present, but instead, ‘This is how you present, and this is how you make it effective online,’” Cambraia says.

Portrait outdoors.
Steven Caruso. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

The students also received helpful feedback at SURF itself. “The questions our group received made me think about what can be improved in our research and gave me some ideas for future research as well,” Kim says. Sharath Velliyamattam ‘23, biological sciences, adds, “I learned from this experience to give visual cues, how to engage my audience, and I learned to interact with different types of people, from faculty to students.”

A new field and new confidence

The Bioanalytical Phage Module introduced many of the students to bioinformatics—and bioinformatics tools—for the first time. “The online bioinformatic work with our phage genomes was really interesting,” says Kevin Gibbons ’23, biological sciences. “I never thought I’d be interested in computational or bioinformatic work, but I feel like I gained a lot of skills that will be helpful no matter what type of research I do in the future.”

For Grace Tugado ’23, chemical engineering, the experience sparked a powerful interest in phages. “Whenever I went out with my family on hikes, I brought up phages and what we learned in lecture,” she says.

Overall, “I think this research opportunity has helped me become more confident in my ability to communicate in a research group and has made me better prepared to work collaboratively,” Moore says.

Angela Kim ’23 (left, offset) presents her research at SURF. (Screenshot from the SURF website)

Building connections

In addition to collaborating with their groups, Cohort 5 students had the opportunity to interact with previous BUILD classes. Cohorts 4 and 5 spent more than two hours discussing their experiences in a virtual meeting. Cohort 6, entering as first-year students this fall, also commented substantially on Cohort 5’s SURF posters.

Through those exchanges, “We really got a behind-the-scenes view of undergraduate research at UMBC,” Velliyamattam says. Throughout the summer, they also became part of it. 

These students faced an unusual challenge: conducting independent research, in groups, all online. By the end of the summer, the students improved their presentation skills, learned about a new area of life science, and conquered new online analytical tools. They also bonded more closely as a group—strengthening relationships that will see them through challenges long after the pandemic is over.   

Banner image: UMBC’s Biological Sciences Building along Academic Row, where STEM BUILD students would have traditionally completed their summer research experience. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC study reveals gender bias in bird song research and impact of women on science

A revolutionary group of scientists has been rethinking for two decades how we understand bird song, with women leading the way. Several of these scientists are from UMBC, and their latest research has revealed findings not just about birds, but about bird researchers.

Elaborate bird song had been considered mostly a male trait for centuries, famously discussed by Charles Darwin. But Karan Odom, Ph.D. ’16, biological sciences, published a landmark paper on female bird song in 2014 that helped change that viewpoint. Odom’s study found that as many as 70 percent of female birds sing. Her extensive research also established firmly that both sexes almost certainly sang in the common ancestor of all bird species—a radical idea in ornithology.

woman in outdoor gear holding a bird
Karan Odom, Ph.D. ’16, with a Troupial Oriole, a species where both sexes sing. Photo by Kevin Omland.

Odom conducted research at UMBC with Kevin Omland, professor of biological sciences, whose lab has led much of the research in this area. Now, a new paper led by Casey Haines ’19, biological sciences, has documented what the Omland group and others have suspected all along: Women are more likely than men to be authors, and even more likely to be first authors (research leads), on papers about female bird song. Therefore, it is largely women who have reshaped this classical field of study. 

The findings, published this week in Animal Behaviour, suggest that a diverse group of researchers is critical for scientific innovation. Diversity could also help build a more accurate and complete understanding of bird biology and other fields.

A fresh perspective

Haines and Omland completed the research with co-authors Odom and another Omland lab member, Evangeline Rose, Ph.D. ’20, biological sciences. They examined 59 bird song papers published between 1997 and 2016. 

two women outdoors, one holding a bird
Casey Haines ’19 (left) and Evangeline Rose, Ph.D. ’20, banding birds, such as this Eastern Bluebird, at a field research site in Maryland. Photo courtesy Casey Haines.

The researchers found that women made up 56 percent of all authors on female bird song papers, compared with only 40 percent of authors of general bird song papers. Women held 68 percent of first-author positions on female bird song papers, but only 44 percent of first-author positions on general bird song papers. This means men were 24 percentage points less likely than women to lead a study on female bird song, and 16 percent less likely to contribute to a female song study in any way, compared with their contributions to general bird song papers.

“I believe this paper is a great example of how diversity expands the type of research scientists are doing,” Haines says. “Female bird song research has been underrepresented in the literature until only recently. A diverse pool of researchers may result in new questions being asked and new approaches to answering those questions. I would love to see this type of research applied in other areas of STEM.”

Kevin Omland discusses the importance of diversity in science, using his lab’s bird song research as a case study, at UMBC’s GRIT-X 2019.

Other research cited in the new paper has found that women are more likely to study female animals (including humans), which have been historically understudied, as well as species that have gotten less attention in research. Female authors also publish more often with women co-authors, opening doors to greater funding and opportunities for more women in science. 

More generally, research has shown that diversity among scientists leads to greater creativity in questions, ideas, and methods.

A starting point

Omland acknowledges that this kind of study is outside his lab’s avian evolution wheelhouse, but he hopes it will spark further conversations. “We’re able to add an important data point to these discussions,” he says. And while the new paper has been in the works for some time, “In this moment, this research seems to have gained an increased weight.”

Haines and colleagues acknowledge that their study is imperfect. For example, “Our data represent gender in a binary framework, which is not reflective of society, potentially resulting in mis-gendering authors who are non-binary or gender minorities,” the paper states. “Gender minority authors make important contributions to science and are a vital part of increasing diversity. We recommend that more-detailed future studies provide opportunities for authors to self-identify their gender to avoid the possibility of mis-gendering.”

undergraduate outdoors holding bird
Casey Haines ’19 with an Eastern Bluebird at a field site in Maryland. Photo courtesy Casey Haines.

Even with its limitations, the paper provides an important glimpse into gender dynamics in ornithology. For an emerging researcher like Haines, it was an eye-opening experience. 

“Personally, it was amazing to find that the percentage of women who hold first-author positions on female bird song has increased so much within the last 20 years,” Haines says. “I think it speaks volumes on how far both female bird song and women in science have come.”

Creating space for new leaders

Haines herself is on a path to pursue graduate study in animal behavior based on her experience in the Omland lab. “Working with Dr. Omland, Evangeline, and the rest of the Omland lab was definitely the most memorable and enjoyable part of my time at UMBC,” she says.

Omland has a history of nurturing undergraduate researchers. In fact, Haines’s paper is the tenth peer-reviewed journal article published with an undergraduate first author from his lab. “Undergraduate researchers have really influenced the trajectory of our lab’s research by making consistent, significant contributions,” Omland says.

“It’s essential that we continue to build environments where researchers from all backgrounds are encouraged to explore new ideas and ask new questions,” Omland says. “Not only will this enable them to reach their potential as scientists, but it is also essential to expanding our knowledge of the world around us.”

Banner image: Kevin Omland, rear, goes birdwatching on campus with a few of his students. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Small satellite, big ambitions: UMBC’s HARP named SmallSat Mission of the Year

UMBC’s Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP) Satellite, which began in Vanderlei Martins’s imagination more than a decade ago, has been flying in low-Earth orbit since February 19. It contains new technology that can collect detailed information about tiny particles in the atmosphere—previously unmeasurable data that will inform climate studies for years to come. The HARP team, including a large number of students, overcame obstacles at every step of the satellite’s journey to space, and its success is already being recognized.

On August 6, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) named HARP the Small Satellite Mission of the Year. To qualify as a “smallsat,” satellites must weigh less than 150 kg (330 lbs.). To win, a smallsat must demonstrate significant improvement in the capability of small satellites. That could mean advances in their structural design, scientific instrumentation, communications ability, or other factors.  

A popular vote informed the AAIA SmallSat Technical Committee’s final decision. After voters selected HARP as a finalist, the smallsat went up against nine other finalists, including teams from the U.S., Guatemala, Singapore, and France. Votes for HARP poured in from all over the world, including ballots from 40 states and countries on six continents. In the end, HARP emerged as the winner.

The UMBC HARP satellite team with their families and colleagues from Space Dynamics Lab on the morning of the rocket launch (November 2, 2019). Photo by Sarah Hansen, M.S. ’15.

A moment of joy

“I would like to thank the HARP team as a whole, because HARP is really the result of the perseverance of the team over many years,” said Martins, director of UMBC’s Earth and Space Institute, as he accepted the award. “There has been no shortage of problems, but we have always worked together to overcome them.”

HARP’s innovative design and ability to collect new kinds of data that will be crucial for future research sealed the win. The HARP instrument, designed and built by a UMBC team and funded by the NASA Earth Science Technology Office, is smaller than a loaf of bread. Yet, its pioneering polarimeter (the first ever in orbit) can measure certain properties of particles in the atmosphere for the first time, offering a new look at the properties of clouds and tiny particles in the atmosphere called aerosols. The first observation from HARP arrived back on Earth on April 16, and it’s been collecting data continuously since. 

The small spacecraft developed by UMBC’s partners at Space Dynamics Lab (SDL) carried HARP to space, and the SDL team manages the satellite while it is in orbit. The whole satellite (instrument plus spacecraft) is the size of a large loaf of bread and only weighs about 6 kg (13 lbs.). UMBC shares the award with Space Dynamics Lab, which is affiliated with Utah State University.

“All of us at UMBC are so very proud of the efforts and the impact of Vanderlei Martins and the Earth & Space Institute,” says Karl Steiner, UMBC’s vice president for research. “Looking back at the launch of the HARP satellite at Wallops Island this past November, I know that today’s recognition as SmallSat Mission of the Year brings a much-needed moment of joy and encouragement to our campus community during a very different time.”

The HARP instrument (center) at the UMBC Earth and Space Institute. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Student-driven success

The AIAA also gave out a People’s Choice Award (PCA) at the ceremony. The awards committee selects a PCA when a project has made substantial, unique contributions, but doesn’t necessarily meet the requirements for Mission of the Year. This year, Quetzal 1, Guatemala’s first-ever satellite, received the People’s Choice Award. Quetzal 1 has “opened the whole field of space science and technology in Guatemala,” shared Emily Clemens, awards committee chair.

Guatemala currently has no engineering graduate school programs and no space agency, noted Luis Zea, one of Quetzal 1’s co-directors, “but the students here accomplished something that I think is a good example of what young people can do when they set their minds to solving problems.”

Students are at the root of HARP, as well. The team has included scientists and engineers at every level. High school students, undergraduates, and graduate students all made important contributions in collaboration with faculty researchers.

“HARP is a small satellite, but we always had very big ambitions,” Martins says. At long last, those ambitions are bearing fruit. Some of the students who worked on HARP, and some new ones, are now at work on HARP2, which will build on technology developed for HARP. HARP2 will travel on the major NASA PACE mission, scheduled to launch in 2023. HARP2 will collect data that will inform studies of air quality, clouds, precipitation, and climate.  

With only a tinge of disbelief, and a big smile, Martins says, “And that’s all due to this small satellite.”  

Banner image: Core HARP team members Vanderlei Martins (left); Roberto Borda, assistant research scientist with UMBC’s Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET); and Dominik Cieslak, assistant research scientist with JCET. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Alumna Leads Team to Breakthrough Coronavirus Vaccine Results

Clinical trials seeking a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 are galloping forward around the world, and Kizzmekia Corbett and Barney Graham’s research team at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) continues to lead the pack.

In a study of non-human primates published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine last week, the team became the first to demonstrate that their vaccine successfully stopped viral replication in both the lungs and nose. The findings were a significant advance compared to previous studies, which only showed protection in the lungs. The day after Corbett’s results were published, Johnson & Johnson published similar results for their vaccine, although the animals in the Johnson & Johnson trial were exposed to a lower amount of the virus.

“Protection in the upper airway is something that’s hard to come by, so it’s a big deal,” says Corbett ’08, M16, biological sciences and sociology, scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines Team at the NIAID Vaccine Research Center. “We were very excited when we saw it.”

Next steps

The next step is a phase III human trial, which began with 30,000 participants on July 27. The participants will either receive the vaccine or a placebo, “and then they will go live their lives, and either be exposed to the coronavirus or not,” Corbett says. Over time, enough of the participants will be exposed so that researchers can measure the efficacy of the vaccine. 

Biotech company Moderna is orchestrating the human trial using data generated by Corbett’s team. Many people are laser-focused on the human trials, which are necessary to determine whether the vaccine is safe and effective at protecting people from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. However, Corbett says, “There are still important questions we can answer with animal models.” 

For example, they can measure different immune responses, like the presence of antibodies or different kinds of immune cells, when animals receive different doses of the vaccine. They can also measure how long those responses last.

“We were adamant about testing sub-protective doses,” Corbett says. Testing doses below the level necessary for full protection might seem counterintuitive. However, looking at the immune responses and outcomes in animals that contract the disease at different doses can provide useful information.  Scientists can look at the results to figure out which kinds of immune responses are necessary for complete protection, and how strong those responses must be. “You can’t really comprehensively understand the immunity if you don’t test wide dose ranges,” Corbett explains.

The new normal

Many of these additional studies are happening now, some in Corbett’s lab at NIAID. Although at one point it felt like their lives might go back to normal after the phase III trial began, it’s become clear to Corbett that “normal” is still a year or two away. “This work is never going to be over for us,” she says. “We’re still extremely busy, and everyone’s working extremely hard.” 

Corbett, Olubukola Abiona ’17, and team at NIH.

Between meetings to organize the team, interpreting data, writing papers and grants, working in the lab, and more, Corbett is consistently putting in 10-plus-hour days, six days a week—and having one day of rest is only a recent development. Even on a Sunday, the day we spoke, she said two or three of her teammates were working in the lab.

“There is such a necessity to see at least one vaccine through, that I would just feel like I didn’t do my part if I gave up, or burned out, or got too tired. So the necessity, the need for a vaccine now, is keeping me going.”

So much to know

Although COVID-19 is driving the rapid progress and increase in funding for this kind of research, for Corbett her work is about much more than the current pandemic. “It’s not just about mRNA 1273,” the name of the critical molecule in her team’s vaccine. “It’s about understanding what protective immunity looks like for coronaviruses,” she says. “This large, broad pipeline of vaccines for coronavirus really is going to inform future coronavirus vaccine development.”

The pandemic has created much greater visibility for her team, which includes Olubukola Abiona ’17, M25, biochemistry and molecular biology. That’s been a boon for all of their work. In addition to the global need for a vaccine, “I’m motivated by the unknown. There’s just so much to know,” Corbett says. “And now, a lot of the questions that we’ve always wanted to answer, we can.”

Corbett (third from left) with a group of fellow Meyerhoff alumni in 2017.

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Header image: Corbett with Meyerhoff alumni Akanksha Lewis ’10, M17, chemical engineering, (left) and Nnamdi Osia ’09, M17, computer engineering, (right) following Meyerhoff Scholars Program selection interviews in 2017. Photo courtesy of Keith Harmon, director, Meyerhoff Scholars Program.

UMBC’s Meghan Grenier receives top NROTC teaching honor from the U.S. Navy

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Meghan Grenier joined the UMBC faculty as a clinical assistant professor in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program in 2018. In two years, she has already left her mark on the program and its students. Now, she’s received national recognition for work with UMBC’s NROTC midshipmen.

“With her unlimited enthusiasm, upbeat attitude, expertise, and strong dedication to the Naval ROTC mission, she is an ideal role model for her students and peers alike,” says U.S. Navy Captain Troy Mong, professor of naval science and the commanding officer for UMBC NROTC. “Her superb mentorship and very involved academic advising of our midshipmen has enabled our students to excel in their leadership development and academic performance.”

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Meghan Grenier. Photo courtesy Meghan Grenier.

Mong isn’t the only one who noticed Grenier’s commitment to the Navy and her students. This spring, the Naval Education and Training Command selected Grenier as the NROTC Instructor of the Year out of all NROTC instructors across the U.S.

In further recognition of Grenier’s leadership skill and potential, she recently took on a competitive flag aide position for Rear Admiral Doug Vermissimo, the commander of Carrier Strike Group Nine, a group of naval vessels stationed out of San Diego, CA. Flag aides work directly with an admiral and help manage their affairs while becoming more familiar with the leadership structure and duties in the Navy. These challenging positions are designed for junior officers with outstanding performance records.  

Meghan Grenier teaches a class. Photo courtesy Meghan Grenier.

Training the Navy’s next leaders

The UMBC NROTC program was founded in 2015 as the first in the state of Maryland. It is part of the Maryland NROTC consortium, which also includes the University of Maryland, College Park. The program graduated its first students in May 2019, and they were commissioned as officers in the U.S. Navy the day after commencement.

“I am very appreciative of the opportunity to instruct the future Navy and Marine Corps officers here at the Maryland NROTC program. They are an impressive group of individuals who will go on to serve as excellent Navy and Marine Corps officers,” Grenier says. “I hope what they have learned from me and the NROTC program will enable them to find success out in the fleet and prepare them for the challenges of leadership in our Navy.”

Mong is certain she will accomplish just that. “Megan has had a significant impact in training and developing our midshipmen into the next generation of future naval officers who will lead well from their first days in the fleet.”

Banner image: UMBC NROTC inductees in 2016 with UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski (center), Rear Admiral Stephen Evans (center right), and UMBC NROTC faculty members Captain Troy Mong (center left), Lieutenant John O’Brien (third to left from center), Commander Stew Wennersten (front row, third from center on right), and Lieutenant Michael Tenaglia (front row, far left). Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC develops future STEM teachers, researchers through pilot program pairing high school and college students

This fall, Kimani Reed will enter UMBC as a new student in the pre-nursing program, but she’s already a member of the UMBC community. Through a partnership between UMBC and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, Reed worked on campus one day a week throughout her high school career, gaining experience in several UMBC offices.

“From freshman year all the way through senior year, I met new people at UMBC who always supported me,” Reed says. When she worked in the UMBC Shriver Center, she shares, “The warm welcome I felt when I walked through the doors on the first day already made UMBC feel like home.”

Reed’s connection to The Shriver Center will continue this fall. She has chosen to participate in the Shriver Living Learning Community, a residential community for students committed to pursuing service-learning and community engagement.

Championing student success

Knowing she had her eye on a medical career, Reed’s UMBC mentors frequently pointed her toward programming that would help her reach her goal. So when her supervisor at the Shriver Center, Lori Hardesty, associate director of applied learning and engagement, found out about a special pilot program in the life sciences, she immediately recommended it to Reed.

Hua Lu, professor of biological sciences, led the pilot, and Reed jumped at the chance to work with her. She and Shaojie Chen ’21, chemistry, made up one of four student teams, each with one UMBC student and one local high school student. 

Each team participated in a weeklong program in the summer of 2019 funded by the National Science Foundation and organized by Lu. The Research Training for Future Science Teachers and High School Students (RTTS) program has two goals: to create early research opportunities for high school students interested in STEM and to better prepare the next generation of STEM educators. 

Kimani Reed (left) and Shaojie Chen work together in Hua Lu’s lab during the summer program in 2019.

Transformative experiences

That’s how Reed found herself spending her 17th birthday, on a Friday in June last summer, in Hua Lu’s plant genetics lab at UMBC. She arrived by 8:30 a.m. to add the finishing touches to her presentation with Chen on CDF3, a protein found in arabidopsis plants. 

Chen and the other UMBC participants were Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars. The Sherman program prepares undergraduates to be culturally responsive and compassionate educators, and many scholars work in Baltimore City. Their partners were all high school students, with the other three (beyond Reed) coming from Baltimore City College High School.

When Lu looks at Reed, Chen, and the other program participants, she sees the future of STEM teaching and learning. “I think we need to provide early, discipline-specific training for our future teachers,” she says. And for the high school participants, “It’s a lot of work, but when you see you can provide this many students with a hands-on experience, it’s definitely worth it.”

Lu is learning from these students’ experiences as she prepares for the program’s next iteration. The pandemic prevented her from running the program in person in 2020, but she is excited for it to relaunch in 2021.

Digging deeper

Based on Reed’s recent study of genetics in high school biology, sometimes she mentored Chen, rather than the other way around. The pair spent the week exploring the structure and function of CDF3 through hands-on laboratory work and research in scientific online databases.

Ben Lockwood (right) and Youssef Maroud work together during the summer program in 2019. Photo by Hua Lu.

“I learned that molecules do so many different things. I knew they were complex, but looking at them up close through the different databases and digging deeper, I learned so much more,” Reed says. “This experience further confirmed my desire to pursue a medical-related career.” Reed has chosen nursing, after giving the biology major her full consideration thanks to her experience with “Mama Lu,” the students’ nickname for Lu based on her supportive attitude.

Whether a student ends up pursuing research or not, Lu says, an experience like this summer program can be a useful eye-opener about what a research career would be like.

Research for teachers

Ben Lockwood ’20, biological sciences, came at the experience from a different angle—he’s long known he wanted to pursue a teaching career. He was initially skeptical of a research experience, but thanks to the program’s team-based approach, he found it rewarding.

“I definitely feel like I gained from this research experience. And I think it was because I got to do it alongside a high school student,” Lockwood says. “It furthered my understanding of the science content, but it also helped grow my teaching skills, and pair them together, which I hadn’t experienced before.”

Working together with his partner, Youssef Maroud, got Lockwood thinking about “how I would approach labs and experimentation in the classroom,” he says. For example, he began to consider how he might partner with local labs and universities “to provide an upper-level lab environment that offers access to things the high school students wouldn’t normally do.”

Both the high school and UMBC students learned quite a bit about how important it is to use equipment correctly and carefully, and to record results thoroughly and accurately. A technique like pipetting is fairly simple, but also essential, they learned, especially when working with expensive or rare chemicals.

As a result, “Practicing professionalism in the lab is something that I hope to teach my students,” Lockwood says. “And I definitely know from this experience that I have to first provide students with a technical foundation. How can they come up with a procedure if they don’t know the capabilities of each piece of equipment? And how can they carry it out if they don’t know how to use the equipment?”

If Lockwood is any example, “This program is developing better teachers for society,” Lu says, “which will have a positive impact on future students and STEM professionals.”

Hua Lu. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Lasting bonds

The experience in Lu’s lab was a win for everyone in the pilot program. “The high school students brought so much energy to the lab,” Lu says. “They showed a passion for biology, and you’d see those lightbulb moments.”

The relationships the pairs formed were also a meaningful part of the experience. “I still text with my partner from time to time,” Lockwood says. Building their relationship was “easy, natural, and fun,” he adds. One of the reasons Lockwood wants to teach is to mentor students who may be struggling to find their way, so “being able to establish that relationship with Youssef was very affirming. And I look forward to being a mentor to many more students in the future.”

That’s exactly what Lu hopes students get out of the program: an understanding of not just how to do lab research, but also of how important relationships are to learning and discovery in science. 

As Reed begins her UMBC career, she’s excited to extend the relationships she’s already formed at UMBC and to create new ones. “It meant a lot to me to be part of this, because I still got to stay where I felt at home—because I consider UMBC a home away from home—but I also got to make new family with the people I met,” Reed says. “Now I have a really large family and support system through UMBC, and I am so excited to see what I can do with all of them helping me grow.” 

Banner image: Summer program participants and other members of Hua Lu’s lab enjoy lunch together on campus in summer 2019. From left to right: Ben Lockwood ’20; Malaysia McGinnis ’20; Min Gao, postdocotoral fellow; Hua Lu; Cora Bainum, Baltimore City College High School; Jessica Allison, Ph.D. student; Allen Stallings, Baltimore City College High School; Shaojie Chen ’21; Kimani Reed, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School; Riki Egoshi ’20 (front); Youssef Maroud, Baltimore City College High School. Photo courtesy Hua Lu.

Mantis shrimp eyes get even wilder: UMBC team finds twice the expected number of light-detecting proteins

Mantis shrimps have earned wide acclaim in popular culture for their punching limbs, bright colors, and, perhaps most of all, their unusual eyes. “Everybody knows about them now,” says Tom Cronin, professor of biological sciences and a world leader in mantis shrimp vision research. “These things are memes.”

However, despite the increase in public awareness and a wealth of research on this diverse group of crustaceans, it turns out mantis shrimp still have a few tricks up their antennae.

It’s well understood that mantis shrimps’ eyes are extreme. For example, human eyes have three types of color receptors, which detect red, blue, and green light, respectively. Human eyes also have three different proteins called opsins, which are generally involved in light detection. One opsin is at work in each kind of color receptor. Mantis shrimp, on the other hand, have 16 receptor types (the most known in any animal species). The UMBC team, led by postdoctoral researcher Megan Porter, predicted that mantis shrimps would also have a one-to-one ratio of color receptors to opsins. Accordingly, they expected to find 16 opsins in their shrimp.

Instead, the shrimp offered up more surprises. After more than a decade of painstaking experiments, Porter, Cronin and colleagues have found that instead of the expected 16 opsins, mantis shrimp eyes have  at least 33 types of opsins. The relationships between opsins and color receptors were completely different from what they expected, too. They published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June.

“One of the reasons I love science is that we took this animal with an exceptional visual system, and it’s become even more complex,” Porter says. “Every level that we look at adds another layer of complexity to how the visual system is working.”

Neogonodactylus oerstedii, the mantis shrimp species that the team studied for the opsin research. Photo by Rickesh Patel.
Neogonodactylus oerstedii, the mantis shrimp species that the team studied for the opsin research. Photo by Rickesh Patel.

New tech enables new science

The surprising finding in mantis shrimp is part of a trend in vision science. “We thought we understood how animal vision works,” Porter says. “Then people started looking at the molecules involved as techniques became more available, and it turns out we don’t understand as much as we thought we did.”

For example, other teams have reported upwards of 40 opsins in deep-sea fish, who seemingly have little reason to invest in elaborate vision systems. Still other groups have found large numbers of opsins in dragonflies and other insects.

Advances in genetic sequencing technology have enabled this boom in vision science. Partway through Porter’s project, cutting-edge methods for sequencing genetic material came on the market. While the newest techniques were still prohibitively expensive for most labs, the previous generation of sequencing—still much better than standard techniques—suddenly became affordable.

As a result, Porter and teammates Michael Bok, Ph.D. ’13, biological sciences, and former postdoctoral fellow Hiroko Awata were able to sequence essentially all of the RNA found in the mantis shrimp eye. This collection of RNA is called the “transcriptome,” because it represents the DNA that has been transcribed, or converted from DNA to RNA. 

The cell uses these transcripts as instructions to build essentially all the proteins in the cell. From what the team already knew about opsin sequences, they were able to identify the transcripts that gave instructions specifically for opsin proteins.

Tom Cronin (left) with lab members and collaborators at the airport on Lizard Island, Australia, one of the team’s field research sites, in 2014. Megan Porter in center (green shirt) and co-author Michael Bok at far right. Photo courtesy Tom Cronin.

“Historically, these kinds of studies wouldn’t have been possible,” Porter says. “These techniques have made it possible to investigate a much broader range of animals, and to find out so many amazing things.”

Sticking with it

The transcriptome results were so shocking that it took several more years for the team to gather enough data to confirm them with full confidence. “We just kept amassing data, and the story kept getting more complicated,” Cronin says. Porter adds, “First we had to convince ourselves, then we had to convince the rest of the scientific world.”

Cronin credits Porter for persevering, even when journals rebuffed initial attempts at publishing about the work because it departed so drastically from established knowledge. “Megan is very tough and very able to stick with a problem,” he says. “She kept sticking with it, and she filled in all the little holes in the data set one by one.”

For her part, Porter felt buoyed by Cronin’s guidance. “He pushes you to be a rigorous scientist, challenges you to think deeply about your work, and is really just a wonderful mentor and collaborator,” she says. “And if you look at the up-and-coming people in this field today, a large percentage of them came out of his lab. He’s had a really big influence.”

Co-authors Michael Bok (left), Megan Porter (center) and Tom Cronin at a celebration in London in January, 2020, where Cronin received the international Rank Prize in Optoelectronics. Photo courtesy Megan Porter.

Enticing clues about what opsins do

Part of the UMBC team’s validation work involved figuring out where in the eye, and in which cell types, different opsins were present. Those experiments resulted in some enticing clues about the function of some of the opsins.

For example, the team found a few opsins toward the top of the eye that they believe are sensitive to blue light. That placement is reminiscent of blue-light-sensitive opsins found in insects. Insects use the opsins to detect patterns of polarized light in the sky, which could be important for navigation. 

“No one has characterized that in a marine organism before,” Porter says. “And because of differences in the way that light behaves in air versus water, no one expected to see that in a marine organism.”

Rickesh Patel, Ph.D. ’21, biological sciences, was thrilled by the findings, but not completely surprised. He recently published research with Cronin that indicated mantis shrimp use polarization patterns for navigation. “I think it’s really cool that we can use molecular tools to give us insight into the function of the eye that we’ve missed,” Porter says.

A female peacock mantis shrimp, one of the most colorful species, carrying her eggs. Photo by Christian Gloor, used under CC-BY-2.0.
A female peacock mantis shrimp, one of the most colorful species, carrying her eggs. Photo by Christian Gloor, used under CC-BY-2.0.

The golden egg

Next up for this research is looking at the proteins themselves, rather than the transcripts that hold their instructions. “I expect that as we continue to look at every level that we will continue to find unexpected and fascinating complexities,” Porter says. “My joke hypothesis is that opsins are everywhere, doing everything. But I do think their functions are much more diverse than anyone had guessed.”

As Cronin puts it, mantis shrimp “are like the goose with the golden eggs. Just when you think they’ve run out, there’s another one that pops out.”

And on top of the surprises that keep turning up in mantis shrimp vision specifically, Porter wonders what established scientific paradigms might be the next to fall as our ability to examine the natural world continues to advance.

“What is the next thing that’s going to totally revolutionize our understanding of things we thought we had figured out?” she asks. Technology can’t do the research by itself, though. It will take creative and determined scientists like Porter, Bok, and Awata, and supportive mentors like Cronin, to change the way we understand the world.

Banner image: Co-authors Porter, Cronin, and Bok with other former and current Cronin lab members at the 2019 International Congress on Invertebrate Vision at Backaskog Castle, Kristianstad, Sweden. From left to right: Alice Chou, current Ph.D. student; Kate Feller, Ph.D. ’14; Alex Kingston, Ph.D. ’15; Tom Cronin; Megan Porter; Michael Bok, Ph.D. ’13; Rickesh Patel, current Ph.D. student; and Chan Lin, current postdoctoral fellow. Photo courtesy Tom Cronin.

UMBC mathematician Kathleen Hoffman receives new grants to improve HIV modeling

Kathleen Hoffman, professor of mathematics and statistics, thrives on solving puzzles. She has spent her career working to create and refine mathematical models of notoriously complex biological systems. For the last decade, she and colleague Katharine Gurski at Howard University have been working together to model the spread of HIV. Now, the pair has received two new grants to support their work.

Funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support their efforts to improve the model of how HIV spreads between people. A grant from the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURM) will support work to model how HIV infects cells in the body and develops resistance to drug treatments.

Pieces of the puzzle

The CURM grant will support undergraduates in Hoffman and Gurski’s labs to model how HIV behaves inside the body. In particular, they want to know how it responds to a common treatment known as highly-active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART). 

“Some strains of HIV are less likely to respond to treatment,” Hoffman says, “and when patients don’t follow the treatment regimen carefully, that can also lead to resistance.” If a person’s HIV becomes resistant to their current treatment, they can more easily pass the infection to others. So a better understanding of the presence of drug resistance in the population is critical to building accurate population-based models of HIV spread. 

Kathleen Hoffman. Photo by Jessica Hoffman and Lisa Comfort.

Hoffman enjoys working with undergraduates to give them exposure to research. Rebecca Laws ’21, mathematics, and Michael Klos ’21, mathematics, will work with her on this project. 

“How can you expect people to enjoy research, if they don’t know what it is?” Hoffman asks. She says being accountable to students and their projects also helps keep her own research on track. “It accomplishes small but meaningful things toward my research that I might not do if I wasn’t working with a student,” she says. “They each contribute their own piece of the puzzle.”

Refining the model

Hoffman and Gurski’s previous collaboration on an HIV-transmission model included factors like demographic information and sexual behavior. Through their new NSF grant they will make the model more precise by incorporating two more major factors. They will account for the role of long-term relationships and usage of PrEP, a drug that reduces one’s risk of contracting HIV when taken every day. Hoffman’s Ph.D. student, Sylvia Gutowska, is taking the lead on the PrEP modeling.

Classical models of disease spread treat people “basically like molecules in a gas, where they’re moving all over the place, and there’s some probability that they will touch each other. And then, if they touch each other, there’s some probability that one will pass the infection to the other,” Hoffman says. “That’s the underlying assumption of all of these models.”

But the analogy between people and molecules breaks down when you start looking at complex human behaviors. For example, long-term partnerships dramatically reduce the likelihood of risky encounters between individuals. 

Using PrEP adds more complexity. When taken regularly, PrEP reduces the likelihood of a person passing the disease to someone else. But research shows that if someone is taking PrEP, they are also more likely to behave in riskier ways. And if they forget to take their daily dose, they’re at higher risk again temporarily.

Yellow, blue, and green stained microscope image of cells.
HIV (yellow) attacks a human T-cell (blue). Image by ZEISS Microscopy, used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

These factors “make the modeling way more complicated from a mathematical perspective,” Hoffman says. Incorporating those two parameters will be the primary work of the NSF grant.

Hoffman and Gurski also want to validate the new model they develop. To do that, they’ll give the model real data from 2005 on disease rates, and then see how well it is able to predict disease rates a few years later (e.g. 2010 and 2015). Because these data already exist, they’ll be able to compare the real data to the model’s predictions.

Informing disease prevention

Once they have an upgraded model, the researchers can test individual parameters in the model to see which would have the biggest effects on the level of disease in a population. This can then inform public health decisions.

“By measuring the sensitivity of the parameters, it’s kind of like looking for the biggest bang for your buck in terms of resource allocation,” Hoffman explains. “For instance, if you have money to put toward an education campaign, should you put it toward making sure people take PrEP diligently? Or will it have more of an impact if you put it toward promoting condom use? Which will have a bigger impact on decreasing the amount of disease in society? That’s the kind of question this kind of work can usually answer, if the model is accurate.”

But even figuring out what the parameters are to begin with can be very difficult. The work goes way beyond math into HIV biology and even the sociology and psychology behind people’s behavior and relationships.

It’s hard, “but what I like about science and research is the fact that I’m not constrained by siloes. Sometimes I have to go read literature in the psychology and sociology fields, and I have to read biology papers that I struggle through,” Hoffman says. “That’s why I like it, because I never know what I’m going to need to learn next.”

Banner image: UMBC Biological Sciences Building. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC faculty on a mission to prepare robust, high-quality online classes for fall semester

In mid-March, UMBC faculty members converted from in-person classes to remote instruction in a matter of days. With virtually zero lead time and, for many, little experience with online teaching, the switch took a heroic effort. However, instructors are well aware that students will be expecting more come fall.

Faculty members are also expecting much more of themselves, and they have demonstrated it by showing up in droves for a variety of programs offered through UMBC’s Faculty Development Center (FDC), Division of Information Technology (DoIT), and the colleges and academic departments. Since May, more than half of all faculty have participated in training activities associated with online teaching, not including the faculty members serving as mentors and instructors for these trainings. 

Each of the three UMBC colleges has taken its own approach to getting faculty members ready, but common threads run through all of their initiatives. 

“I think anybody’s goal, in any sort of class, is to provide the highest-quality, most optimal experience to our students,” says Jamie Gurganus, associate director of engineering education initiatives in the College of Engineering and IT (COEIT).

Translating teaching instincts online

Of course, providing a high-quality educational experience in an online environment looks different than it does in an in-person class. That means reimagining class activities, assignments, and assessments. Perhaps especially, it means thinking deliberately about how to build community across space and time.

“These are all things that our faculty are good at face-to-face, because that’s what they’re experienced with,” says John Stolle-McAllister, associate dean for student success and curricular affairs in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), “but they’re trying to take their good teaching instincts and experience and put that into a new format, which is more than just learning some tech tools. It’s thinking about what makes sense online.”

Kathleen Hoffman, professor of mathematics and associate dean for faculty advancement in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Photo courtesy Kathleen Hoffman.

The challenges to effective online teaching also differ drastically from discipline to discipline. Kathleen Hoffman is associate dean for faculty advancement in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS). “Recognizing that every course has different needs, I wanted to create a flexible program so that the faculty could take advantage of it from many different perspectives,” she shares.  

A quick PIVOT

These three college leads—Gurganus, Stolle-McAllister, and Hoffman—have collaborated with colleagues in their own units, DoIT, and the FDC to create summer training that will help faculty give their students “safe, thriving online environments” for their courses in the fall, as Gurganus describes it.  

All of the colleges’ efforts hinge on the Planning Instructional Variety for Online Teaching (PIVOT) program developed by DoIT staff. This program comes in several flavors. A starter pack of five, one-hour webinars focuses on the basics of how to design an online course and the tools available at UMBC. It has already been offered twice and will be offered once more before the semester begins. Two different two-week PIVOT+ programs, one tailored for CAHSS faculty (offered twice) and another for COEIT and CNMS, are more comprehensive. By the end of the PIVOT+ program, faculty members will already have done much of the work to prepare an online course.

“All of these initiatives focus on teaching faculty effective practices for teaching online and showing them how to create student-centered learning experiences,” says Sherri Braxton, senior director of instructional technology, and one of the leads organizing the offerings. “Through a program like PIVOT, faculty contribute to a growing community in which they can share their experiences designing courses and teaching online,” she adds. In addition to PIVOT, DoIT is also offering a number of tool-specific trainings this summer. 

Sherri Braxton, senior director of instructional technology, leads the instructional technology team at UMBC that conceived of and implemented the PIVOT program.

In addition to DoIT programs, the FDC has also been busy this summer. Their programming is usually concentrated during the academic year, but not anymore. FDC staff, led by associate vice provost for faculty affairs and director Linda Hodges, have been offering at least weekly programs through the Center. Their workshops create opportunities for faculty to discuss best pedagogical practices for online instruction, including ideas for building community and motivating students online.

Boot camp

In addition to PIVOT and PIVOT+, CNMS has created affinity groups for instructors of large classes, one for lab classes, and one for adjunct faculty members, who may have different concerns. “The affinity groups facilitate a grassroots effort to support the faculty in these particularly challenging aspects of online teaching,” Hoffman says. “And they’re off and running.” Faculty peer mentors who are already well-versed in online teaching lead the affinity groups.

CNMS full-time faculty who participate in 10 hours of UMBC-offered training for online instruction will be considered CNMS Fellows in Online Instruction and receive a Hrabowski Award, which comes with a small stipend.

Student outdoors working on a laptop.
Online learning can happen anywhere.

Rather than group faculty by class format, CAHSS faculty expressed the desire to be grouped by subject area. These cohorts will meet outside the formal PIVOT+ programming to provide additional support and accountability. All CAHSS faculty can earn a Hrabowski Award by participating in PIVOT+ and developing a blueprint for an online class.

“Some of the departments got really excited about supporting each other in this and doing it as a boot camp,” Stolle-McAllister says. “The demand was tremendous. They really wanted to get into, ‘How do I apply and practice this? What does it mean for my class?’”

COEIT is offering a menu of discipline-specific workshops in addition to PIVOT+. Gurganus’s committee selected the topics based on a survey of faculty members’ needs. In order to earn the Hrabowski Award, COEIT faculty must participate in PIVOT+, attend three additional workshops of their choice, and upload an online lesson to a forum for feedback.

An interesting COEIT twist is that Undergraduate Teaching Fellows will also be involved in the work. These rising UMBC juniors and seniors will participate in the workshops and offer feedback on the uploaded lessons. “Students bring a really important perspective,” Gurganus says. “In the end, we’re doing all of this for them.”

Helena Mentis, associate professor of information systems, is also supporting COEIT’s efforts to help faculty transition online. She is leading a committee focused on developing solutions for lab-based courses.

By the numbers

Offering tons of programming is one thing. Faculty members must also participate with the sincere desire to improve their teaching practice. The good news is that the UMBC community is rising to the occasion, from the most experienced online educators offering their willing support to colleagues, to the uninitiated dipping their toes in the online teaching world for the first time—and working hard to swim in the deep end.

Based on data from PIVOT sessions that have already occurred, “Conservatively, I’d estimate about 400 participants in various iterations of PIVOT to date,” says John Fritz, associate vice president for instructional technology and new media. “Given that UMBC has 538 full-time and 292 part-time faculty, I am so impressed by how many faculty are investing their time and energy in re-thinking and re-designing their courses for this upcoming year.”

The FDC has seen similar participation levels for their programs: 277 faculty participated in programs focused on strategies for effective online instruction, and nearly one-third of those faculty members attended three or more sessions.

Bird's-eye-view of a student studying at a round table.
A UMBC student studies on campus.

Opening minds

And all this is happening during the summer, when faculty members typically focus on making strong progress in their research programs. “They want to do a good job for our students, so a lot of them are just putting that aside for this summer,” Stolle-McAllister says. “I’m not surprised, but so impressed that so many of our faculty are taking advantage of this. It just reminds me how many people we have here who care a lot about what they’re doing.”

Gurganus agrees. “We really are coming together as a community from all of the disciplines,” she says. “The instructors truly care. They want the students to succeed.”

It’s a challenging, but also exciting, time. Beyond reconsidering lessons and online tools, faculty are also thinking about how to be deliberate and thoughtful about helping students learn the best they can. They’re also learning themselves how to be even more open, flexible, and compassionate, in order to support students who are experiencing a wide range of realities during the pandemic. These shifts in mindset and approach could reverberate long after the pandemic, Gurganus argues.

“I think that this process is going to lead to more open-mindedness. Even when we get back to in-person, face-to-face classes, faculty are going to say, you know what? These issues are important in any context, and I should keep them at the forefront of my thoughts.”

Learn more about how UMBC is preparing for the unique fall semester ahead by deliberately creating community in online spaces and planning for a hybrid model of course delivery.

Banner image: A student studies at a picnic table above the UMBC Library Pond. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

Groundbreaking fish research by UMBC’s Yonathan Zohar spawns partnership with AquaCon on $1 billion Maryland aquaculture project

More and more U.S. states, from Texas to Maine, are increasing their capacity to produce fish for human consumption in land-based facilities. These operations are less susceptible to disease and result in fresher fish for locals. They also remove the risk of releasing waste or farmed fish to the environment, and reduce costs and the carbon footprint associated with shipping. Plus, they create jobs and help decrease American reliance on seafood imports.

Decades of research led by Yonathan Zohar, UMBC professor of marine biotechnology, have led the way for these paradigm-shifting developments. For example, he is the lead on a large grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) National Sea Grant program designed to build capacity for land-based Atlantic salmon aquaculture in the U.S. The effort, known as the Recirculating Aquaculture Salmon Network (RAS-N), is a public-private partnership that includes academic research institutions, federal labs, and industry partners from across the country.

Zohar conducts his work in the Aquaculture Research Center (ARC) at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Work at the ARC pioneered many of the land-based aquaculture techniques now used around the country and the world.

Now, that work is coming back home.

A new take on “buy local”

AquaCon, a company led by Norwegian aquaculture leaders, is currently marshaling funds for a massive land-based Atlantic salmon aquaculture project based on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In phase one, the company will invest $300 million, and the facility will produce 15,000 metric tons of fish. By phase three, the investment and output will triple. And that’s just for the aquaculture operation itself. The facility will also support job creation and economic development through affiliated industries, like seafood processing and distribution.

Two people kneeling next to fish tanks
Yoni Zohar (left) and Jorge Gomezjurado (right), faculty research assistant at IMET, at the Aquaculture Research Center. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

AquaCon executives visited IMET and the ARC in November 2019 and again in February 2020, and were struck by the many ways that UMBC, IMET, and AquaCon could work together to make the venture a success for everyone. When they toured the ARC, “They were very excited about our innovative aquaculture platforms,” Zohar says, enthusiastic to see every feature. “Now I regularly communicate with the group to help them develop the design and biological planning for the Eastern Shore operation.” 

UMBC and IMET executed an memorandum of understanding with AquaCon, stating their intentions to collaborate and how they will work together. In a recent announcement about the company’s aquaculture vision, AquaCon specifically stated that UMBC and IMET were one major reason for their decision to select Maryland for their aquaculture operations. 

Staying on the forefront

“For a company like AquaCon, there is a huge amount of competition,” Zohar says, “and the companies who are going to succeed are those who are at the forefront of the technology.” That’s another reason for AquaCon to choose UMBC as a strategic partner. “IMET will be in the new operation’s backyard, so we can do sponsored research for them to keep them on the forefront of the field,” Zohar says.

salmon swimming in a tank
Salmon swimming in a tank at the Aquaculture Research Center. Photo courtesy Yonathan Zohar.

Workforce training is another critical element of the relationship. Tom Sadowski ‘89, political science, vice chancellor for economic development for the University System of Maryland, discussed opportunities with the AquaCon executives when they visited IMET. For example, students will likely get the chance to gain hands-on training at the Eastern Shore facility, and AquaCon could fund employees to pursue training and degrees through UMBC at IMET.

“Workforce development for this booming industry is a very important component to the NOAA-funded RAS-N consortium,” Zohar says.

Filling in the missing link

One thing is inevitable in a land-based aquaculture facility, besides lots of fish: lots of fish poop. Kevin Sowers, professor of marine biotechnology, and Zohar have that handled, too. They invented a system to convert organic waste (affectionately known as “sludge”) in the fish tanks to fuel-grade methane. This technology, abundantly tested and optimized at ARC and already scaled up in the Norwegian salmon industry, can generate enough energy to offset about 10 percent of the operation’s energy costs.

The duo formed a company, Silfra BioSytems LLC, that will focus on improving and scaling up the waste conversion technology. They named the company after a pristine Icelandic lake to emphasize the result of the process—clean water. Their invention completes “this missing link for how you responsibly and biologically remove the huge amounts of solid waste,” Zohar says, “And in the process, you generate biofuel.”

Kevin Sowers (right) with Upal Ghosh, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, in Sowers’s IMET lab. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

The right model

On top of these developments in tech transfer, Zohar recently received a substantial National Science Foundation grant for his basic research on fish reproduction. The NSF fully funded the grant, which is for four years and a little over a million dollars. 

Zohar’s basic research will influence the aquaculture industry, because if you can precisely control when fish do and do not reproduce, you can create a system where fish are constantly reaching market size. On top of that, fish that are not preparing to reproduce grow muscle faster and have immune systems that are more robust.  

The research could also have implications for human health. For various reasons, “Fish are one of the best reproductive models for humans,” Zohar says. “You cannot even use rats or mice for this type of research. So it has a lot of interest from that standpoint as well.” A better understanding of the causes of infertility, for example, could be on the horizon.

A perfect storm

For IMET and the ARC facility, “It’s a perfect storm in a good sense, because everything is falling in place now,” says Zohar. “I’ve been working in Maryland for almost 30 years, and we’ve been developing a lot of these technologies. Our mission is research, education, and economic development, and we have been working to create connections between academia and industry to fulfill that mission.” And projects long underway are now bearing fruit.

Land-based aquaculture, in particular, has seen a huge rise in interest of late. “We’ve been working on this for 15 or 20 years. People said we were ahead of our time, but now things are happening,” Zohar says. “Land-based aquaculture has matured. People believe in it, and it’s going to develop at a large scale.”

Banner photo: Yonathan Zohar at the Aquaculture Research Center in the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Change Agent Behind #BlackBirdersWeek

Before she graduated from UMBC, Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman ’19, M26, mathematics, founded the Sadie Collective. Opoku-Agyeman describes it on her website as, “the first and only organization to date dedicated to addressing the pipeline and pathway problem for Black women in economics and related fields.” Since the Collective’s inception in 2018, membership has expanded to nearly 500 members across 30 states, 120 institutions, and four continents.

This is a woman who is making change.

One of the Collective’s first orders of business was to organize the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Conference for Economics and Related Fields. The conference and the Sadie Collective offer resources, networking, and support to a community—in this case, Black women in economics—that has been historically under-resourced, -networked, and -supported.

As it happens, some members of the Sadie Collective’s leadership team are also birders.

So, when news of a White woman calling 911 on Christian Cooper, a Black birder in Central Park who asked her to follow the rules and leash her dog, made national headlines in May, the Collective leaped into action. Below, Opoku-Agyeman shares how #BlackBirdersWeek (May 31 – June 5, 2020) came to be, its extensive impact, and what’s next.

UMBC Magazine: What was your goal in creating #BlackBirdersWeek?

Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman: I want to first and foremost share that #BlackBirdersWeek was a joint effort with members of the BlackAFinSTEM Collective. I co-founded the initiative alongside Sheridan Alford, Danielle Belleny, Chelsea Connor, Joseph Saunders, and Tykee James, all wonderful people who, alongside others, stepped up to make the week possible. 

#BlackBirdersWeek was a direct response to Christian Cooper’s unfortunate encounter with a White woman in Central Park. Although I am not a birder, many individuals in the Collective are, and each of them echoed similar experiences to Cooper’s. The conversations sparked an idea in me to amplify and prioritize the voices of Black birders, naturalists, and explorers similar to what I have done alongside my co-founder, Fanta Traore, at the Sadie Collective. 

https://twitter.com/itsafronomics/status/1268935597550428160

UMBC Magazine: Can you describe some of the components of the week’s programming, and how it came together?

Opoku-Agyeman: I suggested a Black Birders Day, and Tykee James suggested a week, as a way to celebrate Black people in the birding space similar to how running was used to celebrate the late Ahmaud Arbery. I did a little bit of brainstorming and came back with a pitch: a potential week-long digital campaign to amplify the experiences and expertise of Black birders, especially those within the group. The Collective loved the idea and offered suggestions to improve how we could roll out the campaign. We have well-known birders and natural scientists within our group, such as Jason Ward and Corina Newsome, and many of us had a couple thousand followers. So we knew that between all of us, this could be huge. 

We were intentional about ensuring that there was a hashtag for each day, which led the wonderful Danielle Belleny, Sheridan Alford, and Chelsea Connor to create these amazing flyers that reflected our vision.

Every day had a theme and corresponding date. A brief description of what we highlighted includes:

●      #BlackinNature—Showcasing Black people in nature. Black people typically don’t get to be in nature because we are viewed as a threat. This part of the campaign was intentional in that it normalized Black people in nature and also encouraged it.

●      #PostABird Challenge—Posting a fun bird picture/fact/etc. This was really a campaign to get people involved regardless of race so that we could get the world talking about birds!

●      #AskABlackBirder—Twitter and Instagram Q&A with Black birders. Folks submitted questions on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag. It gave Black birders an opportunity to talk more about their own work and research. 

●      #BirdingWhileBlack—Live stream discussions with Christian Cooper (yes, that Christian Cooper) and Drew Laham. I actually co-moderated this session with Tykee James. To date, those streams together drew in over 1 million views. At the time we went live, nearly 60,000 people tuned in. Apparently we broke an average day record or something. 

●      #BlackWomenWhoBird—Amplifying Black women birders and LGBTQ+ birders, who are significantly underrepresented. Many of these individuals had an opportunity to work with national organizations such as the National Aquarium to talk about their work. It was truly awesome.

UMBC Magazine: What was your reaction to the huge response the campaign got?

Opoku-Agyeman: It’s funny, because when I told my mom about this idea, she kept saying we’d go global. It’s actually one of the first things I told the group: “If we do this right, this could go global,” and I am so glad it did. All of the individuals involved with the group have now been featured widely and are still being pursued for opportunities by prominent science organizations such as the National Aquarium and national agencies in the nature space. It was interesting, too, because simultaneously nationwide protests over senseless Black death at the hands of police were happening. 

As a result of the campaign, the National Wildlife Federation launched a fellowship for minorities in the field, specifically with Black people in mind. The movement literally shifted power structures, something that we love to see. 

At the same time, you had Black joy paralleling Black pain, which is oftentimes the experience of Black people in America.We have to balance these incredibly joyous moments with very real and deep-seated pain. While we were celebrating Black birders, our people were also being murdered. It’s a juxtaposition that is our daily lives. 

https://twitter.com/JuitaMartinez/status/1275549212806184961

UMBC Magazine: Do you have any plans to build on the success of #BlackBirdersWeek? Have you organized similar campaigns?

Opoku-Agyeman: We are currently working on building structure around the successful campaign as well as pushing forward our mission to be unapologetically Black in the STEM space. Recent campaigns that have been inspired by us include #BlackinAstro, which highlights Black people in astronomy, and #BlackHikersWeek, which aims to normalize Black people hiking outdoors. The offshoot campaigns are not ones we specifically organized, but we definitely support them!

https://twitter.com/itsafronomics/status/1275415269800841216

UMBC Magazine: How does your work on #BlackBirdersWeek relate to your role as co-founder and CEO of the Sadie Collective?

Opoku-Agyeman: Both initiatives uplift Black people who are often among those marginalized in their space. The strikingly similar under-representation between birding and economics with respect to Black people is just more evidence that campaigns like #BlackBirdersWeek and additional advocacy is needed to push institutional change that allows for diverse voices to break through.

What I love about both initiatives is that they’re disruptive, political, and moving. Many people didn’t see the Sadie Collective coming when we officially announced like they didn’t see #BlackBirdersWeek coming. Both initiatives are led by young Black people who are incredibly passionate about this work, whatever it may be, and by existing in our respective spaces, we are protesting our right to be seen, heard, and celebrated. Quite literally embracing the idea of being unapologetically Black and unapologetically ourselves, encompassing our Blackness.

*****

Header image of Opoku-Agyeman on campus by Marlayna Demond ’11.

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