We are thrilled that Assistant Professor Matthew Scarborough was selected for a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. Matt will use the $561,424 in funding to catalyze expansion and control of the product spectrum from anaerobic bioprocessing of wastes. This research will advance fundamental understanding of how microbiomes can be used to extract high-value chemical products from organic wastes such as food waste and cow manure, while reducing their environmental impact. This project also has robust education, outreach and technology transfer activities to implement the research in practice and educate future generations of engineers and scientists. Read more about the project goals.

The spring brought a lot of professional accolades for Matt. In addition to this CAREER award, he received three other grants as the principal investigator from the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Cabot Creamery, totaling more than $1.2 million.

Matt has also received awards for his advising and teaching. In April, he was selected as the Outstanding Graduate Advisor by UVM’s Graduate Student Senate and in 2021 he received UVM’s Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award. “It feels great to build a research program at UVM that integrates well with our graduate and undergraduate education,” said Matt. “I look forward to addressing urgent needs of Vermont, our country, and our planet while teaching others to do the same.”

We are recruiting five U.S. Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of Nation Need (GAANN) Fellows. This GAANN award on Research and Education in Sustainable, Equitable, and Climate-Resilient Civil Infrastructure Systems will be overseen by GAANN Project Director Prof. Luis Garcia. Women, underrepresented minorities, veterans, and individuals identifying with historically underserved groups (first generation college students, socio-economically disadvantaged, differently-abled, LGBTQ, etc.) applicants are particularly encouraged.

The fellowships include tuition and an annual stipend of up to $34,000 plus an annual travel, and research expenses allowance of up to $3,000 for three years. An additional year of funding as a graduate research or teaching assistant will also be offered. GAANN Fellows must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Awards will be made as soon as outstanding candidates have been identified.

For more information and application materials please contact Professor Luis Garcia and Professor Eric Hernandez.

CEE Water Innovation for the Future faculty will be key contributors to a national effort to improve water management, including Kristen Underwood, Donna Rizzo, Eric Roy, Appala Raju Badireddy and Scott Hamshaw (now at USGS).

Through the efforts of Senator Patrick Leahy, up to $25M over the next five years will support UVM’s role in this national research consortium to advance critical water research. This Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) is a consortium of 25 institutions and is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Water Center and the recently announced U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility. The UVM CIROH team will be led by Breck Bowden (RSENR), and involves collaborators from across the university, including Beverley Wemple and Rebecca Diehl (Geography) and Andrew Schroth (Geology), Chris Koliba and Asim Zia (CDAE), among others. Read more!

An interdisciplinary research team from UVM has been awarded a $4.6 million grant from the Department of Defense Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). The project is being led by CEE Prof. Arne Bomblies and involves faculty from CEE, Electrical Engineering (Luis Duffault-Espinosa), Mechanical Engineering (Jeff Marshall), Computer Science (Safwan Wshah), Environmental Science (Jarlath O’Neil Dunne), Geology (Andrew Schroth) and Geography (Beverley Wemple). The grant paves the way for the first real-time large-scale snow monitoring system in the northeastern United States with sophisticated, research-grade sensors.

The new system allows real-time measurement of snow depths at a number of locations throughout the state, as well as snow water equivalents, snowmelt rates and meteorological variables that would drive changes in snowpack. This is a significant improvement in snow monitoring capability for the State.

This state-of-the-art sensing system will allow many exciting new research directions, including those related to climate change impacts on northeastern snowpack. Additional components of the project include drone-based measurements and machine learning approaches to data analysis.

Prof. Gregory Rowangould, the director of the UVM Transportation Research Center spoke with The Guardian about the history and impacts of America's automobile dependence and how it affects equity as transportation costs soar.

Undergraduates Work on Reducing Winter Salt Usage on Campus

Through their REUs (Research Experience for Undergraduates), Liza McLatchy ’23, Robby Tshiember ’22 and Evelyn Desnmore ’23 have been working with Profs. Courtney Giles and John Lens to collect and analyze water samples to serve as a baseline for an ambitious project aimed at reducing salt use on UVM campus.

Carter Schug ’24 and Nathan Claessens ’23 have been working in their REUs with Prof. John Lens investigating heated walkway and entrance materials and designs to reduce the need for deicing chemicals. The UVM Sustainable Campus Fund (SCF) awarded funding for heated walkway prototype design and installation and continued water quality monitoring to continue the work of the Salt Mitigation Task Force, SMTF. Read more about the Salt Mitigation Task Force, a group of faculty, staff and students that formed last January.

ASCE Student Club Hosted NE Regional Symposium 

Students Win International Competition

Environmental Engineering senior Olivia Mead’22 with Will Jeffries’22 (Mechanical Engineering) and Joe Consorti and Connor McCormack (Business Administration) won First Place Overall; Best International Team; Best Business Solution; Best Engineering Solution; Best Team Chemistry; and Best Presenter, in the ENGCOMM 2022 International Business and Engineering Case Competition which was hosted by Concordia University in Montreal. It was exciting to see UVM students winning an international competition!

Many of our undergraduate students participate in research with faculty for one or more semesters. A number of them including Kennedy Brown’22, Evelyn Densmore’23, Aubrey Ferris’22, Anna Grunes’22, Brendan Lombard’23, Liza McLatchy’23 and Robby Tschiember’22 presented their work at UVM Student Research Conference this April.

Panagiota Stamatopoulou, a third year PhD student working with Prof. Matthew Scarborough, was awarded an inaugural Food Systems Research Center Fellowship. The USDA Agricultural Research Service Food Systems Center at UVM studies “local and regional food systems and the farms and processors that contribute to sustainable, healthy environments and people.” Yiota’s research focuses on the use of biological processes to convert agricultural and food wastes to valuable products to support economic and environmental sustainability. Read more about the Food Systems Research Center. Just this month, Panagiota was selected as a winner of the 2022 Steve Parker Memorial Scholarship by the Northern New England Chapter of SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America).

Alaina (Dickason) Roberts, PE, is currently a doctoral student working with Prof. Eric Hernandez. Alaina received her BS in Civil Engineering from us and then worked for Boeing for almost 11 years. During that time she earned her MS in Civil Engineering from Columbia University. She has remained active with the ASCE throughout her professional career, particularly with aerospace-related activities. Alaina’s contributions to the ASCE Aerospace Division were recognized at the 2022 Earth & Space Conference by presenting her with the 2020 Outstanding Professional Service Award.