Summer research
DEEP students Alyssa Bishop, Caitlin Dellert, Stephen Humphrey, Emily Maynard, Kari Mickunas, and Zach Trudell investigated water quality and ecosystem health in the Tatnuck Brook. The interdisciplinary work over this past summer and upcoming fall was funded by the Aisiku STEM Center.
New publication
Congratulate Prof. Malakar at Melanie Meadors (recent DEEP grad) on the publication of their Beginner's Guide to Astrophotography!
River clean-up
Prof. Reynolds, Stephen Humphrey, Emily Maynard, and Kari Mickunas volunteered to clean up Tatnuck Brook as a part of a large-scale cleanup of the Blackstone River Watershed in August. They were featured on WGBH's Morning Edition: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/09/09/blackstone-river-still-suffers-from-pollution-50-years-after-massive-cleanup
Dr. Anne Armstrong
Prof. Armstrong is new to the department in Fall 2022. She is an environmental social scientist with research interests in positive youth development, place and group identity, civic ecology, computational social science, and climate change communication. She has a professional background in environmental education, and her EE experience informs both her research and teaching. She is teaching Human Geography and Global Environmental Change this fall.
Email: aarmstrong3@worcester.edu
Location: ST310N
Phone: 508-929-8606
Dr. Andrew Burkhardt
Prof. Burkhardt is new to the department in Fall 2022. His Astrochemistry research focuses on how the ingredients to life may have formed before or during the creation of a star and planet using both state of the art radio telescopes and computer simulations. He specifically works on the origin of aromatic molecules and icy surface chemistry on interstellar dust in protostellar jets. He is actively seeking research students, please email for more information. He is teaching Astronomy and General Physics I this semester.
Email: aburkhardt@worcester.edu
Website: https://www.worcester.edu/faculty/andrew-burkhardt/
Location: ST410J
Phone: 508-929-8605
Dr. Allison Dunn
Prof. Dunn uses the geosciences, biology, and chemistry to understand how carbon and other tracers move through the earth system. She is particularly interested in how ecosystems respond to climate and how urbanization affects carbon sequestration. She is teaching Hydrology and Contemporary Climate Change this semester.
Email: adunn@worcester.edu
Website: https://www.worcester.edu/faculty/allison-dunn/
Location: ST40M
Phone: 508-929-8641
Dr. William Hansen
Prof. Hansen is on sabbatical for Fall 2022, continuing his research examining the changing landscape of New England and the role both climate change and human activity has on this landscape.
Email: whansen@worcester.edu
Website: https://www.worcester.edu/faculty/william-hansen/
Location: ST310M
Phone: 508-929-8608
Dr. Nabin Malakar
Prof. Malakar has wide-ranging research interests including societal applications of remote sensing data, land surface temperature, air pollution, and application of machine learning to earth sciences. He is teaching Energy & the Environment, Energy & Me (first-year seminar), Geography Literature Seminar, and evening Physics I this semester.
Email: nmalakar@worcester.edu
Website: https://www.worcester.edu/faculty/nabin-malakar/
Location: ST410L
Phone: 508-929-8587
Dr. Laura Reynolds
Prof. Reynolds is a sedimentary geologist interested in understanding how marshes, wetlands, and lakes change over time. In her research, she uses sediments (mud, sand, silt) to figure out how floods, fires, human influence, and other environmental changes have impacted an area over time. Here at Worcester State, students in her lab group are studying: the urban water quality of the Tatnuck Brook; how much carbon is stored in lake and wetland sediments; the flood history of Patch Reservoir; and the fire history of the Maine coast. She is seeking research students for Spring 2023, email her if you are interested. She is teaching Physical Geology and the senior capstone this semester.
Email: lreynolds2@worcester.edu
Website: https://www.worcester.edu/faculty/laura-reynolds/
Location: ST310Q
Phone: 508-929-8574
Dr. Ian Stephens
Prof. Stephens is an astrophysicist that studies the formation of stars and planets. Originally from Texas, he received his bachelor's in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech and his PhD in Astronomy from the University of Illinois. Before coming to WSU, he did postdoctoral research at Boston University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He uses telescopes from all around the world, including the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). He has recently shown that magnetic fields play a strong role in forming stars in the Milky Way's spiral arms. He is teaching Physics I this semester.
Email: istephens@worcester.edu
Website: http://ianstephens.weebly.com/
Location: ST410K
Phone: 508-929-8398
Dr. Alexander Tarr
Prof. Tarr is a human geographer with interests in urban geography, critical cartography and GIS, and digital culture. He is on sabbatical in Newcastle, England for the 2022-23 academic year, working on a project entitled "Cows to Newcastle: Rethinking Rural-Urban Dynamics of Localized Food Systems in Temperate Climates".
Email: atarr@worcester.edu
Website: https://www.worcester.edu/faculty/alexander-tarr/
Location: ST310P
Phone: 508-929-8474