COS News

The monarch butterfly is one of the most widely recognized and admired creatures native to North America. 

Evan Prasky is a marine and environmental sciences graduate student at Northeastern University. He studies the socio-ecological interactions between sharks in humans. His expertise is in shark depredation and how it affects the shark populations in the Gulf of Mexico. For shark week, we asked Evan to shed some light on some common beliefs about […]

What is nature? When Northeastern University researchers asked a sample of undergraduate students this question last spring, many of their responses included “the outdoors,” “flora and fauna that exist without human interference” or “natural environment.”

The BEACHES program, hosted by Northeastern’s Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences, brought an incredible cohort of student researchers to the Nahant Campus last week for an immersive discussion about what their next steps will be.  BEACHES (Bridging Each Applicant’s Chances for Higher Ed Success) has been held for several years at Northeastern; after a COVID pause, the program resumed last June with a cohort of 9 students; this year, it grew to 13, with dozens more in the competitive applicant pool.  BEACHES is an all-expense paid 3-day boot camp with the goal of demystifying the graduate school application process; the program is supported by the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences; continued funding for the program was secured from NSF (DEB 2203322) last year by Drs. Jen Bowen and Randall Hughes and through a COS faculty excellence award in EDIJ awarded to Bowen. 

Salt marshes, often overlooked, provide critical ecosystem services to coastal communities. They protect against damaging storm surge by attenuating waves, and they guard against algal blooms and oxygen depletion by intercepting watershed nitrogen before it can prompt eutrophication in coastal waters. In recent decades, numerous anthropogenic sources have increased nitrogen inputs to these salt marsh ecosystems. Yet, many of the effects of these nitrogen inputs on the carbon and nitrogen cycles, as well as the ecosystem’s resilience to sea level rise, remain unknown. To study the effects of these anthropogenic changes, the Bowen Lab and the Hughes Lab, at Northeastern University’s Coastal Sustainability Institute, have just received an NSF grant to research the effects of nitrogen in various forms on salt marsh ecosystems.

Sophia Troeh, a recent graduate of Northeastern University’s Three Seas program, is dedicated to protecting our oceans and their ecosystems for future generations. Sophia was chosen for the prestigious 2023 Sea Grant Knauss fellowship, where and her work showcases the vital intersection of science and advocacy in safeguarding our marine resources. Her passion for science outreach and a commitment to environmental conservation were influenced by her time in the Three Seas program and through ongoing mentorship from the faculty of the Coastal Sustainability Institute. We connected with Sophia in her current role as a 2023 Knauss Fellow for an update!

Over millions of years, a group of fish known as notothenioids adapted to the cooling, now icy, waters of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica by evolving their own type of antifreeze.

Leading a women’s college dormitory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, may not be the typical place you’d find a third-year neuroscience and pre-med student like Northeastern’s Yueting Lu. 

Picture Boston Harbor, a few years from now. The East Boston Greenway, a leafy urban trail, no longer stops a block from the pier, but extends into the ocean. A floating semi-circular trail arcs across the water; cyclists buzz and pedestrians stroll along it.

Imagine a co-op experience in which Northeastern University students live for weeks at a time in the world’s largest undersea science station, venturing into the surrounding Caribbean waters on daily scuba dives. 

The College of Science Awards was celebrated on April 27, 2023. Faculty and Staff were recognized for their dedication to the growth and overall success of the college.

“I see Northeastern as a hub, a flower pot of environmental justice,” says Lee. The roots showcase how students remained connected following graduation and go out to “do good for the world wherever we go.”