The UMBC Event Center has become synonymous with high-level athletic play, premier entertainment, and university milestones since opening in 2018. This spring, UMBC has officially announced the beginning of a new chapter for the Event Center—a new name. 

The Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena, a new partnership between UMBC and Chesapeake Employers’ Insurance Company, will open doors for both the university and the facility. 

“The partnership between UMBC and Chesapeake Employers Insurance represents not only an investment in our campus, but also in the region. This is an opportunity to elevate our facility, our University, and our local economy,” says President Freeman Hrabowski. 

Partnering for success

In addition to naming rights, this partnership establishes a platform for UMBC and Chesapeake Employers Insurance to engage in additional collaborations, including opportunities for student internships and hiring, and applied research projects.

“We at Chesapeake Employers Insurance are honored to partner with a premier University System of Maryland institution such as UMBC,” says Tom Phelan, CEO of Chesapeake Employers Insurance. “This partnership bridges our corporation with UMBC students, staff, and alumni to form a symbiotic relationship with shared values and a commitment to excellence relevant to education and business.”

The 172,000 square-foot facility can accommodate 4,700 patrons for sporting events and nearly 6,000 for other events. Home to both men’s and women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball, all student-athletes are able to use the building’s academic, strength and conditioning, sports medicine, and other athletics’ department services.

“We are building a program where we can celebrate community, while we help welcome new students and prepare them for meaningful careers and welcome alumni home,” says Brian Barrio, director of athletics. “This building, Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena, is a central part of that vision. And great visions require great partners.” 

Featured image: CEO Tom Phelan and President Freeman Hrabowski. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. Video by UMBC’s New Media Studio.

Article written by Steve Levy, associate athletic director for athletic communications, and Kait McCaffrey, communications manager, for UMBC News.

The UMBC community is excited to welcome Jim Ferry as the Retrievers’ new head coach of men’s basketball. Ferry is the tenth head coach in UMBC’s history, taking the place of Ryan Odom, who transitioned to Utah State University early last week. 

Talking about the interview process, Ferry says, “The sincerity and the love for this place, it just came through. This is one of the fastest-growing universities in the country and I’m excited to be a part of this family and such an outstanding basketball program.”

Ferry began his tenure as an assistant coach at Penn State in 2017-18 and was an integral part of the offensive resurgence for the Nittany Lions. Ferry joins the Retrievers after most recently serving as PSU’s interim head coach for the 2020-21 season. In his most recent season, Ferry led the Nittany Lions to an 11-4 season and a 7-12 Big Ten record. 

“I have a national network of basketball people I talk to and I’ve never heard such unanimously positive thoughts about somebody’s character. And at UMBC, that really matters to us,” says Brian Barrio, director of Athletics. “At the end of the day, winning matters too, and this is a gentleman who has 30 years of winning across college basketball.”

Before his time at PSU, Ferry was the bench boss at Duquesne University. And prior to his five years at Duquesne, Ferry spent ten seasons as head coach at LIU Brooklyn, guiding that program to unprecedented levels of success. 

Trading blue and white for black and gold

Ferry will now lead a team that was on track to clinch the America East Championship again this year after taking their share of the regular season title before falling just shy of their opportunity to advance. Fans applauded the players’ dedication and diligence as essential to making a Retriever season possible amid the COVID pandemic. 

“There’s [UMBC’s student-athletes] an extraordinary group of young people who have followed the health and safety rules and who have been working really hard in the classroom to be able to compete on the court and on the field this year, and they continue to represent UMBC exceptionally well,” says Greg Simmons, M.P.P. ’04, public policy, vice president for Institutional Advancement.

Meeting his new players for the first time this week, Ferry talks about the passion of the community and how excited he is to join the ranks of Retriever Nation. 

“These guys seem to be really unselfish. They play basketball the right way. You can tell they like each other and they’re a bunch of talented guys,” says Ferry. “I think you’re really going to like the way we play.”

The resounding sentiment from those involved in the recruitment of Ferry is that he’s a natural fit for the UMBC community and Retriever Nation can’t wait to see him in action. 

“I would tell Coach that UMBC is a remarkable community of people who come from a broad range of backgrounds with a whole set of skills and abilities and promise. At UMBC, we believe in working together to achieve things that we could not do alone,” says Simmons. “It’s an extraordinary place and we’re excited to have him here.”

Banner image: Jim Ferry, men’s basketball head coach, speaks with Brian Barrio, UMBC Athletics Director. All images by Marlayna Demond ’11 unless otherwise noted. Video produced by Corey Jennings ’10.

Article written by Steve Levy, associate athletic director for athletic communications, and Kait McCaffrey, communications manager, for UMBC News.

New research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows that land use by human societies has reshaped ecology across most of Earth’s land for at least 12,000 years. The research team, from more than a dozen institutions around the world, compared the history of global land use with current patterns of biodiversity and conservation. Their work revealed that the main cause of the current biodiversity crisis is not human destruction of uninhabited wildlands, but rather the appropriation, colonization, and intensified use of lands previously managed sustainably. 

The new data overturn earlier reconstructions of global land use history, some of which indicated that most of Earth’s land was uninhabited even as recently as 1500 CE. Further, this new PNAS study supports the argument that an essential way to end Earth’s current biodiversity crisis is to empower the environmental stewardship of Indigenous peoples and local communities across the planet. 

“Our work shows that most areas depicted as ‘untouched,’ ‘wild,’ and ‘natural’ are actually areas with long histories of human inhabitation and use,” says UMBC’s Erle Ellis, professor of geography and environmental systems and lead author. He notes that they might be interpreted like this because in these areas, “societies used their landscapes in ways that sustained most of their native biodiversity and even increased their biodiversity, productivity, and resilience.” 

Mapping 12,000 years of land use

The interdisciplinary research team includes geographers, archaeologists, anthropologists, ecologists, and conservation scientists. They represent the U.S., the Netherlands, China, Germany, Australia, and Argentina, pooling their knowledge and expertise into a large-scale study that required a highly collaborative approach. They tested the degree to which global patterns of land use and population over 12,000 years were associated statistically with contemporary global patterns of high biodiversity value within areas prioritized for conservation. 

“Our global maps show that even 12,000 years ago, nearly three-quarters of terrestrial nature was inhabited, used, and shaped by people,” says Ellis. “Areas untouched by people were almost as rare 12,000 years ago as they are today.”

The cultural practices of early land users did have some impact on extinctions. However, by and large, land use by Indigenous and traditional communities sustained the vast majority of Earth’s biodiversity for millennia. This finding comes at a critical time of heightened need to develop long-term, sustainable answers to our biggest environmental problems. 

“The problem is not human use per se,” explains professor and co-author Nicole Boivin, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. “The problem is the kind of land use we see in industrialized societies—characterized by unsustainable agricultural practices and unmitigated extraction and appropriation.”

To truly understand terrestrial nature today, it is necessary to understand the deep human history of that nature. Outside of a few remote areas, “nature as we know it was shaped by human societies over thousands of years,” says Ellis. He believes that efforts to conserve and restore “won’t be successful without empowering the Indigenous, traditional, and local people who know their natures in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand.”

Supporting Indigenous land use practices

Ancient gateway in Angkor, Cambodia.
Photo by Erle Ellis.

The authors argue that their findings confirm that biodiversity conservation and restoration will benefit by shifting focus from preserving land in a form imagined as “untouched” to supporting traditional and Indigenous peoples whose land use practices have helped sustain biodiversity over the long term.

“This study confirms on a scale not previously understood that Indigenous peoples have managed and impacted ecosystems for thousands of years, primarily in positive ways,” says Darren J. Ranco, associate professor of anthropology and coordinator of Native American research at the University of Maine. “These findings have particular salience for contemporary indigenous rights and self-determination.”

Ranco, a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation, notes that indigenous people currently exercise some level of management of about 5% of the world’s lands, upon which 80% of the world’s biodiversity exists. Even so, indigenous people have been excluded from management, access, and habitation of protected lands in places such as the U.S. National Parks. 

“We must also assure that new attempts to protect lands and biodiversity are not just a green-grab of indigenous lands,” says Ranco. “We cannot re-create the worst of colonial policies meant to exclude indigenous people, which would undoubtedly make the situation much worse for the environment and humanity.” 

A sustainable future

“Our research demonstrates the connections between people and nature that span thousands of years,” says Torben Rick, study co-author and curator of North American Archaeology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “These connections are essential for understanding how we arrived at the present and how to achieve a more sustainable future.”

Rick excavating a roughly 11,000 year old archaeological site on Santa Rosa Island, California. Photo courtesy of Rick.

This research represents a new form of collaboration across archaeology, global change science, conservation, and scholars of Indigenous knowledge. The co-authors hope this work will open the door to increasing the use of global land use history data by natural scientists, policymakers, activists, and others. Leaders in a range of fields can use these data, they note, to better understand and collaborate with Indigenous, traditional, and local peoples to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems over the long term. 

“It is clear that the perspectives of Indigenous and local peoples should be at the forefront of global negotiations to reduce biodiversity loss,” says Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist at World Wildlife Fund and another study co-author. “There is a global crisis in the way traditionally-used land has been transformed by the scale and magnitude of intensive human development. We have to change course if we are to sustain humanity over the next 12,000 years.”

Banner image: Hilltop settlement in drylands, Morocco. Photo by Erle Ellis.

Four UMBC students have been named 2021-2022 Goldwater Scholars, setting a new university record for the most Retrievers to earn this prestigious undergraduate award in a single year. They are Joshua Slaughter ‘22, computer engineering; Kaitlynn Lilly ‘22, physics and mathematics; Gerson Kroiz ‘22, mathematics; and Karan Luthria ‘22, bioinformatics. Their awards make UMBC one of the highest-producing universities for Goldwater Scholars in the nation, directly alongside Harvard, MIT, and Johns Hopkins.

The goal of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program is to provide the United States with “a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers” to move the nation forward. UMBC’s prior Goldwater Scholars, including Rhodes Scholar Naomi Mburu ‘18, chemical engineering, have gone on to top graduate programs and promising research careers.

That four UMBC students won awards, from over 1,250 STEM student applicants across the country is remarkable, notes April Householder ’95, director of undergraduate research and prestigious scholarships at UMBC. “Winning the Goldwater means that Slaughter, Lilly, Kroiz, and Luthria join a legacy of scholars who have gone on to become this country’s leading scientists, engineers, and mathematicians,” she says.

“The impact that these students will have in their respective fields is immense,” Householder shares, “and they are ready for the challenge. All four of them had their research internships moved online because of COVID, and they have proved that they are resilient.”

Slaughter, Lilly, Kroiz, and Luthria are among the 410 winners selected this year from a highly competitive national pool of applicants. They will receive substantial scholarship funding that advances their undergraduate work and supports their educational paths.

The students met each other early in their UMBC careers and are close friends, all involved in the Meyerhoff community—Slaughter, Lilly, and Luthria as scholars, and Kroiz as an affiliate.

The impact of algorithms

Joshua Slaughter actually began doing research at UMBC when he was in high school, starting in environmental science. As he explored his interests, he discovered his fascination with using machine learning to evaluate the replicability and reproducibility of algorithms.

Currently, Slaughter works with Distinguished University Professor Tulay Adali, computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE). Their machine learning research has applications in fields like neuroimaging, which uses data-driven algorithms to identify features of neurological disease. Slaughter says that it’s essential to diversify the field of machine learning and that people of all backgrounds need to be involved in the development of algorithms.

“Machine learning algorithms will be crucial in future decision-making. If they are developed without intersectionality being considered, we will have nightmarish outcomes for certain underrepresented populations,” he explains. “That’s a huge reason why I’m pursuing machine learning.”

When Slaughter applied to UMBC, he already had his sights set on the Goldwater. He was researching in the lab when he learned he won the scholarship—working alone due to COVID-19 restrictions. “I screamed,” he said, overjoyed by the news.

In addition to being a Meyerhoff Scholar, Slaughter is in the UMBC Honors College, and a member of the URISE program, which supports undergraduate juniors and seniors who are majoring in the science, engineering and mathematics. He is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers and Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honors society. He has completed research internships at Princeton University and Carnegie Mellon University, has presented his research at conferences, and has published two scientific papers.

Slaughter looks forward to pursuing a Ph.D. after his senior year, and says that receiving the Goldwater Scholarship proves to him that he can succeed in a research career. He’s thankful to UMBC for guiding him, from providing an Undergraduate Research Award to connecting him with internship opportunities.

“UMBC does a great job of putting students first,” says Slaughter. He’s already paying that forward by mentoring high school students in Baltimore and as a CSEE teaching fellow.

STEM role models matter

Kaitlynn Lilly actually applied to the Goldwater program as a sophomore but didn’t receive the award—an experience shared by Slaughter. She says the feedback she received from UMBC faculty and staff throughout the process was instrumental in her resilience and continued growth as a researcher, and earning the scholarship this year was all the more gratifying.

Lilly’s research focuses on using partial differential equations to understand how large structures, such as bridges, interact with air flow and are impacted by aerodynamics. Lilly currently conducts research with Justin Webster, assistant professor of mathematics. Webster himself received a Goldwater Scholarship in 2007 and knows the impact of receiving the award.

Webster and Lilly are also collaborating with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. Lilly also has experience working with Carnegie Mellon researchers through an enriching virtual internship last summer, secured after her internship at MIT’s Lincoln Lab was cancelled due to COVID-19.

In addition to conducting research at Carnegie Mellon and UMBC, she has completed internships at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and University of Hawaii. This summer, Lilly plans to conduct research at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

Beyond the lab, Lilly is committed to volunteering at the local Arbutus Middle School, supporting students one-on-one who need extra help in STEM classes. “I’m a first-generation college student, and having someone that has gone through it tell you that you can do it really matters,” she says. “Being that inspiration for someone else has been very rewarding.”

Lilly, who is also a member of the Honors College, explains that receiving the Goldwater Scholarship confirms to her that “what I’m doing matters.” She plans to pursue her Ph.D. in applied mathematics when she graduates from UMBC next year.

Safer cancer treatment through math

Gerson Kroiz began his UMBC undergraduate experience at 16 years old, passionate to pursue research with public impact. He had his eye on the Goldwater Scholarship early, knowing the doors it could open. Receiving the Goldwater “really validates where I am at, and the hard work that I’ve put into my academic path,” as well as the value of UMBC support for undergraduate researchers, he says.

Gerson Kroiz. Photo courtesy of Kroiz.

Kroiz has refined his research interests through experiences at institutions across the country. This past summer, he completed a virtual internship at UCLA, adding to his resume of internships at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and UMBC. 

Today, Kroiz’s research focuses on using machine learning techniques to improve real-time imaging for safer cancer treatments. The technology he studies will help physicians treat people with cancer by “reducing possible side-effects from common cancer treatment methods,” Kroiz explains.

In addition to being an affiliate of the Meyerhoff Scholars program, Kroiz is a member of the Honors College and won an Undergraduate Research Award. He volunteers with UMBC’s Creative Coders program at Arbutus Middle School. There, he helps middle school students learn about computer science through hands-on applications such as game design.

He is also a teaching assistant in mathematics, working with Matthias Gobbert, professor of mathematics and statistics. And Kroiz is vice president of the Korean Student Association, ready to serve as president in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Kroiz plans to pursue his Ph.D. in applied mathematics with a focus in high-performance computing and big data after graduating next year.

Public impact research

As an undergraduate who aspires to become a physician-scientist, Karan Luthria is inspired by the profound impact that lab research can have on patients’ treatment and health outcomes. His research focuses on studying similarities between diseases hoping to identify new avenues for drug repurposing. 

Luthria explains that he is looking at “how previously developed drugs can be used to treat different conditions.” Although he has been working on this research since freshman year, and has presented his findings at conferences around the country, he says COVID-19 has brought much attention to the value of drug repurposing.

On the day that the Goldwater Scholarship recipients were announced, Luthria refreshed the award page, awaiting the results. When he finally saw his name appear, “I was humbled,” he says. “Just seeing how I have the potential to make a difference in science and to have my research recognized by the Goldwater Committee is exciting.”

Luthria has held several internships, including at Harvard Medical School, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. Maricel Kann, associate professor of biological sciences, is his research mentor at UMBC. He says that Kann and his mentors at Harvard and at the NIH played a particularly important role in supporting him to achieve his career goals and throughout the Goldwater application process.

Outside of the lab, Luthria is a teaching assistant in math and biology, and a tutor in the Chemistry Tutorial Center. He is also the logistics director for HackUMBC, a student organization that plans 24-hour-long hackathons for students to develop technological solutions to problems that matter to them. As a member of HackUMBC, Luthria connects with corporations and campus partners to secure funding that supports the annual event, sharing his passion for collaborative public impact research.

Banner image: Karan Luthria, left; Kaitlynn Lilly, center; and Joshua Slaughter. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

When the pandemic first hit, many of us found ourselves looking closely at what surrounded us and what confined us. For Brea Souders ’01, visual arts, however, the circumstances drove her to look outward through the screen of her upstate New York window, and to wonder deeply about the lives happening beyond her driveway. End of the Road, the latest in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery’s spring online exhibits, pairs Souders’ images with the poetry of UMBC writer-in-residence Lia Purpura, to create tender appreciations of the details that connect us all, even when we’re apart.

We sat down with Souders and Purpura to learn more about the making of End of the Road, on display now through the end of April.

* * * * *

UMBC Magazine:  So, Brea, how did the idea for this series come about for you?

Brea Souders: In late March 2020, I moved from New York City to rural upstate New York. This was the beginning of the pandemic when contact with the outside world was abruptly cut off for many people and would be for the foreseeable future. The house is situated just before the gravel cul-de-sac of a country road and I began to observe people through my window as they wandered back and forth to the end of the road.

So it started in a space of stillness and solitude, which led to focused daily observation. I began to wonder about the people I saw; what brought them to the end of the road and what their stories were. As a photographer it’s second nature to pick up a camera and photograph something that has captured and sustained my attention, especially if it mystifies me in some way, if there is something hidden or unknowleable in what I see. Even if it’s an illusion, the camera draws a line connecting you and your subject and shortens the distance between you.

UMBC Magazine:  What was your mindset at that time, making them, versus where you are now?

Souders:  There is solid evidence now that the world will begin to open back up and there are already some signs of that happening, but we’re still very much in this emotional and physical space of isolation and stillness. I’ve been making these pictures for a year now, and the trees are beginning to bud again just the way they did when this all started. It’s reassuring to witness some things just carrying on as they do. 

UMBC Magazine:  And Lia, you were brought into this exhibit by curator Beth Saunders. What did you feel when you saw Brea’s images for the first time? What was your first impression?

Lia Purpura: When I saw Brea’s photos, immediately they seemed like micro-dramas, these brief moments that enacted a form of inward reflection that’s also a part of the way many people are experiencing COVID times. Artists are able to find the under-seen, under-noticed ways of being and Brea’s work does that.

I love is the way Brea sees, and the different postures of these photos. And by “postures” I mean the place from which the eye is seeing. Postures of discovery. The intimacy, the solitude of the space, the stillness the viewer inhabits. That quiet felt inhabited by a presence, a curious eye.

UMBC Magazine: What was it like to collaborate in this way, pairing Brea’s new images with Lia’s poems from her 2015 book,It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful?

Souders: I love the way Lia thinks. She categorized the initial list of poems for our collaboration according to the photographer’s point of view, the subject’s point of view, the seasons, the feeling of walking, and sense of place. That approach deepened the connection between the poems and pictures and informed the selection and sequencing of both.

It was Beth’s idea to organize the images loosely by seasons. As you scroll through, you have a general sense of the seasons, although the window screen and distance impart a greyness to the images and you have the feeling of where am I? What day is it? Which of course is the way many people would describe this past year. The human condition and the seasons are so finely articulated in Lia’s poems. I love her exquisite attention to detail and the quiet observation felt in her work. In some of her poems, it feels as if she is looking through a small window just the way that I am.

UMBC Magazine: There’s a lot of trust involved in the process, I’m sure.

Purpura: Yes, absolutely!  We didn’t know each other at all. I mean, I think Brea had read some of my work, but at the outset is the decision to trust in many things. A person’s aesthetic, their sense of good will, their collaborative ego—with this relationship in place, you can launch all kinds of thoughts and know the other will receive it in open ways.

Souders:  Definitely. I felt it immediately, too. Kindred art souls.

UMBC Magazine: Brea, I understand you have a book coming out in June from Saint Lucy Books, and there are even more UMBC connections there (designer Guenet Abraham and publisher/editor Mark Alice Durant, both visual arts professors). What does it mean to see your work embraced so strongly within the UMBC community?

Souders:  I’m floored by all the support. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to collaborate with a network of kind people doing exciting, interesting work in their fields. I’m truly honored to be a part of that.

* * * * *

The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery will host a Virtual Artist’s Talk: Brea Souders and Lia Purpura in Conversation on April 22 at noon. Visit the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery’s website to register for the free talk, and to see End of the Road in its entirety.

Learn more about Brea Souders: eleven years at Saint Lucy Books.

Header image: Brea Souders, End of the Road 5, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.

A new analysis based on 16 years of observational data confirms that humans are heating the planet—a fact that had previously been inferred from climate models but not yet shown through direct evidence. Ryan Kramer, assistant research scientist at UMBC’s Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, led the research, which was published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Kramer and colleagues analyzed atmospheric data collected continuously by NASA’s CERES mission from 2003 to 2018. They were able to show that a portion of the energy being trapped inside Earth’s atmosphere and causing warming is directly attributable to human activities.  

The new analysis, and the novel technique Kramer employed to complete it, will create opportunities to compare and improve climate models and to track climate change mitigation efforts in nearly real time.

Many factors, one main culprit: Humans

CERES tracks changes in radiation (energy) entering and exiting Earth’s atmosphere, but doesn’t parse out exactly what’s causing the changes. Kramer did that with a technique called “radiative kernels.” Atmospheric scientists often apply these “kernels” to climate models, he says, but they’ve used them with observational data very rarely, and never before in this context.

A kernel can tell you how much of the total radiation change is due to a particular factor, such as the temperature, clouds, brightness of the Earth’s surface (ice versus forest, for example), or the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. Kramer subtracted out all the radiation changes even possibly attributable to natural changes.

“What’s left over is the radiative forcing,” he says. “And that radiative forcing is specifically caused by changes in greenhouse gases or changes in aerosols—so it’s the changes that we can specifically tie to human activity.”

“We knew the radiative forcing had to be in the CERES observations somewhere, but this was the first time we’ve really been able to pull it out, globally, and over time,” Kramer says. Many other factors have measurable effects on the overall radiation budget. Significantly, though, over the 16-year study period, Kramer says, “As far as we can see, the long-term trend in the CERES record seems to be almost entirely accounted for by the radiative forcing.”

Ryan Kramer (JCET). Courtesy Ryan Kramer.

Improving climate models

All climate models incorporate radiative forcing, as well as “radiative feedbacks,” or secondary effects caused by radiative forcing. And all climate models also have uncertainties. 

“We tend to focus on the uncertainty in the feedbacks,” but there’s also uncertainty in how the different models simulate radiative forcing, Kramer says, “which is underappreciated.” 

“We can use the observations to evaluate the models,” Kramer adds. The models that most closely matched the CERES observations may be more likely to accurately forecast future climate change.  

Beyond determining which models were most accurate during the study period, “We can start digging into the models and see why some of the models don’t agree with the observations,” he adds. Understanding precisely what in the models causes them to disagree with real-life observations could enable improvements. 

“It’s never that easy, because observations also have their uncertainties,” Kramer says, “but I think it’s a good first step toward really checking the radiative forcing in these models and understanding why they differ.”

What’s helping and what’s not

Kramer describes the overall result—that humans are affecting the climate—as “the least surprising result in climate science.” But the fact that scientists could even detect the human-caused radiative forcing is something to be proud of, he explains.

The trend in radiative forcing over time “is an important change, but it’s often hidden behind the large fluctuations that we see on a year-over-year basis caused by El Niño or other natural processes,” he says. “The fact that our instruments can even measure it is an accomplishment.”

Perhaps even more impressive, new atmospheric data from CERES becomes available in nearly real time. Combine that with the radiative kernel technique, and you have a recipe for tracking Earth’s energy budget in a way that could immediately inform global emission reduction goals.

“I think radiative forcing could be used to track how things are going—how our actions are making climate change worse, or, eventually, how our mitigation efforts are counteracting the energy imbalances we’re causing,” Kramer says. “Radiative forcing will be another tool in the toolbox for monitoring our climate and having a productive discussion about what’s helping and what’s not.”

Banner image: A rendering of the NOAA-20 satellite, which is currently carrying instruments for the CERES mission. Image courtesy of NASA.

UMBC’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) has burst out of the ballroom and onto computer screens around the world. For the second year in a row, the popular undergraduate research forum will be entirely online due to the pandemic, using a video presentation and online discussion tool called VoiceThread. But unlike 2020, no rapid shift is needed. After over a year of largely online learning and research, everyone involved is ready to take full advantage of the virtual medium. 

“This event has gone global,” says April Householder ’95, director of undergraduate research and prestigious scholarships. Being online means URCAD leapt from about 2,500 people attending in person in 2019 to 8,000 virtual visits in 2020. “Viewers were coming in from as far away as the U.K., Korea, and South America,” says Householder. She expects that trend will continue this year.

Having a full week to explore URCAD this year also means viewers will have ample time to browse the available sessions, rather than “rushing from one thing to another,” says Householder, as they used to do at the in-person event. They’ll be able to explore, at their own pace, research on a vast array of topics, from the effects of anti-Asian discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic to the Black Lives Matter movement, to cancer treatment, skateboarding culture, and online sneaker sales.

Connecting beyond boundaries

In lieu of face-to-face chats, visitors will be able to participate in online discussions with student presenters. Last year a research group in UMBC’s Asian studies department received feedback from researchers in Korea, says Householder. She hopes that this year, opportunities for these kinds of connections will increase with a new feature that enables users who aren’t from UMBC to comment through URCAD’s VoiceThread interface.

Within the UMBC community itself, Householder hopes students, faculty, and staff will take advantage of the opportunity to explore “things outside their disciplinary box.” Artists, scientists, humanists, social scientists, and engineers can all benefit from each others’ feedback, she explains. 

Constraints generate creativity

Last year, when students had to quickly pivot from in-person presentations to using VoiceThread, “they had to learn an additional skill on the fly,” says Householder. This year, students are more prepared to take full advantage of all that the online format offers. 

Further, due to the constraints of COVID, student researchers have become even more creative in using technology not just to display their research, but to pursue their research at a time when in-person interviews, fieldwork, and traditional performances aren’t possible. Students learned to do interviews online, adjusted their sample sizes, and navigated lab research within physical distancing guidelines. They also responded to the pandemic by examining the changes in society and in themselves.

One advantage of the online format is that the presentations are available to view in perpetuity. “We now have an archive of the event so we can use it as a teaching tool for future generations of URCAD presenters and mentors,” Householder says.

She finds this addition of an expanded archive and URCAD’s global reach to be fitting developments as the event marks its 25th anniversary. To celebrate the milestone, URCAD will feature a special video “fireside chat” with founders Diane Lee, Kathy Sutphin, Elizabeth Pennington, and Janet McGlynn.

Klaudine Wakasa. Image courtesy of Wakasa.

Viewers will also hear a keynote by Klaudine Wakasa ‘08, financial economics, who serves as a strategy advisor for clean technology ecosystems, consulting with international governments.

UMBC students, faculty, staff, and alumni, and the general public, are invited to view these special sessions, and hundreds of available students presentations at urcad.umbc.edu, April 19-25, 2021. Featured below are a few student presentations that give a glimpse into the range of what will be available. Each has been shaped in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic—in topic, approach, or format.

“COVID-19 telehealth and telerehabilation reflections: Understanding the stroke survivor and caregiver perspectives”

Frances Watson ‘21, computer science, conducted research on telehealth and telerehabilitation services during COVID-19 through UMBC’s Bodies in Motion Lab. “I am investigating the stroke survivor and caregiver perspectives to understand how socioeconomic disparities affect this population,” Watson explains. 

Frances Watson. Photo courtesy of Watson.

Watson has so far conducted 20 interviews with rehabilitation specialists about their experience with telehealth appointments, alongside her graduate mentor, human-centered computing Ph.D. student Adegboyega Akinsiku. She is also currently interviewing stroke survivors and caregivers.

“The COVID-19 pandemic not only changed how we conduct these interviews, but also the analysis of them,” says Watson. “We conducted and continue to conduct these interviews on teleconferencing platforms such as Cisco Webex and Zoom, allowing us to video-record them. In comparison, when we were in person we would have an audio recording device present. Now we can rewatch the video recordings for our data analysis.” 

The fact that her research technique adjusted to match the format of the telehealth appointments themselves “has proven very useful” in surfacing insights, she says. 

Watson was previously able to gain research experience through the Stanford SURF program. As a Center for Women in Technology Scholar and Undergraduate Research Award (URA) Scholar, she also knows the power of research opportunities in developing an identity and career pathway as a STEM researcher, as well as the value of peer support. This has motivated her leadership on campus, including as Student Government Association president in spring 2020.

“this is it: A poetic response to the anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic”

Just after the pandemic started last March, Calista Ogburn ’21, health administration and policy, felt hurt and angry as she heard about rising anti-Asian hate crimes and racism. Then she herself had an upsetting encounter at a Home Depot. “In that moment, standing in the Home Depot aisle next to the grills, I knew I had to write a poetry collection,” she says.

It was a process that involved many nights of tears, processing heavy emotions. “Reliving past experiences of racism and microaggressions in addition to writing responses to news headlines of anti-Asian racism was utterly exhausting,” she says. She wrote around the clock, and after publication she was gratified to learn “how my poetry has supported others during this turbulent time.”

Ogburn does not intend to pursue a career in poetry, but she says, “I hope it remains my best friend.” Ogburn will present poetry from her collection “this is it” at URCAD. “My hope,” she previously shared with UMBC Magazine, “is that these poems can touch those who are feeling loss, loneliness, or the combined grief and rage of experiencing racism.”

“Modeling radio emission from tidal disruption events”

Omar French ’21, physics and mathematics, came to UMBC to become a theoretical physicist and he will be leaving soon to do just that. He found COVID-19 increased demands on his faculty mentors’ time, requiring him to move forward with his work more independently than before. 

“I’m sure most people can agree that controlling one’s work is much more gratifying than the contrary, but of course, it’s a bit like being in the wilderness,” says French. “It forces you to think for yourself and to be confident in what you’re doing.”

French’s research on supermassive black holes has yielded insights. “Perhaps the most remarkable technical thing I’ve learned is that the mass of supermassive black holes central to inactive galaxies can be estimated reasonably from measuring only a few factors,” he explains.

After graduating, French will begin a physics Ph.D. program at University of Colorado Boulder. He describes the past year challenging, but also as a period that helped him grow as a scientist more than any other time of his life. As a result, he is heading off to graduate skill with new skills and a critical eye. 

“The obedient body: Researching trained and culturally informed movement biases”

It was during a gender and women’s studies course that URA Scholar Gretta Zinski ’22, dance, read something that rocked her world. She says it was fascinating to learn about how the different social conditioning that men and women experience is reflected in how each gender moves. “The excerpt inspired me to assess my own habits, interests, and biases in an attempt to figure out what were my own thoughts and what I had been taught about my own femininity and beliefs,” she says.

Unfortunately, COVID kept the scope of Zinski’s project smaller than she would have liked, but she was still able to access fascinating findings. “Biases do affect our behavior, which translates into movement,” she says. “The physiological connections between the body and the mind were so interesting to me.” 

Zinski plans to continue her research and use it to plan bias deconstruction workshops. Of her pandemic research experience, she says, “I learned so much about myself and how to work on my own. This is going to be a very important skill for me and my future career as a self-employed artist.”

“Performing traditional Chinese folk songs”

International travel may have been largely shut down this year, but that didn’t stop URA Scholar Mark Beachy ’21, Asian studies, from exploring China. “When I sing traditional Chinese folk songs I am transported to China and I am experiencing the stories from long ago that are told through the lyrics and music. And it brings me great joy to do that and to share it with others,” he says. 

Beachy’s URCAD presentation features a video performance of the folk song “Jasmine.” He painstakingly edited together his vocal performance with accompaniment from a pianist in Illinois and a guzheng player in China. Beachy found both musicians online. “When singing traditional Chinese folk songs or any song it is important to connect with the other musicians in order to give the audiences an authentic performance of music that deserves respect,” he says.

Beachy returned to college in his 40s after a career as a professional actor and a writer of musicals, wanting to learn something new. Though not of Chinese descent, he has a passion for Chinese culture, language, and history.

His eventual goal is to teach English to Chinese speakers, and he hopes music can be a helpful teaching tool. “Music is a great way to learn a language,” he says. After graduating, he plans to earn a master’s degree at UMBC in Teaching English as a Second Language. 

“Interpretation of models of care in residential communities for older adults”

“I am passionate about working with an underserved population and providing elders with quality care,” says Sydney Siegel ‘20, management of aging services. Siegel graduated in Fall 2020 from UMBC’s Erickson School and now works in an assisted living community. Her URCAD project is an analysis of models of care that older adults can experience. “The models of care I studied are about enhancing quality of life and quality of care, something I hope all aging services strive for,” she says.

Interviewing older people proved to be a challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to many care facilities being inaccessible, staff members caring for older adults were incredibly busy. However, Siegel found ways to complete interviews online. “I made great connections and heard wonderful stories from participants,” she shares. 

Siegel, a URA scholar, credits Erickson School faculty mentor Louise M. Murray with helping her grow in the field. “I definitely felt imposter syndrome when I started the research, but I learned to see my inexperience as a good thing, Siegel says. “Learning is so powerful and I feel grateful to have learned so much.” She looks forward to continuing to use research to inform care she provides for older adults.

“Optimizing in-situ longevity of silver nanoplates”

As a first-year student who started college in the midst of a pandemic, Dariush Aligholizadeh ‘24, biochemistry and computer science, did not have a typical introduction to UMBC. He didn’t want that to affect his ability to get started with research right away, but it was a lot to manage. “I was trying to adjust to college life while also trying to conduct research safely and securely within COVID-19 restrictions,” he says.

Dariush Aligholizadeh. Image courtesy of Aligholizadeh.

Aligholizadeh was able to find a compelling in-person research opportunity in a lab that employed strict physical distancing. His project involved synthesizing silver nanoplates “for their ability to reflect radiation and light to very high degrees.” He explains, “Basically, I make tiny triangles that kill cancer.” And his research experience proved highly gratifying.

“Every aspect of chemistry is in its own way beautiful, and watching these textbook principles come to life in my project is like watching magic happen. I take simple grains of silver salts and they come together in these beautiful sharp triangular structures, almost as if they were put together by hand,” he explains. 

Aligholizadeh believes his research experience has already improved his skills in calculus, biology, and organic chemistry, and helped solidify his plans to eventually become a medical doctor. He has also found that the challenges of COVID have required him to improve his time-management and online communication skills. Still, he looks forward to learning in-person again when it’s safe to do so.

The UMBC community and general public can see these presentations and many more at urcad.umbc.edu, April 19-25, 2021.

Featured image: Calista Ogburn, 2018. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Article written by Karen Stysley for UMBC News.

“History-making” is a term that’s become synonymous with UMBC athletics over the last few years, and UMBC women’s volleyball has exemplified that spirit this spring. For the first time in program history, UMBC women’s volleyball earned a share of the America East regular season title, splitting the honor with the UAlbany. Then, on April 2, the team traveled to Albany to take on the Great Danes for the America East Championship, and they delivered. 

The Retrievers knew they needed to leave it all on the court to clinch the win. After five grueling sets and with an audience of screaming fans for the first time this season, UMBC ultimately came out on top. At 3-2, they won their first America East Championship in program history. 

“For us, it is not enough to just win the conference. Our goal as a team coming into the season was to win the conference, go to the tournament, and push as far as we can,” says head coach Cristina Robertson.

“Everyone expected the reigning champions to win, but our young team was eager to prove them wrong,” says Emily Ferketic ’23, physics. “When we were down, we reminded ourselves in the huddle that no matter what happened, we wanted to go down fighting,” she shares, and that tenacity paid off.

The win guaranteed UMBC its first automatic bid to the NCAA tournament since 1998. This past Sunday, the Retrievers learned they’ll be taking on No.20 Pepperdine University for the first round of tournament play in Omaha, Nebraska. The match is scheduled for noon on Wednesday, April 14, and will air nationally on ESPN3.

A transformative year

UMBC has one of the youngest teams in the nation in this year’s tournament, but the university’s first-year players have already made a huge impact on the team. Darina Kumanova ’24, emergency health services, was named to First Team All-Conference and Rookie of the Year, the first first-year student in program history to be named to the First Team. Kumanova also earned a spot on the All-Rookie Team. 

As a new student from Bulgaria, Kumanova had more to contend with than just what happened on the court.

“It has been a tough season for me – coming to a foreign country, adjusting to a new lifestyle, meeting new people, speaking a foreign language, working hard in the gym, as well as in the classroom,” she says, “but it was worth it to be America East Champions.”

Anouk Van Noord, psychology, joins Kumanova with First Team All-Conference accolades. A senior with a 3.88 GPA, Van Noord also landed a spot on the All-Academic Team. She was named America East Player of the Week during the final weekend of the season. A graduating senior, Van Noord knew how high the stakes were. 

“The first day we met UMBC’s new Athletics Director, Brian [Barrio], in 2020, he showed us an empty photo frame on his wall. He told us that he is saving it for when we win the America East championship,” she says. “I am so proud to graduate from UMBC in May with that spot filled on his wall.”

More America East honors

Asyia Miller ’24, biological sciences, was voted Setter of the Year, just the second in program history. The first-year contributor also earned Second Team All-Conference and All-Rookie Team honors. Miller finished second in the league in assists per set. 

“It’s amazing to see the support that all student-athletes at UMBC have for each other. The unity of the entire athletics program shows how special being a Retriever is and how proud everyone is to be a Retriever,” says Miller.

Rounding out the player honors, Ferketic was named Top 10 in the conference in blocks and earned a spot on the All-Academic Team, with a 4.0 GPA. 

Robertson and her staff earned America East Coaching Staff of the Year honors. Led by Robertson, the team racked up the most conference wins in a season since 2013. This is the first Coaching Staff Award of the Year the program has earned since 1994.

“My goal when I took over this program was to establish this program as a perennial America East championship contender and that is what we are building here,” says Roberts. “We have worked hard to establish a positive team culture and winning atmosphere, and the results are beginning to show.”

Fans can watch the first game of tournament play on April 14 on ESPN3. Follow @UMBCathletics for complete coverage and cheer on our Retrievers using #RetrieverNation on social media. 

Banner image: Beste Ayhan ’24, undergraduate studies, celebrates an emotional win over UAlbany. All photos courtesy of UMBC Athletics.

Since 2009, as part of its Alumni Awards celebration, the UMBC Alumni Association names one “Rising Star” recipient each year who exemplifies early career and professional achievement. In the coming weeks, we will spend some time with awardees from the past decade to see where they are now—and how they’ve grown in their fields while maintaining ties to UMBC. In this installment, UMBC Rising Stars and Fearless coworkers Delali Dzirasa and Kelsey Krach discuss their Retriever networks and the responsibility of working in the civic tech space.

When Delali Dzirasa ’04, computer engineering, founded Fearless 12 years ago, he ran it out of his mother’s basement. A year later, when Dzirasa joined forces with John Foster ’04, computer engineering, their first proper office was a shared cubicle at bwtech, UMBC’s business and technology research park. Their vision for the software company was to provide digital services, but specifically tools that empower communities and create good change. “Software with a soul,” Dzirasa, CEO, says.

And their methods caught the attention of the Retriever community. In 2011, Dzirasa won the Rising Star award from the UMBC Alumni Association, and in 2019 Fearless project manager and designer Kelsey Krach ’14, anthropology, won the same award for her contributions to human centered design. Krach, now based in California, joined Dzirasa virtually to discuss the fulfillment of working on technology in co-creation with the community who will use it, and how the Fearless culture is changed and strengthened with each added team member. Reflecting on the years since their respective awards, Dzirasa and Krach see their professional and personal growth as possible only through the support they received from their UMBC communities.

Here’s a little secret they both share—as members of Retriever-filled families, neither Dzirasa nor Krach initially saw themselves going to UMBC, but the campus won them over as high schoolers and the pair can’t help but hype their alma mater.

So much more than software

Delali Dzirasa: Some folks might ask, “Well, what in the world does a software company have to do with community partnerships and service?” 

Kelsey Krach: Fearless is so much more than a digital services firm. Honestly, it’s one of the reasons I was drawn to come work there, because we do so much in the Baltimore community, like partnering with the Downtown [Partnership’s] BOOST Program and some other community organizations. 

Dzirasa: Fearless is actually based in Baltimore because of the Downtown Partnership, so they’re very much a part of our story. Black-Owned and Occupied Storefront Tenancy (BOOST) is a program of the Downtown Partnership where they’re looking to increase Black-owned founders and entrepreneurs. I think it just really speaks to entrepreneurs that might have the passion, might have the energy, but need a little bit of support to get going.

Krach: What type of help did you receive in your early stages? I feel like that’s one of the reasons why you spend time doing this work.

Dzirasa, standing second from left, and Foster, right, with members of the Fearless team. Photo courtesy of Fearless.

Dzirasa: Fearless started off at UMBC, and so UMBC is always going to be part of our story. My brothers and I had a bunch of little side hustles and businesses growing up but never really knew the formal side of entrepreneurship, and UMBC started a fantastic entrepreneurship program while I was there, so I attended those courses.

When Fearless was born, our first cube—not even an office, but our first cubicle—was at UMBC in the bwtech Incubator on campus. So UMBC has been there, whether we needed advice, whether we needed partners, whether we needed someone to be able to get direction from. 

I don’t know that I feared it not working, right? I think entrepreneurs have to have a healthy dose of delusion. I think if there was a fear it was—will we be like everybody else? Or would we have the courage to stand out and try to do things a little bit differently?

A Fearless culture

Krach: I’ve been at Fearless for three years, and I’ve seen a lot of growth happening, especially over the past couple of years. I think what’d be really interesting to talk about are maybe two things, how do we keep this community camaraderie as we continue to grow and how do we make sure that as people come into the company we are maintaining excitement around the community work that we do?

Dzirasa: I don’t think that we will keep the culture, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Every time we add a new person into Fearless, the culture is different. That’s because new people bring new ideas and new interests and new energy, and they create something that wasn’t here before that we all get to benefit from. What I think will remain consistent are the values, our internal culture code, like “create belonging, take initiative, open dialogue, make impact.”

Fearless team members at a company picnic wearing their signature purple. Photo courtesy of Fearless.

Krach: I think that’s a great way to explain it, and I think when we talk about the community aspect of Fearless, what I really love, too, is that we have things built into our work, like our community hours, a certain number of hours a year we get compensated for doing some of this community-based work. I remember even before we had those community hours, a group of people at Fearless went out to serve breakfast at a local food shelter in Baltimore. I thought, “Wow, these are amazing people who want to wake up with me at 5 o’clock in the morning.”

Dzirasa: A question I ask myself often is have we done a good job as a company giving space for people to do community work, or have we just done a good job of attracting people that already care about humanity and the world and just get out of their way? I think it’s a little bit of both but probably more the latter.

Kelsey, in your case and all you’ve done, whether it be serving food or supporting mental health institutions and initiatives or Code for Baltimore—we didn’t create or enable that. That’s you. You were going to do those things anyway. So I think we’ve been able to do a good job of getting a collection of great humans and just kind of getting out of the way and helping them to amplify their message and what it is that they’re doing. 

Women in Tech panel that Krach, third from right, spoke on. Photo courtesy of Krach.

Krach: I think this topic leads into our role in the civic tech space. People are like, “Well, let’s just build this piece of technology and that will fix problems.” But we know you need to have communal co-creation from the people it’s going to affect. We can’t just assume that they’ll want to use the thing that’s created.

Dzirasa: That’s right. What civic tech is—is you’ve got civic and you’ve got tech and they come together and they co-create and they solve problems together. I think that’s something that allows us to both bring an air of authenticity in what we’re doing, but it also ensures that there is accountability for everyone to solve the problem together. 

Keeping Retriever ties

Krach: UMBC has had such a fundamental effect on me and…I’m at a loss for words, actually, to talk about what UMBC has done for me. I couldn’t even imagine having another type of university experience.

Dzirasa: UMBC means a lot. I mean, not just from personal and professional, but it’s a bit of a family thing. I met my wife at UMBC. Both my brothers went to UMBC, so our whole family went there. Then there are the personal relationships I made on campus, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, Greg Simmons, Kim Leisey, and so many people that are at UMBC who were instrumental in my journey, like Vivian Armor, who directs the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. Any time there’s an opportunity to participate or give a talk or support students, I jump at the opportunity.

Dzirasa accepting his Rising Star award in 2011.

Krach: I laughed when you said your whole family went to UMBC. My mom and dad went to UMBC. My younger sister went to UMBC at the same time I was there. My aunt went to UMBC and works there, so I definitely get that family feeling. In fact, I did not want to go to UMBC because of that.

Dzirasa: We share that.

Krach: I was a very rebellious younger person, and I was just like, “No, I’m not going to go to UMBC.” I wanted to go as far away as possible. Then my mom was just like, “Just please visit and then you can say definitively.” I shadowed a friend of mine from high school who was going to UMBC, and I totally fell in love.

Krach in front of the A.O.K. Library. Photo courtesy of Krach.

Dzirasa: We’re like the same person. Same thing, I resisted it. It was the last place on earth I wanted to go to. But then I absolutely loved it, and I couldn’t have imagined a different world for myself. 

Krach: My liberal arts education set me up to be a critical thinker going into the tech space. My job is to think about the big picture. How is what we’re doing with our piece of technology actually solving the problem for whomever we’re trying to help? 

I’ve been able to go back to the Sondheim Scholars Program and teach them about human-centered design and how that can be applied in policy and how technology is related to the policies that we implement. It’s all so connected in my brain. It’s funny because I’m like, “How do people not see all of these things are connected?”

How have you grown since receiving the Rising Star award?

Dzirasa: All right, let me set the stage. I received the award about 10 years ago. My guess is that every single person in our company could fit in the first row or two in the Library Gallery, where they held the ceremony. That’s certainly not the case now!   

A less visible area I’ve seen growth is in something I’m not inherently good at, so it’s something that I’m continuing to work at, which is how to build systems. But at Fearless, we’ve been able to bring along amazing people that are really smart—a heck of a lot smarter than I am in their respective areas—who contribute so much to the organization. So it’s really finding what am I uniquely gifted at, leaning into that lane, but really trusting other people to do what it is that they do so well. 

When the company was at their original bwtech location, they were called Fearless Solutions. Photo courtesy of Fearless.

Kelsey, you received your Rising Star award more recently in 2019. Can you talk about what has changed in your own life personally and professionally?

Krach: I had a big shift personally with moving from Baltimore to California right before I got that award—our ceremony was in the Linehan Concert Hall. I’ve been so lucky to continue working with Fearless in a remote capacity, so a big piece for me has been growth around building a new life here. One of the most beautiful parts of this move is that Oakland reminds me a lot of Baltimore in the sense of the people and community. 

Professionally, I’ve been able to dig in more to being a product manager and thinking more about what is the value we’re providing. What problems are we focusing on with our technology, and how are we helping the government make smart decisions about what they want to implement. I want to make sure that we’re not just putting Band-aids on stuff but instead we’re ripping off the Band-aids and getting to these deep wounds that exist.

Krach accepts her Rising Star award in 2019. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Delali, one last question—what was something you learned at UMBC that you still use in your daily life?

Dzirasa: I feel like UMBC taught me how to build community, how to help put some of the pieces in place that build culture. What about you?

Krach: For me, it’s like what have I not used? But, really, one person who stands out for me is Vivian Armor, who you mentioned earlier, and the entrepreneurship classes that I took while at UMBC. That combined with my cultural anthropology background took me to this level of thinking about structure and agency and what it means to build the technology in order to help individuals accomplish their goals. And to ask ourselves, is our tech creating a foundation for equitable spaces? 

Dzirasa: For me, it goes back to what we talked about: how do we empower people like you who already care about humanity and are awesome humans and let them just do amazing things? Even through the lens of equity, if you’re a woman founder or a founder of color or whatever it is who has a particular experience that traditionally isn’t in the marketplace, if we help those companies to be really successful, they then have a lived experience of how to do that. They become a story…an example that people can point to and say, “Oh, I can do that, too.” 

Do you know a UMBC alum who should be recognized for the great work they’re doing? Nominate them for an Alumni Award by filling out this form by May, 3, 2021.

The solar cycle involves periodic changes in activity on the Sun’s surface, and a new way of thinking about it reveals connections between solar activity and weather patterns on Earth. New research in Earth & Space Scienceled by Robert Leamon, research scientist at the Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute, a UMBC partnership with NASA, describes the discovery of a solar cycle phenomenon the authors have dubbed “the terminator.”

The researchers found that a La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean quickly follows a terminator event. La Niña and El Niño patterns affect everything from the likelihood of severe hurricanes to the success of the growing season. This means the ability to predict these patterns on the scale of about a decade could help communities and governments prepare for natural disasters, shifting crop supply and prices, and more. Organizations like NOAA currently offer weather pattern predictions about one year out, but access to decade-scale forecasts would be a huge advance.

Robert Leamon. Photo courtesy Robert Leamon.

The terminator

Leamon and co-authors Scott McIntosh and Daniel Marsh, both at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, define the terminator as the precise point where any remnants of activity from the previous cycle disappear from the sun’s surface. After “termination,” there is a dramatic increase in solar activity in the new cycle. Activity associated with two consecutive cycles usually overlaps for a few years, but the two cycles’ sunspots are distinguishable from each other based on their magnetic polarity (north vs. south). The polarity of the Sun reverses direction each cycle.  

Previously, scientists defined the transition from one solar cycle to the next as the “solar minimum,” where overall solar activity is at its lowest point. However, this definition is imprecise. The terminator gives researchers a new way to think about the end of the solar cycle, and a more precise way to predict the timing of ensuing weather patterns. 

Based on continuously collected cosmic ray data from an observatory in Finland, the new study demonstrates that a terminator event has consistently occurred about one year after the traditional “solar minimum” during each solar cycle for the last 60 years. In fact, data in the paper, which has been in the works since 2017, accurately predicted the next La Niña in 2020.

The name for the phenomenon was an easy choice, according to Leamon. “We’ve been calling this the terminator for a few years, because it indicates the death of a solar cycle,” he says. “And, because it’s predictable, it will, as always, ‘be back.’”

A “cycling” solution

Not all solar cycles are exactly the same length. They can range from about nine to 14 years, averaging around 11 years. So, Leamon used a creative, athletics-inspired technique to compare the timing of the sequence of events in each cycle. When reviewing his stats from a 100-mile bike ride in 2017, he noticed that each 25-mile lap got a little slower, but there were always the same speed-ups and slow-downs around certain features on the course, like hills. So, if he plotted the laps by distance, rather than time, all the hills lined up. Why not do the same for the solar cycle?

While the solar cycle doesn’t technically have a “distance” measurement, it’s possible to divide the length of each sun cycle into 100 equal parts, then plot the cycles on top of each other to compare their features.

“It’s one of those things… You just have a moment of inspiration and think, why don’t I try that?” Leamon says. “That’s how this study came to be. Rather than plotting the cycles by time, do it as distance.” And when you do that, he says, “all sorts of things start to line up.”

Hidden signals

This technique revealed that the transition away from the solar minimum is quite abrupt, rather than the smooth curves depicted in many explanatory charts of the solar cycle. “It’s not a smooth transition. There’s actually a sharp jump in solar activity and a sharp drop in cosmic rays right when solar activity picks up,” Leamon explains.

The relative abundance of cosmic rays entering Earth’s atmosphere is one of the ways that scientists can measure solar activity. When solar activity is limited, the magnetic fields associated with Earth and the Sun are simple and largely aligned. That creates an uninterrupted path for more cosmic rays to reach Earth. However, with high solar activity, the magnetic fields are complex. “Swiss cheese is perhaps a good analogy,” Leamon says. “There’s more stuff to scatter incoming particles off of. So at solar maximum, there’s a smaller number of cosmic rays hitting the Earth.”

Other researchers may have considered the irregular increase and decrease of solar activity as just noise in the data, but mapping the cycles by “distance” allowed Leamon to see that it was a consistent phenomenon. “One man’s noise is another man’s signal,” he says with a smile. “So don’t over-smooth things,” he says, or you’ll risk missing essential information.

Think outside the sky

Leamon acknowledges a concern that some people will try to use his study as evidence that climate change is caused by the Sun, not humans. That argument has long been made by deniers of human-caused climate change. But Leamon is clear that it misinterprets his findings.

When we talk about global warming, he says, “we’re only talking about the troposphere—the bottom few miles of the atmosphere where we live. But one of the consequences of a warming troposphere is a colder stratosphere,” which extends about 32 miles above Earth’s surface. By keeping more heat closer to the surface, that heat doesn’t escape and warm the stratosphere—and a colder stratosphere intensifies the solar cycle changes by increasing electrical conductivity in the upper atmosphere.

In fact, “since the 1950s there’s been a noticeable cooling of the stratosphere to go along with the warming of the troposphere,” Leamon says. That correlates with the beginning of seismic shifts in the U.S. standard of living, energy use, and other factors that have contributed to human-caused climate change. So, it’s fair to say that the Sun is a factor in the climate, but its role has intensified because of human activity, Leamon explains.

Science for the people    

Leamon has additional research under review that offers further details about events during the solar cycle. His upcoming work also takes advantage of the new way of looking at the data inspired by his bike ride. Combined with the current results, the goal is to generate knowledge that both satisfies our innate curiosity about the workings of the solar system and helps people and communities navigate a changing world.

“If further research can establish that changes on the Sun are truly causing variability in the oceans, then we may be able to improve our ability to predict El Niño and La Niña events,” Leamon says.“That could help us understand how the Earth system varies on the scale of a season to a decade, and how predictable those variations are—giving us a firmer grasp on the complex bridge between weather and climate.”

Banner image: An image of a terminator event on the Sun in 2011. The three different colors (added by researchers) represent three temperatures. Photo courtesy of NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory.