News : Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences : UMass Amherst

Passing of professor emeritus Steve Haggerty

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of professor emeritus Stephen E. Haggerty on the 2nd of January, 2026 at the age of 87. He was a long time faculty member in EGCS, from 1972 to 2001. A complete obituary will appear soon assembled by his friends and colleagues.

January 12, 2026

Dr. Forrest Bowlick interviewed by Signals of Change podcast

In this episode of Signals of Change, host Mira Shah speaks with Dr. Forrest Bowlick, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Conservation and Earth, Geography, and Climate Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Dr. Bowlick’s work sits at the frontier of cyber GIS, geospatial literacy, and digital geography education, re-imagining how we use computation to understand our planet. Together, they explore how high-performance computing transforms geographic research, how digital tools reshape our sense of place, and how the next generation of students is learning to read the world through

December 19, 2025

Dr. Toni Lyn Morelli: Climate Safe Havens Could Be One of Earth’s Best Defenses Against Global Warming—But How Well Do They Work?

From Maine’s Acadia National Park to the wilds of Australia—and in thousands of places in-between—geological conditions exist that slow the effects of climate change on the local ecology and inhabitants. How these “climate refugia” remain relatively protected from climate change impacts over time, and how they might help local plant and animal species survive, is the focus of a special issue of the journal Conservation Science and Practice spearheaded by Toni Lyn Morelli, adjunct full professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist.

December 19, 2025

EGCS presenting at the Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans

Members of UMass EGCS presenting at the Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans

December 14, 2025

Michael Williams Wins GSA’s 2025 Structural Geology and Tectonics Career Contribution Award

Michael Williams, a professor in structural geology, metamorphic petrology, and petrochronology in the College of Natural Sciences’s department of earth, geographic, and climate sciences (EGCS), was recently selected to receive the Geological Society of America (GSA) 2025 Structural Geology and Tectonics Career Contribution Award.

November 26, 2025

EGCS at GSA Connects 2025

Join us at the 2025 GSA Connects!

October 17, 2025

State Geologist secures funding to investigate cause of crumbling home foundations

(WWLP has picked up this story. See their report here.)

In collaboration with neighboring states’ geological surveys, the Massachusetts Geological Survey has secured funding from the federal Earth MRI program to do geophysical surveys of a wide swath of southern New England. This newly funded work, totaling $750,000, involves low-level airplane flights over parts of the Connecticut River Valley to image geology using airborne geophysical technology, starting this month. The flights are partof a national effort to modernize mapping of the nation’s geology, increasing knowledge of resources such

September 18, 2025

Isaac Larsen elected GSA Fellow

Congratulations to Dr. Isaac Larsen, who has been elected Geological Society of America Fellow

September 12, 2025

DeConto, Brigham-Grette co-author evaluation of geoengineering to address climate change

Dr.'s Julie Brigham-Grette and Rob DeConto are among 42 authors of Safeguarding the polar regions from dangerous geoengineering: a critical assessment of proposed concepts and future prospects, which examines the feasibility and risks of various geoengineering proposals for addressing climage change.

September 9, 2025

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