Updates
2024
August: Welcome back! Our goal this semester is to finalize our MA Water Consumption website, and draft a journal article - we'll see how it goes.
July: Happy summer - a lot is happening behind the scenes (hopefully future updates will share the results!).
June: Everyone is enjoying summer break...
May: Congratulations to Keara and Alexa for graduating with the B.S. in engineering, Lindsey for graduating with the M.S. in engineering, and Sumana for graduating with an M.S. in construction management! Additionally, the group traveled to EWRI Congress 2024 in Milwaukee WI and had a great time! We took a tour of the Kinnickinnic flood management projects being led by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and gave two presentations: Lindsey presented on the group's Massachusetts water consumption work (see the conference proceedings paper for full details) while Dr. Schlef (with co-author Dr. Hassaan Khan of Tufts University) presented on the teleconnections influencing Karachi Pakistan's rainfall patterns.
April: The research group did a great job presenting at the NEWWA Spring Conference. Also, congratulations to Environmental Engineering students Caitlyn Crochiere, Alexander Gilbert, and Morgan Tilley for winning 1st place poster for their project on construction site contamination of waterways. Back at WNE, Emmerson represented the group by presenting at Accepted Student's Day.
March: A video on water challenges in New England created by Dr. Schlef was featured at an event hosted by Arizona State University - the video is now hosted on YouTube.
February: Dr. Schlef spoke at the WNE SWE chapter meeting and at the "Surviving Your PhD" event at UMass Amherst hosted by CRU.
January: Our CoCoRaHS raingage (MA-HD-58) has passed 100 daily measurements and will now be ingested into the Global Historic Climatology Network! Thank you to Lindsey Carey and Frank Costa for setting up our station in December of 2022.
2023
December: Merry Christmas and farewell to 2023. What a full year it has been! The group submitted a conference proceedings paper to EWRI Congress 2024 entitled "Public Water Supply in Massachusetts from 2009-2022"; we are eagerly awaiting reviewer comments. Also, congratulations to Ericka on graduating! Ericka - we greatly appreciate how you pushed us to ensure our work was understandable to broad audiences.
November: Happy Thanksgiving! Both abstracts sent to EWRI Congress 2024 were accepted for oral presentations! Dr. Schlef was also asked to sit on an advisory panel for a study on climate and hydrologic risks to Massachusetts.
October: A very busy month:
Dr. Schlef and Dr. Kwaczala (BME), with Ericka and Keara (CEE) and Ashley and Lauren (BME), led a Women In Science event at the Connecticut Science Center. Museum visitors made their own water filter and aquifer. It was "spooktacular" weekend at the museum, so the place was packed and our tables had a steady stream of visitors.
Dr. Schlef spoke on the intersection of intellect and faith at the UMass Amherst CRU meeting.
Lindsey (CEE, MS) and Dr. Schlef presented at NEWWA WRS on the topic of "Analyzing Drivers of Water Consumption Across Massachusetts Public Water Suppliers". The presentation was well-received and generated useful feedback to advance and improve our work.
September: We submitted two abstracts to EWRI Congress 2024 - one of them on the MA water consumption work and one on Dr. Schlef's work on Karachi precipitation patterns. Here's hoping for positive feedback from the organizers.
August: Welcome back fall semester! The group has ambitious plans for the fall, including presenting at a NEWWA event and submitting a EWRI Congress proceedings paper.
July: Dr. Katherine Schlef attended a 4-day workshop hosted by KEEN at Boston College - the workshop title was "Making with Entrepeneurial Mindset Across the Currriculum" and was led by faculty from the WNE BME department (for fun pictures and more details, see this LinkedIn post by Dr. K). Dr. Schlef also attended NEWWA's 2023 Summer Planning Session, helping provide ideas for the direction that NEWWA will take in the coming years.
June: Everyone took a much-needed break!
May: Congratulations to the graduating seniors - Ashley Lapatin, Emanuel Sierra, Fatima Sultan and Lindsey Carey! Also, we are looking forward to having Lindsey stay in the research group as a MS student next year. Happy summer!
April: CEE junior Keara Mooney and CEE senior Fatima Sultan presented the group's research on "The Quantitative Analysis of Non-Essential Outdoor Use in Towns Across Massachusetts" at NEWWA's spring conference and won third place - congratulations! Also, as part of a honors project, CEE senior Lindsey Carey presented on PFAS to CEE 320 Environmental Engineering.
March: Congratulations to Asphota Wasti, PhD candidate at the University of Cincinnati, for successfully defending her PhD dissertation entitled Analysis of Risks to the Hydropower Sector under Climate Change! Wasti's primary advisor is Dr. Patrick Ray, but Dr. Katherine Schlef served as a member of the committee.
February: CEE junior Ericka Nunez Rios presented her research on "Drivers of Water Consumption in Massachusetts: Analyzing MA Public Suppliers" at the WE Local conference Feb 17-18 in Detroit MI. Congratulations Ericka for winning 3rd place in the undergraduate collegiate competition!
January: Dr. Katherine Schlef attended the NEWWA/NHWWA joint membership meeting. The meeting included presentations on PFAS treatment use in New England, and on how the Merrimack River is now being used as the primary source of water supply for Pennichuck Water Works in New Hampshire.
2022
December: Dr. Katherine Schlef virtually attended AGU's 2022 Fall Meeting and presented a poster on the MA water consumption work and was a co-author on a flood risk and uncertainty talk.
November: A review paper on IDF curves under climate change that has been in-process for the last 4+ years was finally published in Journal of Hydrology! Access for free until Feb 2023.