UMBC's Earth Day Symposium 2025

Thu, 15 May 2025 17:09:13 -0400
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The Earth Day Symposium (EDS) 2025 Planning Committee, led by Roshan Mishra, organized a wonderful, informative all-day event, held on Friday, April 25, 2025, in UMBC’s Physics building. The 9th Annual EDS explored the theme “Emerging Scientists Amid Policy Change.” The day included talks, a panel discussion, and an industry spotlight session. Poster presentations were held in the afternoon, and the top 3 poster presenters received UMBC e-gift cards.

Dr. Zhibo Zhang kicked off the event with a review of the history of UMBC’s EDS, which was established in 2017 by UMBC’s Atmospheric Physics graduate program; more information is available here. The UMBC Physics Department and GESTAR II sponsored the event.

Throughout the day, invited speakers from universities, NASA, and industry shared their research, experiences, and advice, particularly as it relates to early-career scientists and aspiring students. Dr. Amita Mehta (GESTAR II/UMBC) presented “Historical and Emerging NASA Missions for Societal Applications”; Dr. Dylan Powell presented on “Science and Technology Corporation (STC),” which also was the Industry Spotlight; Dr. Jack Kaye (NASA ESD) attended virtually from NASA HQ to present “Thoughts for Early Career Earth Scientists” (note, Dr. Kaye’s retirement party was that afternoon – congratulations!); Dr. Nakul Karle (Howard Univ.) presented “From Boundary Layer Turbulence to Virga Precipitation”; and, Dr. Zhibo Zhang (UMBC) presented “How not to write “bad” proposals.”

Additionally, in the morning, the EDS Panel gathered to provide insight and respond to various questions from host Hannah Seppala. The panel discussion’s theme was “Navigating Change: Personal Journey,” and panel members were Dr. Maria Molina (UMD), Dr. Henrique Barbosa (Physics/UMBC), Dr. Anin Puthukkudy (ESI and GESTAR II), and Dr. Maurice Roots (Ph.D./UMBC/NPP).

In the afternoon, for the “Industry Spotlight: STC”, Dr. Dylan Powell, Director of NASA and NOAA Business Development and Operations at STC, discussed his background, which includes his degrees from UMBC in Atmospheric Physics, as well as his work with Lockheed Martin and NOAA. He discussed STC’s work with NASA and NOAA, particularly regarding Earth Sciences, Climate, and the Atmosphere. Dr. Powell also shared his lessons learned along his career path with the students in attendance. Learn more about STC here.

The EDS Poster Presentations were held in the 1st Floor Hallway of the Physics Building from 2:00pm-3:30pm; thank you to everyone who participated.

Kamal Aryal, “Initial validation of aerosol and ocean color data products from NASA PACE polarimeters using FastMAPOL/component retrieval algorithm”

John Caporaletti, “Proposed 5-Electron Charge Quadrupole Qubit”

Emily Faber, “Investigation of the Impact of Alluvial Flows in the Unified Forecast System (UFS) Dust Scheme”

Chetan Gurung, “Identifying the Optimal WRF-ARW Configuration for the Wet Season in the Amazon Rainforest”

Eric Lowe, “Improving the Signal in DEER with swept pulses”

Dr. Brent McBride and others from ESI, “UMBC's AirHARP2 flies high in NASA's PACE-PAX field campaign”

John Melles, “Direct Radiative Effect of Dust Aerosols using EMIT and PACE Observations”

Roshan Mishra, “Smoke Absorption Retrieval Algorithm using Critical Reflectance Method with Geostationary Satellite over North America”

Sharad Pandey, “Understanding PBL Dynamics and Thermodynamics in LLJ events over PECAN: Modeled and Observation”

Greema Regmi, “Combined Lidar-Polarimeter Aerosol Retrievals using Spheroidal and Hexahedral Particle Shape Models with Data from the ORACLES Field Campaigns”

Soumik Sarker, “Spectrally Passive-Adaptive Radiative Cooling Using Sustainable Materials”

Hannah Seppala, “Developing a Lagrangian Frame Transformation on Satellite Data to Study Cloud Microphysical Transitions in Arctic Marine Cold Air Outbreaks”

Ronghao Wang, “Analysis of the Composition and Mixing State of Polluted Dust Using Satellite Observations and Reanalysis Data”

After the votes were tallied, Emily Faber (Atmospheric Physics) won 1st Prize, and Hannah Seppala (Atmospheric Physics) and Soumik Sarker (Department of Mechanical Engineering) both won 2nd Prize (a tie!).

Congratulations to this year’s EDS Committee Student Members on a successful, well-organized, and interesting day: Roshan Mishra, Tony La Luna, Chetan Gurung, Eniola Oyedeji, Md Idris Ali, Ronghao Wang, Sharad Pandey, and Amanda Vieira dos Santos.

(Visit our EDS 2025 photo gallery here!)