Revolutionary Research Insider | Issue III

Welcome back to Revolutionary Research Insider, a monthly newsletter offering an inside look at the people and programs that make the University of Massachusetts Amherst a world-class public research university. This month, we introduce you to not one, but two #SpotlightScholars, faculty creating positive social change through their research, scholarship, and creative activity. And we ask: where has all the soil gone in the American heartland? Read on to learn more.

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Where Has All the Soil Gone?

Spend enough time traveling around the Midwestern United States and something becomes apparent: lots of soil has gone missing. Areas of light tan-colored soil atop hills and large drop-offs between native prairies and agricultural fields are key indicators of this troubling phenomenon.

UMass Amherst geologist and geochemist Isaac Larsen's research group in College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst is investigating the erosion of topsoil in America's heartland. Their research has found that, since agriculture began in the region around 160 years ago, the Midwest has lost two millimeters of topsoil a year—nearly double the rate of erosion that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) considers sustainable. Put another way, the Midwest has lost approximately 57.6 billion metric tons of topsoil since agriculture began in the region. Moreover, they estimate that the Cornbelt has lost approximately 30% of its total topsoil.

Learn more about what's causing this erosion, its troubling implications for food costs and food insecurity, and how to fix the problem.

Research on a Hidden History

Spotlight Scholar Charmaine A. Nelson fell in love with art history as an undergraduate at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, but as she delved deeper into the discipline, she realized she wasn’t represented there as a Black woman. Nelson went on to become the first Black tenured or tenure-track professor of art history in Canada, a distinction she held for two decades.

"I always say to my students, don't be afraid of the absence of yourself in a discipline because that means your questions haven't been posed yet," said Nelson, who today is provost professor in the History of Art and Architecture Department at UMass Amherst, specializing in Black diasporic art and visual culture. "If I had been afraid of that, I would have left right away."

Learn more about Nelson's scholarship, which aims to increase public awareness of the little-known histories of slavery in Canada and the American North, including through the Slavery North Initiative.

Studying Secrets in the Sewers

Spotlight Scholar Caitlyn Butler , an environmental engineer in the College of Engineering, UMass Amherst , has dedicated her career to studying microbial ecology—in particular, biofilms naturally formed by microbes—to make wastewater treatment systems more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she said, "I thought about how I could use my skillset to help." She had heard about labs studying COVID-19 in wastewater and so, with seed grants from the UMass Institute for Applied Life Sciences , her research group established a protocol to accurately assess the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from the UMass Amherst campus. For two years and counting, these efforts to track COVID-19 in wastewater have helped keep the campus and greater Amherst communities informed and safe.

Butler also has been involved in developing innovative wastewater sampling methods, and hopes to apply what she has learned about wastewater epidemiology to other disease targets in the future. Learn more about her research.

In other wastewater research and innovation, Jessica Schiffman , Gary R. Lapidus Faculty Fellow in Chemical Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to produce polymer membranes used in water purification systems—a process that now generates copious amounts of toxic wastewater—using a sustainable, environmentally friendly, and toxin-free method.

Grants to Pioneer In-Home Care for Older Adults

The Massachusetts AI and Technology Center for Connected Care in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease (MassAITC), launched in 2021 and housed at UMass Amherst, recently announced the award of $1.7 million to its first seven pilot projects, which aim to spur innovation at the intersection of AI, technology, and aging.

Two UMass Amherst researchers in UMass Institute for Applied Life Sciences —kinesiologist Amanda Paluch and Michael Busa , director of the Center for Human Health and Performance—are among the pilot project recipients.

“The pilots bring together an exceptional group of interdisciplinary investigators and also leverage outstanding capabilities for testing and validating these technologies and expertise across the Center, including state-of-the-art facilities and patient cohorts to facilitate validation of these technologies in real-world at-home settings," said MassAITC co-director Deepak Ganesan in Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst .

Like what you see here? Visit our website to explore more UMass Amherst research and innovation, or sign up to receive the Revolutionary Research e-newsletter in your inbox four times a year for more great news, stories, and profiles of researchers.