The student winners of 2025 IGS Sustainability Research Awards are (from left) Melissa Martin (GRS’29), Niouma Semega (SPH’29), and Weimin Zhang (GRS’25,’28). Photo by Rooted in Light Media

Sustainability

Sustainability Research Awards Honor BU Climate Science Heroes

Annual Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability awards given to students and faculty

Forget medals and trophies, the winners of the annual Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) Sustainability Research Awards are given something more befitting of their climate action superhero status: a green cape.

This year’s winners included three BU students and one faculty member, recognized for projects covering issues like decarbonization and urban heat interventions. The accolades—and the accompanying green capes—were given by IGS at its 2025 Annual Gathering, which brought together faculty and student researchers from across the University.

The headline prizes went to Jonathan Buonocore, a BU School of Public Health assistant professor of environmental health, who received the Sustainability Champion Faculty Award, and Weimin Zhang (GRS’25,’28), a PhD candidate in Earth and environment, who was given the Peter Fox-Penner Graduate Student Award. Both were nominated by members of the BU community for, according to IGS, “making a significant contribution to research or practice in the realm of sustainability, climate change, and/or equity and justice.”

Zhang, who was honored for her work researching the effectiveness of energy and decarbonization policies worldwide, says the award was unexpected. “I was deeply honored,” she says. “[This award] means a lot to me because it recognized not only my research, but also the broader goal of making decarbonization fair and inclusive.”

At the event, researchers discussed their latest projects and findings, and showed how their work is having an impact at the global, national, state, and city levels. There was also a poster session, where BU students—from disciplines as diverse as environmental health, emerging media, finance, Earth and environment, and materials science—shared insights from their research. Event judges and attendees selected two standouts for best poster awards.

The poster winners were Niouma Semega (SPH’29), a PhD student in environmental health, who received the Judges’ Choice Student Poster Award, and Melissa Martin (GRS’29), a PhD student in Earth and environment, who received the People’s Choice Student Poster Award. 

Semega, whose poster highlighted the research she has done on the impact gas stoves have on air pollution, says receiving the award was incredibly validating. “It was really special to me to get that affirmation that the work I have been putting in for the last year is impactful,” she says.

Martin’s research and poster focused on the impact of cooling interventions on people’s health, and the energy infrastructures involved with implementing them. She says she was proud to see how positively the BU climate science community responded to her work. “To have people that have dedicated their lives to doing interesting and impactful research see the value in yours is really affirming,” says Martin.

According to Rebecca Pearl-Martinez, the executive director of IGS, all the winners deserve their green capes and superhero status for their contributions to the fields of sustainability and climate resilience.

“Their research is helping highlight pathways to decarbonization and reveal the human implications of energy infrastructure,” she says, “and will have a significant impact on how we understand and tackle energy transition.”