Category: Research Awards

Project SUDS: Serving Up Dignity with Showers

Kaitlyn Moran, Debbie Perez, and Rebecca Walmer under the direction of Assistant Professor Jessica Leibler seek to investigate the potential barriers to shower access among homeless individuals in Boston. This student team will evaluate the health impacts of poor or irregular personal hygine among the Boston homeless, the quality and accessibility of sanitation facilities available […]

Breast is Best: Increasing Breastfeeding Resources at Boston Medical Center Pediatric Ambulatory Care Clinic to Improve Urban Health Equity

Drs. Rachael Bonawitz and Stephanie Klees propose a study to assess the difference in breastfeeding rates through the Nesting Clinic at Boston Medical Center (BMC) beginning pre-2012, when certified lactation counselors were present in clinic, and from 2012 to June 2015, the three years without lactation support services. Drs. Bonawitz and Klees will conduct their […]

Local Cultural Economic Development Policies

Local Cultural Economic Development Policies in Gloucester and Pittsfield Assistant Professor Richard Maloney’s study in two small Massachusetts cities, Gloucester and Pittsfield, will explore the formation of local policy networks and their impact on the development of cultural economic development policies, as well as the economic impact of cultural policies at the local level. Student […]

Integrated Process for Landfill and Leachate Management: Experimentally Informed Design of Waste-to-Energy Conversation for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Mitigation

With her project, Research Assistant Professor Goldfarb searches for a scheme to reduce the energy required to manage MSW and leachate landfills and develop new ways and materials to reduce waste and slow the spread of contaminants. Goldfarb will addresses municipal solid waste (MSW) management in urban areas by using pyrolysis to produce energy and […]

Establishment of New Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition Monitoring Network in the City of Boston

Associate Professors Pamela Templer and Lucy Hutyra seek to collect data on the nitrogen deposition levels both within and surrounding city limits by creating the first National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) monitoring system in a city in order to establish a mechanistic understanding of sources and transformation of emissions and deposition of nitrogen within the […]

What Lies Beneath: How the History of Boston Impacts its Water Quality Today

Associate Professor Robinson Fulweiler and Ph.D. candidate Timothy Maguire will conduct a study on the urban groundwater and runoff in Boston, in order to investigate the causes, effects, and the extent of nutrient non-point pollution in urbanized subterranean estuaries. Publications: Fulweiler, Robinson and Timothy Maguire. (2016). Urban Dissolved Silica: Quantifying the Role of Groundwater and […]

Characterizing Urban Areas in the 21st Century: A Data Driven Approach

Professors Sucharita Gopal and Nathan Phillips will use a data driven approach to define sustainability, resiliency and metabolism metrics to provide cities across the globe better ways to use data to address real urban challenges through the examination of the cities of Boston, New York and Melbourne. Their research seeks to answer the following questions: […]

Engineering Main Street: The Spatial Dimension of Organizations and Revitalization in Boston

Ph.D. candidate Taylor Cain, under the advisement of Professor Japonica Brown-Saracino, seeks to identify how place attributes (including income, racial/ethnic composition, and residential and commercial property values) influence the strategies for and consequences of revitalization in two geographically proximate Main Streets business districts in Boston. Taylor Cain Taylor Cain graduated in 2011 with a B.A. […]

What Mayors Think: National Politics in Local Policy

In their new study, Assistant Professors Katherine Einstein and David Glick, lead-authors of the 2014 and 2015 Menino Survey of Mayors, will combine extensive mayoral interview data with municipal capital expenditures, mayoral support for city ordinances and mayoral demographic data. They will seek to evaluate the extent to which national policies influence local politics, how […]

The Choices, Experiences, and Role of Second Homeowners in Boston

Led by Ph.D. candidate Meaghan Stiman under the advisement of Professor Japonica Brown-Saracino, this study seeks to understand a rarely studied class of urban resident: the second homeowner. Stiman will evaluate how Boston second homeowners frame their residential choices and experiences, their civic, cultural and economic contributions, and their impact on neighborhood character over time. […]