University of Maryland Center For Environmental Sciences

Overview

University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science

University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science (UMCES) is a public university and research institution in Cambridge, Maryland. It was founded in 1925 as Chesapeake Laboratory, the oldest public marine laboratory that continues to operate on the East Coast. It received its current structure and name in 1997. As the only scientific research center in the University System of Maryland, UMCES is recognized for its unique research, academic, and restoration programs of the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland’s ecosystem.

University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science Key Statistics

The university offers opportunities for undergraduate internships as well as conducts postgraduate research-based programs. It has a unified focus on environmental research. However, the university also has programs covering other fields of study, such as Engineering, Natural Sciences, and Agriculture.

University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science's student population is approximately 95 postgraduates. They are mentored by 70 faculty members in its various sites in College Park, Cambridge, Solomons, Frostburg, and Baltimore.

Other University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science key statistics include its three partner graduate course offerings. These are Frostburg State University Masters in Biology, University of Maryland, Baltimore Graduate Program in Life Sciences, and Marine Estuarine and Environmental Sciences.

University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science Research

UMCES research operates in multidisciplinary environments and has four areas of concentration: accelerating the science of changing oceans and climate, creating healthy urban waterfronts, building coastal resilience, and maintaining sustainable landscapes and seascapes. Its research projects are funded by public agencies and private organizations, such as the National Science Foundation, University System of Maryland’s Momentum Fund, John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, and Wilson H. Elkins Endowment Fund.

The top fields of University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science research are environmental science, ecology, and biology. Its research outputs have been published in prestigious journals like Science, Nature, and Harmful Algae.

Its researchers have attended major scholarly conferences, such as INTERSPEECH: Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, CSR: Computer Science Symposium in Russia, and OCEANS: OCEANS Conference.

The most cited output from the school is Tilman et al.'s (2002) “Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices.” This article was published in Nature and has received 7,894 citations to date. It is followed by Root et al.'s (2003) “Fingerprints of global warming on wild animals and plants,” which was featured in Nature and has been cited 5,578 times, thus far. Moreover, the university’s third most cited publication is Le Quere et al.'s (2011) “The value of estuarine and coastal ecosystem services,” which appeared in the Ecological Monographs and has so far received 3,663 citations.

In addition, the university operates various land-based and sea-focused research facilities which also serve as the campuses where UMCES programs are conducted. These include the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore, the Horn Point Laboratory on the Eastern Shore, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the mouth of the Patuxent River, and the Appalachian Laboratory in the mountains of western Maryland.

Meanwhile, some of its notable research projects are sustainable rockfish, blue crab, and oyster management and cultivation, the state-of-the-art research vessel Rachel Carson for monitoring the Chesapeake Bay and its adjacent rivers, and the reductions in regional air pollution to enhance water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.