Undergraduate Sustainability Research Award

Congratulations to our 2023 Undergraduate Sustainability Research Award Winners! Their winning submissions have been added to the Sustainable UMass Student Showcase collection in our institutional repository ScholarWorks.

• Madeline Fabian '23 for "The Oak & The Mailbox"
• Max Feldman '24 for "A Carbon Conundrum"
• Jo Fuchs '24 and Hannah Gould '25 for "Community Classroom of Hope"
• Shivaangi Salhotra '26 for "Trash Talk: Rethinking the Notion of Waste"
• Nathaniel Wright '23 for "Thermal efficiencies of Green Walls in Building Structures in the Northeast United States"

• Be a full- or part-time UMass Amherst undergraduate enrolled in any discipline and at any level.
  • If you are in a 4+1 program, you are eligible while you are in the first 4 years. 
• Diversity of age, ability, race, religion, gender, social class, educational background is welcome.

• If awarded, agree to add your submission to ScholarWorks, the UMass Amherst digital showcase (with a Creative Commons license of your choosing)

• If awarded, attend library event at the Science & Engineering Library (date & time TBD). 

Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of librarians and staff from the Science & Engineering Library.

Submissions will be evaluated on:

• Substantive Topic
  • Potential for sustainability change or broader sustainability awareness/appreciation (environmental, social, and/or economic).
  • Broad scope (geographic or in aspect of sustainability work) or in-depth analysis score highest.
• Research Strategy
  • Research methodology
    • UMass Libraries/other resources searched
    • keywords used or other search strategies
    • use of sources to find other sources
  • Depth and breadth of sources
    • All academic? All from single journal/NGO?
    • Direct quotes only? Or supporting ideas behind other arguments, too?
  • Refer to information provided on submission form
• Attribution of Sources
  • Consistent formatting throughout with in-text notation (superscript, author-date, etc.) and complete reference list or footnotes/endnotes.
  • Quotes, paraphrasing, and credit for others' original ideas all clearly attributed.
  • Sources include all information needed for reviewers to track down full text.
  • Applicants should declare the citation style they are using.
    • No points lost for minutia of punctuation, as long as overall style is consistent.
• Effectiveness of Communication 
  • Compelling narrative or imagery, writing is coherent/imagery conveys the meaning intended (compare to context statement from submission form), facts are conveyed to support the argument/emotions evoked as intended.
  • Disregard minor grammatical mistakes.
• Overall Impression