We are no longer accepting applications for Fall 2025 admission to Team-TERRA (NSF NRT)

For students entering the Team-TERRA program for fall 2025 (existing UConn students), applications will be reviewed starting on February 10th, 2025, with priority given to those applications that are received prior to February 10th, 2025. Rolling admission will continue until April 15th, 2025. Click Trainee Information to learn more.

Team-TERRA Cohort 5 - 2025-2026: Zijie (Albert) Zeng, Quin Zabel, Himel Moulik, Mark Urban (PI), Vanessa Heigel, Mohammad Shahriyar Parvez, Michael Pimenta, Evan Zocco, Kiran Paudel, and Oluwaseun Akinola

Welcome to Team-TERRA - Building Resilient Landscapes for Food, Energy, Water, and Ecosystem Services in America’s Original Megalopolis.  Team-TERRA is a transdisciplinary training program in the Center of Biological Risk at the University of Connecticut. The training program consists of a 2-year sequence of coursework, teamwork, a real-world internship, and associated workshops. We will use the northeastern US megalopolis stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C. as a living laboratory to understand, predict, manage, and communicate risks to food, energy, water, and ecosystems in the face of global change. As part of the training program, trainees will work in interdisciplinary teams to predict and solve complex problems of the future in regions that are urbanizing and stretched to both provide the essentials for human wellbeing while maintaining the many benefits of biodiversity and natural ecosystems. 

 

Team-TERRA Cohort 4 - 2024-2025
Monica Martinelli, Zhiqing (Lucy) Li, Alyssa McDonnell, Jimmy Palmer, Yuanlong Dai, MD. Abdullah All Shakil, Shashika Himandi Gardeye Lamahewage, & Ritu Mohanpuria

Team-TERRA Cohort 3 - 2023-2024
Maria Paula Otero Mora, Mei-Ling Feng, Yara Medawar, Harshana Wedagedara, Yogesh Kumar, Lucy Hendrickson, Steven Matile, Maussi Arrunategui, Tyler Driscoll & Joseph Schnaubelt

Team-TERRA Cohort 2 - 2022-2023
Peter Billman, Ketki Samel, Katja Kwaku, Michael LaScaleia, Erin Dierickx, Durga Joshi, Madeline Kollegger, Bivek Bhusal, Catalina Vasquez, Josué Martínez-Martínez, Makduma Zahan Badhan & Naomi Adler 

Team-TERRA Cohort 1 - 2021-2022
Adam Gallaher, Sarah Klionsky, Raul D. Flamenco, Jessica Espinosa, Franco Gigliotti, Madeleine Meadows-McDonnell & Yan Chen

Fig. 1: Nighttime lighting patterns highlight America’s original megalopolis. This region provides an unnatural laboratory for predicting the resilience of FEWES to future risks and diverse opportunities for enhanced graduate education. UConn and the Cary Institute are situated within the last agricultural and wild lands.

News

Congratulations to Madeline Meadows-McDonnell on being selected as a 2025 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Knauss Fellow.

Congratulations to Steven Matile and Zhiqing "Lucy" Li who were awarded the Clean Energy and Sustainability Innovation Program (CESIP) award for their innovative research on "Potential Micro-Hydropower Retrofits at Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants." Their project will receive additional funding from Eversource to support further exploration.

Congratulations to Durga P. Joshi for his article in UConn Today Managing Roadside Forests One Video at a Time. 

Congratulations to Erin Dierickx for completing her PhD with the Department of Kinesiology. The title of her thesis Exploring the Multifaceted Dynamics of Human Heat Adaption.

Congratulations to Adam Gallagher, Sarah Klionsky, Yan Chen and Mark Urban on the publication of your article "Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Solar Energy Siting to Enhance Sustainable Energy Transitions" in Environmental Science and Technology 2024, 58, 49, 21557-21568. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c07894

More Team-TERRA News

Collaborative Partner Organizations

We are excited to collaborate with these partner organizations:

 

  • The premier ecosystem research institute, the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. Together, we will study the risks to the urbanizing landscape of the northeastern U.S
  • UConn Institute of the Environment has a mission to advance research, education, and engagement concerning the environment and sustainability at the University of Connecticut. 
  • UConn Center for Biological Risk seeks to improve the capacity to assess, manage, and communicate biological risks of global change through research, teaching, and community outreach. The Center focuses on risks that affect, originate from, or are mediated by biological systems. 

 

Curriculum

Year 1 - Fall:

  • EEB 5872 Environmental Risk Assessment (3 credits), Mondays 1:00-3:00 TLS Bamford Room 171B -Dr. Mark Urban
  • EEB 5882 Environmental Risk Practicum 1 (3 credits), Tuesdays 11:00 - 2:00, TLS Bamford Room 171B-Dr. Mark Urban
  • EEB 5894 Environmental Risk Communication (1 credit) - Thursdays 9:00 - 9:50, GantW416-Dr. Margaret Rubega
  • EEB 5482 Science Communication II: Writing for Public Audiences, (3 credits) Tuesday/Thursday, 2:00-3:15, E2 321-Dr. Margaret Rubega

 Year 1 - Spring:

  • EEB 5882 Environmental Risk Practicum 2  (3 credits)
  • GIS course elective (3 credits)

Year 2: Workshops, Internship, Mentorship

Values Statements

Cohort 5

  • We prioritize open and respectful communication
  • Accountable problem solving which contributes innovative solutions for our teams and society

Cohort 4

  • We lead with respect and strive for solutions that are innovative and community-focused
  • Empowered by our healthy communication, professionalism, and teamwork

Cohort 3

  • We treat people with respect
  • Compromising and communication are essential to working in a group
  • Our projects will be practical, achievable, and provide growth

Cohort 2

  • Conservation - We commit to conservation of harmony between humans & nature
  • Communication - We hold communication as a necessary component of transdisciplinary work
  • Curiosity - We value and promote curiosity to drive learning
  • Cooperation - We believe success will come through cooperation with each other and the community
  • Compassion - We strive to think and act with compassion

Cohort 1

  • Open-mindedness
  • Give and receive support to create an equitable, empathetic, inclusive environment
  • Purpose-driven to improve the world
  • Freedom to grow
  • Overcome barriers