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  • Climate Change and Mental Health: Fostering Hope and Connection

    Part of the Climate Crisis Teach-In 2025

    This presentation explores the growing mental health impacts of climate change, with a focus on community-level strategies that promote resilience, hope, and collective agency. Drawing on emerging research and best practices, it highlights how climate anxiety and ecological grief—particularly among Gen Z—are shaped by systemic inequities, uncertainty, and disruption. The session emphasizes the importance of intergenerational dialogue, mutual aid, and relational care in fostering emotional support and wellbeing. Participants will be introduced to tools, resources, and evidence-informed approaches for creating communities of care where climate-related emotions are validated and shared. Together, we will envision how interdisciplinary groups and diverse professionals can build climate-responsive mental health systems grounded in justice, connection, and collective action.

    Rachel Forbes, MSW (’11M), is the community outreach and engagement specialist at the Urban Coast Institute at Monmouth University. Forbes’s current research and teaching examines the impacts of climate change on mental health and protective factors at the community level. Her work has been published in environmental justice and human rights journals, and has been funded by the CSWE Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work and the Hispanic Access Foundation. She is editor of the award winning book “Ecosocial Work: Environmental Practice and Advocacy” (NASW Press 2023).

  • STEMming from Punk Rock (Works in Progress Seminar)

    Presenter: Jeffrey H. Weisburg, Ph.D., Specialist Professor, Department of Biology

    Punk rock usually conjures images of teenagers or young adults (you know, the dregs of society) with spiked, colorful hair, tattoos, piercing, wearing ripped jeans, Doc Martin combat boots, dancing violently to bass-pounding music in a hot and sweaty, small music venue. Ph.D. in the sciences, engineers, and pre-med students are the furthest thing that comes to mind. Three lead singers of landmark punk bands have Ph.D.s in biology; Milo Aukerman of the Descendents (Biology), Greg Graffin of Bad Religion (Zoology), and Dexter Holland of the Offsprings (Molecular Biology). Several other punk rock artists also have graduate degrees in biology and engineering. This leads to the scientific question that needs to be examined and answered: What is the connection between punk rock and science? Is there something in the water? Is it genetics? Is it a chemical reaction that occurs when two people in the circle pit collide? All possibilities for this question will be investigated.

  • David Libesman: Al and Data Thought Leader (Industry Speaker Event)

    Hosted by the School of Science and the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department

    Join us for an exclusive event featuring David Libesman (AI and data analytics thought leader; and SVP & GM, AI & Data Analytics at WorkWave). Libesman has revolutionized how businesses leverage AI for optimizing profits, operational efficiency, and customer engagement.

    • Learn how Al is disrupting traditional business models across industries.
    • Understand how companies use predictive analytics and data-driven insights to gain a competitive edge.
    • Gain insights on how Al is transforming the service management landscape, from automating schedules to enhancing customer support.
    • Al-Driven Solutions: Discover how Al streamlines WorkWave’s service operations, ensuring efficiency and accuracy.
    • Predictive Analytics: Hear how predictive models are helping businesses forecast demand, optimize resources, and prevent customer churn.
    Register for the Event

  • Fighting Climate Change at Home: Homegrown National Park

    On Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, at 7 p.m. in Pollak Theater, best selling author Doug Tallamy, Ph.D., professor of Entomology at University of Delaware and author of Nature’s Best Hope and the Nature of Oaks will present on what you can do in your own yard or balcony to fight climate change, create climate resiliency, and create beauty in your own backyard. Fighting Climate Change at Home: Homegrown National Park will present listeners with a road map on how to fight climate change and create a more ecologically resilient landscape.

    Today, there are more than 44 million acres of turf grass in the U.S., an area larger than New England. Turf grass is the worst plant choice for fighting climate change because it is the worst option for sequestering carbon. Our parks, preserves, and remaining wildlands—no matter how grand in scale—are too small to sequester the amount of carbon needed to impact climate change. Moreover, they are also too small and separated from one another to sustain the native trees, plants, insects, and animals on which our ecosystems depend. These systems must be resilient if we are to have climate resiliency. We now must store carbon outside of parks and preserves, largely on private property, where we live, work, shop, and farm. Thus the concept for Homegrown National Park: a national challenge to create diverse ecosystems in our yards, communities, and surrounding lands by reducing lawn, planting natives, and removing invasive plants, and, in so doing, fight the biodiversity crisis and climate change simultaneously.

    The talk will be followed by Q&A and a book signing. The public is encouraged to bring their own copies of Tallamy books for signature. This will be the first presentation of the 2024 Climate Crisis Teach-in.

  • Monmouth University Computer Camp

    Summer Computer Camp at Monmouth University was developed by School of Science faculty to provide advanced learning in computer skills, encourage teamwork, and promote creative thinking. We are happy to announce that we will again be featuring a course on robotics in our camp curriculum this summer!

    The camp, for students ages 11 to 17, is from 9 a.m.–3:00 p.m. and includes lunch. Enrollment is limited to 24 students. Topics include: Web and Mobile App Creation, Robotics, Computer Animation, Gaming, Movie Creation.

    More Information and Registration

  • What Remains: Ghost Forests, What We Have Lost and Gained.

    Pedram Daneshgar, Ph.D.

    Climate change induced sea level rise and storm related flooding events have had a dramatic effect on the coastal ecosystems of New Jersey. Salt water intrusion into coastal forests that are normally buffered by salt marsh ecosystems forests results in extensive tree die offs leaving behind what has been termed a “ghost forest,” a novel marsh hybrid ecosystem filled with dead trees. Often these ghost forests are invaded by non-native species like phragmites, which completely alter the function of the ecosystem. Pedram Daneshgar, Ph.D., will share the work his lab has done exploring the Ecology of ghost forests specifically looking at how the forest communities are changed. Then he will discuss preliminary work on restoration strategies for these forests.

  • Climate Crisis Teach-In 2023: Are the Answers to Climate Change ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’?

    A Marine Science and Policy Perspective on Offshore Wind Energy in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. Jason Adolf, Ph.D., Keith Dunton, Ph.D., and Professor John Tiedemann.

    The development of offshore wind energy as an alternative to fossil fuel-based energy is happening rapidly on the continental shelf off the coasts of New Jersey and New York. However, there is a combination of excitement and reservation among academic, environmental and stakeholder groups surrounding this issue – while the need for non-fossil fuel energy is clear, the potential impacts off offshore wind development on the marine environment and economy are unclear. This session will highlight the regulatory, permitting, and monitoring process involved in offshore wind development and highlight the involvement of Monmouth University faculty and students in fisheries monitoring plans aimed at detecting potential impacts of offshore wind development. Non-invasive techniques such as environmental DNA (eDNA) analyses and acoustic telemetry will be discussed with regard their role in the broader picture of understanding the continental shelf marine ecosystem and potential impacts of offshore wind.

  • Science Career and Internship Fair

    Internship and Career Fair for Science Majors

    Contact careerdevelopment@monmouth.edu to register.

  • Technology Career and Internship Fair

    Fair for Technology Career and Internship Opportunities

    Contact careerdevelopment@monmouth.edu to register.

  • The Urbanization of Barnegat Bay

    (Free, Registration Required)

    Join us Earth Day, April 22, for a screening of Drift, a documentary exploring 50 years of growing pains on Barnegat Bay, followed by an expert panel discussion looking toward the future for the state’s largest body of water and its surrounding communities. The film was produced by the nonprofit Save Barnegat Bay and directed by Monmouth University Production Services Director Erin Fleming.