2026 April
2025 EFC Annual Report
Dear Friends and Supporters,The Environmental Finance Center entered 2025 with hope in our hearts in the face of uncertainty. We learned a great deal about the spirit and tenacity of our team, our partners, and our profession. And, as we dared to dream just one year ago, we have seen that hope transform into action.
New Grant Brings Steel Appeal to UMD Design Studios
The University of Maryland’s architecture program has been awarded an inaugural grant from the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) to integrate structural steel design methods into its undergraduate and graduate design studios. The four-year, $110,000 grant will help deliver new teaching...
DC’s Sewage Spill is a Harbinger to Troubled Waters, Says Hendricks
In the history of U.S. sewage spills, none has evoked a region’s collective “ick” reflex like the massive outburst of effluent into the Potomac River when a 6-foot-wide pipe broke on Jan. 19 upstream from Washington, D.C. By the time the rupture was fixed, enough raw wastewater had gushed out to fil...
Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless
The largest fundraising campaign in the university’s history aims to elevate interdisciplinary initiatives and build on momentum as a Top 20 public institution. The $2.5 billion initiative advances the university’s vision and values by expanding access to its world-class education, accelerating groundbreaking research, and uniting a global community committed to excellence and a mission to Do Good.
In Student ‘Shark Tank’ Competition, Creativity Is in the Water
With its tree-lined sidewalks, carpet-like quads and manicured flowerbeds, the archetypical college campus isn’t thirsty for scenery. But its scenery is thirsty all the time, gulping millions of gallons of water a year to keep up appearances. A pitch for a modular vegetation wall that could keep uni...
Urban Lacunarity: Multiscale Analysis of Texture Patterns Through Satellite Images
1 - 3 p.m.
This event is open to the UMD and MAPP community.Dr. Mauro Normando Macêdo Barros FilhoUrban Planner, Associate Professor at the Federal University of Campina Grande (Brazil) About the workshop:Lacunarity is a property of fractals that helps analyze the distribution of gaps within spatial structures...
2026-04-20T12:00:00
2026-04-20T12:00:00
When Easter Eggs Roll at the White House, a UMD Alum Scrambles
Written by Katherine ShaverThe thousands of children and their families planning to descend on the White House grounds on Monday for the annual Easter Egg Roll will find plenty of brightly colored eggs—and become part of a University of Maryland alum’s running history of the 148-year-old spring trad...
Kathryn Howell Receives 2026 Best Article in the Journal of Urban Affairs Award
University of Maryland National Center for Smart Growth Director Kathryn Howell has earned a 2026 Best Article in the Journal of Urban Affairs Award for her paper, “A data feminist approach to urban data practice: Tenant power through eviction data,” one of two papers recognized nationally for its o...
Jennifer Cotting Honored for Research Impact by the University of Maryland
Environmental Finance Center Director Jennifer Cotting was one of a dozen researchers and scholars honored by the University of Maryland on March 12 for research leadership and impact at the Maryland Research Excellence Celebration.Hosted by the Division of Research and the Office of the Provost, th...
Extreme Makeovers: White House Edition
Written by Katherine ShaverCommissioned by President George Washington to design the new nation’s capital, Pierre Charles L’Enfant initially proposed a massive “President’s Palace” surrounded by sprawling grounds—an imposing complex four times the size of today’s White House property.It didn’t take ...