School of Arts and Sciences
Environmental Studies Program

Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lectures

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When: Thursdays from 12:00-1:00pm
Where: Multi-purpose Room, Curtis Hall, Medford Campus (except for Keynote Lecture)

Every Thursday at 12pm during the academic, the Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lectures feature speakers from government, industry, academia, and non-profit organizations to give presentations on environmental topics. This is a great opportunity to broaden your knowledge beyond the curriculum, meet other faculty and students, and network with the speakers. Students, faculty, staff, and members of the community are welcome to attend.

Environmental Studies has hosted this weekly lecture series since Fall 2011. That’s over 350 speakers and counting!

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The Hoch Cunningham Environmental Lectures are made possible thanks to the generosity of Daphne Hoch-Cunningham J82, A18P and Roland Hoch A85, A19P.

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Learn about previous HoCu Environmental Lectures

We will continue with a hybrid format this year, so although speakers will speak on campus, viewers may tune into a livestream. Use the "Online Viewer Registration" link below each date to register via Zoom. You may also get the livestream registration by subscribing to our HoCu newsletter or sending an email to: environmentalstudies@tufts.edu.

Fall 2025 Lecture Schedule

Fall 2025 Lecture Information

  State's Stepping In: How Massachusetts can Continue to Support the Climatetech Industry

Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Le Blond, Managing Director of Emerging Climatetech at Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC)

Thursday, September 4, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Lecture Recording - Sep. 4

As federal climate policy faces uncertainty, states like Massachusetts are increasingly stepping in to help continue the energy transition and ensure that the ever-growing energy needs are met. Massachusetts has long been a pioneer in innovation, leading the charge in developing climatetech by fostering a robust ecosystem of startups, bolstering research institutions, and promoting public-private partnerships. This talk examines how the Commonwealth can strengthen its leadership by making targeted investments along the commercialization pathway for climatetech, helping early-stage research continue to innovate, and supporting startups and industry to develop climatetech solutions that help mitigate emissions and adapt to become more resilient to climate change. It aims to discuss actionable strategies for sustaining momentum and ensuring Massachusetts remains a global hub for climatetech innovation.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Jennifer LeBlond

Dr. Jenn Le Blond is the Managing Director of Emerging Climatetech at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). In her role, Jenn is tasked with ensuring that innovators and entrepreneurs have the support they need to create, stay, scale, and succeed here in Massachusetts. Prior to MassCEC, Jenn led efforts in science diplomacy as the East Coast US Director of the Science and Technology Network for the UK Government, fostering relations between the US and UK. She has experience in tech transfer, IP management and strategic partnerships from roles at the Office for Technology Development at Harvard University and in venture capital. Jenn came to the US to join an agritech startup that spun out of MIT and spent just under three years as the Technology Manager. Jenn holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Cambridge and was a university research fellow at Imperial College London before relocating to the United States. Post-PhD, Jenn completed a postgraduate degree in Nanotechnology at the University of Oxford and more recently attained further education certificates in Corporate Innovation from MIT Sloan School of Management.

  Transforming Financial into Natural Resources in Mexico

Speaker: Dr. Renée González Montagut, Director General at Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN)

Thursday, September 11, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Lecture Recording – Sep. 11

The global environmental crisis requires transforming financial into natural resources, money into workable solutions in areas of high biodiversity and high vulnerability to climate change. A network of environmental funds of Latin America and the Caribbean has developed standards that address financial, social, and environmental capacities required for this transformation. One of its members, the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN) uses these standards to measure it’s eNectiveness. However, to fulfil its mission, FMCN needs strong local organizations. A system to identify the knowledge required to manage funds, as well as best environmental and social practices is underway. FMCN´s 30-year journey of mapping proven solutions, such as investing in protected areas, payments for ecosystem services, and no-take zones in fisheries will be presented. Challenges, such as scaling community enterprises, will be discussed together with academic contributions needed to identify the path for ensuring a more sustainable future.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Renee Gonzalez

Dr. Renée González Montagut obtained her biology degree in 1990 from Occidental College. After receiving the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, she obtained her Ph.D. in 1996 from Harvard University. In 1997, she joined the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN) as Director of the Fund for Protected Areas (FANP). In 1998, FANP, an endowment established by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), started channeling the yearly income to ten protected areas. Today, 95 federal protected areas receive support from FMCN. In 2004, Renée became the Conservation Director of the FMCN. Under her leadership, the FMCN signed the GEF coastal watersheds conservation grant, the largest GEF investment in Mexico recognized as best practice by GEF and the World Bank. Renée led the Green Climate Fund (GCF) accreditation of FMCN, becoming the first direct access entity in Mexico. In 2020, she became the General Director of FMCN. In 2021, the GCF approved the first project for Mexico presented by FMCN. Renée is a founding member of the Mexico Chapter of the Ecological Society of America, the Harvard University Mexican Association, and the Women in Nature Network. She is part of the Assembly of the Mexican Center for Philanthropy, the Advisory Committee of the Mexican Climate Initiative, and the Distinguished Advisory Group of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market. She will preside the Network of Environmental Funds of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2026. She has created five regional environmental funds. Renée is fluent in four languages.

  Flow or Blow?: Volcanic Eruptions and Their Hazards

Speaker: Dr. Kathy Trafton, Physical Scientist for U.S. Geological Survey in Minerals Intelligence

Thursday, September 18, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Sep. 18

Each volcano has a signature behavior based on the magma in its system, tending to erupt either explosively (rock fall) or effusively (lava flows). The Cascade Volcanoes on the west coast of the United States include active volcanoes that erupt explosively; past eruptions have produced volcanic bombs the size of cars and widespread clouds of hot ash and rock. Fallout from these clouds have been found hundreds of miles from the originating volcano. While explosive eruptions produce more obvious hazards, effusive eruptions can nonetheless have catastrophic consequences for those living nearby. Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano has produced lava flows that level houses and gases that render the air noxious (aka “vog” – volcanic smog). This talk will explore volcanoes, their hazards, and what they mean for humans living near them.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program and the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences.

Lake surrounded by snowy mountains

Dr. Kathy Trafton double majored in French and Geology at Colby College, completed a PhD in Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon, and now works as a physical scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey in minerals intelligence.

  Resilient Mass Plan: How Massachusetts is Preparing for Climate Change

Speaker: Dr. Edwin Sumargo, Climate Scientist at Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA)

Thursday, September 25, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Lecture Recording – Sep. 25

The ResilientMass Plan was released in 2023 as an update to the federally mandated state’s hazards mitigation and climate adaptation plan. The Plan outlines the most urgent climate change impacts in Massachusetts and establishes cross-government and state agency actions to address them. The actions include the creation of the Office of Climate Science, which the speaker is a member of. The speaker will share how this office serves to empower state and municipal agencies in their climate resilience planning/projects. Some examples include providing high-resolution climate data and offering technical assistances. Finally, the speaker will reflect on how those with STEM and non-STEM backgrounds alike can contribute to climate resilience in Massachusetts.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program and the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences.

Edwin Sumargo

Dr. Edwin Sumargo is a Climate Scientist with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA). He leads the Office of Climate Science—the point of contact within the Commonwealth for climate data resources, guidance, and technical assistance since its conception in July 2023. He has led the team in stakeholder relationship building, inter-agency coordination, and team capacity building. Before joining the EEA, Edwin was a hydrometeorology and hydroclimatology researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA. He brings in expertise in precipitation-runoff processes, model validation, and sensor network design and analysis. Edwin obtained his PhD in climate science from the same institution in 2018.

  Flow Like Water: Non-Profit Work in the Environmental Field

Speaker: Kannan Thiruvengadam, Director at Eastie Farm, Inc.

Thursday, October 2, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Oct. 2

Environmental work is like any other work, except it faces a lot more impediments, given the makeup of our economy. It will feel like swimming against the current. Have you noticed how water finds its way? What can we learn from water? As examples, Kannan will explain the impediments and resolutions in some Eastie Farm projects, whether it's about acquiring land as a grassroots community organization or building a greenhouse powered by an energy source unfamiliar to us, i.e. geothermal. The impediments faced range from the mundane (e.g.: permitting) to systemic and cultural ones (e.g.: hyper-individualism vs collectivism).

  • How to go after low-hanging fruit: Train the mind away from focusing on what’s hard
  • How to move in multiple directions simultaneously: Bust silos
  • How to start small: Fight that attraction to big
  • How to deal with the current system while changing it: Start where you are
  • How to sustain the work, through thick and thin: Shrink, don’t disappear

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Kannan Thiruvengadam

Kannan grew up near his family farm in India. He left a career in technology to work on climate and community resiliency. He runs Eastie Farm, an urban farm in East Boston that fosters food security and environmental stewardship. He managed the construction of the first geothermally powered greenhouse in the region, which is now a community asset for all-year food distribution/growing, distribution of fresh produce from small farmers around the state, and education. He also serves the community (e.g.: Friends of Belle Isle Marsh) and the city (Conservation Commission) in various capacities.

  TBD

Speaker:

Thursday, October 9, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Oct. 9

  Environmental Storytelling for a Changing Planet

Speaker: Emily Strasser, Professor of the Practice, Tufts Department of English

Thursday, October 16, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Oct. 16

It’s clear that the climate crisis is dire, dramatic changes inevitable and already underway, and action inadequate despite decades of increasingly urgent warnings by climate scientists. Culture plays a critical role in shaping how we receive and respond to information, guiding action on the micro and macro scales. How can stories help us to navigate this changing planet? In this talk, Emily will explore the possibilities that interdisciplinary nonfiction storytelling can offer when just the facts fall short. How can braiding journalism, science, history, memory, and imagination create space for discovering or remembering other ways of being and acting in relationship to the earth? She will draw on her own writing on environmental contamination from nuclear weapons production and emerging work on responses to climate change, as well as examples from other boundary-crossing nonfiction writers.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Emily Straser

Emily Strasser is a journalist and a creative nonfiction writer. Her first book, Half-Life of a Secret, is a deeply researched memoir that traces her journey to reckon with the toxic legacies of her grandfather’s work building nuclear weapons in the atomic city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It was awarded the 2024 Reed Environmental Writing Award, the 2024 Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize. Emily’s writing has appeared in Catapult, Ploughshares, Guernica, Colorado Review, The Bitter Southerner, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Gulf Coast, among others. She was also the presenter of the 2020 BBC podcast “The Bomb.” Her work has been honored by awards and fellowships including the Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest, an AWP Intro Award, the W.K. Rose Fellowship, the Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship in Creative Writing, and grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. She was a 2019 McKnight Writing Fellow. Emily received her MFA from the University of Minnesota. She is a Professor of the Practice in Creative Nonfiction and Journalism in the English Department at Tufts.

  Protecting Global Oceans in the Anthropocene

Speaker: Dr. Randi Rotjan, Associate Professor of Biology at Tufts University 

Thursday, October 23, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Oct. 23

The oceans are 71% of our planet, and yet are still largely unexplored, especially in the deep and open oceans. New species are discovered on almost every deep-sea dive, and even with increased exploration efforts, we are still discovering massive underwater mountains, canyons, and other features. Yet, even with so much unknown, decisions cannot wait for discovery. In an era of global change, biological communities in even the most remote parts of our planet are feeling the impact of human societies and are vulnerable to depletion or extinction. To combat this, global targets for protection have set a goal of protecting 30% of oceans by 2030. In this talk, we will discuss how to explore the unexplored, and how to protect the unprotected.  

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Randi Rotjan

Dr. Randi Rotjan is an Associate Professor of Biology at Tufts University, and is also the lead scientist for the Blue Nature Alliance. She is transitioning to Tufts now from BU, where she was faculty for 9 years. You can learn more about her research here.

  Losing Control of Campus Landscapes

Speaker: Mark Bomford, Director of Yale Sustainable Food Program

Thursday, October 30, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Oct. 30

This lecture examines the paradoxes of care and control in campus landscapes. Mark Bomford traces the tension between the ordered care of campus master planning and the improvisational care of grassroots agroecological experiment, showing how each constrained the futures that could be imagined. Using metaphors from Anna Karenina to Claude Shannon’s concept of informational entropy, he argues that sustainability emerges not from perfection but from surprise, multiplicity, and relational responsiveness. Case studies from the University of British Columbia and Yale demonstrate that when shared labor, student-centered pedagogy, and ecological complexity are foregrounded over metrics-driven control and efficiency, campuses can serve as laboratories for more just and adaptive futures. To “lose control” is not to embrace chaos but to resist foreclosure—to vivify the ecological and social futures of the university as open, relational, and delightfully, surprisingly weird.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Mark Romford

Mark Bomford is the Director of the Yale Sustainable Food Program and was the founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at the University of British Columbia (UBC). His current research, in cooperation with the University of Oxford’s School of Geography and Environment, explores Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), more-than-human ecologies, and enclosure in practice and theory. Mark belongs to settler family, raised on and off-grid in northern British Columbia on Treaty 8 territory. He farmed for a decade on the unceded ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓-speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people and currently lives, works, and vicariously farms on traditional Quinnipiac lands. He’s been interested in climate change and sustainable agriculture since the mid-1990s, exploring and attempting to work with its challenges and contradictions through physics, philosophy, art, agroecology, commercial farming, community activism, science and technology studies, and human geography.

  Our Probable Futures: Risk, Resiliency and Decision-Making in a Changing Climate

Speaker: Alison Smart, Executive Director at Probable Futures

Thursday, November 6, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Nov. 6

Climate change is here, and communities, industries, and businesses are confronted with more frequent and intense heat waves, volatile winter weather, and unfamiliar patterns of precipitation. These risks are exacerbated by the fact that everything in our society, from the built environment to cultural practices around the world, emerged and were designed around a past climate that no longer exists. As the global atmosphere rapidly approaches 1.5°C of warming and carbon emissions continue to rise, how can we navigate this reality, manage growing physical risks, and create systems, practices, and structures that are prepared for the future? In this session, Alison will explore these questions, learn how to apply world-class climate model data and maps, and build the climate literacy that is essential for everyone living and working in our society today.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Alison Smart

As Executive Director of Probable Futures, Alison bridges climate science and public understanding, helping translate climate science for a diverse set of audiences, so that everyone can incorporate its insights into the decisions they make every day. She convenes leaders across science, design, technology, business, and culture to develop climate tools and resources that are both useful and beautiful. 

Since entering climate work in 2015, Alison has recognized how her arts experience provides a distinctive ability to make climate data accessible and meaningful. Her previous roles include Vice President for Strategy and Advancement at Woodwell Climate Research Center and Vice President for Development and Marketing at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

In 2023, Alison was named one of the Grist 50 Fixers. She currently serves as a Senior Fellow for Communications at Woodwell Climate Research Center, Vice Chair of the Zeiterion Theater, and is an active member of the BMW Foundation's Responsible Leaders Network.

  From Magmas to Metals: The Geologic Origin of Lithium and Critical Minerals in New England

Speaker: Dr. Jill Vantongeren, Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology and Chair of the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences at Tufts

Thursday, November 13, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Nov. 13

Critical minerals containing concentrations of lithium and rare earth elements are essential for the Green Energy Transition, and recently have become the subject of a lot of geopolitical news. In this lecture, Dr. Vantongeren will review what defines a “critical mineral” and what geologic processes concentrate them into extractable quantities. She will also discuss ongoing research in her group to characterize large deposits of lithium that were formed right here in New England during the uplift of the Appalachian Mountains and the opening of the Atlantic Ocean.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Jill Vantongeren

Dr. Jill VanTongeren is Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology and Chair of the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences at Tufts. She works on the geochemistry and geochronology of magmatism associated with large-scale rifting events in Earth history. Her work has taken her to all seven continents, and she currently maintains active research projects in South Africa, Antarctica, Oman, Morocco, and New England.

  How Much Sun is Enough? Renewable Electricity Strategies for Higher Ed—and The Science Behind Them

Speakers: Tina Woolston, Director of Tufts University’s Office of Sustainability and Dr. Roger Tobin, Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Tufts Department of Physics and Astronomy 

Thursday, November 20, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Nov. 20

Tufts recently entered into an agreement with a solar farm in Texas, marking a significant step in the university’s path toward carbon neutrality. But what are the real climate and financial benefits of buying solar power from across the country—and how do we know? In this talk, sustainability director Tina Woolston and physics professor Roger Tobin explore the renewable electricity options available to universities, how energy markets and carbon accounting shape decision-making, and what the science behind solar energy generation reveals about where and how these projects deliver. Together, they’ll unpack the strategy, assumptions, and implications of Tufts’ solar farm agreement—and what it means for institutions striving to meet climate goals.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Tina Woolston

Tina Woolston has served as the Director of Tufts University’s Office of Sustainability since 2010, leading efforts that have earned national recognition for waste reduction, transportation demand management, student-focused sustainability programs, and flagship initiatives such as the Eco-Ambassadors, Eco-Reps, and Green Office Certification. She collaborates with faculty to integrate real-world sustainability challenges into the classroom, creating opportunities for deep learning and operational improvements at the University. Tina developed and oversees the Green Fund, which supports community-led sustainability projects, and she manages Tufts’ comprehensive greenhouse gas inventories. She has led campus-wide resilience workshops, advises on sustainability issues, and teaches courses on sustainability. She holds both a BS and MS from Cornell University, along with a certificate in Community Environmental Education from Tufts.

Roger Tobin

Dr. Roger Tobin is a Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Tufts Department of Physics and Astronomy. For most of his career, Dr. Tobin’s primary physics research area has been experimental surface science. In his lab at 574 Boston Ave., his students and him have studied what happens when foreign atoms and molecules form chemical bonds with metal surfaces. Their research has had implications for a range of potential applications including catalysis, chemical sensing, and the growth of thin films and nanoparticles on surfaces.

In recent years his focus has shifted towards physics education, at both the college and, especially, at the elementary school level. Together with collaborators at a local nonprofit organization and at other universities, Dr. Tobin has helped to develop and study curriculum materials and professional development strategies for the study of matter and energy in grades 3-5. In his own classes at Tufts, he has implemented and studied a range of instructional approaches aimed at more effective and equitable learning.

  In Thoreau's Time: Temporal Imagination as Collective Resource

Speaker: Kristin Case, Poet and Scholar

Thursday, December 4, 2025 | 12-1 pm EST
Location: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA)
Online Viewer Livestream Registration – Dec. 4

This lecture explores Henry David Thoreau’s engagement with time as an environmental, personal, and political dimension of experience. While Thoreau is often celebrated for his environmental imagination, this talk focuses on his temporal imagination—his effort to resist the thin, linear time of industrial capitalism and reclaim a richer, cyclical sense of duration rooted in the natural world. At the heart of this inquiry is Thoreau’s late-life project, the Kalendar, a series of charts tracking seasonal phenomena across years, designed to reveal patterns of recurrence and change in the more-than-human world. The speaker argues that Thoreau’s attention to time and seasonality offers a powerful model for rethinking our relationship to the worlds we occupy and create.

This lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Kristin Case

Kristen Case is a poet and scholar. She is the author of Henry David Thoreau's Kalendar: Charts and Observations of Seasonal Phenomena and American Pragmatism (Milkweed Editions, 2025) and Poetic Practice: Crosscurrents from Emerson to Susan Howe (Camden House, 2011). She has also published three books of poetry, most recently, Daphne (Tupelo Press, 2025). She has co-edited several essay collections on American writers, including the Oxford Handbook of Henry David Thoreau, forthcoming from Oxford University Press. She lives in Maine.