Departments Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences

Associate Professor Rebeca Rosengaus studies social insect behavior and researches how insects control and contain pathogen outbreaks in their own colonies.

For ideas about fighting pandemics, look to termites and ants

Social insects like termites and ants have evolved many methods to combat disease. What can we learn from them in fighting human pandemics? A lot, says Rebeca Rosengaus, an associate professor and behavioral ecologist at Northeastern.

by Eva Botkin-Kowacki May 28, 2021

NAHANT, Mass. Northeastern students Jaxon Derow and Sahana Simonetti gather mussels for a research project at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center.

Northeastern’s award-winning coastal research campus in Massachusetts faces public vote

Nahant residents on Saturday will vote on whether to seize part of the property where Northeastern’s Marine Science Center conducts research to improve the sustainability of coastal communities facing the effects of climate change.

by Peter Ramjug May 13, 2021

Megan Carter and Sammy Shupe stand outside their co-op stations.

These athletes pursue championships while on co-op

Megan Carter, a sophomore who maintains a 4.0 grade point average in biology, was on co-op at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston while striving for a national title in women’s ice hockey. Here’s how she and other student-athletes learn to balance sports, academics, and co-op.

by Ian Thomsen April 27, 2021

Unlike humans, shipworms have no problem with bacteria getting in their cells. Why?

There’s a fine line between helpful bacteria and harmful bacteria, says Dan Distel, who directs the Ocean Genome Legacy Center. Studying the helpful kind in shipworms may help researchers understand dangerous infections in humans.

by Laura Castañón August 10, 2020

Janet Cheung will study political science and environmental studies at Northeastern starting in the fall 2020 semester. She wants to use her degrees to influence climate change policy. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

From penguins to plastic forks, she’s tackling sustainability

As a young teenager, Janet Cheung helped make Northeastern’s finance office run a bit more sustainably. Now an incoming freshman at the university, Cheung will use her passion to study the environment in earnest.

by Kaitlyn Budion August 4, 2020

The underwater research station will allow scientists and engineers to live, work, and conduct long-term experiments under the sea. Rendering by Yves Béhar, courtesy of Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center.

They’re planning to build a new space station… at the bottom of the ocean

The underwater research center is the brainchild of Fabian Cousteau, a renowned aquanaut and grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Northeastern is helping to make it a reality.

by Laura Castañón July 22, 2020

Volunteers work at My Brother’s Table, the largest soup kitchen on Boston’s North Shore, to provide meals for takeout and delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

This soup kitchen needed help. The Marine Science Center faculty delivered.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced My Brother’s Table, the largest soup kitchen on Massachusetts’ North Shore, to change how it serves guests, the community at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center took note, and stepped up.

by Kaitlyn Budion June 1, 2020

Long, thin mollusks known as shipworms are famed (and feared) for their ability to eat wood. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

The bacteria in the clam that sank a thousand ships

Shipworms are long, thin mollusks famed (and feared) for their ability to eat wood. They rely on bacterial partners to break the wood down into nutrients they can use. Studying these bacteria could reveal more efficient ways to use the wood and plant waste generated on land, says marine biologist Dan Distel.

by Laura Castañón May 19, 2020

Andrea Unzueta-Martinez studied Sydney rock oyster larvae at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, located 100 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia. Photo by Rachel Kara for Northeastern University

A 10,000-mile journey for microbes

MELBOURNE, Australia—Andrea Unzueta-Martinez, a doctoral candidate at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center, came to the United States to be a dancer, but chose science instead. She spent three months at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute in Australia raising oyster larvae.

by Andrew Fenton - contributor April 21, 2020

Faculty Expert

Samuel Scarpino

Assistant Professor, and Director of Emerging Epidemics Lab