Anamarija Frankic Introduces Hundreds to Biomimicry through Green Harbors Project

Frankic at Savin Hill

LivingLab participants at Savin Hill Cove plant cord grass on a biomimetic “floating island,” creating a salt marsh that will improve the health of the cove. The Savin Hill Cove project was funded by a grant from the Schmidt Family Foundation.

Dr. Anamarija Frankic, co-founder of Biomimicry New England, is a star in the Global Biomimicry Network. As a research professor at UMass Boston’s School for the Environment and Biomimicry Fellow, she has been instrumental in introducing hundreds of students and community members to biomimicry while providing a proof-of-concept for solving environmental problems by following nature’s lead.

Through the UMass Boston Green Harbors Project, Anamrija has established three collaborative, community-based research sites in Massachusetts known as “Biomimicry LivingLabs.” Located at Wellfleet Harbor (Cape Cod), Nantucket Island, and Savin Hill Cove (Dorchester), each LivingLab program develops and implements holistic nature-inspired solutions to environmental challenges and provides graduate and undergraduate students with a hands-on applied research experience that addresses local community needs.

Anamrija writes, “Biomimicry LivingLabs represent a new paradigm for academia that specifically and intentionally immerses students in collaborative research with local stakeholders to solve real-world problems, for example how to provide resilient adaptations in urban harbors that will support both natural and human functions and services? How to learn from three coastal keystone habitats: eel grass, oyster reefs, and salt marshes and restore them together?”

Learn more about LivingLabs!

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