January 2007

Dear Colleagues,

The transition to a new year provides a good opportunity to reflect on recent successes while looking forward to the good things sure to come in a new year.  At UMaine, we can all reflect on a wonderful 2006, filled with significant accomplishments by our students, faculty members and staff members.  We can also be optimistic about the future, as we begin a year that will most certainly feature more of those milestones and achievements that will make us feel good about being part of this university community.

At this time of year, I often think of our students who are preparing to begin their final semester before graduating.  It is a tremendously exciting time for those students, and I join them in looking forward to commencement in May.  The UMaine Class of 2007, like those that have come before, is full of bright and ambitious people who are poised to make their mark in the world following the great tradition of generations of UMaine graduates.  We have worked hard in recent months to draw attention to one of UMaine's best stories: the very high percentage of our graduates who stay in Maine to begin their careers.  In a state with more than its share of well-founded concerns about "brain drain," our faculty, staff members in UMaine's Career Center and others around the university have done a great job in preparing and assisting those who wish to put their UMaine education to work in this great state.

At UMaine, we do a lot to prepare our students for careers after college, while providing the broad-based education that will help them succeed as truly educated people.  That is a big part of what makes UMaine such a wonderful choice for a student.  Students leave UMaine prepared to contribute to society in meaningful ways, armed with the type of education that will help them succeed in a changing world.

Mary and I enjoyed hosting many of you during the recent holiday season receptions at our home on campus.  We look forward all year to those opportunities to share some hospitality and fellowship, while personally thanking our great staff and faculty members for great work on behalf of our university and its students.  If you did not have a chance to stop by this year, I hope you will be able to join us next December.

We finished last month with the exciting news of an astonishing donation from Eric and Peggy Cianchette of Falmouth.  Working through the University of Maine Foundation, specifically with President and CEO Amos Orcutt and planned giving officer Dan Willett, the Cianchettes have given UMaine their beautiful Falmouth estate, valued at $4.2 million.  This is a tremendously valuable asset, and it provides a real boost to UMaine's ongoing $150 million fundraising campaign.  Eric and Peggy Cianchette are part of a wonderful Maine family, and their donation speaks volumes about their recognition of what UMaine means to our state and its future.  We look forward to working with the Cianchettes and our new neighbors in Falmouth to determine the best ways we can use this property, both now and in the future.

It is fitting that 2006 ended with big news about a private donation to UMaine, because the year truly marked a turning point in fundraising at UMaine.  The Cianchette gift, along with Bank of America's June donation of the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, drew headlines and brought significant positive attention to UMaine's vital statewide role .  At the same time, 2006 featured a great many other significant gifts along with great progress in creating the infrastructure we need to continue progress toward our fundraising goals.  This campaign is critical to UMaine's future, and we can all feel very good about the progress to date and the prospects for continued success.  Several other great UMaine supporters are in serious discussions about providing extraordinarily generous gifts, and I look forward to sharing more news of this nature very soon.  I am most grateful to Bank of America, Eric and Peggy Cianchette, and all the others who are helping us with their generous contributions.

As always, recent weeks have seen several members of the UMaine community gain national and international recognition for their professional achievements:

- Paul Anderson, director of the Maine Sea Grant College Program at UMaine, has been elected president of the national Sea Grant Association.  The Sea Grant Association gives UMaine and other participating academic institutions a way to coordinate activities and set regional and national priorities.  Paul will represent UMaine and Maine Sea Grant exceptionally well in this important role.

- Philosophy professor Michael Howard won first prize in an essay contest by a new academic journal called Basic Income Studies.  Michael wrote about "A NAFTA Dividend: A Proposal for a Guaranteed Minimum Income for North America," and he received the prize at an international conference in November.

- Peter Jumars from our School of Marine Sciences Faculty has been selected as chair elect of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, a group that works to promote and support a national science and engineering agenda.  Made up of the presidents of 60 scientific societies, the council represents over 1.4 million scientists and science educators.

- Jolynn Stevens, a UMaine Cooperative Extension Nutrition Aide in Aroostook County, received the Eastern Region Para-Professional Award at a recent National Extension Association for Family and Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS) meeting in Denver.  The award recognized innovative methods for reaching audiences, including children.

- Dept. of Spatial Information Science and Engineering professor Michael Worboys has been named one of 24 distinguished scientists through an extensive selection process of the Association of Computing Machinery.  The association is the oldest organization in scientific computing, involving computing professionals in more than 100 countries.

- A group of 18 Construction Management Technology and civil engineering students competed very successfully in the recent 17th Annual Associated Schools of Construction Region I Bidding Competition, held in New Jersey.  Led by Prof. Philip Dunn, the UMaine teams finished second in both the Heavy Civil and Design Build categories.

I am also pleased to note that UMaine has been selected to receive the 2006 Supporting Friend of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Regional Activities Award.  The award recognizes those organizations that encourage and support IEEE activities and volunteerism.  UMaine gained recognition for hosting an IEEE student conference and competition, featuring more than 150 participants from all across the Northeast, earlier this year.

Additionally, a team of Maine Business School graduate students recently placed second in an international business plan competition held in New Brunswick.  All of the participating UMaine students are international students pursuing master of business administration degrees.   Artem Popov from Russia, Gohar Harutyunyan from Armenia and Monica Angelova of Bulgaria presented a business plan for a proposed company that would import sun-dried fruits from Armenia into Canada and distribute them to natural food stores and grocery chains from Ottawa to Quebec City. The teams each had 12 minutes to present their plans to a panel of three judges at the University of New Brunswick’s annual business plan competition sponsored by CIBC, a Canadian bank.  Monica has joined the staff at UMaine's new Student Innovation Center, where she will work as a graduate assistant using her experiences to help other students achieve similar levels of success.

In another student achievement, Xuelian Zhang, a UMaine Ph.D. student working at the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center, has been named UMaine's first recipient of the Wood Composites Fellowship, established in 2006 with a gift from the Virginia Tech Foundation.  Working with Prof. Doug Gardner, Xuelian has received numerous awards for her research in ultrasonic atomization of wood adhesives.

Congratulations also go this month to Ivan Manev, a professor of management in the Maine Business School.  Ivan has been named UMaine's Nicolas Salgo Professor of Business Administration.  The five-year, renewable appointment is accompanied by a financial award to advance the international mission of the business school.  Ivan is a highly accomplished scholar whose teaching and research interests are in business management, entrepreneurship and international business.

I would also like to draw attention this month to an interesting research project being conducted by UMaine researchers Laurie Connell and Rosemary Smith, a molecular biologist and a sensor expert who are working together on a project aimed at reducing the risk of potato wart, a terribly contagious fungal disease that can render agricultural land useless for decades.  Laurie and Rosemary are working with a four-year, $800,000 USDA grant to create a mobile, hand-held sensor that will detect the pathogen quickly and accurately.  This kind of work has significant biosecurity and economic security implications, and it represents and interesting example of interdisciplinary research aimed at solving an important problem.  This is the kind of collaborative work that represents a real strength of UMaine and its faculty, and I congratulate all those involved.

As we move into a new year, we can all take pride in the extent to which UMaine has become compliant with the accepted standards related to Web site accessibility for users with disabilities.  I am hopeful that we will reach our goal of full compliance very soon, as UMaine continues to take a leadership role in this important area.  UMaine's Dept. of University Relations is available to help those units that have not yet achieved compliance, as it offers free redesign of all UMaine-related sites. For more information, contact Chris Smith at 581-3744.  For information on whether your site is compliant--and how you can repair it if it isn’t--UMaine's Universal Design for the Web subcommittee begins its Web accessibility workshop series Jan. 23.  Contact Alan Parks at 581-1084 for more details.

I hope each of you had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday season, and that the upcoming spring semester is both rewarding and productive.  Once again, thank you for all you do for UMaine and our students.

Sincerely,

Bob Kennedy
President