Combined News

Susan Gardner has been appointed director of the ADVANCE Rising Tide Center at the University of Maine, effective April 1, according to Susan Hunter, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. Hunter is the principal investigator for the five-year, $3.3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that funds the Rising Tide Center.

Gardner, an associate professor of higher education and co-principal investigator of the grant, replaces Mary Madden, who has served as the center’s director since July 2011. Madden has rejoined the College of Education and Human Development, where she will lead a consortium of colleges and universities in a hazing prevention project.

The NSF ADVANCE program seeks to develop systemic approaches that can be institutionalized at higher education institutions to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and social-behavioral science careers. Programs sponsored through the Rising Tide Center include monthly workshops on topics such as promotion and tenure, annual department chair training workshops and a statewide networking conference, and the professional development grant program that supports new collaborations and activities to improve campus or departmental climate.

Other personnel changes at ADVANCE include the November 2012 appointment of Devon DeMarco as the ADVANCE faculty liaison. DeMarco is available to improve problem resolution by directing faculty to the proper university office, serving as a bridge between faculty and administrators to ensure that problems are resolved, and enhancing materials that explain resolution processes.

Now fully staffed, the ADVANCE Rising Tide Center is well poised to sustain the positive effects realized in the first two years of the project.

More than 120 presentations were made made during the 2013 Graduate Academic Exposition in separate categories of four areas of competition — poster presentations, oral presentations, intermedia and fine arts exhibits, and a PechaKucha, or rapid-fire slide show event — as well as a graduate student photo contest.

More than $10,000 in cash prizes were awarded at this year’s expo, including the $2,000 President’s Research Impact Award given to the graduate student and adviser who best exemplify the UMaine mission of  teaching, research and outreach.

Following are the winning presentations:

• President’s Research Impact Award — Alison Mitchell and adviser Jennifer Middleton for “What Happens Next? Examining Child Protection Outcomes for a Cohort of Opioid-Exposed Infants”

• Dean’s Undergraduate Mentoring Award — Alper Kiziltas, “Natural Fiber Blend-Nylon 6 Composites” and Katharine Ruskin, “Testing for Stability in the Sharp-tailed Sparrow Hybrid Zone: 130 Years of Plumage Comparisons”

• Graduate Student Photo Contest, Research Category — Mariusz Potocki, first; Bridie McGreavy, second; Bjorn Grigholm and Luke Groff, third

• Graduate Student Photo Contest, Graduate Student Life Category — José Carrasco, first; Amy Pierce, second; Jincy Joseph and Jocelyn Runnebaum, third

• Foster Center for Student Innovation Commercialization Award — Heather Perry, in intermedia; Hari Prasanth Palani, in science and technology

• PechaKucha Competition — Amy Pierce, “12 Steps to Planning the Perfect Wedding,” first; Hollie Smith, “Intersections of Higher Education, State Policy, & Economic Development: Understanding the Connections in Maine Communities,” second; Jessica LeClair, “Be Prepared,” third

• Intermedia Competition — Heather Perry, “Queen for a Day,” first; Benjamin Burpee, “Spaz.lab,” second; Tara Law, “Enchanted,” third

• Humanities/Social Sciences Poster Competition — Stacy Doore, “Movement Matters: Using State Longitudinal Mobility Data to Improve School Policy, Intervention and Academic Outcomes,” first; Bridie McGreavy, “A Collaborative Model for Conservation Action Planning: Communication and Resilience in the Frenchman Bay Partners,” second; Chris Bennett, “Non-Visual Graphical Accessibility,” third

• Humanities/Social Sciences Oral Competition — Karen Hutchins, “Improving Links Between Knowledge and Action by Identifying Factors that Influence the Structure of Municipality-University Partnerships,” first; Rebecca White, “The Ragged Edge of Motherhood: Mothers’ Allowances in Policy and Practice, 1924–1960,” second; Ian Jesse, “Bad Men and Horrible Bosses: Masculinity and the Folksongs of Larry Gorman,” third

• Physical Sciences and Technology Poster Competition — Abolfazl Razi, “Delay Optimal Packetization Policy for Wireless Sensor Networks,” first; Hannah Breton, “Mechanically Fastened Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Flexural Retrofit Systems for Reinforced Concrete Flat-Slab Bridges,” second; Samuel Roy, “The Influence of Tectonic Strain on Landscape Evolution,” third

• Physical Sciences and Technology Oral Competition — Silas Owusu-Nkwantabisah, “Novel Approach to Controlling Layer-by-Layer Polyelectrolyte Multilayer (PEM) Formation & Application as Sensor,” first; Bess Koffman, “Centennial-Scale Shifts in the Position of the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Wind Belt over the Past Millennium,” second; Delia Massey, “Use of Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films (DGT) as an Assessment Tool for Bioavailability of Mercury Species in Sediment,” third

• Natural Sciences Poster Competition — Richard Luc, “The Role of Caveolin in the Toll-Like Receptor Signaling Pathway,” first; Brianna Hughes, “Effect of Rigor Status during High Pressure Processing on Abalone Texture and Color,” second; Luke Groff, “Hibernation Ecology of Lithobates Sylvaticus in Maine’s Montane Landscape,” third

• Natural Sciences Oral Competition — Nadir Yildrim, “Nanofibrillated Cellulose (NFC) Insulating Foams,” first; Katharine Ruskin, “Testing for Stability in the Sharp-tailed Sparrow Hybrid Zone: 130 Years of Plumage Comparisons,” second; Anna Breard, “Comparison of the Effect of Peroxyacetic Acid and Lactic Acid Washes on the Removal of Toxoplasma Gondii Oocysts from the Surface of Blueberries,” third

• People’s Choice Award — Roghaiyeh Ebrahimi Kalan, “Surface Modification of Mesoporous Silica in Supercritical CO2”

April 3, 2013

The Graduate Student Government and Graduate School are pleased to announce the award recipients for the following awards: top poster and oral presentations, Intermedia Competition, PechaKucha Competition, People's Choice Award, Graduate Dean's Undergraduate Mentoring Award, Foster Center for Student Innovation Commercialization Award, President's Research Impact Award, and the Graduate Dean's Photo Contest.

As in years past, the GradExpo featured disciplinary sessions with poster and oral presentations featuring students in the Physical Sciences & Technology, Natural Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences. Artists at the University presented Intermedia art projects, fine art works and performances. The PechaKucha competition session challenges students from every discipline to share their work in a rapid-fire slide show lasting under seven minutes. In addition to competing for thousands of dollars in cash prizes and recognition for their work, students have the opportunnity to interact with representatives from industry and government.

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

1st. Karen Hutchins - Interdisciplinary

2nd. Rebecca White - History

3rd. Ian Jesse - History

NATURAL SCIENCES

1st. Nadir Yildirim - Forest Resources

2nd. Katharin Ruskin - Ecology and Environmental Sciences

3rd. Anna Breard - Food Science and Human Nutrition

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

1st. Silas Owusu-Nkwantabisah - Chemistry

2nd. Bess Koffman - Earth and Climate Sciences

3rd. Delia Massey - Civil Engineering

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

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Click to view the Spring 2013 GSG Newsletter

July 1, 2012 - Date that changes to Federal Direct Loans go into effect.

Download the LaTex package at our Latex page.

Don't miss these great research and scholarship opportunities with NASA and NSF! Deadlines vary by program.

Click here to view the Fall 2012 GSG Newsletter

Greetings from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation:   We are pleased to announce that the application period for the 2013 Switzer Environmental Fellowships is now open! Switzer Fellowships are given to top graduate students in New Englandand California who are committed to a career in environmental improvement, and who demonstrate the potential for leadership in their chosen field.   [...]

HED 598 is open to any graduate student interested in the relationship between Mexican social context and higher education.  Through the exploration of literature and a structured experience that includes travel to Universidad de Las Americas (UDLA -Puebla ), students will experience an elite Mexican campus, Mexican culture, and faculty lectures related to the Mexican [...]

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is seeking a graduate student to support operations of the Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR). Responsibilities include updating and maintaining the CUGR website and database, responding to queries from students and faculty, administering the system for requesting and reviewing grant proposals, and participation in planning and carrying out [...]

If you would like to apply for either an individual or clubs & organizations grant this year, the deadline for completed submissions is Friday, October 5th, 2012 at 4:00 pm. For more information, please go to the Grants page on our website at: http://www2.umaine.edu/gsg/grants/. If you have questions, please contact the GSG Grants Officer, Thomas [...]

MICHIGAN SOCIETY OF FELLOWS Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1070 Announces FELLOWSHIPS: 2013-2016 IN THE HUMANITIES, ARTS, SCIENCES, AND PROFESSIONS The Michigan Society of Fellows was founded in 1970 through grants from the Ford Foundation and Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies for the purpose of [...]

The University of Maine Graduate School is pleased to announce the following award recipients for the 2013-2014 academic year.

Chase Distinguished Research Assistantship (CDRA)

Heather Arnett Ecology and Environmental Science Patricia Dieter Clinical Psychology Alyssa Freitag Marine Biology Adam Kosan English Hengshan Li Spatial Information Science and Engineering Linda Markowsky Computer Science Zhong Pan Civil Engineering Paul Pluta Quaternary and Climate Studies Daniela Veliz Education Rebecca White History

Maine Economic Improvement Fund (MEIF) Fellowship

John Bell Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Melanie Blumentritt Forestry Christian Richard Functional Genomics Stefano Vendrame Food and Nutrition Science Yunhui Wu Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Maine Dissertation Research Fellowship (UMDRF)

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WABI (Channel 5) spoke to Nancy Boyington, assistant director at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast, about the center’s workshops for nonprofit businesses. The center offers a nonprofit certificate management program that requires participants to take six different one-day workshops. The workshops are offered to help nonprofit workers deal with changes in the industry. “Nonprofits tell me that they really aren’t nonprofit, that they are businesses who are really trying to be able to pay all their bills and look forward,” Boyington said.

State science fair winner and Bangor High School student Mary Butler told the Bangor Daily News she had never been in a science fair before working with University of Maine students and faculty on her project, “Nanofibrillated Cellulose as the Potential Component of a Low-cost Water Filtration System.” Butler said she worked with UMaine chemical engineering graduate student Finley Richmond on the filter project over the summer, and the collaboration was arranged by University of Maine Chemical and Biological Engineering Professor Doug Bousfield. Butler’s project won first place in the “Energy, Transportation and Environmental Science” category, as well as best in show at the Maine State Science and Engineering Fair on March 23 in Bar Harbor.

Ana Bonstedt, home horticulture coordinator at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Piscataquis County, offered advice on preparing seedlings on WLBZ (Channel 2). Bonstedt spoke about planting dates and building seedling containers.

WVII (Channel 7) interviewed Bananas, the University of Maine mascot, for an April Fools’ Day edition of its series “Maine’s Most Fascinating People.”

The University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center in Walpole will offer a Natural Science Illustration Workshop from Aug. 5–9. Participants will have the opportunity to collect and draw live marine specimens and work with instructor David Wheeler’s collection of shells, bones and artifacts. Wheeler, who teaches at the Pratt Institute’s Center Extension Campus at Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in New York, is a marine science illustrator whose artwork is in the permanent collections of museums, universities and marine centers in the country and abroad. He has made life-sized models of dinosaurs for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Osaka Museum of Natural History in Japan. Previous workshop participants have included high school and college students, K–12 educators, artists and illustrators interested in natural sciences, art, anthropology and archaeology. The cost of the five-day workshop is $370; registration deadline is June 1. Room and board at the Darling Marine Center are available for an additional fee. Course information and registration materials are available on the DMC website. For more information or to request disability accommodations, contact Linda Healy, 207.563.8220.

An advanced art education course taught by Constant Albertson at the University of Maine is making and selling ceramic mugs to support educational programs for children at Hirundo Wildlife Refuge in Alton, Maine. Students in the course are collaborating to make the mugs, manage a blog, market, budget, sell and write a research paper on the project.

The mugs are $10 and being sold at upcoming events, including from 6–7 p.m. Friday, April 5, during the opening of “Making Art” the annual student exhibition at Lord Hall on campus and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 27 at the Hirundo Table during the Hope Festival at the New Balance Student Recreation Center.

For future sale locations or for more information, call Albertson, 207.581.3251 or visit the students’ website.

The goal of the four students in the class is to make and sell 500 mugs, and to work together to spread knowledge and inspire the community. Each handcrafted mug features a unique design inspired by nature.

Hirundo Wildlife Refuge is a 2,400-acre nature preserve 10 miles from the UMaine campus. The Hirundo land was deeded to UMaine in 1983, cementing a long-term collaboration based on research and scientific studies, according to its website.