News

Tom Atwell’s Maine Gardner column March 4 in the Portland Press Herald focused on the the Signs of the Seasons program, coordinated by University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine Sea Grant. The program that trains volunteers to monitor plant and animal species is led by UMaine Extension Climate change educator Esperanza Stancioff and Beth Bisson, Sea Grant’s assistant director for outreach and education.

Assistant Professor Ann Ross and 15 students will participate in the 2013 American College Dance Festival Association New England Conference at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, March 14–16. Students will participate in master classes, watch informal and adjudicated concerts, listen to lectures by guest artists and have an opportunity to network. They also will be presenting a dance for an adjudication concert choreographed by students Ava Gordley Smith and Mallory Osbourne. In addition, Assistant Professor of Theatre Dan Bilodeau, Technical Director and Production Manager Joe Donovan and seven students will attend the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) Conference in Milwaukee, March 20–23. Bilodeau, chair of the New England regional section, will lead a sectional meeting while at the national conference.

Two public sessions are scheduled March 27 to provide preliminary information about the university’s FY14 budget. President Paul Ferguson, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Susan Hunter and Assistant Vice President of Financial and Budget Services Claire Strickland will join Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Janet Waldron as she presents the budget information to the campus community. The two identical sessions will be held 8–9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m., in Minsky Recital Hall.

UMaine Professor of English Naomi Jacobs and University of Delaware Professor of Classics Annette Giesecke have co-edited a new volume of 17 utopian studies essays: “Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia and the Garden”. The researchers focus on ancient and modern utopian approaches to the garden, “a human creation driven by the desire to find an ideal place in nature — a second, kinder nature as opposed to a nature that can be unpredictable and harsh.” Their work is the inspiration for a June 6–9 symposium at the University of Delaware that showcases the garden as an emblem of the ideal human relation with nature. Giesecke and Jacobs are co-chairing the symposium, which includes tours of important public gardens in Delaware and Pennsylvania. Jacobs, a scholar of utopian and dystopian fiction and utopianism in popular culture, and Giesecke, an expert on ancient Greek and Roman gardens, have been collaborating since 2009.

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Upward of 500 middle-school girls from around the state will spend the day at the University of Maine March 14 for the 26th Expanding Your Horizons conference, designed to introduce youths to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Cosponsored by the UMaine Women’s Resource Center, Division of Lifelong Learning, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine EPSCoR, the conference this year includes two educational forums for teachers led by the Maine Girls Collaborative Project, in addition to dozens of hands-on experiences in math- and science-oriented fields for the youths, most led by UMaine faculty and staff.

Students will begin their day at 9 a.m. in Hauck Auditorium for an opening presentation and keynote address, then disperse throughout the campus in groups to attend interactive workshops scheduled on the hour from 10 a.m.–2 p.m. A representative from Hardy Girls Healthy Women in Waterville will make the keynote presentation.

At 9 a.m. in 100 D.P. Corbett Business Building, teachers will gather for a Maine Girls Collaborative Project panel discussion about working with girls with disabilities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. At 1 p.m. in D.P. Corbett, an afternoon workshop will explore strategies for encouraging Native American girls to pursue STEM subjects in school. Both sessions are free and public.

The panel discussions for teachers are new this year, according to Sharon Barker, director of the Women’s Resource Center at UMaine and event forums coordinator.

Joining the discussion about working with girls with disabilities will be Janet May, coordinator of transition and adults at the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies at UMaine. Maria Girouard, assistant coordinator of outreach and student development at the UMaine Wabanaki Center and a Native American history and culture educator, will participate in the afternoon session on guiding Native American girls toward STEM careers.

The underpinning of the conference is to address a shortage of women in STEM fields. Conference participants will have opportunities to meet and hear stories from successful women working in science and math fields.

Expanding Your Horizons has been successful in giving seventh- and eighth-grade girls a better understanding of relationships between math and science and possible career choices, and informing them about nontraditional or less-publicized career choices, according to the Women’s Resource Center.

Barker says the event literally expands girls’ horizons and understanding of the wide range of STEM careers available to them.

Among the speakers and workshop leaders participating in Expanding Your Horizons and Maine Girls Collaborative Project forums are: Emma Albee, a recent University of New England graduate who was a high school intern at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor and now has a degree in medical biology; Jackson Laboratory researchers David Bergstrom and Carol Bult; Paige Collins, a resource teacher at Mount Desert Island High School; and Jane Disney, staff scientist and director of the Community Environmental Health Laboratory, MDI Biological Laboratory in Salisbury Cove.

For additional information or to request disability accommodations, contact Faye Boyle, 207.581.1508 or 581.1501.

Contacts: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745/207.949.4149; Faye Boyle, 207.581.1508

University of Maine Cooperative Extension pest management specialist Jim Dill was interviewed by Channel 7 (WVII) for a report on a new study that finds mosquitoes can become desensitized to commonly used repellents, including DEET.

A Maine Public Broadcasting Network report on the dilemma researchers at many colleges and universities face when publishing academic articles in journals that charge high subscription rates versus free open access Internet venues included comments from Joyce Rumery, dean of libraries at UMaine, Deborah Rollins, head of collections services at Fogler, UMaine oceanographer Pete Jumars and new media specialist and faculty member Jon Ippolito.

In an effort to better serve the graduate student community, we have decided to push back the submission deadline for GradExpo2013 by one week. The electronic submission form will remain active until March 8th.

Additionally, due to a large number of requests, we will be allowing students to present in any of the traditional categories (Oral, Poster, Intermedia), though only presentation one will be considered for cash prizes.

Remember, in addition to their other presentations, all graduate students may ALSO participate in the PechaKucha competition. All PechaKucha participants are eligible for cash prizes in addition to anything they win in their traditional categories. More info on the PechaKucha competition can be found here: http://www2.umaine.edu/gsg/grad-expo/gradexpo_entry_information/gradexpo-guidelines-pechakucha/

Please see the Grad Expo Website for more information about all categories, or email Charles Rodda: Charles.rodda@umit.maine.edu.

Hello!

On behalf of the University of Maine Graduate Student Government, I am pleased to announce the 2013 UMaine Graduate Student Exposition. Over the course of two days - 28-29 March, 2013 - graduate students from all disciplines will present their research, artistic works, projects and collaborations. In addition to competing for thousands of dollars in cash prizes and recognition for their work, students will be able to interact with representatives from industry and government. This exposition will coincide with the unveiling of the University of Maine’s new Innovative Media, Research and Commercialization Center. The building will be open to the public during the Expo, and graduate students and faculty will be present answer questions and demonstrate the features and facilities housed in the new center.

As in years past, the GradExpo will feature disciplinary sessions with poster and oral presentations featuring students in the Physical Sciences & Technology, Natural Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences. Graduate student artists at the University will be presenting InterMedia art projects, fine art works and performances.

We are excited to announce that we are requesting submissions for several new interdisciplinary sessions that have been added to the GradExpo this year. These sessions will feature research focused on Canada and Canadian-Americanism and on the culture, science and policy of the Gulf of Maine.

Presentations will include traditional short oral presentations and poster sessions, as well as innovative art installations, informal slide-shows and the PechaKucha competition where students from every discipline will present their work in a rapid-fire talk and slide show lasting less than seven minutes. Winners from other campus competitions will be announced at the Expo as well.

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Channel 8 (WMTW) in Portland reported on the selection by National Geographic magazine of University of Maine marine scientist and cold-water diver Rhian Waller for a select list of New Age of Exploration scientists to be profiled. Waller, an assistant research professor in the UMaine School of Marine Sciences, has been on 40 expeditions around the world and is a cold-water coral expert.

Maine news organizations, including the Portland Press Herald, Bangor Daily News, Channel 2 (WLBZ), Channel 5 (WABI) and Channel 7 (WVII), spoke with members of the University of Maine women’s basketball team on its return to Maine after a bus crash Feb. 26 on Interstate 95 in Georgetown, Mass., which left several members and the coach, Richard Barron, with minor injuries and the driver in a Boston hospital. On Feb. 27, news organization from around the country continued reporting on the crash. They included the Idaho Statesman, The Republic in Indiana, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Edmonton Journal in Alberta, Canada.

A short film produced and directed by University of Maine Intermedia MFA graduate student Neil Shelley with student actors and crew has been accepted into the third annual Lewiston Auburn Film Festival, April 4–7.

Shelley, who is from Gray, Maine, created the 28-minute film “Telling Hannah” in a Year in Film class with assistance from his brother, Ryan, and faculty member Sheridan Kelley. The film is about a relationship that develops when a young woman, Hannah, goes to live with her uncle after the death of her father. Shelley says it is a story of deception, honesty and ultimately redemption.

More than 1,000 people attended last year’s Lewiston Auburn Film Festival, which screens as many as 75 films in a variety of Lewiston and Auburn venues, says Shelley, who manages the Collaborative Media Lab at Fogler Library and is a teaching assistant for professional video production at UMaine.

Dozens of University of Maine students will spend spring break March 4–15 in far-away places doing volunteer work in schools, hospitals, animal shelters, orphanages, nature preserves, farms and building housing and a Honduran village’s first sewage system.

Here is a partial list of places and projects.

• Honduras — Five student members of the UMaine chapter of Engineers Without Borders will return to Dulce Vivir on the outskirts of Dulce Nombre in Honduras to complete work started in 2008 designing and building a sewage collection system for a village of 120 people struggling with water contamination from overflowing latrines during the rainy season.
• Nicaragua — REACH (Respect Education Action Community Hope) at UMaine is sending 12 students to Jinotega, Nicaragua March 2–15 under the auspicious of the Circulo de Amigas organization to help with library repairs and encouraging children to read. They’ll also help out in a home for disabled children and a maternity home.
• Costa Rica — REACH (Respect Education Action Community Hope) at UMaine is sending 12 students to Mastatal, Costa Rica March 3–16 to assist local farmers with aquaponics and organic farming.
• Belize — Thirteen students in the UMaine School of Nursing are partnering with International Service Learning to offer medical assistance in rural clinics in San Ignacio, Cayo District of Belize. They’ll work with physicians providing health care to underprivileged families and children.

The UMaine Bodwell Center for Service and Volunteerism and UMaine Alternative Break are organizing dozens of students planning spring break trips in the United States. Projects include:

• Helping children victimized by domestic abuse in Virginia
• Improving housing conditions for low-income families in the coal camp communities of West Virginia
• Assisting at a rescue camp for neglected and abused animals in Pennsylvania
• Providing respite in Florida for vacationing families of children with terminal illnesses
• Helping with disaster relief and rebuilding of homes in New Orleans
• And maintenance and trail restoration in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and in the Moody Forest Natural Area in Georgia.

Contact: George Manlove, 207.581.3756

Dozens of Maine schoolteachers attending the 26th Expanding Your Horizons conference March 14 at the University of Maine will have two new learning opportunities added to the program this year.

At 9 a.m. in 100 D.P. Corbett Business Building, they will gather for a Maine Girls Collaborative Project panel discussion about working with girls with disabilities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. At 1 p.m. in D.P. Corbett, an afternoon workshop will explore strategies for encouraging Native American girls to pursue STEM subjects in school. Both sessions are free and public.

Joining the discussion about working with girls with disabilities will be Janet May, coordinator of transition and adults at the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies at UMaine. Maria Girouard, assistant coordinator of student development and outreach at the UMaine Wabanaki Center and a Native American history and culture educator, will participate in the afternoon session on guiding Native American girls toward STEM careers.

Cosponsored by the UMaine Women’s Resource Center, Division of Lifelong Learning, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine EPSCoR, the conference will host the teachers and more than 500 seventh- and eighth-grade girls for the daylong event, held to introduce girls to STEM subjects. Students with UMaine guides will participate in various STEM workshops on campus throughout the day.

The underpinning of the conference is to address a shortage of women in STEM fields. Conference participants will have opportunities to meet and hear stories from successful women working in science and math fields.

Expanding Your Horizons has been successful in giving seventh- and eighth-grade girls a better understanding of relationships between math and science and possible career choices and informing them about nontraditional or less-publicized career choices, according to the Women’s Resource Center.

The center’s director, Sharon Barker, says the event literally expands girls’ horizons and understanding of the wide range of STEM careers available to them.

For additional information or to request disability accommodations, contact Faye Boyle, 207.581.1508 or 207.581.1501.

Channel 5 (WABI) interviewed University of Maine Cooperative Extension Executive Director John Rebar for a report on Gov. Paul LePage’s proclamation designating Feb. 26 as 4-H Day in Maine. A ceremony celebrating the 100-year anniversary of 4-H, a program of UMaine Extension, took place in the Hall of Flags in the State House in Augusta.

Channel 7 (WVII) aired the second segment in a two-part profile of Habib Dagher, director of the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center, who discussed his interest in science and inventions as a child in Lebanon. Dagher today is considered an international leader in research and development of offshore floating wind turbine technology. The profile is part of a “Maine’s Most Fascinating People” series.

Lewiston’s Sun Journal reported that Maine State Climatologist George Jacobson, professor emeritus of biology, ecology and climate change at the University of Maine, will speak at noon, Feb. 27 at the University of Maine Farmington as part of a forum, “State of the Planet, Intergenerational Justice and Our Collective Future.”

The Washington Post, Boston Globe and the Boston Herald were among dozens of news organizations to report on the crash Feb. 26 on Interstate 95 of the coach carrying the UMaine women’s basketball team to Boston for a game Feb. 27. The bus driver was seriously injured. Other injuries, to Coach Richard Barron and at least one player, were described as not serious. The game has been canceled because of the incident. The Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, Channel 2 and CBS Boston also carried reports.