University of Maine News

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University of Maine alumnus Lawrence Bender, the producer of films that have won a total of six Academy Awards®, will return to his alma mater May 11 to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and share remarks during Commencement ceremonies.

Bender will address both the 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. ceremonies as part of UMaine’s 211th Commencement in Harold Alfond Sports Arena.

“Lawrence is one of our truly outstanding alumni,” says University of Maine President Paul Ferguson. “We are so pleased to award him a Doctor of Humane Letters in recognition of his excellent contributions to the arts through film and his deep commitment to addressing some of the major issues facing our society. I am confident our new graduates will enjoy and value hearing how his UMaine degree provided a foundation for such success and passion.”

Bender graduated from UMaine in 1979 with a degree in civil engineering. His successful career as a producer and activist spans two decades. His films, which include such noteworthy projects as “Inglourious Basterds,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting,” have been honored with 29 Academy Award® nominations, including three for Best Picture, and have won six.

His film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which raised unprecedented awareness about climate change, won the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature. His documentary, “Countdown To Zero,” which features Tony Blair, Pervez Musharraf, Mikhail Gorbachev, Frederik De Klerk and Jimmy Carter, among others, details the urgent risk posed by proliferation, terrorism and accidental use of nuclear weapons.

Bender’s other films include: “From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996), “Anna and the King” (1999), “The Mexican” (2001), “Innocent Voices” (2004) and Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” (1992), “Jackie Brown” (1997), and “Kill Bill” — Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2003–04). He has also produced “Havana Nights: Dirty Dancing 2”; “Knockaround Guys”; “A Price Above Rubies”; “White Man’s Burden”; “Killing Zoe”; and “Fresh.” His most recent film, “Safe,” which stars Jason Statham, was released worldwide early last year.

Bender is also a passionate social and political activist. In 2003, he co-founded the Detroit Project, a campaign advocating vehicles that will end the U.S. dependence on foreign oil. He also traveled to the Middle East with the Israeli Policy Forum, meeting with heads of state. Bender is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council. He received the ACLU’s Torch of Liberty Award and was named a Wildlife Hero by the National Wildlife Federation.

In 2009, Bender was one of five alumni honored by the University of Maine Foundation at its 75th anniversary celebration. He also was inducted into the College of Engineering’s Francis Crowe Society as a distinguished engineer in recognition of extraordinary accomplishments to society and his profession. Bender returned to campus that fall to give an address at the Maine Business School.

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745; 207.949.4149

Longitudinal studies of children exposed to methadone in the womb need to accompany methadone maintenance treatment for drug-addicted pregnant mothers, according to a research team led by a University of Maine doctoral student in psychology.

While methadone maintenance treatment “is associated with increased stability in maternal and infant health, when compared with illicit opiate use,” long-term effects of prenatal methadone exposure on fetal and infant development are not well known, says Beth Logan, a doctoral student in developmental-clinical psychology at UMaine.

Logan conducted the research in collaboration with Dr. Mark Brown, a neonatologist at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine, and Marie Hayes, a UMaine professor of psychology, cooperating professor of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and allied scientist at EMMC.

The issue of methadone maintenance therapy during pregnancy is important locally, Logan says, as prescription opiate abuse in rural Maine has reached epidemic proportions.

It’s well documented that methadone causes neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in some newborns. NAS can result in gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, as well as slow feeding and growth and, in more severe cases, seizures.

Breastfeeding, Logan says, has been shown in this and other studies to reduce the severity of NAS in opiate-exposed infants.

To better understand long-term implications of prenatal methadone exposure on infant and toddler development, Logan and the UMaine team are conducting a longitudinal study of 200 methadone-exposed and nonexposed demographically matched families.

According to Logan’s dissertation research, at 9 months of age, 37.5 percent of the methadone-exposed infants demonstrated clinically significant motor delays compared with typical development in the nonexposed group. Motor deficits, she says, were particularly prominent in the milestones of sitting independently and crawling.

Maternal alcohol and tobacco use also affect cognitive and motor development of infants, Logan says, and should be considered when evaluating treatment possibilities. Logan also found that electroencephalogram (a test that measures electrical brain activity) markers of learning deficits are associated with comorbid (a medical condition that exists simultaneously and generally independently of another condition) prenatal alcohol exposure in methadone-exposed infants.

In addition, Logan says it appears environmental risks “conspire with” prenatal exposures to pose immediate and long-term developmental implications.

The findings were published in the March 2013 issue of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Contact: Beth Staples, 207.581.3777

University of Maine undergraduate research will be highlighted in the 4th annual Undergraduate Research and Academic Showcase, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Tuesday, April 16 at Wells Conference Center.

The event, sponsored by UMaine’s Center for Undergraduate Research and open to any undergraduate at the university, will feature presentations from 117 students, consisting of 77 posters, 32 oral presentations or performances, and eight exhibits.

Students presenting projects that receive the highest scores from judges in each format will receive awards ranging from $50 to $200 in various categories, according to Diane Belanger, graduate assistant with the Center for Undergraduate Research.

The UMaine community and general public are welcome to attend the free event. For more information or to request disability accommodations, contact Diane Belanger, 207.581.3583.

Vice President for Research Mike Eckardt will give opening remarks at 9 a.m. UMaine President Paul Ferguson is expected to give closing remarks during the awards presentation starting at 4:30 p.m., followed by the announcement of the Summer Research and Creative Academic Achievements Fellowship winners by Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Susan Hunter. Six students will be awarded the $3,000 fellowship.

More information on the showcase is available on the Center for Undergraduate Research’s website.

Contact: Elyse Kahl, 207.581.3747

Several news organizations including WLBZ (Channel 2), WVII (Channel 7), WABI (Channel 5) and the Bangor Daily News covered the University of Maine’s 63rd annual Paper Days. During the Wednesday event, the university unveiled the nation’s first Cellulose Nanofiber Pilot Plant and Sen. Angus King and U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud spoke.

The donation by Sappi Fine Paper to the University of Maine Pulp & Paper Foundation for $100,000 worth of scholarships over the course of four years was picked up by several media outlets, including the websites Daily Markets, Stockhouse and The Sacramento Bee.

The Penobscot Bay Pilot wrote an article about the upcoming trip to Alaska by University of Maine climate change researchers to collect an ice core record of Arctic climate change over the past 1,000 years. Karl Kreutz, professor in UMaine’s Climate Change Institute and School of Earth and Climate Sciences; UMaine graduate student Seth Campbell; and Nobleboro Central School teacher Ken Williams are among the researchers who will take the trip to Denali National Park from April 29 to June 30.

The Bangor Daily News blog “Act out with Aislinn” by BDN reporter Aislinn Sarnacki included an entry about a project by students in a University of Maine advanced art education course taught by Constant Albertson. The students are making and selling mugs to benefit the Hirundo Wildlife Refuge in Alton.

Pine Tree Watchdog reported on University of Maine honors student Shelbe Lane’s March 27 testimony of LD 1001, a bill she helped write. “An Act To Improve Laws Governing Financial Disclosure by Legislators and Certain Public Employees and Public Access to Information Disclosed” was proposed by Gov. Paul LePage and sponsored by Democratic legislator Sen. Emily Cain. Lane gave lawmakers a tutorial on the legislation as part of her Honors College thesis.

UMaine’s Advanced Manufacturing Center (AMC) is the focus of an April 2 story in Mainebiz about how it works with Maine companies such as Newfield Communications, a start-up in West Newfield what saved $50,000 in the last six months with the help of AMC students and faculty. UMaine and the University of Southern Maine have helped businesses in the state bring nearly 400 products and manufacturing processes closer to market, according to the story. “The idea is that anyone can go into our center or USM and say ‘Hey, I need help with this’ and get a quote,” says AMC Director John Belding.

In a story in the March 31 Huntington, W.Va., Herald-Dispatch, Len Kaye, director of UMaine’s Center on Aging, is cited as one of the presenters in the 7th annual Cabell County Drug Prevention Summit, April 11 in Huntington, W.Va., sponsored by the Cabell County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership. The annual prevention summits address growing concern about increased drug trafficking and substance abuse, and associated crime, in the Huntington area. Kaye will speak on prescription drug abuse prevention strategies.

In the Portland Press Herald blog “Pedal On: Tips, info and events for people who love their bikes,” author Karen Beaudoin says the Bicycle Coalition of Maine is looking for volunteers to help at both of its Great Maine Bike Swaps. The Orono swap is set for Sunday, April 14 at the University of Maine New Balance Student Recreation Center and the Portland event is April 28 at the University of Southern Maine gym, according to Beaudoin.

UMaine mathematics majors Nathan Dunn and Stuart Lathrop each scored 10 points (out of 100), placing them in the 70th percentile in the 37th William Lowell Putnam Competition that took place Dec. 1. This competition is regarded as the most difficult college-level mathematics contest in North America. In all, 4,277 students from 578 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada competed. Only seven contestants received 69 or more points, including one perfect score. About half of the participants did not earn any points at all, according to Eisso Atzema of the UMaine Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

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”

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.”