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The Bangor Daily News reported that admission to the University of Maine Museum of Art on Harlow Street in Bangor will be free to the public throughout 2013 as a result of a gift from Penobscot Financial Advisors, formerly known as Bradley & Johndrow, LLC in Bangor.

The science website PhysOrg.com has posted an article about University of Maine geologist and research professor Ed Grew, who recently had two newly discovered minerals, “hydroxledgrewite” and “edgrewite,” named in his honor by two geologists at the University of Silesia in Poland.

The University of Maine Museum of Art will extend its free admission policy for the public in 2013 as a result of a gift from Penobscot Financial Advisors.

Penobscot Financial Advisors has been a longtime sponsor of UMMA’s Community Partners Program, which provides support for education and exhibition programs, according to George Kinghorn, museum director and curator.

“We are grateful for Penobscot Financial Advisor’s generous sponsorship and ongoing support over the years,” he says. “The Museum of Art is a vital community outreach resource of the University of Maine and we are delighted to once again offer free admission so that all citizens may enjoy the museum’s collections and changing exhibitions.”

James E. Bradley, CEO of the financial advisory firm formerly known as Bradley & Johndrow, LLC, notes that the arts play an important role in the community and region.

“We are pleased to provide access so that all may enjoy the exceptional art on display at the museum. We are delighted to support UMMA’s efforts,” Bradley says.

Kinghorn says the sponsorship allows individuals to visit often and have meaningful experiences viewing original works of art by nationally recognized artists.

Contact: Kathryn Jovanelli, 207.561.3350

University of Maine professor emeritus Charles Buck, who taught molecular and biological sciences classes at UMaine for 30 years, died at his home in Stillwater Sunday, Dec. 16, according to his obituary in the Bangor Daily News. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, two brothers, three sons and a grandson. Calling hours are from 4:30–6:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 20 at the Orono chapel of Brookings-Smith, 72 Main St., Orono. A funeral service is planned at 1 p.m., Friday, Dec. 21 at the Church of Universal Fellowship, 82 Main St., Orono.

An article about high tunnel gardening techniques in Maine by University of Maine Cooperative Extension faculty members Caragh Fitzgerald in the Kennebec County office and Mark Hutton of the Highmoor Farm office in Monmouth appears in the latest issue of the Journal of the NACAA (National Association of County Agricultural Agents).

The agribusiness news website Domesticfuel.com posted a U.S. Department of Energy news release about a $4 million award it recently made to the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center to further advance the university’s research and development, with partners in the DeepCwind Consortium Research Program, of prototype test wind turbines in advance of a larger, floating offshore wind farm planned off the Maine coast.

A Bangor Daily News article on what’s being called alarmingly warmer waters off the Maine coast and possible effects on marine life included comments from University of Maine professor of marine sciences Robert Steneck and Jeffrey Runge, research professor in the UMaine School of Marine Sciences.

The Bangor Daily News has posted on its website a video with University of Maine Cooperative Extension child and family development specialist Leslie Forstadt discussing how parents might address violence such as the mass shooting of schoolchildren and adults in Newtown, Conn.

Barbara Baker, University of Maine Cooperative Extension associate professor and a principal investigator of a 4-H Engaging Youth, Serving Community Program in Maine, coauthored a paper about 4-H being a successful case study on engaging youth in community service activities. The paper is part of a research-based series of papers, The Kinder & Braver World Project: Research Series, on the Harvard University website. The project is part of the Born This Way Foundation initiative created by performer Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta to promote youth empowerment and the development of kindness and bravery. The paper is titled “Engaging Youth, Serving Community: Social Change Lessons from a 4-H Rural Youth Development Program.”

A feature story in the Maine Sunday Telegram about the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s promotion of agritourism in Maine, which engages consumers in more active farm product acquisition, included interviews with UMaine Extension Director John Rebar and Marc Edwards, a UMaine Extension tourism and economic development professional in the Franklin County office in Farmington.

MSNBC carried an Associated Press report about a $4 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance research and development by the University of Maine and industry partners of a first-in-the-nation offshore wind farm near Monhegan Island. The funding will enable the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center to complete engineering, design and permitting for the first phase of the project.

Channel 7 (WVII) reported on a fund drive held at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant by members of University of Maine School of Nursing, who will spend nine days volunteering medical and health care services in underprivileged communities in Belize. Additional information is on the project’s website.

Channel 7 (WVII) covered the “Skate with the Bears” event at the Alfond Arena Dec. 16, an annual invitation for members of communities surrounding the University of Maine to take to the ice to meet and skate with members of UMaine’s ice hockey teams.

Channel 5 (WABI) and Channel 7 (WVII) reported on toy drives held by UMaine students to help area families in need. Channel 5 reported on Phi Gamma Delta fraternity’s efforts to assist Crossroads Ministries with donations of some 300 gifts. Channel 7 reported that members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity handed out flyers to Wal-Mart shoppers in Bangor to promote a “Fill the Truck” holiday toy drive organized by the retail giant and the local Salvation Army.

Liam Riordan, associate professor of history at UMaine, who spent more than six months in Glasgow, Scotland as a Fulbright Scholar, writes about his and his family’s experiences in the fall 2012 issue of the Maine Humanities Council Newsletter.

Click here to view the “How to Talk to Children When Bad Things Happen” video on YouTube.

Click here to view the “Yuletide Concert 2012″ video on YouTube.

Matthew R. Simmons Memorial Fund established to honor the late Ocean Energy Institute founder

The Matthew R. Simmons Memorial Fund has been created in the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center with a $250,000 donation to honor the memory of the late founder and chair of the Ocean Energy Institute.

The fund will be used to host the Matthew R. Simmons International Conference on Deepwater Offshore Wind Technology, part of a biennial conference disseminating research and development in the areas of offshore wind energy and advanced materials.

The Simmons family issued the following statement: “The Simmons family is deeply grateful for all of those who have supported and continue to support Matt’s life’s work. The creation of the Matthew R. Simmons Memorial Fund will allow his legacy and energy to continue far into the future, bringing together the brightest minds to ensure offshore wind technology becomes a driving force in alternative energy throughout Maine, our country and the world. We are so proud that this is being established at the University of Maine, a university in a state Matt loved so much.”

Simmons, who passed away in 2010, was an oil and gas investment banker who later became a renewable energy advocate. His highly acclaimed 2005 book, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, has served as an anchor point for journalists at the Washington Post, New York Times and other major publications. In founding the Ocean Energy Institute, he envisioned a clean, renewable, ocean energy-based future as a necessary and viable alternative to fossil fuels.

“Matt was a wonderful friend, a brilliant businessman and a great leader with whom we shared a common vision,” says Habib Dagher, director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center. “We will continue to forge ahead with Matt’s vision to create ocean energy opportunities for the world. We are particularly thankful to the Simmons family for entrusting us to carry on Matt’s legacy.”

More information about this July 2013 conference will be available on the UMaine Composites Center’s website.

The Advanced Structures and Composites Center is a state-of-the-art one-stop-shop for integrated composite materials and structural component development. Located at the University of Maine, it offers in-house capabilities for developing a composite product or structure from the conceptual stage through research, manufacturing of prototypes, comprehensive testing and evaluation, code approval and commercialization.

Contact: Elizabeth Viselli, 207.907.6962

Scientists in Poland name new minerals for UMaine geologist

Russian geologists at the University of Silesia in Poland have discovered two minerals new to science and have named them “edgrewite” and “hydroxledgrewite” in honor of University of Maine geologist and research professor Edward Grew.

The new minerals were discovered by mineralogists Evgeny Galuskin and Irina Galuskin in the Chegem caldera in the Northern Caucasus, near Mount Elbrus in the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic in Russia. A caldera is a crater-like structure produced by very large explosive volcanic ash eruptions, like those found Yellowstone and Crater Lake national parks.

Grew began working with the Galuskins as associate editor of the journal American Mineralogist, when he helped them prepare papers for publication, and in person at the International Mineralogical Association meeting in Budapest in 2010. The Galuskins were familiar with Grew’s reputation for working successfully with Russian scientists throughout his career.

The honor of having a mineral named for him “is a lifelong dream come true,” says Grew, whose research focuses on rare minerals containing boron and beryllium, and the role of the two elements in the changes that rocks undergo at high temperatures and pressures in the Earth’s crust. “I have always valued my international collaborations in science, and so I was especially honored that colleagues in Europe proposed my name for the new minerals they discovered.”

A UMaine research faculty member for 28 years, Grew has been involved in the discovery and characterization of 13 new minerals, including six from Antarctica. He has been on nine expeditions to Antarctica with researchers from the former Soviet Union, Australia, Japan and the United States, in addition to research projects in Australia, India, Germany, Japan, Tajikistan and Siberia. His first expedition to the Antarctic was in 1972–74, when he wintered at Molodezhnaya Station. He has published extensively on the composition and evolution of minerals, and has served in leadership capacities for national and international professional organizations and mineralogical publications.

Identifying undiscovered minerals involves detailed microscopic analysis. Edgrewite and hydroxledgrewite were found as tiny crystals smaller than the period at the end of a sentence in a newspaper, according to Grew.

“Recognizing a new mineral involves a measure of good luck and familiarity with known minerals,” he says. “Several new minerals I have discovered simply looked different under the optical microscope. Chemical tests confirmed my hunch that the minerals were new. Sometimes a new mineral does not stand out optically under the microscope, but (its) distinctive chemical composition suggests it is new. Once a mineral is suspected to be new, it is studied in detail so its physical, chemical and crystallographic properties are fully characterized and then it must undergo a complex process of approval by an international commission.”

The Galuskins and research colleagues from four European countries discuss the discovery of the new minerals edgrewite and hydroxledgrewite in a peer-reviewed scientific report in the November–December issue of the journal American Mineralogist.

Contact: George Manlove, 207.581.3756