Students in the Spotlight

  • Bess Koffman, Doctoral Student in Earth Sciences, Receives National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

    Posted December 3, 2012

    Doctor of Philosophy in Earth Sciences Student Bess Koffman recently received a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship award. Her research will, “test the hypothesis that young soils from New Zealand were a significant source of dust to the Southern Ocean and hence West Antarctica during the Last Glacial Maximum.” Next June, she will begin work at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and at Cornell University, investigating the role of New Zealand dust in global climate during the Last Glacial Maximum. The project will take place over the course of two years, and will include field work in New Zealand, geochemical analysis of samples from New Zealand and Antarctica, and a global climate modeling component. In 2012 Koffman also received: first place in the Oral Presentation division of the Grad Expo, under the Physical Sciences and Technology category, for her presentation Winds of Change: Ice Core Evidence for the Role of the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds in Regulating Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide; the Teaching Assistant Award from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Assessment; and the University of Maine Dissertation Research Fellowship. For more information on Koffman’s NSF award and research, please go here.

  • University of Maine Students Present their Research at the Northeast Geotechnical Graduate Research Symposium

    Posted December 3, 2012

    Three University of Maine graduate students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering program attended and presented at the Northeast Geotechnical Graduate Research Symposium on October 26, 2012 at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Two of them won awards. Doctor of Philosophy student Harold Walton and Master of Science students Cameron Stuart and Matthew Burns attended the event with Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Melissa Maynard. The main objective of the symposium is, “to have graduate students interact with future colleagues and have an opportunity to present their research in a conference setting. The short presentations by the students provide them the opportunity to receive input from a wider group of geotechnical researchers.” Walton won first prize for best presentation and Burns received an honorable mention abstract award. The UMass Amherst Geotechnical Engineering Group hosted the symposium and Geosyntec Consultants sponsored the best abstract and presentation awards. 

  • University of Maine Students Receive Awards at 2012 Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering Annual Meeting

    Posted November 19, 2012

    At the 2012 Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering (GSBSE) Annual Meeting on September 14 and 15 several UMaine students received awards for their research. First prize for the Governor Baldacci Outstanding Oral Presentation Award went to Janice Duy with second place tied by Justin Guay and Josh Boucher. Deepthi Muthukrishnan won first prize in the President Kennedy Outstanding Poster Presentation and Virginia McLane took second place. Students received $150 dollars for first prize awards and $100 dollars for second prize, in addition to recognition for their hard work and fascinating research. Dr. Carol Kim, director and Graduate Coordinator for the School, said of the event, “The student talks were excellent, the poster presentations were outstanding, and the keynote address by Dr. David Dankort was exceptional. Every year the science is stronger and the presentations are becoming very polished. It's wonderful to see the progress of each student. The competition was intense again this year and it was extremely difficult for the judges to come to their final decisions. All of the students should be commended for their excellent work and great presentations!” Next year’s GSBSE Annual Meeting will be held on September 13 and 14, 2013.  

  • Master of Forestry Student, Kristin Peet, Named Biologist of the Year by the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society

    Posted November 19, 2012

    Kristin Peet, a student in the Master of Forestry program, was named the biologist of the year by the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society in May. Peet has been the big-game biologist for the Penobscot Indian Nation in Indian Island, Maine for seven years. Peet helps the Nation make management decisions regarding the big game species that live on the 130,000 acres owned by the tribe. Nominated for the award by the Penobscot Indian Nation’s Director of the Department of Natural Resources, Peet describes her time working with the Penobscots as eye-opening. She writes: “There’s a huge cultural component to what I do. I can’t look at this as just, ‘Biologically, this is what we need to do with the moose and deer herd. There’s all sorts of cultural aspects — spiritual aspects of hunting female animals, things like that. Scientifically it may make sense to hunt [in a given place] or hunt this number or this sex, but culturally that may not be the same thing.” To read the Bangor Daily News article about Peet, please go here.  

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