Dear Colleagues,

This month’s Go Blue message begins with some good news about independent verification of what we know to be true: UMaine represents good quality and value on par with the nation’s top institutions.  For the fifth consecutive year, Princeton Review has listed UMaine in its annual publication, “The Best 368 Colleges.”  Since the Princeton Review methodology is based, in large part, on surveys from each institution’s own students, we can all be pleased that UMaine students are telling others that the UMaine experience is a good one. Only about 15 percent of the four-year colleges in the U.S. are chosen for the list.

This recognition reflects, first and foremost, on UMaine’s faculty, staff and students. I am pleased to write today to share some details of the accomplishments of UMaine’s people from news items of the past month.

We were all proud to see news reports, and C-SPAN coverage, of the recent U.S. Senate committee testimony of Prof. Habib Dagher.  Habib, who brings great credit to UMaine through all of his activities, was invited by Sen. Collins to talk to the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee about energy security, specifically the potential of offshore wind power as an energy source.  He did a wonderful job, and his comments certainly caught the attention of the committee members and staff. Segments of Habib’s testimony are online at UMaine’s featured videos Web site: http://www.umaine.edu/videos/index.htm

A UMaine research group led by Paul Mayewski (director of the Climate Change Institute) and Bob Lad (director of the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology) has received a $1.6 million grant from the William M. Keck Foundation. I consider Keck Foundation grants to be among the most prestigious research awards and we can all be proud that UMaine has earned this foundation’s support.  The grant will fund multidisciplinary research projects that will revolutionize climate science and further enhance UMaine’s international leadership role in both climate science and sensor science.

A great story involving physics professor Tom Hess caught the public’s attention in early July.  Tom and his students provided valuable service in support of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation into the theft of Precolumbian artifacts seized in Florida three years ago.  In March, ICE brought some of the pieces to UMaine for X-ray florescence spectroscopy analysis, which verified the gems’ trace elements and origins.

I am pleased that Prof. Carol Kim from UMaine’s Dept. of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology has assumed the director’s role in UMaine’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.  GSBS is already providing important collaborative graduate education and research, and I am confident that the school with thrive under Carol’s leadership.  It is also noteworthy, with regard to Carol’s skills and stature in her field, that she has been awarded a $1.4 million National Institutes of Health grant to study the differences in human immune systems and zebrafish immune systems.  This research could lead to therapies that will help improve human health.

Fred Servello, a UMaine faculty member in wildlife ecology, is also moving into a new role, associate dean for outreach in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture and associate director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station.  Fred will have an important leadership role in these new capacities and he will be centrally involved in managing UMaine’s connections with Maine’s agricultural sector.  We look forward to his contributions in these new roles.

I also wish to congratulate Sarah McPartland-Good, who has been promoted to director of planned giving in the University of Maine Foundation.  Sarah has been instrumental to the foundation’s success during her ten years as a planned giving officer and I’m sure she will do a wonderful job in this new role.

As is the case every month, we have several new faculty awards and honors to mention.  We are among Maine’s largest and most accomplished community of scholars, and it is always nice to see our professors' work and achievements recognized by others.

Amy Blackstone, a professor in UMaine’s sociology department, received the Outstanding Research Proposal from a Feminist Perspective Award from the National Council on Family Relations' Feminism and Family Studies Section.  The proposal relates to a study of adults who have chosen not to become parents.

Bob Rice, a wood science professor who also represents the UMaine faculty on the Board of Trustees, has been elected a 2008 fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science.  Bob is a prolific scholar who has published more than 60 research papers in his 17 years on the UMaine faculty and this honor recognizes his long record of outstanding work in this discipline.

Bob’s wood science faculty colleague Doug Gardner also received recent national recognition.  He has been named one of the co-recipients of the 2008 Forest Products Society L.J. Markwardt Wood Engineering Research Award. Doug, a UMaine graduate who is also part of the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center's research team, was recognized for a 2007 paper published in Wood and Fiber Science.

Gisela Hoecherl-Alden of the UMaine Dept. of Modern Languages and Classics has been selected to receive the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Friend of German Award.  In notifying Gisela of the award, that organization’s executive director says she is being recognized “in recognition of…exemplary leadership in the advocacy of German language education.”

John Thompson of the UMaine physics faculty has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to pursue physics education research and teaching at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in Ireland during the upcoming academic year. John, who also has UMaine appointments in the College of Education and Human Development and the Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research, will work on comparing Irish and U.S. physics education research methods.

Speaking of Fulbright Awards, I was pleased to learn that UMaine doctoral candidate Shannon Risk has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarship to study Canadian cultural and intellectual history.  Shannon will pursue that work at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

ScienceWatch.com has identified a paper coauthored by Prof. Michael Kinnison from UMaine’s School of Biology and Ecology as one of the most cited papers in of ScienceWatch.com’s 22 targeted research areas.  Michael’s paper, “Contemporary Evolution Meets Conservation Biology,” was published in 2003.

Nine UMaine students and a group of volunteers recently completed a month of archaeological fieldwork, under the direction of UMaine anthropology professors Brian Robinson and Lisa Neuman.  Working with members of Maine Wabanaki communities, the field school participants are involved in ongoing research and preservation efforts related to Machias Bay petroglyphs, or rock art.

Congratulations to John Mahon, Bahman Baktiari and all involved in UMaine’s School of Policy and International Affairs on another successful program involving renowned international experts on pressing topics. SPIA and the Naval Postgraduate School hosted a July 17-18 Hutchinson Center conference, “Tomorrow’s Proliferation Pathways: Weak States, Rogues, and Non-States.”  Since its inception, SPIA has had a leadership role in several important forums developed in collaboration with prestigious and well-known institutions from around the U.S. and beyond.

UMaine’s Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies also hosted an important series of workshops in July.  Continuing with their remarkable record of public service and outreach, the center’s staff put together programming that provided information related to understanding and treating children with autism and related disorders.  Under Prof. Lu Zeph’s leadership, the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies does tremendous work in this important field of study, and we can all be proud of the faculty and staff’s extensive record of achievement in research, education and outreach.

I was pleased to note that Lobster College is returning after a five-year hiatus.  A very popular program managed by Bob Bayer and Cathy Billings in the Lobster Institute at UMaine, Lobster College brings in people from far and wide to spend a weekend on the Maine coast and to learn about lobsters in a fun, informative setting.  Lobster College is scheduled for Sept. 18-21, and it will be based this year at Kenniston Hill Bed and Breakfast in Boothbay.

Congratulations to Bill Yellow Robe, an adjunct faculty member in UMaine’s English department.  Bill is an accomplished playwright whose work has recently been translated into Italian for a new collection of plays by Native American playwrights.

An exciting new program at UMaine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center has great potential to help inspire the next generation of women leaders in Maine politics.  Mary Cathcart, the former Maine State Senator who is now a senior policy associate at the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center is heading up UMaine’s participation in MaineNew Leadership, making UMaine the newest member in a 17-member national network created by the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers.  Through the program, UMaine will work with up to 40 Maine college-age women who will participate in an intensive residential program that will provide the insights and information that participants can use to pursue active roles in the political process.

The Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center has also recently released an important new study, “Maine Bioproducts Business Pathway." Created by research associate Kate Dickerson, the report looks at the potential for incorporating biorefineries into Maine pulp mills.  UMaine researchers are working to develop this technology, and the report provides valuable information as Maine's’s leaders look toward our state’s economic future.

Four UMaine faculty members have recently collaborated to provide an innovative graduate summer course on Maine Politics and Policy. Ken Palmer and Mark Brewer from political science and Ken Nichols and Tom Taylor from public administration taught this online course, which included creative features such as an interview with Senate President Beth Edmonds.  The course started with a live Reunion Weekend introductory lecture as part of Alumni College.

Once again, the UMaine community has demonstrated its vast generosity through contributions to a food drive organized by UMaine Printing Services and Mailing Services.  During June, departments all across campus collected food for donation to the Crossroads Ministries Food Pantry in Old Town. Those who work and study in Deering Hall set the pace, contributing the most food.  Kudos to Tammy Young and Kim Sawtelle for their great work in organizing this most worthy endeavor.

I’m also pleased to note the great impact of the Orono Community Garden, an exciting initiative that John Jemison of the UMaine Cooperative Extension faculty has overseen for the past five years.  Some 20-30volunteers work on the project, which involves the distribution of fresh vegetables to residents of Orono’s Hasbrouck Court and Longfellow Heights apartments.

Even during the summer months, UMaine’s students continue to achieve great things.

UMaine doctoral student Julie-Ann Scott, who is a great leader in our student community, was recently recognized for her scholarly work.  Julie-Ann’s poster, “Subversive Bodies’ Extraordinary Stories: A Performance of Identity Analysis of Physical Disabled Personal Narratives.”  She received the award at the Society for Disability Studies (SDS) annual conference in New York City.

UMaine student James Daniels and UMaine graduate Kurtis Petersons have also received well-deserved attention for their innovation, “mCaddie.”  A hand-held device that provides real time information for golfers during play,the invention recently garnered first prize in the annual business plan completion held by the Center for Entrepreneurship at USM’s School of Business.  James and Kurtis have taken great advantage of the UMaine resources available to them through the UMaine Business School and the Foster Student Innovation Center.

I hope you enjoy the final few weeks of summer, and that you join me in anticipation of the beginning of the academic year with the Maine Hello on Aug. 29.  According to all indications, we will be welcoming an outstanding new group of students when the Class of 2012 joins our community this fall.  It is an exciting time of year, and I look forward to sharing more details about the class and the 2008-2009 academic year in next month’s Go Blue message.

Sincerely,

Bob Kennedy

President