Maine Economic Improvement Fund

UMaine Narratives

• Aquaculture and Marine Sciences
  Calculating the amount of chlorophyll in the Gulf of Maine is the focus of research by UMaine doctoral candidate Michael Sauer.
• Biotechnology
  Since 1987, UMaine biochemistry professor Mary Rumpho-Kennedy has been studying Elysia chlorotica—a tiny “solar-powered” sea slug found in saltwater marshes along the East Coast. Her recent research offers insight into the potential for evolution of photosynthesis in an animal through symbiosis and gene transfer.
• Composite & Advanced Materials Technologies
  Created by researchers at the UMaine’s AEWC Advanced Structures & Composites Center, the “Bridge in a Backpack” is going commercial. An investment team coordinated by Brit E. Svoboda has formed a new Maine company, Advanced Infrastructure Technologies (AIT), located at UMaine’s Target Technology Incubator.
• Environmental Technologies
  With a $20 million grant, Maine is positioned to become a leader in addressing sustainability challenges. The five-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research will be coupled with a $1 million match each year from the Maine Economic Improvement Fund.
• Information Technologies
  A renovation project designed to create a new culture of innovation and creativity for the state soon will be under way at the UMaine. The Maine Technology Institute has awarded the campus $3.69 million to turn Stewart Commons into the New Media Innovation, Research, and Development Center at UMaine, which will support expanded innovation and development in new media for the entire state.
• Advanced Technologies for Forestry and Agriculture
  The U.S. Department of Energy awarded more than $712,000 to UMaine chemical and biological engineering professors Peter van Walsum and Clay Wheeler for a three-year project to create a high-quality transportation fuel from renewable biomass resources.
• Precision Manufacturing
  UMaine scientists have developed a new way of looking at the molecular organization of cells by creating a microscope system they call FPALM (Fluorescence Photoactivation Localization Microscopy).