by Liz Theriault, Maine EPSCoR Student Writer WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU PICTURE A TIME MACHINE? Maybe it’s the car from the popular 1980s film Back to the Future. Or perhaps you picture a metal box decorated with flashing lights and mysterious levers. But for Michael Kinnison, he pictures environmental DNA (eDNA). Kinnison is […]
Read more
by Liz Theriault, Maine EPSCoR Student Writer With the new EPSCoR RII Track-1 Grant, Molecule to Ecosystem: Environmental DNA as a Nexus of Convergent Research for Maine’s Coastal Ecosystems (Maine-eDNA), comes new faculty members and principle investigators to lead interdisciplinary groups of researchers. For Maine-eDNA, Dr. Doug Rasher has taken on the role of Project […]
Read more
by Liz Theriault, Maine EPSCoR Student Writer WHAT MAKES UP THE AIR WE BREATHE? The first answer that comes to mind may be, rather obviously, oxygen. Yet oxygen isn’t the only molecule surrounding us in our atmosphere, and it isn’t even the most abundant. In fact, air is made of 78% nitrogen. For researchers like […]
Read more
Jane Horovitz, EPSCoR Student Writer Rene Francolini didn’t even know the field of computational biology existed until her high school computer science teacher suggested that she combine her knack for logic and puzzles with her love for ecology and marine biology. Francolini did just that, completing a degree in biology with a focus in computational […]
Read more
Graham Sherwood received his undergraduate degree in Biology and Environmental Studies. During the course of his education, he found field work interesting and took a specific liking to freshwater ecology. He completed an internship working on fish ecology and food webs, which eventually led to a Masters degree in Ecology. He studied how altered food […]
Read more
Nick Record has worked on projects covering topics from viruses to whales and ocean physics, but he always comes in with the math and computer science piece of the puzzle. Record is a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, where he’s worked for seven years. Record is also a researcher on Maine […]
Read more
By Jane Horovitz, ME EPSCoR Student Writer Phoebe Jekielek grew up in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, about seven hours away from the ocean. Ever since she was 10 years old, Jekielek knew she wanted to study marine biology, even though she was a little scared of what was in the ocean. The intimidation didn’t stop Jekielek, but […]
Read more
Jane Horovitz, ME EPSCoR Student Writer After Grayson Huston received his undergraduate degree in marine science from the University of California, Berkeley, he decided to not go directly into graduate school, largely because he wasn’t sure what he wanted to specialize in. He knew he wanted to study science, either marine or aquatic, but he […]
Read more
Jane Horovitz, EPSCoR Student Writer Alex Ascher has always been drawn to the less understood aspects of science. So, naturally, he was interested in the marine world. Ascher sees the ocean as a black box — something that’s difficult to understand fully, but serves as a great opportunity to explore new routes of investigation. In […]
Read more
Discovering how things work has been one of Dr. Markus Frederich’s favorite activities since he was a child, so it’s no surprise that his research is based on physiology: the branch of biology that deals with the functions and parts of living organisms, such as animals, and how they work. Frederich is a Professor of […]
Read more