{"id":25552,"date":"2026-02-26T09:16:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/?p=25552"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:16:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:16:04","slug":"2026-spirit-of-maine-achievement-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/2026\/02\/26\/2026-spirit-of-maine-achievement-award\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Spirit of Maine Achievement Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e\"]{font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading25552_606f58-8e\">Dr. Fatemeh Afghah<\/h2>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee\"]{font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading25552_6b64e8-ee\">Dr. Fatemeh Afghah \u201913 has been selected to receive the Spirit of Maine Achievement Award, which honors University of Maine alumni who, within fifteen years of graduation, have achieved outstanding professional, scholarly, and public impact. Dr. Afghah\u2019s accomplishments reflect the strength of her UMaine education and her continued commitment to applying advanced research in ways that serve communities and protect natural resources.<br>Dr. Afghah earned her doctoral degree at the University of Maine, where she distinguished herself as an exceptional scholar and emerging leader. The foundation she built at UMaine has shaped a career defined by innovation, collaboration, and purpose. Today, she is a tenured Associate Professor at Clemson University, where her research in artificial intelligence, wireless communication, and autonomous systems has earned national and international recognition.<br><br>For more information about Dr. Afghah, this award and others presented by the UMaine Alumni Association, head over to their website at: <br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.umainealumni.com\/2026-alumni-achievement-award-honorees\/\">https:\/\/www.umainealumni.com\/2026-alumni-achievement-award-honorees\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Fatemeh Afghah Dr. Fatemeh Afghah \u201913 has been selected to receive the Spirit of Maine Achievement Award, which honors University of Maine alumni who, within fifteen years of graduation, have achieved outstanding professional, scholarly, and public impact. Dr. Afghah\u2019s accomplishments reflect the strength of her UMaine education and her continued commitment to applying advanced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2481,"featured_media":25555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"2026 Spirit of Maine Achievement Award","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":206},"categories":[256,206,204],"tags":[214,211,208,210],"class_list":["post-25552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-alumni","category-newsletter","category-student-stories","tag-international-alumni","tag-international-programs","tag-newsletter","tag-university-of-maine"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":256,"label":"International Alumni"},{"value":206,"label":"Newsletter"},{"value":204,"label":"Student Stories"}],"post_tag":[{"value":214,"label":"International Alumni"},{"value":211,"label":"International Programs"},{"value":208,"label":"Newsletter"},{"value":210,"label":"University of Maine"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2026\/02\/Fatemeh2-205x300-1.png",205,300,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"jpuente","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/author\/jpuente\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":256,"name":"International Alumni","slug":"international-alumni","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":256,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":9,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":256,"category_count":9,"category_description":"","cat_name":"International Alumni","category_nicename":"international-alumni","category_parent":0},{"term_id":206,"name":"Newsletter","slug":"newsletter","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":206,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":38,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":206,"category_count":38,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Newsletter","category_nicename":"newsletter","category_parent":0},{"term_id":204,"name":"Student Stories","slug":"student-stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":204,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":7,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":204,"category_count":7,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Student Stories","category_nicename":"student-stories","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":214,"name":"International Alumni","slug":"international-alumni","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":214,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":15,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":211,"name":"International Programs","slug":"international-programs","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":211,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":29,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":208,"name":"Newsletter","slug":"newsletter","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":208,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":37,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":210,"name":"University of Maine","slug":"university-of-maine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":210,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":28,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25558,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552\/revisions\/25558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}