Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

Poster Winners – 2023 Maine Sustainability & Water Conference

Each year, the Maine Sustainability & Water Conference features a juried student poster competition. The 2023 competition included three judging categories: graduate, undergraduate and high-school.

Thank you to all the students who participated in this year’s poster session and congratulations to our poster winners.

High School Poster Competition – First Place

• The Development of a Pour-Through Oil-Water Column Filter to Effectively Extract Microplastics From Water
  Alexander Busko

High School Poster Competition – Honorable Mention

• Pushing the pH: How Ocean Acidification is Affecting the Earth’s Phytoplankton
  Sofie Rueter

Undergraduate Poster Competition – First Place

• Characterizing Events of Toxic and Non-Toxic Diatom and Dinoflagellate Bloom Radiation From Harpswell Sound, a Protected Shallow Incubator Fed by Deep Water
  Charlie O’Brien

Undergraduate Poster Competition – Honorable Mention

• Seeing the Forests for the Streams: the framing of stream diagnostics for watershed management decision-making
  Robert “Cade” King

Graduate Poster Competition – First Place

• Interpreting the extent and characteristics of microplastics pollution in Maine freshwater streams to guide a holistic mitigation strategy.
  Grace Johnson

Graduate Poster Competition – Honorable Mention

• Citizen Preferences for Addressing PFAS: Factors Affecting Willingness to Contribute
  Charity Zimmerman