Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

Microplastics Stink! A Comparison of Microplastics Counts in Seal Scat Compared to Gull Scat High School Soleil Skehan, John Bapst Memorial High School Honorable Mention Pollution in air and waterways has been contaminating our environment for decades, threatening the stability of ecosystems across the globe. An increasingly growing concern, however, has risen surrounding microplastics, specifically […]

Using Industry for Change: Cellulose-based Food Packaging Products Undergraduate Shayla Rose Kleisinger, University of Maine First Place (tie) Through an Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Collaborative (IURC) grant from the University of Maine and with Diana Davis Spencer Foundation funding through the Mitchell Center’s Partnership for a Sustainable Maine project, Shayla Rose Kleisinger is investigating how alternative food-packaging […]

Quantifying Tidally Driven Transport in the Jordan River Estuary Undergraduate Gwyneth Roberts, University of Maine Honorable Mention Pollution events in tidal estuaries can wreak havoc on aquaculture operations, leading to closures of areas for weeks at a time and a significant loss of revenue. These pollution events are inherently linked to the dynamics of the […]

Brieanne Berry, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology and member of the Mitchell Center’s Materials Management research team, has been awarded the 2019 Edith Patch Award for a doctoral student. The Edith Patch Award is given by the Friends of Dr. Edith Marion Patch each year to graduate and undergraduate women in acknowledgement of […]

The Mitchell Center’s Future of Dams team will have a very strong presence at this year’s American Association of Geographers (AAG) meeting April 3-7, 2019 in Washington, D.C. For the three Future of Dams sessions, presenters and authors from the team include Bridie McGreavy (chair for session 2), David Hart, Sam Roy, Emma Fox, Sharon Klein, Tyler Quiring, Sarah Vogel, […]

The Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Collaborative (IURC) grant program recently announced four award winners for 2019 projects, all led by Mitchell Center members. Funded projects involve teams of two or more faculty members from different disciplines with primarily undergraduate researchers working in areas of interest. The IURC is funded by UMaine’s Office of the Vice President for […]

Master’s student Gabrielle “Gabby” Hillyer, a dual-degree oceanography and marine policy major, has spent the last three years conducting research on the Medomak River in Waldoboro, Maine taking measure of the tides using small “bucket drifters” packed with scientific instruments. The research is aimed at better understanding the dynamics of the estuary’s ability to flush […]

Thinking with rivers: communication for conservation and sustainability This year’s Maine Sustainability and Water Conference keynote address will be given by Bridie McGreavy, Assistant Professor of Environmental Communication in the Department of Communication and Journalism and Faculty Fellow in the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine. Finding effective, creative, and inclusive ways to communicate […]

Gayle Zydlewski migrates from fisheries biologist to director of Maine Sea Grant Gayle Zydlewski was a participant on the interdisciplinary Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI) research team—the $20 million National Science Foundation project that led to the creation of the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. Prior to her participation in SSI, Zydlewski concentrated her […]

2018 Mitchell Center Awards Mitchell Center Sustainability Awards have been presented annually since 2013. The awards are designed to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of Mitchell Center members, researchers, students and external partners who have helped advance the values and principles at the heart of the Mitchell Center’s stakeholder-engaged, solutions-focused, interdisciplinary projects and partnerships. Below, […]