Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

Gabriella Marafino did her undergraduate work in biology and applied conservation at George Mason University. She chose UMaine to get her feet wet in the social science side of things by joining the dual-degree Master’s program in Marine Biology and Marine Policy. Working with Mitchell Center faculty fellows Jessica Jansujwicz, Gayle Zydlewski, and Teresa Johnson, Marafino is part […]

Decisions about whether to build, remove or modify dams involve complex trade-offs that are often accompanied by social and political conflict. A group of researchers from the natural and social sciences, engineering, arts and humanities has joined forces to show how, where and when it may be possible to achieve a more efficient balance among […]

Following the 2018 Mitchell Lecture on Sustainability, Senator Mitchell spent an hour talking with students at the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. A wide range of questions were asked and topics discussed, including the Senator’s pivotal role in brokering the Good Friday Agreement of the Northern Ireland peace process. But kicking off the discussion was […]

Master’s student and marine resource scientist Hannah Horecka divides her time between UMaine and the state’s Department of Marine Resources Hannah Horecka graduated from UMaine in 2012 with a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Science. A student in the Honor’s College, Horecka’s honor’s thesis was on biotoxin trends (such as red tide) in Cobbscook Bay—research that […]

On September 20, the Mitchell Center held a workshop on Cooperation Science facilitated by Tim Waring and Linda Silka, both of the UMaine School of Economics & the Mitchell Center. Twenty faculty and graduate students from a broad array of interdisciplinary fields like Biology and Ecology, Cooperative Extension, and Marine Science attended the three-hour workshop. Waring introduced […]

In mid-October, Bridie McGreavy of UMaine’s Department of Communication and Journalism and the Mitchell Center and Karen Bieluch of Dartmouth College and the Mitchell Center conducted a three-hour workshop designed to help researchers better connect their research with decision-making at the local, state and federal level through team-based research. The workshop combined insights from science […]

Mitchell Center alum Spencer Meyer returns to give Sustainability Talk Nov. 5 By the time Spencer Meyer joined the Mitchell Center’s Sustainability Science Initiative (SSI) in 2010 as a Ph.D. student, he had already been working at UMaine and with large forest landowners for a total of eight years in a variety of capacities. But […]

  Mitchell Center Stakeholder Workshop Focuses on Tidal Power As part of the Mitchell Center-funded Integrating and Sharing Data to Support Resilience in Maine Coastal Communities project, a stakeholder workshop was held on September 27th that included UMaine team members and external partners Sipayik Environmental Department (Passamaquoddy Tribe), the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, NOAA/National […]

A novel study in Acadia National Park seeks to help visitors reduce the risk of tickborne disease When UMaine social scientist Sandra De Urioste-Stone and her students conducted climate change research in Mount Desert Island’s Acadia National Park (ANP) in 2015-16, many of the park visitors interviewed said one of their greatest concerns for future […]

The current issue of the Maine Policy Review (MPR) contains articles by five Mitchell Center faculty members, including an introduction by Senior Fellow Linda Silka who is also the executive editor of MPR. Other authors include David Hart, Karen H. Bieluch, Sandra De Urioste-Stone, and Aaron Weiskittel. As Silka writes in the introduction, the special […]