Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

With Earth’s oceans facing rapid climate and ecological change, University of Maine faculty will use a $3 million award from the National Science Foundation to create a new training program for graduate students that will support the next generation of marine science and conservation professionals. Over the next five years, Joshua Stoll and his colleagues […]

In an article about how the insular world of academia can prevent community-focused research, The Chronicle of Higher Education spoke to David Hart, director of the University of Maine Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions and professor of biological sciences, and Linda Silka, senior fellow at the Mitchell Center. When Hart and Silka […]

Sharon Klein and Caroline Noblet, both associate professors of economics and Mitchell Center Faculty Fellows, are working with Wabanaki and rural low-income communities to co-develop a new resource for helping them implement renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. The Environmental Protection Agency awarded $1.13 million to Klein and Noblet so they can investigate the effectiveness […]

The Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) announced that associate professors Lauren Ross and Sean Smith received the 2023 Donald W. Pritchard Outstanding Physical Oceanography Paper Award for “Coastal Hydrodynamics and Timescales in Meso-Macrotidal Estuaries in the Gulf of Maine: A Model Study.” Ross and Smith co-authored the paper with Sohaib Alahmed, former UMaine student […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted $1.5 million to the University of Maine and collaborators to carry out a series of programs that will educate and aid farmers in climate adaptation and mitigation. Agricultural producers anticipate an onslaught of challenges due to climate change, such as increases in flooding, drought, pest and disease […]

A new collaborative research project led by the University of Maine called STORM: Data-Driven Approaches for Secure Electric Grids in Communities Disproportionately Impacted by Climate Change, has been awarded $6 million from the National Science Foundation. Over the next five years, the project team will conduct studies and create new tools that will grow research […]

Lauren Ross’s research on the physics of estuaries has brought her all over the world, from France to Frenchman Bay along Mount Desert Island. With her recently-awarded Fulbright, Ross will lead a team of scientists to Chile to look at these transition points between freshwater rivers and the salty sea in a place where so […]

The Bangor Daily News featured a partnership between University of Maine researchers and Maine organic farmer Sue Hunter, whose land in Unity, Maine, is highly contaminated with toxic PFAS, to determine how much or how little specific crops absorb the toxins. The research is focusing on three specific areas — how PFAS are absorbed by […]

Professor Brian McGill was awarded the Humboldt Research Award, one of the most prestigious scientific honors in Germany. McGill holds a joint appointment in UMaine’s School of Biology & Ecology and the Mitchell Center. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards the prize annually to internationally-renowned scientists who reside outside of Germany. In addition to the […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded $650,000 to a University of Maine project investigating the impacts of climate change on wild blueberry ecosystems and economics. Rachel Schattman, Assistant professor of Sustainable Agriculture at the School of Food and Agriculture and Mitchell Center Faculty Fellow, is the […]