Melissa Godin, UMaine Graduate Student
2025 Award for Outstanding Student Contribution to Sustainability Research
Melissa Godin had long planned to finish her undergraduate degree; she just needed life and the numbers to line up. After being a stay-at-home parent during the Covid-19 pandemic, she was eventually able to reapply to the University of Maine to complete her degree, taking economics courses while her daughter attended preschool in Merrill Hall.
Then as a senior, she took behavioral economics with Caroline Noblet and was drawn to how the discipline uses data to understand why people behave the way they do.
Caroline Noblet, an associate professor in the School of Economics, was deep into PFAS-related research at this time. PFAS or forever chemicals are a group of chemicals that persist in the environment indefinitely and pose risks to human health. Noblet often shared anecdotal information with Godin’s class about her research projects, like homeowners willingness to pay for PFAS remediation in drinking water. Godin was impressed by Noblet’s community-engaged work grounded in robust data collection and analysis.
One day, as Godin was nearing the completion of her bachelor’s, she spontaneously approached Noblet. “I walked into her office and I just was like, ‘I think I want to go to graduate school and be a researcher,'” Godin said.
Noblet had recently been awarded funding to survey Maine sportsmen to assess their current knowledge and concerns about PFAS contamination and other behaviors. Noble hired Godin as a research assistant to work on the project and became the advisor to Godin’s master’s program in resource economics and policy. Godin also trained under One Health and the Environment, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship (NRT) that focused on disease dynamics at the intersection of human, animal, plant, and environmental health.
Since the day Godin walked into Noblet’s office, she’s become an integral member of the Noblet PFAS team, offering a unique perspective as a Mainer, a mother, and a non-traditional student, but also for her scientific approach to addressing complex problems.
“Mel’s work demonstrates strong leadership, scientific rigor, and a deep commitment to understanding how environmental contaminants shape the lives, decisions, and well-being of Maine people,” her award nominator said.
For Godin’s current research examining how anglers and hunters are responding to PFAS contamination in Maine’s environment, she helped draft and distribute two comprehensive surveys of hunters and anglers in partnership with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.
The survey was designed to capture overall hunter and angler habits. It also collected information about their attitudes toward PFAS-related advisories now in effect in Maine and how their behavior is changing over time when they hear updated information about PFAS.
As an afterthought, Godin encouraged the team to include questions about how Mainers view fish and wild game in terms of their food security. Godin’s father’s subsistence hunting helped feed her family during her childhood, and she saw this as an opportunity to investigate something that was part of Maine tradition as well as her own lived experience.
Some findings from this research were recently published in the Maine Policy Review in an article titled “Tradition in Transition: Fishing, Hunting, and Food Security in a Changing Maine.” Godin served as a lead author and described herself as “the main data person” who was responsible for ensuring the accuracy and consistency of the data used in the article.
The research ultimately serves Mainers, Godin said, by providing the scientific foundation needed to make informed decisions about consuming wild game and fish while assessing PFAS risks, particularly for those who depend on these foods for their nutritional and food security needs. Godin also hopes the research will help policy makers better understand human exposure pathways.
Godin, however, still sees a trove of data in the hunter and angler survey, and a second hunter survey planned for 2026 will provide even more. She intends to continue her work with Noblet and pursue a doctorate in environmental economics. Wherever her research and future career takes her, it will focus on improving the lives of Mainers.
“I know that I want to stay in Maine and work in the public service sector, whether that’s continuing my studies in a research role because I do love research.”