Along the Mall citations: Fall 2016
Stefano Tijerina, of the Department of Political Science, School of Policy and International Affairs, Maine Business School and Honors College, was an invited panelist at the conference “A Samaritan State” Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid, 1950–2016, Dec. 12–13 in Ottawa. Tijerina presented “‘One size fits all?’ Canadian development assistance to Colombia, 1956–84.” The sessions were held at the Department of Global Affairs Canada and were attended by officials connected to foreign affairs issues, diplomats and Canadian scholars deeply involved in issues of foreign affairs and development aid. More about the conference is online.
Frédéric Rondeau, assistant professor of French and assistant director of the Canadian-American Center, has published “Le Manque en Partage: La Poésie de Michel Beaulieu et Gilbert Langevin,” (“Sharing the Empty Spaces: The Poetry of Michel Beaulieu and Gilbert Langevin), published by the University of Montreal Press. This is Rondeau’s second book.
In October, Appetite published “Habitual chocolate intake and type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study: (1975–2010): Prospective observations,” co-authored by psychology professor Merrill Elias. Appetite is an international research journal that highlights cultural, social, psychological, sensory and physiological influences on the selection of and consumption of food and drink.
In October 2016, University of Maine Cooperative Extension Professor Jane Haskell became one of 600 International Association of Facilitators’ (IAF) Certified™ Professional Facilitators (CPF) worldwide and one of two north of New York. In 2012, the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP) awarded Haskell the national Community Development Work Individual Award for her facilitation work based on the “Strengthening Your Facilitation Skills, Level 1” curriculum that she co-authored. The curriculum, used in 23 states, has more than 500 alumni from Maine. In 2009, the National 4-H Learning Priorities Steering Committee named the “Level 1” curriculum “one of seven national tools to help Build Effective Organizational Systems.” The credential indicates the facilitator is competent in each of the six core competencies that form the basic set of skills, knowledge and behaviors they must have to be successful facilitating in a wide variety of environments. More than 200 behaviors are assessed. To achieve the CPF designation, facilitators must document their experience and demonstrate knowledge of, and skills in applying, the IAF’s facilitator core competencies. This includes a written submission, interviews with an international team of assessors, an observed practicum and feedback from assessors. The IAF is the worldwide professional body established to promote, support and advance the art and practice of professional facilitation through methods exchange, professional growth, practical research and collegial networking.
University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator Kathryn Hopkins earned the 2016 Distinguished Service Award from the North American Maple Syrup Council during its annual meeting Oct. 26–29 in Burlington, Vermont. The award is presented to research professionals or maple research alliance partners for their contributions to the North American maple syrup industry and for their exhibited excellence in the field of research and/or Extension education. Hopkins, an Extension educator in agriculture and natural resources primarily in Somerset County and with maple producers statewide, is co-creator of the International Maple Syrup Institute Maple Grading School.
Patrick Cheek, lecturer in human development, presented his research about “Communication Technology Use in Nonresident Father-Teen Dyads” at the National Council on Family Relations Annual Conference on Nov. 2 in Minneapolis.
Jonathan Rubin, director, Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, has been reappointed for a second three-year term as chair of the Environment and Energy Section of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Howard Segal, professor of history, received the Lyman Sargent Award for distinguished scholarship at the annual meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Oct. 28. He gave the keynote address on “Practical Utopias: Techno-Fixes.”
The keyboard music of composer Beth Wiemann, chair of the Music Division, School of Performing Arts, was selected to be among the works performed in a Nov. 4 concert in honor of composer Robert Ceely (1930–2015) at Symphony Space’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia, New York City. The performance, featuring pianists Keith Kirchoff, Wen Shen, Christopher Oldfather and Daniel Colalillo, is part of the American Composers Alliance Founders Concert Series. More information in online.
Krish Thiagarajan, the Alston D. and Ada Lee Correll Presidential Chair in Energy in the University of Maine’s Mechanical Engineering Department, will receive three awards on Friday, Nov. 5 from the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME).
Thiagarajan has been elected a SNAME Fellow. He’s also been named Faculty Advisor of the Year by the organization and has been given a Certificate of Appreciation.
SNAME will present Thiagarajan with his honors at its President’s Luncheon in Bellevue, Washington.
SNAME Fellows have made outstanding personal contributions to naval architecture, marine or ocean engineering, or allied disciplines through significant achievements in design, research, production, operation, education or associated management.
The Faculty Advisor of the Year Award honors a faculty member whose leadership and service qualities have contributed to the program and operations of a Student Section of SNAME.
As part of this award, a $5,000 Scholarship will be awarded to a deserving student member from the University of Maine Student Section.
Thiagarajan’s Certificate of Appreciation recognizes his service as Co-Chairman of the Technical Program of the 2015 World Maritime Technology Conference.
Stefano Tijerina, Department of Political Science, School of Policy and International Affairs, Maine Business School and Honors College, was a keynote speaker in a forum on quality of life and economic development at the Eighth International Congress on Economic Development and Quality of Life, October 19–21, in, Bogotá Colombia, organized by Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad La Gran Colombia. An interview with TIjerina is online.
Assistant Professor of Sociology Karyn Sporer has won the Graduate Student Paper of the Year Award from the Division of Victimology of the American Society of Criminology. Sporer will receive the award at the annual ASC conference next month in New Orleans. Her paper, “Aggressive Children With Mental Illness: A Conceptual Model of Family-Level Outcomes,” was published earlier this year in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
Justin Wolff, associate professor of art history, presented “Rockwell Kent and the End of the World” at the John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art on Oct. 22 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. In November 1937, Life magazine featured four lithographs by Kent (1882–1971) in an article titled “Four Ways in Which the World May End.” Wolff analyzed the so-called End of the World lithographs, which are in the National Gallery of Art collection, in the context of scientific theories about cosmic cataclysm, suspicions that European fascism portended an apocalypse, and Kent’s solidarity with a radical leftism that anticipated capitalism’s disintegration. Looking beyond their political meaning, Wolff considered as well what the lithographs elucidate about Kent’s renowned emotional intensity and wanderlust — specifically, what they reveal about his tenacious quest to acquire psychic integrity in barren lands at the ends of the world.
The first annual Eastern Maine Medical Center Regional Hospital Ethics Roundtable Oct. 21 was co-organized by University of Maine professor Jessica Miller, the clinical ethicist at EMMC. Miller chairs the UMaine Department of Philosophy, and is associate dean for faculty affairs and interdisciplinary programs. The half-day roundtable addressed common ethical issues in health care and emerging national standards for hospital ethics committees, and laid the foundation for developing and strengthening ethics expertise and resources for northern and eastern Maine. Those attending the event included UMaine nursing and pre-med students.
Robert Kates, University of Maine presidential professor of sustainability science and chair of the advisory board of the Sustainable Solutions Initiative, is the recipient of the Charles P. Daly Medal from the American Geographical Society (AGS). The distinguished award recognizes those who have given “valuable or distinguished geographical services or labors,” according to the AGS press release.
Kates is awarded the medal for this role in helping lay the foundation for sustainable geography. Throughout his career he has spearheaded groundbreaking research in the areas of hazards, hunger, climate change and community resilience and has shared this research in more than 180 publications.
“For more than half a century he has represented the discipline of geography through his innovative scholarship and through his nationally and internationally recognized professional service, exemplifying the best of our discipline,” said Douglas Sherman, chair of the AGS Honors and Awards Committee. “His dedication to improving the human condition in the face of environmental threat, especially, is inspirational.”
Kates will accept the medal at the society’s annual Fall Symposium at Columbia University on Nov. 18.
Sunil Bhandari, a University of Maine graduate civil engineering student and research assistant at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, presented a paper at the CAMX Conference, the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo, held Sept. 27–29 in Anaheim, California. Bhandari was lead author of the paper “Feasibility of Using 3D Printed Thermoplastic Molds for Stamp Forming of Thermoplastic Composites,” which he wrote with Roberto Lopez-Anido, professor of civil and environmental engineering. The third annual conference, which seeks to connect and advance the world’s composites and advanced materials communities, featured more than 550 exhibits and 250 conference sessions. Bhandari, from Pokhara, Nepal, also was one of six students selected from 30 applicants to take part in a luncheon panel.
The Climate Change Institute and School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine hosted the 41st Climate Diagnostics Workshop, Oct. 3–6. The workshop, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was held at the Wells Conference Center. Over 120 U.S. and international climate scientists participated in the workshop, discussing their latest research findings on topics ranging from the current state of the tropical oceans to the loss of arctic sea ice and its influence on mid-latitude climate. Several UMaine faculty members chaired sessions during the meeting and presented their research. “Its an important meeting that served to highlight climate as a signature research area at the University of Maine,” said Bradfield Lyon, an associate research professor at CCI who helped organize the meeting. “Regional and global climate processes are strongly interconnected. So, too, is UMaine’s climate research within the global scientific community.”
Dan Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and climate studies, was an invited participant at the Calpe 2016 Conference on “Past Worlds: Neanderthal and Modern Human Response to Climate and Environment Change,” Sept. 9–Oct. 2 in Gibraltar, and gave a presentation on “El Niño in Ancient Peru.” This year’s Calpe Conference was organized by The University of Cambridge, together with the Government of Gibraltar and Gibraltar Museum.
Mary Ellen Camire, professor of food and nutrition, presented a webinar, “Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–2020: Boon or Barrier to Whole Grain Consumption?” for the grain association AACC International on Oct. 6.
The University of Wyoming MFA annually hosts Eminent Writers in Residence, a program made possible with an endowment from the state of Wyoming. This year, UMaine Professor of English Jennifer Moxley will be in Laramie for a week. Holders of the residency are distinguished writers from three genres — fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The University of Wyoming’s first Eminent Writer in Residence, 2007–08, was Terry Tempest Williams, followed by Joy Williams, Edward P. Jones, Philip Gourevitch, Claudia Rankine, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Jan Zwicky, Robert Bringhurst, Rebecca Solnit, Colson Whitehead, John D’Agata, Ed Roberson, Maggie Nelson, Mark Nowak, Bhanu Kapil, and Nam Le.
Steven Barkan, interim chair, Department of Sociology, a new textbook: “Health, Illness, and Society: An Introduction to Medical Sociology” (2017). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Five members of Professor Yong Chen’s lab in the School of Marine Sciences have received external funding supports to present their fisheries research in September at the Annual Science Conference (ASC) of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in Riga, Latvia. ICES supports the sustainable use of the oceans through development of science and advice.
Jie Cao, a postdoctoral researcher; Mattie Rodrigue, a dual master’s student in marine biology and policy; Jocelyn Runnebaum, a Ph.D. candidate in marine biology; Kisei Tanaka, a Ph.D. candidate in ecology and environmental sciences; and Mike Torre, a Ph.D. student in marine biology will give research presentations on a spatiotemporal model applied to survey abundances of Northern shrimp, a groundfish survey run by both fishermen and scientists, a habitat suitability model for cusk using fishermen’s knowledge, American lobster shell disease, and a model of habitat suitability for sea scallops.
Some of their work highlights the importance of including fishermen’s knowledge and participation in sciences.
“Fishermen’s knowledge regarding important environmental variables for cusk is used to fine-tune habitat model development. Fishermen’s knowledge for areas where cusk are likely to be caught can also validate habitat suitability maps produced in modeling,” Runnebaum says.
All of their research is important to Maine, as these marine species are a part of many important fisheries in the Gulf of Maine.
“The shrimp population that supports important fisheries in Maine experienced a sudden decline of all life history stages in 2012. Our study could potentially improve the stock assessment and management of the fisheries,” says Cao.
“The expansion of lobster shell disease has become an emerging threat to the inshore lobster fisheries in the northeastern United States. The development of models to improve the efficiency and precision of existing monitoring programs has been advocated as an important step in mitigating its harmful effects,” Tanaka says.
Michael Socolow, associate professor of communication and journalism, is the recipient of the Best American Journalism Article Award from the American Journalism Historians Association for “‘A Nation-Wide Chain Within 60 Days:’ Radio Network Failure in Early American Broadcasting.” The Best Article Award honors rigorous research published in the journal American Journalism that “makes an outstanding contribution to developing scholarship in the field of journalism and mass communication history,” according to the AJHA website. He will accept the award at AJHA’s 35th annual convention Oct. 6–8.
Kelley Strout, assistant professor of nursing, led GROW (Green Organic Leafy Vegetable Gardens), a 15-week summer program to promote older adult wellness. A pilot study examined the ability of older adults to independently plant, tend, harvest and consume organic leafy vegetables. The program was launched in May 2016 at Brewer Housing Authority, a residential complex for older adults with low incomes. When it wrapped up the first week of September, adults had maintained 100 percent participation. They grew an abundance of vegetables and shared them with others in the complex, with an area homeless shelter and with adults in a housing complex for seniors with low incomes in Orono. John Jemison, Cooperative Extension professor, provided gardening expertise. Research assistants were senior nursing students Christina Ross and Timothy Waterman and senior nutrition students Hannah Stefi and Kristina Reichel. UMaine senior Maude Meeker provided support.
Professor of civil engineering Eric Landis presented a semi-plenary lecture in August at the World Conference on Timber Engineering in Vienna, Austria.
His lecture was titled “Performance Prediction in Wood Structures: The Promise and Pitfalls of Fundamental Mechanics.”
More than 1,200 people attended the conference, described as the world’s premier forum for presenting and discussing the latest technical and architectural developments and innovations in wood or timber construction.
More information is online.
Mary Ellen Camire, professor of food science and human nutrition, made a presentation in August at the International Union of Food Science and Technology World Congress in Dublin, Ireland. “Microfibrillated cellulose as a fat replacement in frozen desserts” was her presentation topic. The paper’s co-authors are Derek Ford, who earned his master’s degree in food science at UMaine; Jason Bolton, associate Extension professor and food safety specialist; and Douglas Bousfield, professor of chemical and biological engineering.
Joshua D. Clapp, Andrew C. Young, William G. Davids, Andrew J. Goupee, all with the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, published “Bending response of reinforced, inflated, tubular braided fabric structural members,” in Thin-Walled Structures, Vol. 107, pp. 415–26 (October 2016).
Adriaan van Heiningen, J. Larcom Ober Professor of Chemical Engineering, has been named a TAPPI Fellow for 2016. Fellow is an honorary title bestowed on a very small percentage of TAPPI’s membership. It is given to individuals who have made extraordinary technical or service contributions to the industry and/or the association. The 2016 Fellows were honored in May at the TAPPI Fellows Luncheon held at PaperCon in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“As a long-time educator in North America and Scandinavia, Adriaan has made significant contributions to the advancement of TAPPI and the paper industry by mentoring and educating many current scientists and chemical engineers,” said Larry Montague, president and CEO of TAPPI. “In more than two decades of service to TAPPI, he’s demonstrated strong leadership and his hard work and dedication are an example to us all. He’s an outstanding choice for the Fellows Award.”
TAPPI is the leading association for the worldwide pulp, paper, packaging, tissue and converting industries and publisher of “Paper360°,” “Tissue360°” and “TAPPI Journal.”