Along the Mall citations: Spring 2014
University of Maine chemists were honored at the 248th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco, Aug. 9–14. A four-day symposium, “Liquid State Theory: Symposium in Honor of Jay Rasaiah,” was put on by the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry and organized by Professor Alenka Luzar of Virginia Commonwealth University and Dr. Gerhard Hummer of the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany. Over 40 top researchers from around the nation and the world shared their latest work in areas of liquid state structure and dynamics, properties of ionic solutions and the behavior of water and other liquids in confined spaces. The contributions emphasized Rasaiah’s influence on the field during the past six decades. His work on ion mobility and water mobility in pores is highly relevant to the emerging understanding of the transport of molecules through membranes in cells — a critical issue for understanding cell function. Some of the presenters had been students or collaborators of Rasaiah’s, while others had been influenced by his published work. Rasaiah gave a presentation about his work on ion mobility on the last day of the symposium, “Simulation studies of ion mobility and proton transfer in water and water wires.” Two of Rasaiah’s colleagues from the UMaine Chemistry Department, François G. Amar and Scott Collins, also gave talks. The Rasaiah Symposium was supported in part by UMaine and the Maine Section of the American Chemical Society.
Mitchell Bruce, a member of the UMaine Chemistry Department for over 25 years, was one of 99 chemists who were named Fellows of the ACS at the San Francisco meeting. As of 2014, this honor has been accorded to only 859 of the society’s more than 160,000 members — about half a percent of the membership. Bruce was cited for his contributions to “fundamental aspects of electronic spectroscopy, photochemistry and electrochemistry of gold (I) thiolate complexes” as well as his “development of active learning strategies for classroom and laboratory.” His service and leadership in the ACS includes chairmanship of the Local Section Activities and Project Seed committees; the latter program promotes careers in science by awarding research fellowships to disadvantaged youth.
Liam Riordan, professor of history, will return to Glasgow, Scotland, this fall to be part of a conference in conjunction with the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum’s current exhibit: How Glasgow Flourished, 1714–1834. While in Glasgow as a Fulbright Scholar in spring 2012, Riordan consulted on the museum exhibit and did research in numerous Scottish archives. One of the special events connected to the exhibit will be held this October, based on the popular British Museum publication: “A History of the World in 100 Objects.” Riordan is expected to use an 18th-century portrait of George Bogle and a related account book as points of entry to discuss the “Glasgow system” of trade that linked the city and its hinterlands to trade throughout the British Atlantic and beyond. Riordan is particularly interested in what happened when the dense ties connecting Virginia’s tobacco trade to Glasgow were destroyed by the American Revolution. There are plans to film the scholars’ object commentaries and make them available online.
Jeff Thaler, assistant university counsel and visiting professor of energy law and policy, was asked by the editor of Ocean and Coastal Law Journal to write an article. The focus is on how climate change’s impact on public trust resources (e.g. oceans, wildlife, fisheries) compels a faster move to ocean-based renewable energy — and a roadmap to get there. The article is online.
Dan Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and climate studies, was invited to join the editorial board of the Boletín de Arqueología PUCP, an international archaeology journal published in Lima, Peru. UMaine IPhD student Ana Cecilia Mauricio is the journal’s executive editor.
Mitchell Bruce, an associate professor of chemistry, was named a 2014 fellow by the American Chemical Society (ACS). Bruce is one of 99 scientists recognized by the society for demonstrating outstanding accomplishments in chemistry and making important contributions to ACS, the world’s largest scientific society. The 2014 fellows represent a range of disciplines and geographic locations, from 30 of the society’s technical divisions, 57 local sections and 23 national committees. This year’s class will be recognized Aug. 11 at the society’s 248th national meeting in San Francisco. A full news release with a complete list of this year’s fellows is online.
Amy Blackstone, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, with Jason Houle and Christopher Uggen, wrote: “I Didn’t Recognize it as a Bad Experience Until I was Much Older'” Age, Experience, and Workers’ Perceptions of Sexual Harassment, published in the journal Sociological Spectrum. The research paper has been 10 years in the making, beginning with work in 2004 with Blackstone and Houle, who at that time was an undergraduate research assistant. Houle is now an assistant professor of sociology at Dartmouth.
Kyriacos Markides, professor of sociology, was invited to participate in a conference on Cyprus and deliver a lecture, “The System of Values and Moral Orientation of Cypriots in Relationship to their Political Behavior.” The conference was organized by Thoukidides, a Cypriot think tank.
Elisa Sance, a doctoral candidate in history, is attending the Forum Des Jeunes Ambassadeurs De La Francophonie Des Ameriques at the University of Saint-Boniface in Winnipeg, Canada. Sance was one of 50 participants chosen from 400 applicants from Canada, the United States, Caribbean and South America. June 23–30, she’s attending lectures, workshops, screenings and discussions that promote the French language and culture in the Americas with the goal of fostering exchanges between different communities and furthering knowledge of francophones in the Americas. While a graduate teaching assistant at UMaine, Sance taught French in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics. In May, she defended her thesis on the Evolution of Acadian Identity in Song. For her doctorate, she’ll focus on language policies in the 1960s and 1970s in New Brunswick and their effect on people in northern Maine.
Douglas Gardner, professor of forest operations, bioproducts and bioenergy, will receive the 2014 Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST) Distinguished Service Award at the society’s 57th international convention, June 23–27 in Zvolen, Slovakia. The award recognizes distinguished service to the profession of wood science and technology. In his nomination, Gardner was cited for his strong history of service to SWST, which included serving as president in 2006–07. Prior to that time, he served the society’s board of directors as a director, newsletter editor, vice president, and president-elect. He had the vision several years to make SWST a truly international professional society. Gardner is an international expert in bio-based composites and adhesives. He also has received a number of awards for his research, including the 2012 G. Peirce and Florence Pitts Weber Outstanding Researcher in Forest Resources, the 2007 Director’s Outstanding Faculty Award at UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, the 2008 L.J. Markwardt Wood Engineering Award, and a second place George Marra Award in 2010. He was a visiting lecturer at Beijing Forestry University and BOKU in Vienna, Austria, and is an honorary member of the Union of Wood Processing Manufacturers of the Slovak Republic. He was named an SWST Fellow in 2012.
Ivan Manev, dean of the Maine Business School, has been elected chair of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG). UMaine was one of the founders of AUBG 23 years ago. More information about the board is online.
Allan Smith, an associate professor of communication sciences and disorders, has received the 2014 Bette Ann Harris Distinguished Alumni Award from the MGH Institute of Health Professions. Smith graduated from the institute in 1996 with a master of science degree in speech-language pathology. The award is the highest form of recognition given to an alumnus of the Boston health sciences graduate school. The award is presented each year to an alumnus who has demonstrated exceptional leadership, achievement and service in advancing health care. Smith’s recent research efforts have focused on acoustic measurement of speech in children. Currently, he and his students are investigating ways to detect earlier signs of speech, language and reading disorders. A full news release is online.
University of Maine School of Performing Arts faculty members Phillip Silver, pianist, and Noreen Silver, cellist, will give a recital featuring music of imprisoned Terezín composers Gideon Klein, Robert Dauber, James Simon and Viktor Ullmann on June 10 as part of the Rafael Schächter Institute for Arts and Humanities at American University, sponsored by the Defiant Requiem Foundation.
Professor of Management John Mahon, the John M. Murphy Chair of International Business Policy and Strategy, has been invited to deliver the 2014 Centre for Corporate Public Affairs Oration in Melbourne, Australia, June 26. Mahon will speak on “Unprepared, Irrelevant and Confused? What Is 21st-century Public Affairs?” The annual oration is typically delivered by prominent government ministers and CEOs. Last year, the oration was delivered by Alastair Campbell, former director of strategy and communications for Prime Minister Tony Blair.
History professor Elizabeth McKillen’s book “Making the World Safe for Workers: Labor, the Left, and Wilsonian Internationalism” was published in December 2013 by University of Illinois Press. McKillen says her book explores the incorporation of American Federation of Labor leaders into policy-making circles during World War I and considers the significant opposition to President Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy programs that developed among dissenting labor and left groups in the United States, Europe and Latin America.
The University of Maine was well represented at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology held April 23–27 in Austin, Texas. Along with Gregory Hodgins of the University of Arizona, Kurt Rademaker, visiting assistant professor of anthropology, Gordon Bromley, postdoctoral research associate in Climate Change, and Daniel Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and climate studies, spoke on “Late-glacial settlement of the high Peruvian Andes.” Sandweiss also presented “Negotiated Subjugation: The Incorporation of Chincha into the Inca Empire,” was the discussant for a symposium on “New Perspectives on the Social Dynamics and Economic Interactions of Andean Maritime Communities” and coauthored “Cultural Responses to Mid-Holocene Environmental Changes along the Pacific Coast of Peru” with Elizabeth Reitz and Dolores Piperno. Paul Pluta, Climate Change Institute graduate student, and Alice R. Kelley, Golden Undergraduate Coordinator in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences, offered a poster on “Fluvial Deposition, El Niño and Landscape Construction at San José de Moro and Huaca del Sol, Peru.” Professor of anthropology Paul Roscoe presented a paper on “Military Strength, Material Distribution, and Monument Construction: Status Pursuits in Contact-era New Guinea.” Gregory Zaro, associate professor of anthropology and climate studies, talked on “Urban transformation and landscape change surrounding the Nadin archaeological site in the Ravni Kotari region of the eastern Adriatic.” Many former students and colleagues also participated.
The Society for Economic Anthropology also met last week, April 24-26, in Austin, Texas and Cynthia Isenhour, assistant professor of anthropology, was program chair. The theme of the annual meeting was “Energy and Economy.”
Edward Grew, research professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences, has been appointed to the editorial board of the European Journal of Mineralogy effective May 1. Founded in 1989, the journal is one of the world’s leading publications in mineralogical sciences. It is owned by the national mineralogical societies of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Grew joins only two other U.S. scientists on the 27-member board. Grew has co-authored seven papers published in the journal, and served as a guest editor in 2007 and 2008.
School of Economics professors Jonathan Rubin, Mario Teisl and Phil Trostel presented their latest research at the second annual Maine Economics Conference, which was held April 26 at Colby College in Waterville. Rubin’s presentation was titled “Regional Credit Trading: Economic and GHG Impacts of a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard.” Teisl offered “Making or Buying Environmental Public Goods: Do Consumers Care?” and Trostel presented “The ‘Other’ Benefits of College Education.” Four graduate students in the School of Economics took part in a poster session as well. Professor of economics James McConnon served on the conference organizing committee along with faculty from Bates, Bowdoin and Colby colleges. More than 40 economists from around the state gathered to share research, network and establish connections with other Maine scholars.
James Bryant, engineer and project manager at the University of Maine Advanced Manufacturing Center, met with youth interested in design engineering at the first Teen Science Café for ME! event March 27 in Dover-Foxcroft. At Teen Science Café for ME! youth learn from experts about science and technology during informal, interactive programs designed to promote exploration, creativity and life-long learning. The Café was organized by a youth leadership team working with Clare Thomas-Pino and Alyson Saunders, STEM guides from the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, with the support of Laura Wilson, 4-H Science professional with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Upcoming Teen Science Cafés will be with UMaine Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Rosemary Smith on nanotechnology and Aquaculture Research Institute associate director Anne Langston on aquaculture and marine science. The Teen Science Café for ME! program is supported by the STEM Guides Project through a National Science Foundation grant. More information is available at tsc4me.mmsa.org or by contacting Alyson Saunders, asaunders@mmsa.org.
Bob Kates, Presidential Professor of Sustainability Science, has received the 2014 AAG Stanley Brunn Award for Creativity in Geography. The Association of American Geographers noted Kates’ “unrelenting creativity, energy, and care for the world around him have (that have) led him to enhance and ennoble nature-society research as one of geography’s fundamental contributions to knowledge, at the same time improving prospects for sustainability from the global to the local scales.” The annual award honors an individual geographer or team of geographers who demonstrate originality, creativity and significant intellectual breakthroughs in geography.
Rich Kent, associate professor of literacy education, co-authored with Stanford University coach John Vargas, Water Polo Team Notebook, a first-of-its-kind book for water polo teams, players and coaches. The book is based on the training logs, notebooks and journals of Olympians and other world-class athletes.
Associate professor of electrical and computer engineering Ali Abedi and two of his former doctoral students coauthored and presented two research papers at the 48th Conference on Information Sciences and Systems in March at Princeton University. The first paper, “Delay Minimization with Channel-Adaptive Packetization Policy for Random Data Traffic,” presents a paradigm changing theory to reduce delay in the networks for time sensitive applications such as emergency management and telemedicine. The second paper, “Power Allocation in Parallel Relay Channels using a Near-Potential Game Theoretical Approach,” utilizes the game theory concept from economics to make wireless networks more efficient and enable enhanced coverage in rural areas where multiple relays are necessary. Former student Fatemeh Afghah is now an assistant professor at North Carolina A&T State University and former student Abolfazl Razi is a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University.
Alan Kurtz, coordinator of education and autism, and Janet May, coordinator of transition and adults at the University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, are two of four authors of the study, “Person-Centered Planning for Transition-Aged Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders” published in the January–March 2014 issue of The Journal of Rehabilitation. The study explores strategies and supports used to assist transition-aged youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders participate in person-centered transition planning meetings. The quality of transition planning from high school to adult life can make a critical difference in rehabilitation outcomes of youth with disabilities, Kurtz writes. Kurtz, May and co-authors David Hagner and Heidi Cloutier from the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, are collaborating on a three-year National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research project.
Martin Stokes, professor of animal and veterinary science in the University of Maine School of Food and Agriculture, presented “Let’s Make Good Silage” at Forage Crop Risk Management Workshops for dairy and beef producers in Lancaster, N.H. and Concord, N.H. The University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension organized the February workshops.
Robert Glover, honors preceptor of political science, has been selected to receive the Donald Harward Award for Service-Learning Excellence from Maine Campus Compact. Annually, Maine Campus Compact recognizes three faculty members who have made public service an integral part of their teaching. Recipients use service-learning and/or community action as an innovative teaching tool to engage students in civic learning. Recipients also show clear evidence of reflection, community benefit and reciprocity with community partners and demonstrate a commitment to advocating for service-learning and/or community action on campus and beyond. The award will be presented in a ceremony at the Maine State House April 30.
Dan Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and climate studies, has been elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Society for American Archaeology. His term begins in April 2014. Also this month, he published a chapter titled Early Coastal South America in “The Cambridge Prehistory.” In December 2013, Sandweiss co-edited Volume 11 of “Andean Past,” a publication series of peer-reviewed papers on Andean archaeology and ethnohistory published by Cornell University; he founded the series as graduate student in the 1980s at Cornell. In November 2013, Sandweiss was appointed joint editor of “Archaeology and Patrimony for Chungara,” a bilingual anthropology journal published in Chile and indexed in Web of Science. In October 2013, he was invited to present the closing commentary at the final meeting of the Past Crises in the Americas working group in Brussels, Belgium. Sandweiss presented “The Upside of Crisis on the Peruvian Coast: Is El Niño Always Naughty?” at the same symposium. And, in September 2013, Sandweiss was an invited expert to the UNESCO-HEADS’ First Peopling of the Americas and the World Heritage Convention in Mexico. Sandweiss spoke about “Climate, Catastrophe and Culture in the Ancient Americas: The Case of the Pacific Coast.”
Jennifer Moxley, professor of English, and Andrea Brady will read poems as part of the Poetry@Princeton program, April 16.
Cathy Billings, associate director for communications and development, Lobster Institute, has published: The Maine Lobster Industry: A History of Culture, Conservation & Commerce.
Michael “Mick” Peterson, professor of mechanical engineering, and Christie Mahaffey, UMaine alumna and research director for the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory in Orono, are two of the eight coauthors on Equine Surfaces White Paper, published by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), compiling published scientific papers and data on the effect of arena surfaces on the orthopedic health of sport horses. FEI is the governing body for equestrian events in the Olympics.
Steve Evans, associate professor of English, will give an invited lecture, “Driven to Abstraction? Listening for ‘Late Style’ in Feminist Avant-Garde Poetry,” at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa University, Boulder, April 22.
Music instructor Ginger Yang Hwalek has been elected director-elect of Eastern Division of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). In 2016, she’ll become division director and be on the association’s board of directors. The 20,000-member MTNA seeks “to advance the value of music study and music-making to society.”
During music professor Beth Wiemann‘s April residency at Ragdale — an artist community in Illinois —she’ll continue work on her chamber opera collaboration with English associate professor Jennifer Moxley and begin work on a new composition for the Hikari Trio. UMaine faculty members Marcia Gronewold Sly, Karen Pendleton and Liz Downing will perform a song cycle of Wiemann’s on April 25 at Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival in Portland. Wiemann will also be a judge for the Bagaduce Music Lending Library Young Composers’ Competition at the Young Composers’ Festival on April 26 in Blue Hill.
March 6–7, Micah Pawling, assistant professor of history and Native American studies, was invited to participate in a seminar, “The Petition in North America: Interpretive, Spatial, Statistical and Political Approaches,” at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Seminar leader Daniel Carpenter (Allie S. Freed Professor of Government and Director, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard), organized four panels over the two days: Native Voice and Native Space: Land and Representation in Native American Petitioning; Race and the Petitioning Politics of Slavery and Civil Rights; Women’s Petitioning in North American History; Economy and Empire.
Steve Barkan, professor of sociology, has been elected as a regional representative of Alpha Kappa Delta, the international sociology honor society.
Steve Barkan, professor of sociology, has published: Criminology: A Sociological Understanding, sixth edition, (2015); and “Why Sociology Textbooks Do a Disservice,” in A. Javier Treviňo and Karen M. McCormack (eds.), Service Sociology and Academic Engagement in Social Problems (2014).
Jeff Thaler, visiting professor of energy policy, law and ethics, and assistant university counsel for environmental, energy and sustainability projects, was one of five newly elected board members of the New England Clean Energy Council (NECEC) Institute, the council’s nonprofit arm that leads programs that support innovation and entrepreneurship, cluster and economic development, and workforce development. Thaler, who also is affiliated with the University of Maine Law School, has been developing and teaching courses on renewable energy law, energy economics and law, administrative law, and climate change law and policy. He is a founder and former co-chair, and current board member of the Environmental and Energy Technology Council of Maine; a founder and third president of the American College of Environmental Lawyers; and a founder and current chair (for the third time) of the Gaudino Fund of Williams College.
The 2014 Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST) Distinguished Service Award (DSA) will be presented to professor Douglas Gardner of UMaine’s School of Forest Resources at the society’s 57th international convention in Zvolen, Slovakia, June 23–27. The SWST award recognizes distinguished service to the profession — any educational, technological, scientific or professional area directly related to the profession of wood science and technology. In general, recipients of this honor are professionals who have reached high levels of attainment. In his nomination for the award, Gardner was cited for his history of service to SWST, including serving as president in 2006–07. Gardner is an international expert in his field of bio-based composites and adhesives. His numerous awards include the 2012 G. Peirce and Florence Pitts Weber Outstanding Researcher in Forest Resources; 2007 Director’s Outstanding Faculty Award, UMaine AEWC Center; 2008 L.J. Markwardt Wood Engineering Award; and Second Place George Marra Award in 2010. He was a visiting lecturer at Beijing Forestry University and BOKU in Vienna, Austria and is an Honorary Member of the Union of Wood Processing Manufacturers of the Slovak Republic. He was named an SWST Fellow in 2012.
Political Science professor and chair James Warhola has been invited to make a presentation on U.S.-Russian relations at the U.S. Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe March 27. He will present the results of his current research and publications on Russian affairs, including U.S.-Russian relations, which are at a critically important juncture amid the political difficulties in and around Ukraine.
Christopher Rigaud, a University of Maine diving safety officer, is a guest instructor for the National Park Service (NPS) Dive Leader Program underway at USC Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island, 20 miles offshore from Los Angeles. The 10-day program is being held to train NPS employees to be unit dive leaders at their respective parks. The course concludes March 12.
Susan Gardner, associate professor of higher education and director of the Rising Tide Center, recently published a book, Advising and Mentoring Doctoral Students: A Handbook, and has been invited to give talks on this topic at the University of Minnesota, the University of Missouri and Syracuse University. The book gives evidence-based strategies, tips and information for faculty who advise doctoral students to better ensure success and completion.
Mary Jane Perry, interim director, Darling Marine Center, is giving one of four plenary talks at the international biannual Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu, Feb. 23–28. Perry will speak on “Looking Forward to Looking Back on 50 Years of Autonomous Robotic Ocean Sensing.”
Phillip and Noreen Silver, UMaine music professors and pianist and cellist respectively, are presenting and performing this summer at the Defiant Requiem Foundation as part of the 2014 Rafael Schächter Institute for Arts and Humanities. The duet will perform music of imprisoned Terezín composers Gideon Klein, Robert Dauber, James Simon and Viktor Ullmann and offer context and insight into the works on the program.
Rebekah Smith, a research associate at the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, was appointed to the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women by Speaker of the House Mark Eves. The Permanent Commission on the Status of Women is “a government-appointed group dedicated to improving opportunities for women and girls.” The group advises the Governor and members of the legislature about policy and social issues affecting women and girls in the state.
Jack Burt, associate professor for trumpet and Jazz Ensemble director, will present master classes at four universities in the Southeast and Middle Atlantic states — the University of South Carolina, Gardner-Webb University James Madison University and Slippery Rock University. He also will present a preliminary version of his upcoming presentation in May at the 2014 International Trumpet Guild Conference in Philadelphia. The classes and presentations will center on the German rotary trumpet. Part of his presentation will include the presentation of trumpets from the UMaine German Rotary Trumpet Collection, purchased in 20005 with Faculty Research funds. In July, Burt and Laura Artesani, professor of music, will appear as soloists at the 2014 Schagerl Brass Festival, as part of “From the New World,” a recital of American music for trumpet.They will perform at Stift Melk, a Benedictine Abbey in Melk, Austria. In addition, Burt will be featured as the member of the European Brass Ensemble, both in concert and the festival, and on tour throughout Austria, and in Innsbruck, Steyr and other locations.