Putnam’s expedition featured in Medill Reports Chicago, Pacific Standards Magazine, Warm Regards Podcast

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

October 17, 2016 Alumni, Climate Change, Research, Signature and Emerging Areas, UMaine in the News

Aaron Putnam was featured in a Warm Regards Podcast about his recent research expedition in Mongolia. The assistant professor with the University of Maine Climate Change Institute searched for clues in the Altai Mountains about what caused the Earth to lurch out of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago. Warm Regards is a podcast about the warming planet. Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist at UMaine, is a co-host for some of the podcasts. Putnam’s expedition also was detailed in a companion piece to the podcast that appeared in Pacific Standard Magazine. According to the feature, Putnam used drones to study glacier-formed ridges and he collected the surface layer of granite boulders on moraines along the border of Mongolia, China and Russia to learn about climate change of the past. “This (the end of the last ice age) was the singular most powerful, most important climate event in human history. It allowed us to flourish,” Putnam says in the article. “But we don’t know why that happened.” Determining what caused the ice age’s demise could help Putnam identify the triggers that cause abrupt climate change. Putnam and his expedition team of graduate students were also featured in a recent article in Medill Reports Chicago, the news service of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.