Professor Whitney (pictured in background) is part of a team receiving a $20 million EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) grant from the National Science Foundation. The EPSCoR grant is entitled “Maine e-DNA” (“e” stands for “environmental”), and involves collaboration between the University of Maine, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (where Prof. Whitney has an appointment as Research Scientist), and a number of other organizations. Read More…

Associate Professor Jessie Muhlin spent the Spring 2019 semester on sabbatical working on her research related to seaweed. Among some of the highlights, Prof. Muhlin was one of an awesome field crew helping Hannah Webber, a University of Maine PhD student, to set up rockweed plots at Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park (see picture). Read More…

Marine Biology senior Sierra James and several peers recently presented their senior research at the Northeast Natural History Conference in Springfield, MA. Sierra’s poster, entitled “Cardiac response of Carcinus maenas and Cancer irroratus under acute hypoxia exposure”, won an award for best poster. Congrats Sierra! Here is what Sierra says about the experience:Read More…

This spring, Professor Alan Verde brought 18 students in the Master Diver class to the Philippines for a week of intensive SCUBA diving. The students did the diving with Asia Divers at stayed at El Galleon resort. Read More…

Catherine Mahoney, a Marine Science/SVO sophomore, will be working with Ocean Studies Professor LeAnn Whitney this summer at Bigelow Laboratories in Boothbay, ME. Cat and Prof. Whitney will be investigating the ability of phytoplankton to use different forms of phosphorus to support growth. Read More…

Christian Pamatian (pictured on the right), a Marine Bio/SVO sophomore, was recently accepted to the 2019 Clearwater Marine Aquarium summer internship program in Clearwater, FL. Read More…

Maggie MacMahon, a junior in the Marine Bio/SVO program, was recently awarded the Women Divers Hall of Fame scholarship! Of the award, Maggie says: “The Women Divers Hall of Fame is a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring and raising awareness of the contributions of women divers to the world. Read More…

Dr. Lauren Sahl was recently selected to participate in Ocean Observing Initiative Data Lab Workshop, hosted by the National Science Foundation. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together faculty at undergraduate institutions, who teach introductory oceanography, to learn methods for incorporating ocean observatory data into their courses. Congratulations Dr. Sahl!

Ocean Studies seniors celebrated finishing their year-long research projects in December! Each year, students design, propose, and conduct a project of their own design over the course of two semesters. At the end of those two semesters, students present their findings in a research paper, an oral presentation, and a poster. Abstracts from this year’s papers can be found here. Congrats seniors, we are so proud of you!

Associate professor Jessica Muhlin (shown right in picture), who specializes in marine algae, has been working with University of Maine graduate student Hannah Webber to determine how harvesting rockweed affects marine ecosystems.Read More…