Maine Science Podcast

Ian is a forester with Seven Islands Land Company, but one who is not out in the forest every day. His work is deeply data heavy, and his forest management techniques rely on the data collected not just by the foresters in the woods and (significantly) on  other, more technology-reliant techniques. Odds are, the image you have of how a forester sustainably manages the woods is not exactly aligned...

Stacey is a civil engineer and a General Superintendent with Consigli’s Portland office. In her role, Stacey manages the construction of large-scale commercial projects, with a focus on life science and pharmaceutical facilities. She earned a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering at UMaine and earned her MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  A video of Stacey talking about being in the...

Aleta is a conservation biologist who has completed work for local soil and water conservation districts as well as state and national organizations. She specializes in ecological restoration and community science and conservation. Her conservation work has been a second career, following a 20+ year career in education. If you'd like to connect with Aleta, she can be reached at greenwayscenter@gma...

Mehdi Tajvidi is a Professor of Renewable Nanomaterials in the School of Forest Resources at the University of Maine. His areas of research interest are production, characterization and performance evaluation of renewable nanomaterials and their composites. Mehdi’s core research area at UMaine is focused on utilization of cellulose nanomaterials in high volume applications such as coatings, packag...

Jacqui White is the Director of the Center for Biometric Analysis at The Jackson Laboratory. Her background in the clinical characterization of genetically altered mice coupled with her experience in establishing and running large operations critical to genetics research has been deeply beneficial to JAX and science. Jacqui was part of the 2024 Maine Science Festival, and her work is endlessly fas...

RJ Perry, Laboratory Technical Manager at the VEMI Lab at the University of Maine. VEMI Lab, and the people who make it up, are one of far too many hidden gems in Maine, and hopefully this conversation will put at least a small spotlight on the work they do.  If you are a student at UMaine and you want to work for VEMI, send your resume to RJ! https://umaine.edu/vemi/people/rj-perry/ Our conversat...

Max Tritt is a Fisheries Biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Max has lived all over the country and after serving the military for 20 years followed his passion for fish. Max is actively involved in outreach - he's been a presenter at the Maine Science Festival numerous times - and his work as a scientist for the Federal government provides some insights into...

Daniel Moore is the Department Chair of the Biological Sciences Department at Southern Maine Community College, and his love of teaching is evident throughout our conversation. Daniel's background is diverse, and his extensive experience in industry and research have provided an excellent foundation for him to reach his students - whether in the classroom or through informal events like the Maine...

Angie Reed has served as the Water Resources Planner for Penobscot Nation since 2004. Her contributions include field work, reports, all aspects of digital data management, training tribal environmental professionals, developing outreach materials, activity development for Indian Island School students, and conducting outreach to many non-Native schools from elementary to graduate level. Angie has...

Aaron's Maine-focused research looks at the various factors that influence regional forest structure and composition in the hope of being able to forecast future changes. His research attempts to understand the biophysical factors influencing forest growth and to integrate those factors with other economic, climate, and sociological models. Aaron was a presenter at the 2024 Maine Science Festival....

You’ll hear in-the-moment reactions about the April 8th total solar eclipse in Maine from folks in Stacyville, Houlton, and Jackman Maine, and then we’ll circle back to Stacyville for some short conversations right after the eclipse. We are indebted to Sarah Kirn, Nikita Saini, and Terrence Finnegan for their willingness to record audio, and Jennifer Dann for her encouragement and great questions....

Shawn Laatch is the Director of the Versant Power Astronomy Center and Jordan Planetarium at the University of Maine and Nikita Saini is a graduate student in Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maine and is also a presenter at the Planetarium. Shawn and Nikiti were part of a nationwide NASA Citizen Science program that was focused on learning more about the s...

Laura Wilson manages skills-based micro-credential development for Cooperative Extension at the University of Maine. Laura's previous work includes being a Science Youth Development Professional at 4H and a Water Quality Professional. Laura has been a a long-time partner with Maine Discovery Museum, including being part of the Maine Science Festival.  Our conversation was recorded in January 2024....

Dan Burgess is the Director of the Governor’s Energy Office for the State of Maine, and he's had a robust career in energy policy, first in Massachusetts then coming back home to Maine.  Dan was part of our online forum about offshore wind, Off Shore Wind from the UK to Maine, in February 2021. You can watch that on our YouTube Channel Our conversation was recorded in January 2024. ~~~~~ The Maine...

Wendy LePage is a research scientist at IDEXX in Westbrook, ME. Wendy has been with IDEXX since their early start-up days, having joined them once she returned from a two-year stint with the Peace Corps, which she did right after graduating from the University of Vermont with a degree in zoology. Wendy has been a hands-on presenter at the Maine Science Festival in the past, and she’ll be back at t...

Rob Wheeler studies fungus from both sides: how the immune system responds to fungal infection AND the how the fungus itself works. In particular, Rob studies Candida albicans , and all the ways it impacts us.  Rob has degrees from Harvard and Stanford University in 2000, and did post-doctoral work at the Whitehead Institute.  Our conversation was recorded in December 2023. ~~~~~ The Maine Science...

You may have noticed we haven’t kept to our regular episode release schedule, and we wanted to send out a quick note to assure you that we’ll be back! We’ve had to do some staff juggling behind the scenes, and will be back to releasing episodes as soon as we are able.  Listen to this short update for some recommendations about past episodes to listen to! ~~~~~ The Maine Science Podcast is a produc...

This  past August, Maine Science Podcast host Kate Dickerson was a guest interviewer on  the National Writing Project’s The Write Time podcast, and spoke with Meghan Wilson Duff about their children’s’ book, How Are You, Verity? (Illustrated by Taylor Barron). Meghan is on the faculty in the Psychology & Community Studies program at University of Maine at Machias. Our thanks to the National Writin...

Diane Rowland is the Dean of the College of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences (formerly Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture) and Director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station at the University of Maine. For most of her career, Diane has specialized in the physiological mechanisms of crop stress, particularly related to drought and crop water scarcity resilience.  She pion...

Matt is an entrepreneur and award-winning architect with a nationwide reputation for innovation and expertise in the design of high performance residential and institutional buildings. A leader in Passive House design in North America and named to Architect Magazine’s Architect 50 list in 2018, he is a frequent speaker at sustainable design conferences in the U.S. and abroad. Matt has pursued a ca...

Fayeza Ahmed is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University  of Maine. She is the director of the Maine Health, Aging, and Lifestyle  Lab, where the focus of her work is on the intersection of health  factors/behaviors and cognitive functioning. Fayeza has been trained in Clinical Neuropsychology throughout her graduate and  postdoctoral training, and is particularly interested in how ...

Jennifer Lund is the Maine State Apiarist. She received her Master’s degree in Entomology from the University of Maine and has over 20 years of entomological experience.  Aside from managing the honeybee inspection program and helping Maine beekeepers, Jennifer has several of her own hives she maintains on her farm. This conversation was recorded in June 2023. If you'd like to see/listen to Jen's...

Alaina Weinheimer is a postdoctoral fellow at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences where she examines how bacteria fight viruses in the ocean. She is particularly interested in  jumbo phages, which are phages with really large genomes (> 200 kb). Until recently, they have been largely overlooked in both culture-based and sequencing studies due to their unusually large size that rivals bacteri...

Jessica Leahy was born and raised in Alaska, adjacent to the second largest state park in the United States. She researches environmental attitudes and behaviors towards forests, forestry, and other natural resource management topics using a social psychology and communication approach. Her work focuses on four populations: outdoor recreationists, forest landowners, natural resource managers, and...

Today's episode is a conversation I had with Dan Cortes  who is an Associate research scientist in the Pera Lab at The Jackson Laboratory. Dan is originally from Mexico City, and he holds both an MD and a PhD; his research is focused on genetics, and he has a particular interest in exploring strokes. Dan was a 5 Minute Genius™ speaker for the 2023 Maine Science Festival; you can watch his talk on...