School of Biology and Ecology

Maine Forest Tick Survey reports first findings in nine southern and coastal counties, seeks additional citizen scientists

Landrum to explore history of forests to inform today’s management 

The browntail moth has become a very serious problem for many communities in southern, midcoast and central Maine over the past several years as this insect has reached populations levels that we have not seen in 80 to 100 years. Researchers at the University of Maine have teamed up with entomologists in the Maine State […]

SBE hosts a weekly seminar series throughout the academic year, and this year we have continued to do so, despite COVID-19. This semester features a special guest speaker, famed science author Carl Zimmer, co-sponsored by the UMaine Institute of Medicine. Carl Zimmer will be speaking via Zoom on April 9 at 2 pm. For Zoom […]

UMaine professors trying to develop potato varieties using new DNA-based tools ORONO, Maine — Two professors at the University of Maine in Orono are working on breeding new potato varieties. Professor of crop ecology and management in the School of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Greg Porter, and assistant professor of plant genetics with the School […]

McGill named one of the most cited researchers in the world for second consecutive year

Porter, Tan working to develop genomic tools for potato breeders 

Saros leads research into how warmer winters affect toxic blue-green algal blooms in Maine’s lakes 

Summer drought likely reduced tick activity in Maine, but they’re back

NCSE Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet Awards 2020

Mittelstaedt named 2020 Switzer Environmental Fellow

Developmental Biology students choose their adventure 

Marcotte, a third-year biology major, plans to study at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Marcotte, Muscat awarded Killam Fellowships to study in Canada

Professor Mike Kinnison is proud to announce “My first PhD student, Michael Bailey (2009, Zoology), started a new job this summer as the National Aquatic Habitat Coordinator for the USFWS. As the name implies, he will oversee all of USFWS’s aquatic habitat activities at a nationwide scale.” Per Dr. Bailey, “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) […]

Brawley honored with PSA Award of Excellence

Talbot helps ID muscle gene that, when altered, causes joint disease

Gill named 2020 recipient of Outstanding Public Service Award

McGill named 2020 recipient of Outstanding Research Award

“We’re proud, very proud something we are working on is going to help others,” Brian Beland, owner of KV Tools, said. “Often we don’t know what a final product (we make) will be…but when it goes to something as important as a pandemic fight it makes us sit back and say this is really cool.” […]

Greg LeClair, a graduate student at the University of Maine, leads The Big Night, a citizen science initiative in Maine through which volunteers tally up migrating frogs and salamanders and escort them across roads. This spring, he assumed that coronavirus concerns would shut down the project; instead, he rallied more participants than ever. Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/07/pandemic-roadkill/613852/