U.S. Department of Energy grant supports 91¸ŁŔű study of forest recovery after timber harvesting led by Daniel Hayes, professor of geospatial analysis and remote sensing

Maine’s forests support jobs, supply wood for homes and businesses, and provide places to hunt, hike and enjoy the outdoors. University of Maine researchers will study what happens after a timber harvest — and how the forest grows back.

A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant announced Friday, Oct. 16, will support the project.

The findings could help forest managers better understand how harvesting affects the trees left behind and the next generation of growth. The research focuses on partial harvesting, a common practice in northern U.S. commercial forests that removes some trees while leaving others standing.

Led by Daniel Hayes, 91¸ŁŔű professor of geospatial analysis and remote sensing, the team will study a section of Howland Research Forest in central Maine that was harvested in August 2025. Researchers will compare it with a nearby area that was not harvested to see how logging changes the forest’s growth and recovery.

Howland has been used for forest research for decades, providing researchers with extensive historical data.

“Here, we have this really unique opportunity. It’s almost a perfect test bed site for a research study,” Hayes said.

They will track the growth of remaining trees and seedlings and examine how leftover branches and wood break down. That process releases nutrients that can help new trees grow. Researchers also will measure how much carbon dioxide the forest takes in and releases.

An airplane carrying laser mapping equipment will capture detailed, three-dimensional pictures of the forest each year. Those images will show how its height and structure change as trees grow.

Researchers collected measurements from both the air and ground before the August 2025 harvest, establishing a baseline for studying the forest’s recovery.

“We measured everything we could in the short time that we had,” Hayes said.

The team will combine the images with tree rings, measurements from 96 forest plots and more than 25 years of carbon dioxide measurements at Howland.

The research will help improve the DOE’s Earth system model that predicts forest growth and carbon storage. It currently does not account for partial harvesting and recovery after logging.

The four-year project will provide new data on how forests respond to harvesting, helping researchers improve predictions of future forest conditions.

91¸ŁŔű School of Forest Resources researchers Shawn Fraver, Xinyuan Wei, Aaron Weiskittel, and Rose Z. Abramoff will collaborate with Hayes and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on the project.

Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu

John Daigle, professor of forest recreation management at the University of Maine, co-authored the first paper in a series designed to help communities nationwide prepare for future national disasters and other extreme weather events.

The paper, “Research Priorities for Robust Climate Assessments in the United States,” is the first contribution to the U.S. Climate Collection informing Assessment of Risks and Solutions, a joint special collection of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. The collection will feature climate assessment science and research synthesis papers to inform future national and sub-national assessments.

Daigle contributed by highlighting certain vulnerabilities facing Indigenous Peoples and demonstrating and explaining how their connections to the place and value systems can strengthen adaptation and resilience.

“Climate change impacts the relationships between people and nature, particularly for Indigenous Peoples and other communities with strong place-based cultural ties. Changes in timing of biological events, range shifts of plants and animals, and function can disrupt cultural

practices, subsistence activities and identity,” said Daigle. “At the same time, Indigenous Knowledges and relational worldviews offer valuable insights for adaptation and stewardship.”

The paper identifies research priorities, including how greenhouse gas emissions and laws compound the effects of extreme weather; how social systems shape planning; how climate-related weather risks threaten infrastructure and institutions; and how well existing intervention, mitigation, adaptation and disaster management efforts work. 

“Future assessments will be more useful if they go beyond species inventories to focus on dynamic processes, adaptive capacity, integrated system-level responses, and social and ecological feedbacks,” Daigle said. By synthesizing insights from ecological, cultural, and governance domains, the scientific community can better anticipate, manage, and leverage ecological transformation as climate change accelerates.”

At lunchtime in rural Maine middle schools, University of Maine researchers stood at two points in the cafeteria.

At the first, students received a numbered card after picking up their meals. Researchers photographed each tray from above.

Then they waited.

Before students dumped what was left into the trash, researchers photographed the trays again.

The images captured a problem that plays out every day in school cafeterias: Students were offered fruit, but much of it was never eaten.

Sometimes they did not take it. Sometimes an apple came back with one bite missing. Other fruit was barely touched.

For 91¸ŁŔű researchers, those trays became the starting point for a larger question: What would middle school students actually eat?

The answer was smoothies.

A three-year study led by researchers in 91¸ŁŔű’s School of Food and Agriculture found that offering frozen fruit smoothies during lunch increased the amount of fruit students selected and consumed while sharply reducing waste. The work also showed something broader: Asking adolescents what they want — and involving them in designing a solution — can change their food choices.

The research led to , or Helping Early Adolescents Live Their Healthiest Youth, a four-part smoothie and nutrition education program developed at 91¸ŁŔű. The program is now available to schools nationwide through a . The findings are also informing efforts to change federal school meal rules that can make it .

Start by asking students

“Middle school is often an overlooked age group when it comes to nutrition programming,” said Jade McNamara, associate professor of human nutrition at 91¸ŁŔű and registered dietitian, who directed the research. “Adolescents are at an age where they can tell you what they want to eat and what they’re interested in. And they have strong opinions.”

The age group also represents an important point for intervention, as fruit consumption declines as children move into adolescence.

Rather than enter schools with a predetermined program, McNamara and then-91¸ŁŔű doctoral student and registered dietitian nutritionist Amelia Sullivan spent about a year listening.

They held focus groups, studied cafeteria environments, used a Veggie Meter to estimate students’ fruit and vegetable intake and documented food selection and waste through tray photography.

Three trained research assistants independently scored how much food remained on each tray, then reviewed disagreements together. By the later phase of the study, their assessments agreed about 97% of the time.

The research was supported by the °Â˛âłľ˛ą˛Ô’s Wild Blueberry Research & Innovation Center Fund. , a Maine family-owned food company established in 1874, approached 91¸ŁŔű as part of its mission to help the world eat more fruit. The partnership offered a way to address the nation’s fruit consumption gap at the state level.

The researchers decided students should help determine how.

“We don’t, as researchers, want to go into an environment we have nothing to do with and assume we know the right answer,” Sullivan said. “We wanted to know what’s happening here.”

Sullivan led much of the work inside the schools as a 91¸ŁŔű doctoral student, working with undergraduate and graduate research assistants to collect and analyze data and helping turn student feedback into a program the team could test. She completed her doctorate in May and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Texas A&M AgriLife Research.

What Sullivan and the team saw in the tray photographs was striking: Fruit was one of the most wasted components of the meals they studied.

Nationally, only about one-third of adolescents consume whole fruit on a given day, and between 20% and 40% of fruit served through the National School Lunch Program is wasted, according to research cited in the HEALTHY toolkit.

Students chose smoothies

The 91¸ŁŔű team then asked students what might change that.

More than 400 students voted on strategies that previous research suggested could improve fruit consumption, including cafeteria murals, taste tests and a smoothie bar. 91¸ŁŔű 85% chose smoothies.

“We really needed to partner with the students and get their buy-in before we did anything,” McNamara said.

Sullivan and the research team developed four smoothies around themes students raised in focus groups, including athletic performance, skin and immune health, hydration and locally grown food. Each 8-ounce smoothie paired frozen fruit, milk and Greek yogurt with a short nutrition lesson and a SMART goal activity.

The program was tested at two experimental schools, with three other schools serving as comparisons.

In experimental schools, when smoothies were offered, fruit selection rose from 78% to 98%. Students consumed about 0.4 cups of fruit from smoothies, compared with about 0.1 cups from standard fruit. They wasted about 14% of smoothie servings, compared with 64% of standard fruit.

Researchers also saw improvement in Veggie Meter scores among students who began with the lowest readings, suggesting some of the largest changes occurred among students with the lowest baseline fruit and vegetable intake.

And students wanted more.

91¸ŁŔű nine in 10 said they would or might drink a smoothie again at school. Some took recipes home. Others asked how many smoothies they would need to drink to improve their Veggie Meter scores.

“These were students who felt like their voices were heard,” Sullivan said. “From that, they were more willing and open to try what we were giving them.”

From research to the cafeteria

The challenge is turning a successful program into something schools can actually use.

Many school kitchens were built for reheating and serving food, not preparing meals from scratch. Some lack commercial blenders, enough electrical outlets. Nutrition directors and their staffs are also stretched thin, leaving little time to prepare hundreds of smoothies during lunch.

One nutrition director, Sullivan recalled, posed a basic question: Where would the blender even go?

Nutrition directors interviewed as part of the study said they were interested in smoothies but needed practical guidance.

So the 91¸ŁŔű team turned the HEALTHY research into a 41-page implementation toolkit with scaled recipes, nutrition lessons, equipment options, student engagement strategies and evaluation tools. It includes four smoothie lessons — Power Play Shake, Citrus Splash, Hydration Hero and Maine Maple Blueberry — that can be offered as a series or individually.

There is also a federal obstacle.

Under current National School Lunch Program guidelines, whole fruit can count as fruit when served on a tray. Because no more than half of weekly fruit and vegetable offerings can be provided in juice form, the rule can limit how often schools serve smoothies.

That distinction has become the next phase of the project.

The research team, °Â˛âłľ˛ą˛Ô’s and the American Frozen Food Institute brought the issue to Washington, D.C., and have advocated for federal policy that better recognizes whole frozen fruit used in smoothies. They have also presented the work to nutrition professionals as a model other schools could adapt.

A bigger lesson than smoothies

Sullivan does not expect the exact HEALTHY model to work in every school.

“Do I think this exact smoothie program could be replicated in all 50 states? No,” Sullivan said. “Do I think the basis of the research can be translated to all 50 states? Yes. We need to engage students. We need to ask them what they want.”

The project’s lessons can extend beyond schools, too. For families interested in incorporating smoothies at home, Sullivan with tips for building a balanced smoothie and links to recipes.

For Sullivan, though, the broader takeaway is about rethinking what a school cafeteria can be.

“My biggest takeaway from this whole research is that we need to start reenvisioning the way we see the school cafeteria,” she said. “It can be more of a community setting and a collaborative, hands-on educational setting.”

And sometimes, finding a better answer starts with looking at what students leave on their trays.

Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu

Ivan Fernandez, University of Maine professor emeritus of soil science and climate research scientist, has been named the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the .

Fernandez was selected for more than four decades of research on the biogeochemistry of Maine’s forests and his contributions to climate science and policy in the state. His research has focused on how forests and forested watersheds respond to climate change, air pollution and forest management.

Fernandez is a member of 91¸ŁŔű’s Climate Change Institute and serves as director and principal investigator of the Maine Climate Science Information Exchange. He was appointed to the Maine Climate Council in 2019 and serves as co-chair of its Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. He also has served on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board committees.

His previous honors include being named a 91¸ŁŔű Distinguished Maine Professor in 2007 and Maine Professor of the Year in 2008. He was named a fellow of the Soil Science Society of America in 2010 and received 91¸ŁŔű’s Presidential Public Service Achievement Award in 2018.

The Maine Science Awards recognize scientists, innovators, researchers and advocates advancing science across the state. Fernandez and four other inaugural honorees will be recognized Oct. 15 at Hollywood Casino Bangor.

The future of Maine’s lobster industry may depend on a creature the size of a sesame seed.

Researchers at the University of Maine have discovered that planktonic baby lobsters, or larvae, preferentially feed on Calanus finmarchicus, a tiny, calorie-rich zooplankton species, during one of the most vulnerable stages of their lives. Their new study upholds a theory advanced by scientists in the past decade, and one that may be relevant to recent declines in Maine’s lobster harvest. 

Scientists have also observed declines in both the availability of this key food source and the number of young lobsters surviving into adulthood in the Gulf of Maine. 

For lobster, the larval stage is a crucial development bottleneck that determines their survival to adulthood. While many researchers have looked at the role of egg production as the main determinant of the size of upcoming harvests, a 91¸ŁŔű-led team has been working to provide more insight into how diet determines whether larvae survive into adulthood. 

“We see evidence that larvae are eating Calanus finmarchicus at a greater rate than you would expect if they were just feeding randomly, however we also know that the geographic range of Calanus is receding northward into cooler waters, making it less readily available,” said Alex Ascher, lead research scientist at Quahog Bay Conservancy, who began this work with 91¸ŁŔű as part of his Ph.D. thesis. 

Calanus finmarchicus provides lobster larvae with fatty acids that are energy rich and beneficial for neural development during periods of rapid growth.  Using a newly developed DNA probe, researchers from 91¸ŁŔű, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the University of Southern Maine found that 30% of larval and post-larval lobsters sampled had DNA of Calanus finmarchicus in their digestive tracts, whereas this species comprised only a few percent of the available zooplankton.

The decline in this key food source at the southern end of its range in North Atlantic ecosystems is occurring while fewer lobster larvae in the Gulf of Maine are surviving into adolescence, which in turn impacts the future number of adult lobsters available to the fishery. Maine’s lobster harvest has declined by about 40% since its peak in 2016, according to the state’s Department of Marine Resources.

After hatching from eggs on the ocean floor, larvae swim up to the ocean surface. They then drift with currents before settling to the seabed as small juveniles, eventually to become adults some 6-8 years later. Access to nutritious food during the planktonic larval stages can mean the difference between survival and starvation.

These findings also further solidify Calanus finmarchicus as a keystone species, an organism that plays a crucial role in supporting a food chain that includes a diversity of fish and invertebrates, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale. With less energy-rich food availability, lobster larvae have to depend on less nutritious resources, threatening their chance of survival.

Stage one larvae are the most vulnerable, as they are more likely to succumb to starvation compared to older larvae.

“Understanding these larval diets is a fundamental piece of knowledge that helps us to better understand fluctuations, and potentially also predict fluctuations, in the abundance of lobster larvae and future adult lobsters to be caught,” said Ascher.

Ascher is part of a collective effort across Maine and New Hampshire to use new molecular methods to examine larval lobster feeding ecology, including the role of food limitation and the specific impact of Calanus finmarchicus. He collaborated with now retired 91¸ŁŔű marine sciences professor Richard Wahle, Bigelow Laboratory senior research scientists Peter Countway and David Fields, and Rachel Lasley-Rasher of the University of Southern Maine on his latest study.

To identify what lobster larvae were eating, researchers combined two approaches. They first inspected the stomach contents of lobster samples by traditional methods under a microscope. While this approach is very common in diet studies, the squishier organisms without hard parts the lobster consumed cannot always be identified with a microscope alone.

That is why Ascher also examined genetic samples known as environmental DNA (eDNA), allowing him to pinpoint food sources he couldn’t visually discern from the larval stomach contents.

“Combining the two approaches allows us to ground truth visual identifications by comparing them to diet identifications from the eDNA analysis, giving us greater certainty and expanding our coverage,” said Ascher.

The team’s findings were recently published in the open-access journal .

Ascher began the study as part of his Ph.D. thesis completed in 2023 under the Maine eDNA research initiative led by 91¸ŁŔű, which engaged other research and education institutions throughout the state and was funded through the National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

Story by Heather Johnson, EPSCoR Communications Graduate Assistant 

Contact: Daniel Timmermann, daniel.timmermann@maine.eduĚýĚý

Wildlife ecology major Jordan Anderson spent the summer tagging Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon in the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers through a Maine Sea Grant internship

While paddleboarding on the ocean last summer, Jordan Anderson was startled when a massive animal leaped from the water nearby. She assumed it was a porpoise. Instead, it was an Atlantic sturgeon — a chance encounter with the species that would become the focus of her research internship a year later.

Sturgeon have existed for nearly 200 million years, swimming alongside dinosaurs and surviving mass extinction events. Commonly referred to as “living fossils,” they retain many of the same physical characteristics as their ancient ancestors. Once abundant, sturgeon species around the world now face conservation threats.

The Atlantic sturgeon is considered threatened or endangered across much of its U.S. range. In partnership with NOAA Fisheries and the Maine Department of Marine Resources, University of Maine researchers are working to better understand movements of Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon in Maine rivers to inform conservation efforts.

Anderson, whose love of fish can be traced back to childhood trips fishing for brook trout with her father, said she was thrilled when she was selected to contribute to 91¸ŁŔű’s sturgeon research for one of Maine Sea Grant’s sea-run fish internships this summer. A senior wildlife ecology major, she said she could not have imagined a more exciting first internship. 

Anderson’s favorite days of her internship were spent helping researchers surgically implant acoustic transmitters in both species of sturgeon in the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers. From watching an eagle take down a heron to feeling spray from the river as a large sturgeon jumped alongside the boat, the fieldwork brought something new every day.

Tagging days began around 6:30 a.m. with the team loading equipment and 300-foot gillnets into a truck. On the river, researchers identified a location to set the nets and checked them every 20 to 30 minutes. The crew repeatedly hauled in the heavy nets to look for sturgeon.

Once a sturgeon was caught, the part Anderson calls “the workup” began. The team examined and measured the fish before attaching a tag that allows researchers to track its movements.

At first, Anderson said she was nervous about holding and working with the fish, describing the experience as similar to holding a baby, only much rougher and slimier. Because Atlantic sturgeon are protected, researchers handle each fish carefully while gathering valuable data. By the end of the internship, she was comfortable assisting with the tagging process and passing tools to researchers, much like an assistant in an operating room.

Despite not pursuing a fisheries concentration in her major, Anderson said the internship opened her eyes to a career path she had not previously considered.

“This internship has made me really love working with fish and thinking about a future working with fish,” Anderson said. “I’ve made a lot of different connections between the Department of Marine Resources, NOAA and working for Sea Grant.”

Beyond helping shape her career interests, Anderson said she has come to understand how the research could contribute to sturgeon conservation in Maine.

“I think the big picture is just how we can best mitigate how humans are affecting sturgeon and also turn back the time and help restore their spawning grounds,” she said. “So far, I think we’re doing a great job. The more we know about them, the more we can help them.”

For Anderson, a chance encounter with a prehistoric fish became an opportunity to contribute to research on one of Maine’s most distinctive species. The experience also gave her a firsthand look at how undergraduate students can contribute to conservation research well before graduation.

Contact: Sophie Liebel, sophie.liebel@maine.edu

Local Catch Network will lead outreach, co-host informational sessions and gather industry input to help shape national seafood strategy.

American fishermen, aquaculture producers, processors and seafood businesses now have a path for improved access to federal funding, technical assistance and new markets through a national collaboration involving the , based at the University of Maine.

An agreement between the and 91¸ŁŔű enables the network to help the recently created connect with fishing communities and better integrate seafood businesses into federal programs and services.

The Local Catch Network will lead industry outreach, host educational webinars and listening sessions, and gather recommendations from seafood harvesters, processors and distributors. The collaboration is intended to strengthen domestic seafood production and processing, support coastal economies and make more American seafood available to consumers.

Established in 2011, the Local Catch Network supports local and community-based seafood systems through technical assistance, business development, research and knowledge exchange. Its more than 2,500 members represent fishing communities across North America. 

The network’s growth and capacity have been supported in part by $2 million in congressionally directed spending secured in 2022 by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. 

“Despite 50 years of progress and recognition that aquatic and marine foods make important contributions to the food and nutrition needs of the nation, ,” said Joshua Stoll, Local Catch Network co-founder and associate professor of marine policy in the School of Marine Sciences. “The Office of Seafood has the potential to be an important course correction that would not only benefit fishing communities and seafood harvesters but also the millions of Americans who stand to gain from the benefits of increasing access to some of the nation’s most nutritious and delicious foods.”

Connecting seafood businesses with USDA programs

The USDA Office of Seafood was announced April 15 following President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness,” and the passage of federal appropriations legislation.

The office is responsible for coordinating seafood-related work across USDA agencies and helping fishermen and seafood businesses access grants, loans, conservation programs and other services. Its creation marked the first time USDA had established an office focused exclusively on seafood.

Through the agreement, the Local Catch Network will host virtual webinars describing USDA programs available to seafood harvesters, processors and distributors. It will also organize listening sessions where industry members can share concerns, expectations and ideas directly with the Office of Seafood.

“Following the initial announcement of the Office of Seafood, the USDA received hundreds of direct inquiries from domestic seafood harvesters seeking clarity on program eligibility and calling for a targeted seafood marketing strategy,” said Michael Illenberg, interim director of the Office of Seafood. “This new agreement directly addresses those needs, serving as a pivotal step to fully integrate seafood harvesting, processing, and distribution into existing USDA programs and services.”

Bringing industry voices into federal strategy

A national trade panel at the 2026 Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle will provide another opportunity for federal officials to engage with commercial harvesters, seafood businesses and other industry leaders. The network will compile the feedback from these activities into a report outlining the seafood sector’s priorities and recommendations.

“This collaboration helps ensure that industry voices remain at the heart of the America First Seafood Strategy, setting clear expectations for support while building a competitive, fair and resilient future for American seafood producers,” said Jessica Gribbon Joyce, Local Catch Network program manager.

USDA is also working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies to develop a broader national seafood strategy. The effort aims to increase domestic processing capacity, promote U.S. fishery and aquaculture products, educate consumers about the health benefits of seafood and increase seafood purchases through federal nutrition programs.

Serving the seafood sector

The agreement expands 91¸ŁŔű’s role in supporting the national seafood sector. As Maine’s land-grant university, 91¸ŁŔű contributes expertise in marine science, fisheries, aquaculture, seafood processing, workforce development and coastal community engagement.

Stoll and researchers from the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association previously examined USDA’s history of grant funding for the seafood sector. Their analysis helped document gaps in federal support and demonstrate the need to incorporate seafood businesses more fully into USDA programs.

“The USDA and NOAA play an important role in building a resilient seafood sector. Combining access to USDA funding with NOAA’s regulatory oversight offers our fishing communities an opportunity to expand domestic and global access to some of the best seafood on the planet at a critical inflection point for many community-based fishing businesses,” said Elizabeth Dubovsky, strategy director for the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and a co-author of the USDA funding analysis.

Interested parties can sign up for notifications of these Office of Seafood events, outreach, and reports hosted by .

Contact: Jessica Hathaway, jessica.hathaway@maine.edu

Watch experts from the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station explain .

For beverage coolers to keep drinks cold on a hot summer day, manufacturers rely on polyurethane foam, which is made from raw chemicals that are hazardous to handle before processing. To reduce health and environmental risks associated with this material, a University of Maine graduate student is designing an insulation component for coolers from an unexpected material: wood. 

Quazeem Tiamiyu’s wood fiber foam insulation serves as a bio-based alternative to replace polyurethane foam in conventional beverage coolers. 

Polyurethane is a petroleum-based material that is nonrenewable, slow to degrade and can pollute landfills and waterways while posing health risks for workers who handle it. Although people use coolers every day, few realize conventional ice chests typically rely on polyurethane foam for cavity insulation. 

“Polyurethane foam’s raw chemicals are highly toxic and carcinogenic. For people that work with it, it has also been reported to cause respiratory disease and skin irritation,” said Tiamiyu.  

Tiamiyu is a master’s student in the School of Forest Resources and graduate research assistant in the Laboratory of Renewable Nanomaterials. After earning his bachelor’s degree at the Federal University of Technology in Minna, Nigeria, he joined the research group of Mehdi Tajvidi, professor of renewable nanomaterials, to develop an environmentally-friendly alternative to polyurethane insulation.

The foam Tiamiyu and his colleagues designed consists of cellulose nanofibrils, wood fiber, finely ground wood flour and a surfactant that enables high foam volume. Cellulose nanofibrils are ultra-thin fibers made by breaking down wood pulp into strands much thinner than a human hair. Acting as both a binder and a stabilizer, the cellulose nanofibrils create strong web-like structures in the base materials — the wood fiber and wood flour. 

91¸ŁŔű’s Process Development Center is a leading CNF production facility and the only one in the United States capable of continuously producing up to four tons per day at pilot scale.

Tiamiyu mixes the ingredients in a blender to generate the foam, which is poured into molds designed to resemble actual cooler inserts. Then water is then drained from the molds, and the finished foam is dried before being enclosed in a protective plastic shell.

When Tiamiyu tested how well his foam insulates compared with polyurethane, the results were nearly identical. 

“For the thermal conductivity, we are close,” he said. “We actually found that we can compete with polyurethane foam. They have a close insulation property.”

Tiamiyu said the biggest hurdles now are achieving mechanical properties comparable to polyurethane and developing an efficient encapsulation method. Conventional coolers are easy to produce because manufacturers just inject liquid polyurethane into the shell, where the foam stays in place. Tiamiyu’s foam, however, must be made via a wet process, dried and then encapsulated or fitted into the cooler cavity, making production more challenging.

He is also focused on making the foam durable enough to withstand everyday use. If the foam is crushed or damaged, its insulating ability decreases.

Additionally, Tiamiyu plans to conduct ice retention tests to compare how long the foam keeps ice relative to conventional coolers.

“Usually when you process cellulose nanofibrils it tends to lose its nano-scale properties to be binded again so another one of our future objectives is to see if it’s possible to disperse the ready foam in water and then mold it again to whatever shapes possible,” Tiamiyu said. “If that is possible the ready foam can be shipped and the manufacturers can put it in water and mold it however they want.” 

While challenges remain, the researchers are hopeful for the future. The project demonstrates that renewable alternatives to petroleum-based insulation can be produced using materials derived from the byproducts of Maine’s lumber mills.

Story by Yoana Karageorgieva, research media intern

Contact: Daniel Timmermann, daniel.timmermann@maine.edu

Beneath Maine’s salt marshes, an invisible transformation is constantly underway. Water moves through soil and rock. Chemicals react. Tiny microbes living underground help determine whether minerals dissolve or form, how fluids move and whether pollutants break down or spread.

Existing computer models used to guide decisions about energy infrastructure and contamination often treat microbes as fixed and unchanging, even though they constantly adapt to their surroundings. For decades, incorporating molecular biology information into those models has remained one of the field’s biggest unsolved challenges.

Now, a research team led by University of Maine professors Jiaze Wang and Amanda Albright Olsen is aiming to close that gap after receiving funding through the .

Using artificial intelligence, the 91¸ŁŔű researchers are working to incorporate molecular biology information into the physical models scientists rely on to predict what’s happening underground. The challenge is one of scale. Microbial genomic data is extraordinarily detailed but has historically been too complex to integrate into large-scale underground models.

The project will analyze microbial genetic information using AI to identify the biological processes that most strongly influence underground chemical reactions. Those insights will then be integrated into existing subsurface models, allowing scientists to better simulate how microbes, minerals and groundwater interact in changing environments.

By bringing molecular biology into subsurface models, the researchers hope to improve predictions that support groundwater management, environmental remediation, responsible critical mineral development and energy infrastructure planning. Improved models could help scientists and decision-makers protect groundwater, clean up contaminated sites and plan energy projects with greater confidence.

The Genesis Mission award

The Genesis Mission is a historic new national initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy, which is building the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform. By uniting government, industry, academia and philanthropy, it is accelerating breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery and national security through a new platform that combines AI, supercomputing, quantum systems and advanced scientific instruments.

91¸ŁŔű was selected as part of the inaugural cohort of Genesis Mission-funded research teams, making it one of the first universities participating in the innovative initiative. The awards were announced Wednesday at a U.S. DOE event in Washington, D.C.

91¸ŁŔű is leading the project in partnership with the University of Delaware and Argonne National Laboratory. The collaboration brings together expertise in bioinformatics, computational biology, AI, subsurface modeling and geochemistry.

The 91¸ŁŔű-led project was one of 278 selected by the DOE from more than 5,000 proposals. It was also the only project selected from Maine.

What it means for 91¸ŁŔű

The project builds on 91¸ŁŔű’s nationally recognized strengths in environmental research and computational modeling while expanding collaborations across disciplines and institutions.

The grant funds a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher at 91¸ŁŔű, both of whom will train directly on the project. That hands-on experience reflects 91¸ŁŔű’s mission as the state’s R1, learner-centered university, giving students opportunities to contribute to nationally significant research while working alongside leading scientists and preparing to lead and innovate in the state’s workforce.

“We are proud to be part of the inaugural Genesis Mission and to see our researchers contributing to this new era of scientific discovery,” President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said. “This project exemplifies what makes 91¸ŁŔű such a special place to learn and innovate. Our students have the opportunity to work alongside nationally recognized experts on projects that address some of the world’s most pressing challenges while developing solutions that can make a difference here in Maine and well beyond.”

Giovanna Guidoboni, interim vice president for research, said the award reinforces 91¸ŁŔű’s leadership in interdisciplinary research.

“At 91¸ŁŔű, leading research that addresses complex, real-world challenges is at the heart of our mission,” said Guidoboni, also the dean of the Maine College of Engineering and Computing. “This project demonstrates the impact of bringing together expertise across disciplines while creating meaningful, research-based learning opportunities for our students. What we learn matters, but how we apply that knowledge to improve lives and communities is what defines us.”

AI and environmental science converge

Wang, the principal investigator, said the project brings together disciplines that have historically worked in isolation.

“This project is trying to bring together concepts from very different disciplines and unite them,” Wang said. “We know the subsurface is a combination of geology and biology, and our goal is to bring that expertise together.”

The challenge, she said, extends to the microbes themselves.

“The microbes are like magicians,” Wang said. “They can transform the subsurface in ways we don’t fully understand yet, and we know so little about them.”

For Olsen, the co-principal investigator, the use of AI and the Genesis Mission award represents a turning point.

“This is a problem I didn’t think we would solve,” she said. “Having this project, where I can actually see a path to solving something people have worked on for my entire career, that feels like a paradigm shift in how we do this kind of work.”

Starting with the coast

In this first phase, the team is focusing on coastal systems, including salt marshes like the ones that define much of Maine’s shoreline. The team will test its work using real-world data from coastal wetlands from Lake Erie to the Chesapeake Bay.

Coastal environments change quickly, making it easier to observe how microbes, minerals and groundwater interact than in slower-changing systems. They also face challenges such as saltwater intrusion, groundwater contamination and declining water quality, making them an ideal testing ground for the team’s approach.

Salt marshes are systems people in Maine already understand and value, Olsen said, making them a natural starting point for tools that could eventually benefit land-locked communities.

Applications far beyond the coast

Although the work begins on coastlines, the researchers say the tools they’re developing could be applied to subsurface systems around the world. The same modeling approach could help determine where it’s safe and healthy to build energy infrastructure, whether contamination found at a site will break down or spread and how critical minerals can be mined more responsibly. 

The work could also inform decisions about using the subsurface in other rapidly changing environments, including polar regions.

By the end of the project, the team plans to deliver:

• A library of microbial genetic information for subsurface physical models
• An upgraded version of a widely used subsurface simulation model
• A faster AI model emulator capable of running large-scale subsurface predictions

“Any system where you’re trying to understand whether a soil is healthy, or whether water is contaminated, requires understanding how these reactions couple together,” Olsen said. “That’s true almost anywhere on Earth’s surface.”

Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu