Maine Center for Genetics in the Environment

Vision

Make Maine a national leader in transformative environmental genetic research, innovation, outreach, and training for the sustainability and wellbeing of natural and human ecosystems and the people that depend on them.

Mission

Foster broad-based environmental genetics collaborations, partnerships, and infrastructure that contribute to the sustainability of current and future natural resource industries and agriculture, improve human health and wellbeing, and prepare a technologically skilled workforce.

Message from the Director

Welcome to the website of the Maine Center for Genetics and the Environment, or MCGE as we often call it. The Maine Center for Genetics in the Environment (MCGE) was formed in 2019 as a sustainability element of the NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Maine-eDNA Program (NSF #OIA-1849227). The center was founded around a vision to make Maine a national leader in transformative environmental genetic research, innovation, outreach, and training for the sustainability and wellbeing of natural and human ecosystems and the people that depend on them. I like to say that environmental genetics is a scientific bridge…

Maine Research News

Media highlight study showing consumers willing to pay more for lobster harvested with ropeless technology
The Cool Down, National Fisherman, News Center Maine, Maine Public, CBC’s “Island Morning” radio show and WMTW (Channel 8 in Portland) featured University of Maine […]
Media highlight 91�� research on coastal erosion in Acadia National Park
National Parks Traveler and The Ellsworth American featured University of Maine doctoral student Deirdre McGrath for receiving an Acadia Science Fellowship to study erosion affecting […]
91��’s CUGR announces 2026 summer undergraduate research fellowship recipients
91�� Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR) has announced the 2026 recipients of the CUGR and Maine Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) Summer Research […]
NYT uses Climate Reanalyzer to report on heatwave in Europe
The News York Times utilized a data visualization from the University of Maine Climate Change Institute’s Climate Reanalyzer to report on a heatwave across Europe.
91�� students gain firefighting experience through prescribed burn
When low-level flames spread across five acres of forestland in Old Town one June afternoon, University of Maine students Logan Quinn of Braintree, Massachusetts, and […]
The State highlights 91�� research on PFAS in agriculture
The State cited University of Maine research in a story about forever chemicals found in South Carolina crops years after farms used contaminated sludge as […]
Public radio features 91�� researcher on lobster fishermen and coastal access
Cape and Islands, a public radio station in Falmouth, Massachusetts, featured Joshua Stoll, associate professor of marine policy at the University of Maine, in a […]
For schools looking to create outdoor education programs, 91�� study offers guidance
Just outside the doors of Stearns Junior-Senior High School in Millinocket, Maine, students and staff have access to world-class outdoor recreation opportunities: paddling, mountain biking, […]