• UMF faculty member in the Division of Natural Sciences Nancy Prentiss garnered international attention with her National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research project on polychaetes or marine worms. Known to some of her students as "the worm lady," Prentiss has been studying and identifying marine worms, often used as bio-indicators of environmental stress, in the waters off St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands since 2007. Prentiss' NSF Grant has attracted the attention of scholars from Australia and other countries that are planning to join her Caribbean project. In addition, researchers from Greece are interested in investigating the potential of setting up a new Natural Geography In Shore Areas site in Prentiss' project area in the Caribbean.

• Chris Brinegar, a faculty member affiliated with UMF's Division of Natural Sciences, gave a presentation at UC Santa Cruz that showed the redwood forests north of San Francisco Bay are much more genetically diverse than the smaller, more fragmented southern redwood forests, especially those found along the Big Sur coastline. The southern redwood populations are at risk of extinction because they may not be able to adapt rapidly enough to the increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation that the California central coast is now experiencing. Brinegar, while at UMF, won a Fulbright scholar grant in 2008 to do research at Kathmandu Univ. in Nepal. He is a plant molecular biologist and geneticist and former director of the Biotechnology Education and Research Institute at San Jose State University in California.

• In 2011, Dual major (Biology and Geology) Skylar Hopkins of Hudson, Maine was named a Michael D. Wilson Research Fellow and used her scholarship funding to conduct a year-long, self-designed research project to investigate the role of invasive species in the transmission of infectious diseases world-wide.

• In fall 2009, Farmington hosted the UMF Climate Forum, a semester-long series of lectures, presentations, panel discussions, and an observation of the International Day of Climate Action. The Forum series brought the campus and surrounding community together over the course of three months to consider the effects of global climate change - from a variety of perspectives: scientific, historical, political, sociological, economic and others. Speakers, panelists and presenters from UMF included Assoc. Professor of Geology Julia Daly, Professor of Biology Drew Barton, Assoc. Professor of Political Science Linda Beck, Professor of Political Science Scott Erb, Assoc. Professor of Political Science James Melcher, Assoc. Provost and Dean of Academic Services Rob Lively, Professor of Geology Thomas Eastler, Assoc. Professor of Physics Paul Stancioff, and others from outside UMF.

• Biology students at Farmington regularly work side-by-side with professors in classes, laboratories, and in the field conducting research in nearby forests, lakes, rivers, mountains, and coastal settings. For example, Professor of Biology Dan Buckley and his students have been conducting water-quality and invasive plant research on lakes throughout the state of Maine.

• Professor of Biology Drew Barton's Biology students have collaborated with him on research projects related to the reproductive ecology of jack pines on Great Wass Island in Brunswick, Maine, as well as invasive plant ecography in central Maine.

• Farmington's Genetics and Microbiology Lab includes state-of-the-art DNA sequencing equipment, which allows Assoc. Professor of Biology Jean Doty's students to conduct molecular genetics research with a variety of organisms including bacteria, insects, fish, and mammals.

• Each year, Biology students at Farmington work with Professor of Biology Ron Butler, conducting field research on the ecology of a variety of organisms that have included seabirds, lichens, dragonflies, and butterflies.

• Biology students at Farmington participate each year in a functional genomics research course through the INBRE program at Maine's renowned Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory.

• Our Spatial Ecology Lab enables Biology students to collaborate with their professors on ecological research involving spatial analysis and mapping using the latest in GPS technology, GIS, and image-analysis software.

• Farmington's Biology faculty members regularly lead exciting study-abroad courses over May and January terms. Tropical Island Ecology is offered each year in the U.S. Virgin Islands with a special focus on research with reef fish. Tropical Nature: Exploring Costa Rica is offered in alternate years and focuses on ecology and reflections on the natural world.

• Biology majors at Farmington have diverse summer internship opportunities that have included paid research positions in Maine as well as in Massachusetts, Michigan, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, California, and Florida.

• Our Biology curriculum offers a flexible choice of courses, research opportunities, and Work Initiative projects that often dovetail with your developing scientific interests. Farmington even offers a special Pre-Med track for students interested in careers in medicine and other health-related fields as well as graduate studies.

For additional information about Biology at the University of Maine at Farmington, just contact the Office of Admission:

Office of Admission
University of Maine at Farmington
246 Main Street
Farmington, Maine 04938-1994
US tel 207-778-7050
Intl. tel 00-1-207-778-7050
fax 207-778-8182
TDD/TYY 207-778-7275
umfadmit@maine.edu