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2017 Annual Report to the Vice President for Research I

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2017 Annual Report to the Vice President for Research I Annual Report – FY2017 Research Activity for the period July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017 Annual Report - FY 2017 Research Activity for the period of July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017 Table of Contents i. Executive Summary ...............................................................................................................1 Major Accomplishments ..................................................................................................1 Climate Futures (Appendix: i) A-i Highlights .........................................................................................................................1 I. Overview .................................................................................................................................3 A. Overview ....................................................................................................................3 B. Mission .......................................................................................................................3 C. Vision .........................................................................................................................3 D. Status of Strategic Plan (Appendix: ii) ................................................................. A-ii E. Administration and Staffing Structure (Appendix: A) .......................................... A-1 II. Pathway 1: Serving Maine ..................................................................................................4 A. Community Engagement ............................................................................................4 B. Economic Development .............................................................................................4 C. Workforce Development ............................................................................................5 D. Collaborations with UMaine System Campuses ........................................................5 E. Collaborations with Other Outside Institutes/Organizations/Maine ..........................5 F. Collaborations with Other Outside Institutes/Organizations/Outside of Maine .........5 III. Pathway 2: Financial Sustainability .................................................................................6 A. E&G Support; Salary and Operating Support ............................................................6 B. MEIF Support .............................................................................................................6 C. Research Funding; Submitted & Awarded, Trends (Appendix: B) ...................... A-2 D. Brief Overview of Each Major New Award (Appendix: C) ................................. A-3 E. Return on Investment .................................................................................................7 F. Revenue Centers .........................................................................................................7 G. Private Giving/Alumni Cultivation ............................................................................7 H. Initiatives to Increase Fiscal Efficiency .....................................................................7 IV. Pathway 3: Culture of Excellence .....................................................................................8 A. Faculty Achievements (Awards, Recognitions etc.) ..................................................8 B. Research & Scholarship Summary (Publications, Presentations etc. Appendix: D) (Data not available until after 30 June when faculty annual reports are due.) C. Curricular Innovations/Integration with UMaine Education Mission ........................8 D. Program Integration ...................................................................................................8 V. Pathway 4: Student Engagement, Student Success ..........................................................8 A. Undergraduate Student Research, Scholarship or Creative Activities .......................8 B. Undergraduate Student Awards .................................................................................9 C. Graduate Student Research, Scholarship or Creative Activities (Appendix: E) ......................................................................................................... A-5 D. Graduate Student Awards ..........................................................................................9 E. Retention and Graduation Numbers, Initiatives .........................................................9 F. Degrees Granted .........................................................................................................9 G. Highlighted Student Profile (Appendix: F) ........................................................... A-6 VI. Pathway 5: Preserving-Restoring Infrastructure ...........................................................9 A. Renovation/Construction Projects Initiated/Completed ............................................9 B. Renovation/Construction Projects Planned for Coming Year (i.e., vetted with Facilities Management .......................................................................................9 VII. Summary of Anticipated Challenges ..............................................................................9 VII. Summary of New Initiatives ..........................................................................................10 2017 Annual Report to the Vice President for Research i. Executive Summary Major Accomplishments (overarching): Climate change is a major security issue for our country and the world and a defining element for the 21st century. It impacts human and ecosystem health, the economy, causes geopolitical stress, and increases the likelihood of storms, floods, droughts, wildfires and other extreme events. The Climate Change Institute has a legacy of transformational contributions to the understanding of the physical, chemical, biological and social complexity of climate change and the application of these findings at local to international scales. One of the several transformational contributions made by the Climate Change Institute is the understanding that the wind systems that deliver moisture, heat and pollutants and that impact surface ocean currents and sea surface temperature throughout the planet can shift in a matter of a few months to years with dramatic and sustained changes in water availability, storms and health at local to regional scales. The Institute uses this perspective to understand and aid in prediction of future hemispheric scale weather impacts, notably extreme events, with the most recent being abrupt warming of the Arctic with consequences for Northern Hemisphere climate and the strengthening and poleward migration of winds around Antarctica resulting in massive changes in water availability and sea surface temperatures throughout the Southern Hemisphere. To address the likelihood of continued abrupt changes and extreme events in climate the Institute continues to conduct field research, laboratory analyses, and to develop software to aid in the understanding of non-linear climate responses for use in climate adaptation and sustainability planning. In 2014 the Institute launched a framework for developing climate change adaptation and sustainability planning that includes continually enhanced, publicly available software to understand past, present and future changes in climate and vulnerability to climate change through the formulation of plausible scenarios for the prediction of annual to multi-decadal scale climate change. This framework now forms a primary initiative for CCI entitled Climate Futures (http://www.climatefutures.net/) (Appendix i). Within Climate Futures CCI is undertaking plausible scenario climate planning for: West Africa, the Southern Hemisphere continents, Central Asia and Maine. In addition, CCI is in the process of developing an Arctic Futures Institute with the UM Law School and the World Ocean Observatory as an offshoot of the Arctic Council meetings in Portalnd last Fall. This activity is intended to provide a mechanism for a Maine-wide focus on physical, chemical, biological and social science, busness, policy and law in the Arctic. CCI and SPIA continue to share a highly successful NSF IGERT that is the first of its type in the nation – A2C2 (Adaptation to Abrupt Climate Change) - a building block for graduate-faculty involvement in Climate Futures. The Institute continues to maintain its high level of research funding, return on indirect, publications, outreach and its role as the focal point for the UM’s climate change research excellence. Selected examples (youngest to oldest based on report) of additional highlights of major accomplishments follow (selection derived from the CCI News and Events section of our website, for more details concerning each item listed below go to: http://climatechange.umaine.edu/: • Climate change directory created to connect public with experts, information - Spaulding Climate Change Institute - FY2017 Annual Report 1 • John Mahon named 2017 Distinguished Maine Professor • Portland Press cites researchers about March of Science • The ‘war on science’ doesn’t just hurt scientists. It hurts everyone. - Washington Post - J. Gill • Jankowski, Kilroy, St. Amand awarded graduate research fellowships • Elias’ essay on importance of science results in meeting with Congress • Mayewski teams with LumenARRT! for large-scale video project • Emerging climate change research focus of Hal Borns Symposium • UMaine Printing Services recognized by national group for
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