Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 26 : Fall 2015 | Page 64

UMPI Efforts Stretch
From Presque Isle All
The Way To Pluto

by the University of Maine at Presque Isle

Educational exploration, research, and
arts-focused endeavors are always underway at
the University of Maine at Presque Isle, but the
summer and fall have included activities connected
with locales as close as northernmost Maine and
Mount Katahdin to as far away as the dwarf planet
Pluto.
This summer, the University, the Northern Maine
Museum of Science, and the northern Maine
running community joined forces to run “From
Pluto at the Speed of Light” along the Maine Solar
System Model. This first-of-its-kind relay event
was billed as the fastest run ever performed by
humans because it was conducted at scale “light
speed” (186,000 miles per second) along the solar
system model, from the Pluto model in Houlton to
the Earth model in Presque Isle. The run was held
July 15 and celebrated the NASA New Horizons
mission to Pluto. The event was organized by Kevin
McCartney, organizer for the museum and the solar
system model. Evan Graves, a coach at the Limestone
and Caribou High Schools, organized
the running portion of the event and
ran nearly the entire course. Graves has
run 10 marathons, including a 32nd

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FALL 2015

place finish at a Boston Marathon. Group leaders
over the different segments of the relay included
Graves, Ty Thurlow, Chris Rines, Angela Ewing,
Mike Smith, Mike Waugh, and Justin Fereshetian.
Chris Smith, UMPI cross country running coach
and president of the Maine Mûsterds running club,
also helped in the organization of this event. The
run was designed to occur during—and simulate—
the sending of the New Horizons spacecraft photos
taken from the close encounter with Pluto back to
Earth.

Closer to home, two UMPI professors are
working with a University of Maine at Fort Kent
colleague on climate change research in Maine’s
Deboullie Public Reserved Land. UMPI Assistant
Professors of Biology Dr. Judith Roe and Dr. Larry
Feinstein, with their partner Dr. Peter Nelson,
UMFK Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
and Environmental Studies, received a $7,100
Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund grant for their
research project, titled “Ecological Assessment of
Threatened Vegetation Communities
in Rock Glaciers to Monitor Impact
of Climate Change.” The grant was
matched at $2,000 by both UMPI and