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Schools

Journalism scholarship

BANGOR – Allison Frazier of Bangor is one of 12 students statewide to have her Guy P. Gannett Journalism Scholarship renewed.

She is a dean’s list student at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y., and a graduate of Bangor High School.

Etna-Dixmont School

ETNA – The Etna-Dixmont P.T.F. will hold its first meeting of the school year at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8, in the school library. Discussion topics include after-school programs and fund raising. Parents, teachers and friends are welcome to attend.

Children’s choir

BANGOR – The Bangor Area Children’s Treble Choir, directed by Michele Hall, is seeking singers between the ages of 9 and 16 to audition. Individual auditions will be held 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, at All Souls Congregational Church, State Street and Broadway. Yearly tuition for the choir is $200 per singer.

The Bangor Area Children’s Youth Chorale, also directed by Michele Hall, is seeking singers with a choral singing background who are in grades eight-12 to audition. Several women’s voices are especially needed. Rehearsals for the youth chorale begin 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9. Yearly tuition is $250 per singer.

Call-back for all singers is 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18.

College

Delta Kappa Gamma

BANGOR – Mary Katherine Fortier, a Bangor Christian Schools graduate, has been chosen to receive the Doris S. Heath Scholarship from the Theta Chapter of Alpha Psi State Maine of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International. She will attend Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.

Linsey Harmon, a graduate of George Stevens Academy, has been chose to receive the Theta Chapter Recruitment Grant-in-Aid Scholarship. She will attend Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vt.

Carlena Lowell, a graduate of Mount Desert Island High School, will receive the Patricia H. Thurston Scholarship. She will attend the University of Maine at Farmington.

Kathleen Sirois, a graduate of Ellsworth High School, will receive the Charlotte S. Morse Memorial Scholarship. She will attend St Joseph’s College in Standish.

Food science awards

ORONO – University of Maine Prof. Alfred Bushway of Veazie has received two awards for his teaching, research and technical assistance to the food products industry.

The Institute of Food Technologists awarded Bushway its 2003 Elizabeth Fleming Stier Award for pursuit of humanitarian ideals and significant contributions to the food products industry and the public.

Bushway also has been selected by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., to receive the Outstanding Food Science Award given to alumni. Bushway received a bachelor’s degree from UMaine and attended Purdue for a master’s degree and doctorate.

“One of the most satisfying aspects of my academic career at the University of Maine has been to follow the successes that my students have achieved upon graduating,” Bushway said. “Our ability to contribute expertise has been important to the development and growth of Maine’s food processing industry.”

Bushway came to UMaine in 1978. He advises all food science majors and has mentored more than 30 graduate students whose research has resulted in more than 60 academic publications. His research focuses on the post-harvest quality of fruits and vegetables, and the development of new food products. He has worked closely with food product companies.

Bushway is the first UMaine professor to receive the IFT award.

New UM vice president

ORONO – Michael Eckardt, a medical psychologist with substantial experience managing research programs and other activities at a division of the National Institutes of Health, has been named vice president for research at the University of Maine. The appointment was approved last week by the executive committee of the University of Maine System board of trustees.

Eckardt, who has a doctorate in medical psychology from the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, began working for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the NIH in 1976. He served in several capacities and was also a member of the University of Oregon Medical School faculty from 1986 to 1990.

He has played a significant role in the development of federal guidelines related to alcohol and health and has been an active researcher, authoring some 150 scientific publications. Eckardt retired from NIAAA earlier this year, having served most recently as chief of the agency’s planning and evaluation branch.

“We will benefit greatly from Michael’s expertise as he joins us to lead UMaine’s research efforts,” said Robert Kennedy, UMaine’s provost and executive vice president. “He has a great deal of experience in managing research activities at the highest level, and he will play a key role in helping us advance in this vital part of UMaine’s mission. Michael is both a distinguished scientist and a proven leader. I look forward to working with him.”

At UMaine, the vice president for research is responsible for developing and executing strategies related to UMaine’s research mission; for representing the university’s interests to government, industry and other constituencies; and for oversight of all policies related to research, technology transfer and economic development.

“I am looking forward to working with the faculty and senior leadership at the University of Maine to further their research interests,” Eckardt said.

“I am very impressed with both the faculty’s enthusiasm for research and the extensive support of these efforts by the senior leadership,” he said.

“It will be an exciting challenge to realize the research-related goals stated in the university’s strategic plan and to accelerate the attainment of a more knowledge-based economy in Maine.”

The vice president for research job at UMaine has been vacant for nearly 15 months, since Daniel Dwyer resigned to accept a similar position in New Mexico. Eckardt is expected to begin work at UMaine immediately.