ORONO – Two well-known University of Maine science professors are retiring after a combined nearly 70 years of service to the campus.

A retirement reception was held Tuesday night for George L. Jacobson Jr., a professor in UM’s department of biological sciences and Climate Change Institute, and earth science professor Stephen A. Norton. Jacobson has been at UM for nearly 30 years, and Norton is ending his tenure after 40 years.

Both men have long lists of accomplishments and their work has been printed in a variety of environmental, science and academic publications.

Jacobson became the Maine state climatologist in 2008.

He also was leader of the “Faculty Five,” who – along with Norton, Malcolm Hunter, George Markowsky and David Smith – embarked on a grass-roots campaign to educate the public about the value of university research.

His work with the group earned him the 1999 Presidential Achievement Award for public service, the university’s highest faculty honor. He also received the University of Maine Foundation’s Leadership Award for 1994 to 2004, which honors the person who most changed the university during the decade, and the inaugural Abraham W. Harris Award for leadership in 2005.

During his tenure, Jacobson was involved in securing more than $7 million in research funding for UM and previously served as associate director of the School of Biology and Ecology from 2006 to 2007 and director of the Institute for Quaternary and Climate Studies, now the Climate Change Institute, from 1989 to 1993.

Jacobson held an important role as UM’s National Collegiate Athletic Association faculty representative from 1991 to the present and currently serves on the executive committee of the America East Conference.

At the request of Gov. John Baldacci, Jacobson also serves as chairman of the team conducting the Maine Climate Change Assessment study.

Norton, who joined the university in 1968 as an assistant professor of geological sciences, also was a member of the “Faculty Five.”

In 2005, he received the New England Board of Higher Education’s Award for Excellence in Project Achievement for his work on the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 program at UM.

He also was involved in projects that secured more than $18 million in research funding for the university.

Norton was appointed to the board of directors of Metals in the Human Environment, a trans-Canadian network of researchers investigating the flow of trace metals through ecosystems, including humans, and has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including “Science of the Total Environment,” “Environmental Monitoring and Assessment” and “The Scientific World.”