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New Hampshire’s Trusted Partner
BY DAVE MOORE
UNH research contributes to the well-being of the state’s citizenry
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When the Granite State has a problem to solve, it repeatedly turns to University of New Hampshire expertise. By engaging with what key stakeholders say matters most to them — environment and energy, education at all levels, the economy and workforce, and healthcare, including mental health and substance abuse — UNH research exponentially improves the state’s capacity to tackle tough issues and makes New Hampshire a better place to live and work for everyone.
New Hampshire is a desirable place to live and to visit, which is good news for those who visit and live here. But all of this love places the state’s precious water resource “under significant development pressure,” says Bill McDowell, director of the UNH-based NH Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) and professor of natural resources and the environment. When McDowell and other WRRC scientists aren’t analyzing water samples from scores of lakes, rivers and streams around the state, they’re out working with state representatives, local town officials, scientists and planners to discuss ways to mitigate the impacts of population growth on the region’s potable water supply and ecosystem health.
Consider Blair Folts, executive director of Green Mountain Conservation Group (GMCG), a community-based organization that protects and conserves central Carroll County’s Ossipee watershed. Folts has been working with McDowell since 2000, not only availing herself of WRRC
analysis but also learning how to manage watershed ecosystems. “It’s not just about knowing what organisms are in our water but also how to work within the boundaries set by ecosystems,” Folts says.
Sound science guided GMCG in preventing such marvels of “development” as a proposed racetrack, car wash, power plant and, yes, a sludge import operation from either opening altogether or skirting compliance standards. “Getting your arms around complex issues like these doesn’t happen by itself,” she says. “Together with our partners, such as UNH, we ensure the protection of shared natural resources for 12,000 people living in more than a dozen communities.”
REDUCING ARSENIC LEVELS
Environmental professionals aren’t the only ones interested in healthy drinking water. For years, health officials in the Granite State have been trying to deal with unhealthy levels of arsenic in drinking water, which has been linked to cognitive impairment and lung, bladder and skin cancers. In 2018, New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) tapped an interdisciplinary team of UNH researchers to explore the economic benefits of lowering allowable arsenic content in New Hampshire’s municipal water systems. Bob Woodward, the Forrest D. McKerley Professor of Health Economics Emeritus at UNH, led the effort.
“Monitoring and filtering for arsenic has the potential for being expensive,” Woodward says. “So it’s important to know how much people are willing to pay each month to have access to filtered water.” Collaborating with UNH economists Robert Mohr and Scott Lemos and professor of resource economics John Halstead, Woodward arrived at the relatively modest sum of $35 a month.
Their findings enabled state lawmakers to pass a bill limiting the amount of arsenic in public drinking water to half the federal limit, or five parts per billion.“ NHDES is grateful to UNH for providing sound science on arsenic,” says NHDES water division director Thomas E. O’Donovan. “Armed with the facts, we were able to change the maximum contaminant level and can now work to truly and positively impact the health of our citizens.”
FIGHTING ADDICTION
UNH is addressing an acute shortage of behavioral health workers as the opioid crisis overwhelms the state’s capacity to treat it. In 2019, UNH added a psychiatric health certificate as a post-master’s offering for nurse practitioners. Family nurse practitioner students, such as Stephanie Penny ’20, do fieldwork in the state’s rural and underserved areas. “It’s not just about people showing up for medication,” Penny says. “Clients build their days around going to therapy and meetings. They’re dedicated to their recovery.”
UNH serves as a Project ECHO hub and created the Partnership for Academic-Clinical Telepractice (PACT), led by the UNH Institute for Health Policy and Practice. ECHO provides “telehealth” learning opportunities to healthcare professionals who can’t make it to Durham to receive training. Currently, 18 community practices statewide are using ECHO to better manage addiction issues in their communities.
EARLY CHILDHOOD WELL-BEING
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count report, the Granite State is first in the nation with regards to child well-being. However, the averages mask unequal access to opportunity and achievement based on where families live and how much money they earn. To bridge the gap, state education and human service leaders turned to assistant professor of human development and family studies Kimberly Nesbitt to lead a statewide project to improve the state’s early childhood system for children, families, schools and communities.
A $3.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services helped Nesbitt and her team identify where the need is and draft a preliminary plan to address it. And a new $26.8 million grant from the same federal agency will build on the team’s success and support their leadership of the state’s plan to ensure children and families of New Hampshire are healthy, learning and thriving.
SCIENCE AND MATH EDUCATION FOR RURAL SCHOOLS
Across campus, education professors Leslie Couse and Emilie Reagan and their team at Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) are tackling another challenge: meeting the need for science and math teachers in rural schools. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, TRRE is a 15-month master’s degree program for future elementary or secondary math or science teachers in rural, highneed schools in New Hampshire.
With dozens of partnership schools in 13 school districts statewide, TRRE offers a textbook case in the value of beyond-textbook learning. At White Mountains Regional High School in Coos County, for instance, TRRE graduate and current teacher Aidan Wiggin ’19G uses a nearby field set against snow-capped Mount Washington for a survival project. “My students have to figure out how to build a shelter, cook food and build a water filtration system, using materials mostly found on the spot,” says Wiggin.
Couse says rural life requires smarts and an ability to use math and science to engineer solutions, from planting and rotating crops to animal care and understanding the impact of weather on crops. “Our mountains, lakes, rivers and forests are educational resources, not liabilities,” she says.
DATA YOU CAN COUNT ON
If you ask Steve Reno “what is New Hampshire?” he’ll tell you it’s a website maintained by the Carsey School that furnishes the Granite State with “a reliable set of well-researched, credible data that policymakers can use to ground themselves in a common set of facts about where we are as a state, where we have been and what challenges we may face based on our analysis.”
Reno should know. The former chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire and current executive director of Leadership New Hampshire used to edit and review “What is New Hampshire?” — first a book and now online. “It poses a question rather than offers an answer, i.e., This is New Hampshire, precisely because it leaves the decision-making to the businesspeople, law makers, educators and citizens who use it,” Reno says. And use it they have, to help guide policymaking that addresses challenges such as wage stagnation, educational upgrading, an aging workforce, housing affordability, poverty, aging infrastructure and other issues.
Contributor and Carsey School founding director Michael Ettlinger says that over the years, this report has “furnished a common understanding of the facts that is an imperative to coming together to tackle challenges facing our state.”
Collaboration with UNH research and support from the state has been a significant source of growth for many New Hampshire businesses, like MegaFood, the Londonderry-based dietary supplement and nutraceutical manufacturer.
BENEFITS
TO NH Economy Jobs
In 2002, MegaFood collaborated with UNH and the state to develop technology to bring its unique fermentation process in-house. PRIVATE SECTOR MegaFood STATE OF NH NHIRC 4 University Instrumentation
Center instruments MegaFood is using to help patent its process. 3
Potential future collaborations with
UNH researchers as a result of MegaFood attending
UNH industry
“sandpits”. “UNH’s resources are much more extensive than ours in certain areas. Our work with UNH has really helped us leverage our work to generate economies of scale. It’s been a very profitable relationship.” Scott Buttram, Director, Science and Research, MegaFood Since its creation by the state legislature in 1991, the NHIRC has awarded more than $8 million in state funds to support research projects that help increase the number of high-quality jobs in the state. $41,000
State funding from NH Innovation Research
Center (NHIRC) for MegaFood to work with UNH microbiology researchers William Chesbro, Robert Mooney and Louis Tisa.
Awarded in 2002 and matched by MegaFood. 15 Number of jobs MegaFood promised in grant proposal it would add. 145
Approximate number of jobs MegaFood added after successful UNH collaboration.
Technology Innovation
Faculty Honors
American Geophysical Union Fellows Joe Dwyer, professor of physics Toni Galvin, research professor of physics and astronomy
Council of American Overseas Research Centers Multi-Country Fellowship Jeannie Sowers, associate professor of political science
Hydrographic Society of America Hydrographer Hall of Fame Andy Armstrong, NOAA co-director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/ Joint Hydrographic Center
Department of Energy Early Career Research Award Francois Foucart, assistant professor of physics
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship Samantha Seal, assistant professor of English
National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award Cheryl Andam, assistant professor of molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences Edward Song, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering
National Academy of Inventors Fellow Wayne Jones, provost and vice president for academic affairs
The Oceanographic Society Munk Medal Larry Mayer, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping
Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences Early Career Impact Award Laura Allen, assistant professor of psychology
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education Emerging Scholar Kabria Baumgartner, assistant professor of English and women’s and gender studies
Opportunity Finance Organization Ned Gramlich Lifetime Achievement Award Michael Swack, director of the Carsey School of Public Policy Center on Impact Finance
Graduate Student Honors
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award
Sydney Birch, Ph.D. student, molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences
Savannah Devoe, Ph.D. student, ocean engineering
Alexandria Hidrovo, Ph.D. student, civil and environmental engineering
Samuel Palmer, Ph.D. student, natural resources and Earth system sciences
Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
Melissa Meléndez-Oyola, Ph.D. student, Ocean Process Analysis Laboratory
American Geophysical Union Voices for Science
Andrew Robison, Ph.D. student, natural resources and Earth system sciences
Tamara Marcus, Ph.D. student, natural resources and Earth system sciences
Switzer Fellowship
Tamara Marcus, Ph.D. student, natural resources and Earth system sciences
Maine Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Amanda Beal, Ph.D. student, natural resources and Earth system sciences
Ecological Society of America 2019 Junior Scientist Outstanding Publication Award
Andrea Jilling ’19G, Ph.D., natural resources and Earth system sciences
Literacy Research Association Student Outstanding Research Award
Joy Erickson ’19G, Ph.D., education
NOAA Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship
Jesse Ross, master’s student, civil and environmental engineering
Leah Plunkett associate dean, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law
Sharenthood MIT Press
In her first book, Plunkett advises parents and other adults to think twice before hitting “post” on children’s images and data, saying it can compromise their privacy, future opportunities and sense of self. “Use the ‘holiday card’ rule of thumb,” she says. “If you wouldn’t put it in hard copy and mail it to a few hundred people in your life ...don’t put it on the internet for thousands of people in, near, or outside of your life to repurpose and display indiscriminately.”
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Kimberly Alexander lecturer of history
Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era Johns Hopkins University Press Historic New England Honors Book
Kabria Baumgartner assistant professor of English and women’s and gender studies
In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America New York University Press
Jaed Coffin assistant professor of English Roughhouse Friday: A Memoir Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Nora A. Draper assistant professor of communication
The Identity Trade: Selling Privacy and Reputation Online New York University Press
Kevin Healey associate professor of communication
Ethics and Religion in the Age of Social Media: Digital Proverbs for Responsible Citizens Routledge
Delia Malia Caparoso Konzett professor of English Hollywood at the Intersection of Race and Identity (editor) Rutgers University Press
Fredrik Meiton assistant professor of history
Electrical Palestine: Capital and Technology from Empire to Nation University of California Press Middle East Studies Association Albert Hourani Book Award; Roger Owen Book Award
Carmen García de la Rasilla professor of Spanish
Salvador Dalí: tradiciones, mitos y modos culturales Editorial Universidad de Granada
Will Smiley assistant professor of classics, humanities and Italian studies From Slaves to Prisoners of War Oxford University Press 2019 Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies book prize
In October 2019, professor of theatre David Richman wrote and directed a bold new dramatization of “The Odyssey.” Professor of music Lori Dobbins wrote original music for the production, which was co-directed by Rachel Bergeron ’20.
More than 100 students major in theatre, dance and music, taught by acclaimed faculty members who are also practitioners. Many students and alumni of UNH’s performing arts comprise the 1,400+ employees in New Hampshire’s performing arts industry, fueling the state’s $2.5 billion arts and culture economy.
Meet Marian McCord
In February, Marian McCord became UNH’s senior vice provost for research, economic engagement and outreach. She was previously the associate dean for research at the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University, overseeing the college’s sponsored program portfolio and research infrastructure with more than 200 active projects and 19 testing and service centers. McCord also co-founded two research-based startups.
How has your career primed you for this position? I have a diverse and multidisciplinary background in my own research program and in research administration, as well as in developing partnerships, working on economic development and working with extension and engagement. I have also been engaged in entrepreneurship, both on the for-profit and social entrepreneurship side.
My personal mission aligns with the mission of the university: I am very interested in public-impact research and am a firm supporter and fan of the land-grant mission. Universities develop science, humanities, arts and technologies, and land grants are the leaders in transferring that to the public and to societal impact. That is our responsibility as public institutions.
Tell us more about your research. Broadly, my research is in a transdisciplinary area encompassing textiles, polymers and biomaterials for human, plant and animal health applications. I have two degrees in biomedical engineering and I created a nice niche, using textiles or fibrous materials for medical products, devices or implants. I became engaged in some interesting global health challenges that were a really good fit for my expertise: preventing vector-borne disease by creating materials that were either insecticidal or insect-bite-proof, to protect humans against insect bites.
I have had a great career, and I really love the research work that I do, but the amount I can do will be limited in this new role. As an administrator, I have found that remaining engaged in research allows one to relate better to the day-to-day challenges facing faculty.
What opportunities are you most excited about in this new role? What UNH is doing with bringing together research, innovation, extension, engagement and outreach is really smart and very forward-thinking. It was this integration of these units into a single office that made this position so attractive to me. I am also excited by the mission and the vision that President Dean has laid out to become a top 25 public university, and the focus on student success. I am drawn to UNH’s land-grant mission, its size and scale and its great reputation. The university is poised to take great leaps and I want to be a part of that.
A top-tier research institution
R1 CARNEGIE CLASSIFICATION ®
Research, engagement and innovation at the University of New Hampshire, the state’s flagship public university and a Carnegie Classification R1 institution, reaches from the depths of our oceans to the edge of our solar system and the Earth and environment in which we all thrive. With research expenditures of more than $145 million, UNH’s research portfolio includes partnerships with NOAA, NASA, NSF and NIH. UNH is one of the top institutions in the country for licensing its intellectual property, and its outreach programs reach thousands of communities, companies, families and students each year.
SPARK 2020 Research Review
ADMINISTRATION President James W. Dean Jr.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Wayne Jones Senior Vice Provost for Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach Marian McCord
EDITOR Beth Potier beth.potier@unh.edu
WRITERS Lily Greenberg ’21G Debbie Kane Krysten Godfrey Maddocks ’96 Dave Moore Robbin Ray ’82 Keith Testa
DESIGN Five Line Creative CO N T R I B U T I N G PHOTOGRAPHERS Jeremy Gasowski Tomer Ketter Emily Lord Tyler Lyson Brooks Payette Scott Ripley Perry Smith Ron St. John University Instrumentation Center David Vogt
UNH.EDU/MAIN/RESEARCH
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Charles Zercher, Interim Dean
College of Health and Human Services Michael Ferrara, Dean
College of Liberal Arts Michele Dillon, Dean
College of Life Sciences and Agriculture Jon Wraith, Dean
Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics Deborah Merrill-Sands, Dean
University of New Hampshire at Manchester Michael Decelle, Dean
University of New Hampshire School of Law Megan Carpenter, Dean
Graduate School Cari Moorhead, Dean
Cooperative Extension Kenneth La Valley, Vice Provost of Outreach and Engagement and Director
Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space Harlan Spence, Director
School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering Diane Foster, Director
Carsey School of Public Policy Michael Ettlinger, Director
Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach Thompson Hall, 105 Main St. Durham, NH 03824
UNH launched its Brewing Science Lab and a brewing science minor in 2018 to serve New Hampshire’s growing craft brewing industry. Recently the lab, directed by Cheryl Parker ’00 (pictured), collaborated with Conway’s Tuckerman Brewing Company to brew a limited-edition beer, called 1866 in honor of UNH’s founding year.
