Dr. McCartney, picture from the event promotion
If UMPI has something to be proud of, it is surely its faculty. An UMPI faculty member once more proves that our university is thriving, and not just for its students’ work. Its academic and intellectual faculty are no less a living proof that dreams can come true if you really try to follow them.
A recent example of not just an UMPI honor, but also a national, was UMPI professor of geology Dr. Kevin McCartney’s distinction of receiving a Fulbright award. This is a U.S. Scholar program accompanied by a grant and, in McCartney’s case, a trip to Poland.
The Fulbright program is an American scholarship program based on grants for both students, professionals and scientists established by Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. The Fulbright is the largest exchange program in the U.S with over 1,900 grants in more than 140 countries worldwide.
On Monday, Feb. 12, faculty, students and community members gathered to celebrate McCartney’s work and honor as the recipient of the Fulbright award.
The presentation was joyful and the audience very intrigued by McCartney’s work and his slideshow with highlights from his trip. An UMPI student with a minor in environmental science and geology, Adam Weyeneth, said, “It was something new, the information was very insightful.” When Adam was asked what stood out the most he said, “The part that each career has a backdoor. Professor McCartney used the example that everyone wants to go into biology to study whales, while microbiology has plenty of jobs and areas of study that are so understudied and unknown”.
McCartney’s study was about microbiology and the evolution of silicoflagellates from over a 15-million-year period after the dinosaur extinction. During the course of his research, he discovered and named a new species in honor of UMPI, “Umpiocha umpiana.” He also described four other species after four UMPI students (“Cornua engelii,” “Schylzyocha churchilii,” “S. lurveyi” and “S. powersii”). Once more you can see what an exceptional honor it is for UMPI to have such a faculty member who loves and supports our university.
McCartney said that the reason for applying for the award was fully because of encouragement from his colleagues at the University of Szczecin in Poland. While in Poland and working for the Fulbright scholarship, he ended up writing three first-authored papers and many others that he assisted as a co-author. One of his papers, which ended up in publication, included the description of one new genus and two new species, one of them named in honor of Fulbright.
Being dedicated to doing what you love and accomplishing your dreams is something that most people have thought about. McCartney has proven that it is possible to accomplish what you want and follow your dreams. You just have to take a step forward, open yourself up to opportunities and have your dreams guide you.
