J. Morris Weinberg Student Innovation Award

Recipient: Caitlin Howell

“This award has been very helpful in allowing me to concentrate on my studies and research. Thanks to this support, I have been able to spend more time working on my Honors Thesis in the lab. I am very grateful to have received this honor, and am now more motivated than ever to live up to it by excelling in my research and classes. I only hope that someday I can contribute to society as Mr. J. Morris Weinberg did, and grant this opportunity to another.”

Caitlyn grew up in the small town of Oxford, Maine. She is pursuing a degree in Biology. She has “especially enjoyed” working as an active researcher in Professor of Molecular Plant Pathology Jody Jellison’s laboratory, where she has conducted investigations into the biology, physiology, and chemistry of a very destructive wood decay fungus. She has also co-authored an electronic document that will be later used as the basis for a publication. Some of her research has been funded through Work Merit awards and a highly competitive National Science Foundation GK-12 Grant, which will culminate with an Honors Thesis Defense and a presentation to the International Group on Wood Preservation in Norway in June, 2006. After she graduates her goal is to obtain a Ph.D. in a hybrid Biology-Engineering discipline. “I hope to one day make significant contributions to the development of stronger, safer, biologically derived materials for use in everything from space shuttles to decking materials.”

Caitlin with Norma Weinberg at the Buchanan Alumni House in the Stanley C. Allen '61 and Kathleen Allain Library/Museum.

The J. Morris Weinberg Student Innovation Award was established in 2005 to encourage the efforts and achievements of outstanding science undergraduates who undertake novel and entrepreneurial initiatives in a multidisciplinary environment. The fund is named after J. Morris Weinberg, who graduated from the University of Maine in 1960 with a degree in Engineering Physics and a life-long affection for Maine. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in Optics and Molecular Spectroscopy at Ohio State University. Throughout his life Dr. Weinberg demonstrated an insatiable desire to learn and to share his knowledge by mentoring those on their own creative path.

Norma Pasekoff Weinberg, who was married to J. Morris Weinberg for 40 years, had the following to say about this fund: “Family and friends are excited about the Student Innovation Award in memory of J. Morris Weinberg. This award recognizes the student who is willing to ‘step outside the box.’ The recipients will be seniors who have chosen to investigate more than one discipline: asking questions, looking deeper, processing issues and finding answers on how the world works. My husband was an individual like that. Future employers will want to meet these students.”