Jacquelyn Gill, a University of Maine paleoecologist, is one of the finalists for the Portland Press Herald’s 2017 Mainers of the Year. She helped start a conversation on Twitter that evolved into the March for Science on Earth Day 2017. “I’ve felt catapulted by this national energy around supporting science,” Gill told the Portland Press Herald. “I feel called to use my voice. There are many voices out there, I’m just one of them and I’m grateful that I have a platform where I can get this message out.” Gill holds a joint appointment in the Climate Change Institute and the School of Biology and Ecology. She says extinct animals and plants are naturally concluded experiments of the past and that teasing apart bits of material from what they left behind can inform current conservation efforts, including for keystone species.
College of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences