Photo courtesy of UMaine
Professor Ed Grew has invested in his discipline in many ways. Grew has been at the University of Maine since 1984 as a research scientist and an educator and mentor to both undergraduate and graduate students.
In November 2014, he established two funds for the benefit of the department to which he has devoted his life’s work. The Edward Sturgis Grew Earth Sciences Endowment will be used to support the educational and research activities of students in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences. Funds will be available for educational field trips, field experiences and field camp, research, internships and networking events. The Edward Sturgis Grew Professorship in Petrology and Mineralogy will support a new tenure-eligible faculty position in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences.
Grew describes the motivation for his gift, “I would like to keep up the tradition of mineralogy and petrology at the School of Earth and Climate Sciences for which the School is renowned. The School has excellent and well-maintained analytical instrumentation for studying minerals such as the electron microprobe and scanning electron microscope, which are available to students and faculty alike. In addition, supporting a professorship is a family tradition since I have common ancestors with both founders of the Sturgis Hooper Professorship of Geology at Harvard University. I hope to set a precedent to other faculty in the School to come forward and donate funds to further the internationally recognized research within the School.”
Grew received a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. degree from Harvard University. He served in post-doctoral positions at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of California at Los Angeles before joining the research faculty of the University of Maine in 1984. His distinguished career in mineralogy and metamorphic petrology have included fieldwork in southern India, Siberia’s Aldan Shield and Tajikistan, as well as 9 trips to Antarctica with expeditions supported by the U.S., Japan, Australia, and the former Soviet Union, including a winter-over at its Molodezhnaya Station. This research was funded by 24 research grants and has resulted in over 160 peer-reviewed publications, two edited volumes, and numerous presentations at national and international scientific conferences. Grew has also brought significant international recognition to the University of Maine through his contributing to the discovery of 17 new minerals. Two new minerals have been named in his honor; edgrewite and hydroxyledgrewite. In 2007, Grew was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of distinguished research on the role of lithium, beryllium and boron in metamorphism at high temperatures and pressures, with emphasis on the Precambrian of Antarctica.
The Edward Sturgis Grew Earth Sciences Endowment is held at the University of Maine Foundation and the Edward Sturgis Grew Professorship in Petrology and Mineralogy is administered by the Dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture.
“Dr. Grew’s gift is another fine example of UMaine’s faculty giving back to support and enhance ongoing learning for students,” says Foundation President/CEO Jeff Mills. “Along with the financial support, it is a tribute to the scholarship at the University of Maine.”
