Watch the recording of our February Speaking of Science, our monthly series exploring current discoveries and debates in science.
Jane Disney, Ph.D. received a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Genetics from Penn State University and a Ph.D. in Zoology from Washington State University. She is currently an Associate Professor of Environmental Health at MDI Biological Laboratory. In addition, she directs the activities of the Community Environmental Health Laboratory. She is the co-developer of the citizen science online data portal, Anecdata.org.
Since 2000, she has worked with multiple community partners, identifying, and helping to remedy threats to public health and the clean waters on and around Mount Desert Island, including bacterial pollution at local swim beaches and red tide blooms in Frenchman Bay. With a 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, she launched “All About Arsenic” in 2018, a project which engages secondary-school teachers and students as citizen scientists in collecting well water samples for analysis of arsenic and other toxic metals and sharing their findings in their communities.
In a new collaboration with University of New England, Dr. Disney plans to focus on the health of Mainers age 55+, with research to uncover the connection between environmental exposures to toxic substances and the aging process.Thomas Meuser, Ph.D. directs the University of New England Center for Excellence in Aging and Health, a “center without walls” which promotes applied scholarship, service-learning, and intergenerational engagement around healthful aging.
