UMaine names 2025 Presidential Award recipients

UMaine names 2025 Presidential Award recipients

The 2025 Presidential Awards recognize outstanding teachers in microbiology and marine biology; applied research in creative blind and low vision technologies; engagement with Maine's youth through outdoor education; innovation in shellfish cultivation; and extraordinary impact on economic enhancement and collaboration across Maine.

Award winners this year include two professors from UMaine Machias. Gayle Kraus, professor of marine ecology received the Presidential Award Outstanding Teaching award and Brian Beal, professor of marine ecology and director of the Marine Science Field Station, received the Presidential Innovation Award.

Gayle Kraus

Throughout Gayle Kraus's 44 years of teaching marine biology courses, her love for it has never waned. She is just as excited about teaching today as she was at the beginning of her career. She has changed the lives of many, not only in the classroom, but also as an adviser and mentor.

Kraus significantly enhances her students' educational experiences by designing coursework that gives them an opportunity to be on the sea and along the coast. Her use of immersive field experiences deepen student understanding by connecting classroom learning to real-world application. With an expertise that spans the topics of ichthyology, marine biology, marine mammals, invertebrates, ornithology, skeletal articulation and wildlife rehabilitation, Kraus has a personal way of connecting those around her with knowledge. She teaches others to imagine the world as she does: through the eyes of the subject, whether that be a New Zealand abalone shell or a harbor seal.

During the fall, spring and summer, Kraus works with students to create and maintain the aquaculture laboratory, where they are tasked with nurturing a healthy ecosystem in fish tanks, and the campus labyrinths, which are creative pathways for people to explore made of logs, flowers and other natural elements. For over two decades, she and her students have participated in the Marine Mammal Stranding Network to collect and assess data on the carcasses of marine animals such as seals, sharks and whales, as well as rescue and perform basic triage on a variety of seal species. She also helps students set up research aquariums for culturing corals, a skill needed to restore reefs that provide habitats for endangered marine species.

Throughout her career, Kraus's research on marine ecosystems - from soft shell clams to macrobenthic organisms - has been included in over a dozen abstracts and publications.

Her advice to future teachers is to not be afraid of extending beyond the comfort zone and learn along with students, which is when Kraus said the adventures start. She strives to keep her courses experiential, ever changing and relevant so that her students are always entertained.

Kraus was recognized by Commissioner Judy Camuso of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife in 2021 for her volunteer work to stabilize and rehabilitate injured birds and mammals. She has been a Maine state permitted wildlife rehabilitator for approximately 30 years and participates annually in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count.

Brian Beal

Brian Beal ('79 UMM, '94G UMaine) has spent four decades improving the economic impact and relevance of Maine's coastal communities. Beal's methods for cultivating commercial shellfish have helped Maine's blue economy adapt to the impact of changes in the Gulf of Maine.

He contributed to the rise of the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education from its position as a local shellfish hatchery to the easternmost marine research and education center in the U.S. Formerly known as the Beals Island Regional Shellfish Hatchery, the Downeast Institute started as a six-town affair in the basement of a retired elementary school. Within a decade, involvement in the facility grew to 72 communities. Beal, director of the Marine Science Field Station at the Institute, further expanded its scope by introducing research on scallops, mussels and oysters.

A professor of marine ecology, Beal splits his time between teaching at the University of Maine at Machias and conducting research. Each year since 1987, he selects two or more undergraduate students to participate in 12-14 week internships at the Downeast Institute. He also guides students who conduct marine biology or ecology studies as part of their Senior Thesis in Biological Research course.

Beal was instrumental in establishing Maine's first lobster hatchery in the late '80s. At the request of a group of lobstermen from Cutler, Beal collaborated with UMaine's Darling Marine Center to enhance lobster stocks. The Cutler Lobster Hatchery became obsolete in the '90s when lobster reproduction exploded from warmer waters in the Gulf of Maine. Around the same time, the director of the Shellfish Research Laboratory at the National University of Ireland, Galway, invited Beal to demonstrate his method of rearing lobster. His technique is now used in European and Canadian facilities for research and lobster stock enhancement.

Beal is a member of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection Clean-up and Response Fund Review Board and the Downeast Institute Board of Directors, and is chairman of the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center Board of Directors. He received the 2000 UMaine Machias Teacher of the Year Award and the 2015 Bourne-Chew Award from the National Shellfisheries Association, of which he is also a member. Additionally, he was recognized as a 2001 UMaine Machias Distinguished Alumnus and was included in Maine Magazine's list of 50 Mainers creating a brighter future for the state in 2019.

More about the 2025 Presidential Award recipients can be found on UMaine News.