PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 9, 2025
A University of Maine professor has won a $1 million National Science Foundation award to develop faster, cheaper ways to study plants by developing technology to analyze the 390 million specimens already stored in archived collections around the world. Jose “Dudu” Meireles, an assistant professor of plant evolution and systematics, will use the grant to develop an open source computer model that will use genetic analysis and reflective light to study already collected plants, saving field and lab time and money and protecting rare plants from destruction. He believes it will eventually enable scientists to triple the amount of data collected from plants in a year.