Grant funds new infectious disease program

UM has been awarded a $3.2 million National Science Foundation grant to establish the Montana Ecology of Infectious Disease (M-EID) program.

The award will allow the University to attract, support and train researchers to focus on some of the most important social and environmental issues, said Erick Greene, acting associate dean of UM’s Division of Biological Sciences.

He said, “With current concerns about avian flu and global pandemics, West Nile virus, HIV and AIDS, chronic wasting diseases in deer and elk, whirling disease in trout, and brucellosis in bison — just to name a few — the ecology of infectious diseases is an emerging field of global and local importance for people and wildlife.”

UM Professor Bill Holben and Associate Professors Mary Poss and Carol Brewer from the UM Division of Biological Sciences, Jonathan Graham of UM’s math department and Jesse Johnson of the University’s Department of Computer Science will direct the new M-EID program.

To achieve its goals, the program will focus on team-based collaborations, effective communication among disciplines, and professional development and career enhancement, Holben said. Students will be trained to meet significant needs related not only to infectious diseases, but also to any complex biological or ecological issues.

“The exciting thing about this training program is that nearly all of the funding goes to support graduate student education and research,” Holben said.

UM’s M-EID program also will work with a host of partner institutions, programs and agencies in the United States and in other countries to provide students broad opportunities.

“We are very pleased about this grant from the National Science Foundation,” Greene said. “It is one of the most competitive in the country, and receiving it is a testament to the University’s world-class faculty.”