UM is one of the nation’s 150 best-value undergraduate institutions, according to The Princeton Review’s 2007 edition of “America’s Best Value Colleges,” which hit bookstore shelves last week.

The guide profiles 150 colleges with excellent academics, generous financial-aid packages and relatively low costs.

This marks the first time UM has been included in “America’s Best Value Colleges,” although the University has been profiled in The Princeton Review’s “Best 361 Colleges” for several years. UM is the only Montana college profiled in the new book.

The Princeton Review chose colleges for the book based on institutional data and student opinion surveys collected from 646 colleges and universities from fall 2004 through summer 2005.

“The academics are solid, the location is astonishing, and the price is right,” reads a quote highlighting UM’s profile.

An administrator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been named head registrar at UM.

David Micus, associate registrar at MIT since 2002, will join UM July 1. He replaces Phil Bain, who retired as head registrar last month after more than 32 years of service to UM.

Until Micus arrives on campus, associate registrar Laura Carlyon will serve as interim registrar through June 30. The Registrar’s Office oversees class registration, course and room scheduling, course catalogs, transcripts, grading, graduation and other administrative academic processes.

Micus was hired this week after a national search. He comes to UM with a long history of registrar experience at New England colleges and universities.

Dr. Irving Weissman, one of the world’s leading researchers in stem cell biology, will present “Stem Cells: Science, Medicine and Politics” at 5:30 p.m. Monday, April 10, in Missoula.

The event is hosted by the Montana Cancer Institute Foundation, a partnership formed in 2005 between UM and St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center.

The presentation will be held in the hospital’s Conference Center and is free and open to the public.

Weissman was the first scientist to identify and isolate stem cells in any species. He is director of the Institute of Cancer and Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at Stanford University.

UM Professor Chuck Leonard is highly prone to motion sickness, but next week he’ll take his chances aboard a dizzying NASA aircraft -- all in the name of science.

Leonard and two UM graduate students will test a new handheld device that measures muscle tone on a jet in the air high above Houston’s Johnson Space Center. The C-9B jet flies a series of roller-coaster arcs to create weightlessness.

Although NASA likes to call its plane the “Weightless Wonder,” its predecessor was perhaps more aptly nicknamed “the Vomit Comet.” Leonard, who admits to becoming ill in roller coasters and on road trips, doubts he’ll escape unscathed.

But he’s excited to test the Myotonometer, a device he developed and patented in partnership with a Russian scientist. In 2001, the pair formed a UM spin-off company, Neurogenic Technologies, to market the device.

A professor in UM’s School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, Leonard and his students will be joined during the Myotonometer testing by a scientist who heads NASA’s Muscle Physiology Research Laboratory.

Since astronaut muscles atrophy and weaken during spaceflight, NASA is looking for a way to measure changes in muscle health.

Montana compares well with other states in conditions under which infants are born, according to a new online report titled “The Right Start for America’s Newborns: City and State Trends.”

Montana ranks in the top third when compared with other states in the following five categories:

• births to mothers with less than 12 years of education (Montana 15.7 percent vs. nationally 21.6 percent).
• births to mothers receiving late or no prenatal care (2.7 percent vs. 3.5 percent).
• low birth weights of less than 5.5 pounds (6.8 percent vs. 7.9 percent).
• preterm births of less than 37 weeks of gestation (11.1 percent vs. 12.3 percent).
• births to unmarried women (32.2 percent vs. 34.6 percent).

Compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of the KIDS COUNT program, the report has been updated to include 2003 data, adding to birth information tracked yearly since 1990.

Steve Seninger, director of Montana KIDS COUNT, credits much of the state’s progress to the work of the public agencies and health care providers, which have placed an emphasis on improving outcomes for infants.

The fifth annual Graduate Student and Faculty Research Conference will be held Saturday, April 8, at UM.

The conference brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines and includes oral presentations and a poster session.

All conference events will be held in University Center third floor meeting rooms beginning at 9 a.m. A reception at 5:30 p.m. and an awards ceremony will follow the research presentations.

This year’s conference also includes an interdisciplinary roundtable discussion titled “Infectious Diseases in the Modern World,” moderated by Herbert Swick of Missoula’s Institute of Medicine and Humanities.

Conference events are free and open to the public. Childcare will be available.

Two UM students, Hilary Martens and Elizabeth Morton, won prestigious Goldwater Scholarships during the 2006 competition. The awards provide up to $7,500 per year for university expenses.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program honors the deceased Arizona statesman who served 30 years in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater Scholars demonstrate outstanding academic performance and the potential to succeed in careers involving mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.

Martens, a junior majoring in physics from Missoula, plans to earn a doctorate in space plasma physics. She hopes to conduct research with a team of scientists on space missions.

Morton, a junior majoring in biology from Omaha, Neb., intends to earn a doctorate and conduct primary research exploring the nature and mechanisms of gene regulation.

Both students participate in UM’s Davidson Honors College, which offers support and an enhanced curriculum -- including opportunities for undergraduate research -- to gifted, motivated students.

Transfer Transition, an early registration day for students who plan to transfer to UM this fall, will be held Tuesday, April 25.

All transfer students who have been admitted to UM for fall semester 2006 are welcome to attend.

During the daylong event, students will meet with academic advisers to develop schedules and register for classes.

Information also will be available about campus resources, on-campus and off-campus living options, and the costs and payment options associated with attending UM.

For more information about Transfer Transition or to register for the event, visit the Web site or call UM Admissions and New Student Services at (406) 243- 6266 or toll free at (800) 462-8636.

Mike Greener, a photojournalism student at UM, won first place and $2,000 in the picture story/series category of the national Hearst Journalism Awards Program -- considered the Pulitzers of college journalism.

Greener, a senior from Crystal Lake, Ill., earned the award by documenting the last eight days of David Barton, a man who entered hospice care while dying from lung cancer.

The picture story/series category was the last of three photo contests offered by Hearst this academic year. The top four winners in each category, including Greener, will next submit portfolios of their work, and the top six will be chosen to compete in the program’s national journalism championships in San Francisco this June.

The Hearst Journalism Award Program is presented each year by the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with full funding by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

Tom Siegel, an executive chef with Dining Services at UM, cooked his way to an American Culinary Federation gold medal during regional competition in Minneapolis.

Siegel captured first place in the National Association of College and University Food Services 2006 Continental Region Culinary Challenge at the University of St. Thomas. He will advance to the NACUFS 2006 National Culinary Challenge in Toronto this July.

He prepared lobster-mushroom-dusted chicken roulade of fig chutney finished with pomegranate tomato sauce accompanied by anasazi bean and braised greens ragout and zucchini flan.

The NACUFS Culinary Challenge is in its sixth year and is sanctioned by the ACF.

UM’s public art piece “Teepee Burner” has been reinstalled on campus after being removed in January for repairs and conservation.

The welded steel sculpture by John Vichorek, commissioned by the University in 1970, is part of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture’s Permanent Collection.

“Teepee Burner” is located between Jeannette Rankin Hall and UM’s Natural Sciences Building. The sculpture is an abstract version of a device used during the 1960s and 1970s to burn lumber-industry waste.

The artwork’s top section, meant to resemble plumes of smoke, was originally a highly reflective polished steel surface. Exposure to wind and weather caused the metal to deteriorate, and cracks at the posts destabilized the artwork.

A new concrete base now provides increased stability for the large sculpture. Powder coatings, chosen to match the surfaces of the original work, will prevent further rusting.

Two Missoula companies, Montana Silhouettes and Armor Powder Coating, handled the sculpture repairs.

Montana Poet Laureate Sandra Alcosser will receive the H.G. Merriam Award for outstanding contributions to the state’s literature Wednesday, April 12, at UM.

Alcosser is the author of award-winning books of poetry and has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times and the Paris Review. She was named poet laureate by Gov. Brian Schweitzer last summer. She will accept her award and speak at the Friends of the Mansfield Library 43rd Annual Spring Banquet from 6 to 9 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

Also during the banquet, D’Arcy McNickle, a Montana American Indian novelist and anthropologist, will be given a posthumous H.G. Merriam Award. McNickle (1904-77) is regarded as one of the founders of Indian literature and ethnohistory.

The annual banquet serves as a library fundraiser. Tickets are $35 for the general public or $25 for Friends of the Mansfield Library members. Reserved tables cost $250 and seat 10 people. Call Julia Ludlow at (406) 243-6800 for tickets or more information.

Ruth Vanita will read from her book “Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West” and will sign copies of the book from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15, at The Bookstore at UM.

The reading and book signing are the final events of the bookstore’s 2005-06 Faculty Author Series.

Professor Vanita teaches in UM’s Liberal Studies Program. She is a poet, author, editor and translator.

Vanita was educated in Delhi, India, and was one of the founders and co-editors of Manushi, a journal about women and society. She has written widely on Indian women’s issues and has translated many works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by and about women from Hindu to English.

UM junior Alicia Mills broke her own school record in the javelin, senior Jas Gill qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regional in the high jump and the Grizzlies added 11 new names to their Big Sky Conference-qualifying list Saturday at the 12th annual Al Manuel Track and Field Meet at UM’s Dornblaser Field.

The meet also involved Idaho State, Eastern Washington, Montana State and North Dakota's University of Mary. (Mary was not included in dual scoring.)

The Montana women swept their three duals, defeating ISU 88-75, EWU 83.5-75.5 and MSU 83-79.

The UM men won two and tied one, defeating EWU 86-76 and MSU 87-77 and coming out even with ISU at 84-84.

Mills entered the meet with the school record in the javelin with a throw last spring of 146-1. She smashed that mark Saturday afternoon with a third-place throw of 154-5.

Gill reached the NCAA Midwest Region-qualifying height of 6-10.75 to win the high jump. Montana continues its outdoor season this week at the Eastern Washington Multi-Events and the EWU Invitational today.