Come to the UM Oval for the region's biggest and best egg hunt at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 15.

This year's Easter Eggstravaganza features 20,000 prize eggs stuffed with small toys and coupons redeemable for bigger toys. Hunters who find the maroon, silver and gold eggs will receive even bigger prizes, while those who uncover the grand gold eggs will win bicycles. In addition, there will be tens of thousands of pieces of candy.

The Oval’s four sections will be divided by age groups: 0-3, 4-5, 6-7 and 8-9. One parent is welcome to assist infants and toddlers ages 0-3, but parents are not allowed on the field in other age categories. Monte and the Easter Bunny will be present to meet kids and pose for photos.

The event is free and open to the public.

Judy Blunt, author of the 2002 memoir “Breaking Clean,” has won a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship Award.

Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. Blunt, an associate professor in the UM Department of English, is the first faculty member in UM’s Creative Writing Program to receive a Guggenheim Award since Richard Hugo in 1970.

The award, which averaged $38,000 last year, will allow Blunt to take a sabbatical during spring 2007. She will spend the time working on a book of essays about strength and storytelling among women in the West.

Blunt is among 187 winners of 2006 Guggenheim Fellowships selected from nearly 3,000 applicants in 78 different fields, from the creative arts to the natural sciences.

UM’s Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences has landed a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of environmental pollutants on a specialized type of white blood cell.

Dendritic cells protect the human immune system from foreign invaders. Some scientists suspect they are being harmed by pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin, suppressing the immune system and compromising health.

Assistant Professor David Shepherd, who works in the Center for Environmental Health Sciences, leads a team of five scientists in his lab. The new grant will allow him to hire two more -- adding to the explosion of research already taking place in UM’s College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences.

That college’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy now ranks No. 4 out of 92 pharmacy schools nationally for garnering research funding when number of faculty members is considered.

The UM School of Social Work has received a three-year, $75,000 grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation that will help train students to care for the nation’s rapidly increasing older population.

The Practicum Partnership Program grant will be administered through the New York Academy of Medicine. It will provide UM students opportunities to collaborate with community leaders and local agencies that specialize in the field of aging services.

The grant was written by UM Adjunct Assistant Professor Tondy Baumgartner and Professor Cindy Garthwait with assistance from Patsy Clark, a student in the University’s School of Social Work master’s degree program.

UM Department of Radio-Television students swept first-place awards at the Region 10 convention of the Society of Professional Journalists held in Kennewick, Wash., March 31-April 1.

The UM journalists placed first in every broadcast category in which awards were given for the society’s Mark of Excellence competition.

Mark of Excellence awards honor the best in student journalism. The awards offer 43 categories for print, radio, television and online collegiate journalism.

Students from UM also took most of the second- and third-place awards presented at the convention. The regional competition includes entries from schools in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana.

The UM first-place winners now will advance to the society’s national Mark of Excellence competition with other first-place winners from regions throughout the country. National award winners will be named at the 2006 SPJ convention next fall in Chicago.

Two UM students captured prestigious Morris K. Udall Scholarships this year. UM students now have received a total of 24 Udall awards since the program started 1997.

The Udalls went to Kelly Hopping, a senior in philosophy and biology from Eugene, Ore., and Michael O’Brien, a junior in wildlife biology from Dixon. Both will receive $5,000.

Hopping is a National Merit Scholar and Presidential Leadership Scholar in UM’s Davidson Honors College. She directed a Freshman Interest Group titled “Ways of Knowing and Living” that drew on her career interest in sustainable architecture.

O’Brien is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and a descendant of the Fort Peck Assiniboine. He hopes to engage in research, education and advocacy involving conservation issues.

Can the state claim a vehicle if, after it was already impounded, authorities discover it was used for drug trafficking?

That’s the issue facing the Montana Supreme Court in a formal session to be held Friday, April 21, at UM. The court will hear “State of Montana v. Erik A. Branam” at 9:30 a.m. in the University Theatre. The event is free and open to the public.

The case involves the state’s attempt to forfeit Branam’s vehicle, along with an assault rifle and $44,000 found inside. Under civil forfeiture laws, the state can take property if a preponderance of evidence establishes it was used in drug trafficking.

A trial judge dismissed the case, ruling no probable cause existed to connect Branam to drug trafficking at the time a sheriff’s deputy seized his vehicle without a search warrant. The state appealed that decision to the Montana Supreme Court.

The sixth annual UM Conference on Undergraduate Research will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, April 21, on the third floor of the University Center.

During the conference, more than 80 UM undergraduate students from disciplines in the arts, humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and natural sciences will present their research and creative activity in poster, oral and panel presentations.

The presentations are free and open to the public.

The conference’s plenary lecture, “Why Undergraduate Research Makes Better Students and Better Professors,” will be presented by UM wildlife population ecology Professor Scott Mills at 5 p.m. in the University Theatre. An awards ceremony will follow.

The conference has become an annual tradition at UM since 2000, when the University hosted the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

Rocky Mountain GeoDays, an opportunity for undergraduate geoscientists to share their research, will run concurrently with the annual UM Conference on Undergraduate Research this year.

All GeoDays events will be held Friday, April 21, on the third floor of the University Center, and the public is invited to attend presentations.

UM Department of Geology Assistant Professor Joel Harper will give the GeoDays keynote address, “Recent Catastrophic Glacier Changes: Does Climate Control Glaciers or Do Glaciers Control Climate?”

GeoDays also offers a field trip Saturday, April 22, to explore geothermal activity in the area. The cost is $10; registration is required and space is limited.

Researcher Douglas Owsley has personally examined the 9,200-year-old bones of Kennewick Man and the skeletal remains from the Civil War’s Hunley submarine.

Owsley is on campus this week to share his knowledge of historical forensic science with UM audiences. He will present a public lecture, “Case Studies in Forensic Anthropology,” today from 11 a.m. to noon in Chemistry-Pharmacy Building Room 123.

Owsley is a curator and division head in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. He also is an internationally recognized expert in forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology.

Peter Georgescu, one of the world’s leading business communicators, will present the second annual Harold and Priscilla Gilkey Executive Lecture Series on Thursday, April 20.

Georgescu will speak on “Shifting Paradigms and the Rising Value of Creativity and Values” at 5:30 p.m. in Gallagher Business Building Room 106. The event is free and open to the public.

Georgescu is chairman emeritus of Young & Rubicam, a network of top commercial communication companies dedicated to helping clients build their businesses through the power of brands.

Georgescu also is author of “The Source of Success: Five Enduring Principles at the Heart of Real Leadership.”

The world is getting warmer, and the next installment of the Provost’s Distinguished Faculty Series at UM will delve into what that means for the future of Montana.

Steve Running, a UM forestry professor and terrestrial ecologist, will present “Will They Be Skiing on Mud and Fishing in Dust: Life in Montana for Your Grandkids” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 17, in the Music Recital Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Running said Montana’s climate has measurably warmed in the last 50 years, and he will explore how this will impact the future of traditional Big Sky pastimes such as skiing, gardening and fly-fishing.

A member of the UM faculty since 1979, Running directs UM’s Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, which crafts software for NASA environmental satellites. He also is helping write the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

A panel discussion today at the School of Law will tackle the subject of genocide and crimes against humanity.

The discussion is titled “Can the U.N., International Organizations and Nations Stop Genocide and Crimes against Humanity?” The event will begin at 5 p.m. in the Law Building Castles Center.

The discussion is sponsored by the UM International Law Society. It is free and open to the public.

The UM Adams Center will come alive with American Indian drumming, dancing, pageantry and heritage Friday through Sunday, April 21-23, during the 38th Kyi-Yo Pow Wow.

Kyi-Yo is a Blackfeet word that means grizzly bear. The theme of this year's powwow is “Honoring Our Past. Preparing for the Future.”

Organized by students in UM’s Kyi-Yo Native American Student Association, the event is the region’s largest college powwow. Everyone is welcome.

Events kick off at 7 p.m. Friday, April 21, with a grand entry featuring dancers in traditional dress. Other grand entries will be held at noon and 7 p.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday.

Admission is $5 Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Tickets cost $8 Saturday evening. Weekend passes are available, and all students can show their identification cards for a $2 discount. Children age 7 and under and elders age 55 and older get in free.

Dozens of activities are scheduled to celebrate Earth Week, April 17-21, and Earth Day and Aber Day on Saturday, April 22, at UM.

The weeklong celebration includes lectures, films, workshops, service events and even an “ecopentathalon,” in which ambitious participants ride bikes from one service event to another, spending an hour working at each site.

A complete list of events is available online.

UM has updated its plans for managing noxious weeds and insects and other pests. A public hearing about both plans will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, in Journalism Building Room 304.

The hearing will be moderated by UM weed specialist and plan author Marilyn Marler. She will offer a brief overview of each plan and accept public comment.

The Integrated Vegetation Management Plan for UM Natural Areas applies to Mount Sentinel and UM land at Fort Missoula. Management goals at both properties include restoration of native plant communities and rely heavily on public involvement.

The updated weed plan is not significantly different from the previous plan, which UM adopted in 1998. Weed pulling, re-vegetation, biological controls and ground applications of herbicides are still included, with an emphasis on protecting and restoring native plant communities.

The plans are available online and written comments may be submitted until May 5.

The Grizzly men’s and women’s tennis teams are home this week for three duals apiece at the Lindsay Tennis Center in Missoula.

The Grizzlies opened play Thursday against MSU-Billings. UM will play its 2006 Big Sky Conference match with Eastern Washington at 2 p.m. today, then wrap up its weekend Saturday with a 10 a.m. dual against Gonzaga.

The Montana women’s tennis team met MSU-Billings Thursday and take on Eastern Washington at 10 a.m. today in a key Big Sky Conference match. The three-match weekend closes Saturday at 2 p.m. against Northern Colorado.

UM’s track and field teams had four first-place finishes and four Big Sky Conference-qualifying performances last Friday at the Eastern Washington University Pelluer Invitational in Cheney.

Senior Jas Gill, juniors Alicia Mills and Shannon Johnson and sophomore Loni Perkins all won individual titles, while Johnson, seniors Lindsey Crawford and Katie Desin and sophomore Levi Zell qualified for the BSC meet.

The UM teams will compete at the non-scored Montana State Open this Saturday, April 15, as their regular season reaches the midway point. The Grizzlies face athletes from MSU, Mary and Dickinson State, with the meet's field events beginning at 11 a.m. and running events at noon.