 |
2005
UM
VICE PRESIDENT:
RESEARCH KEY TO UNDERSTANDING OUR FLAMMABLE WILDERNESS
QUICK
LOOKS
A ROUNDUP OF UM RESEARCH ADVANCES
FOCUS ON FIRE
OUR
WARMING WEST
THE POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
QUEST
FOR FIRE
UM'S NATIONAL CENTER FOR LANDSCAPE FIRE ANALYSIS
FUEL
FOR FIRE
UM TESTS FEEDING STRATEGIES FOR SOLDIERS, FIREFIGHTERS
MONITORING HOTSHOTS AND HOT AIR
STUDENT
SCIENTIST Q&A
DYNAMIC DOCTORAL STUDENT JENNY WOOLF STUDIES WOODPECKERS
FIRE
IN THE FOREST
STUDY INVESTIGATES THE BEST USES OF BURNING
FIRED-UP
CURRICULUM
ECOS PROGRAM GETS KIDS DOING SCIENCE OUTSIDE
THE
FUNCTION OF FIRE
RESEARCH SHOWS UNBURNED FORESTS MAY BE LESS PRODUCTIVE
A
FLAMMABLE LANDSCAPE
HOW WILL SOCIETY ADAPT TO A FIRE-PRONE ENVIRONMENT?
GETTING
A GRASP ON SMOKE
UNIVERSITY CHEMISTS DISCOVER THE INNER MYSTERIES OF SMOKE
HIGH-TECH
TOADS
RESEARCH REVEALS AMPHIBIANS PREFER BURNED AREAS
BEYOND THE BLAZES
TRANSLATING
CHICKADEE
RESEARCHERS DISCOVER SOPHISTICATED SONGBIRD CALLS
SNIFFING
OUT HISTORY
ANTHROPOLOGISTS USE DOGS TO FIND LONG-LOST GRAVES
TREE
KILLERS
WARMER WEST MAY BOLSTER FUNGI BENEFICIAL TO AMERICA'S NO. 1 FOREST
PEST
Quick Looks
 |
| UM Professor Rich Bridges announces one of the largest NIH grants in Montana history. |
Researchers
garner record funding
UM scientists landed $68.7 million in external grants and contracts
for fiscal year 2005, continuing a record-setting trajectory for the
institution. The top five grant recipients were Dave Forbes, College
of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences, $3.4 million; Michael
DeGrandpre, Department of Chemistry, $3.2 million; LLoyd Queen, College
of Forestry and Conservation, $2.8 million; Jack Stanford, Flathead
Lake Biological Station, $2.3 million; and Jerry Bromenshenk, Division
of Biological Sciences, $2.2 million. President George Dennison has
challenged researchers to raise the bar higher and reach $100 million
in the next two or three years.
UM
ranked among world’s universities
Officials
at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of China’s oldest
colleges, ranked the top 500 universities in the world for academics
and research in 2004, and UM came in at 378 on the list. That’s
ahead of U.S. counterparts such as the University of Wyoming, Utah
State University and Boston College. Montana State University came
in at 436.
Space added for science
UM
had a ground-breaking ceremony for a new 59,000-square-foot addition
to its Skaggs Building this year. The addition will house labs, conference
rooms, an electronic classroom, a kindergarten-through-12th grade
learning center, a tiered classroom and student support areas. Major
funding for the $14 million project came from campus-based revenue
bonds, the ALSAM Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and
the Poe Family Trust. The addition will provide needed space for
UM’s surging
College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences, whose pharmacy
school currently is ranked No. 5 in the nation for earning pharmacy
research funding.
University
lands major NIH grant
The
National Institutes of Health has awarded $9.5 million to UM over
the next five years to fund research on brain and neurological disorders.
The grant renewed funding for UM’s Center for Structural and
Functional Neuroscience, which works to understand the chemical and
molecular processes used by brain cells to communicate with one another.
It also delves into disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s,
stroke and depression. Rich Bridges, a professor in the College of
Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences, is the grant’s principal
investigator. He said the award will continue center operations until
2010 and that it’s among the largest NIH awards ever given in
Montana.
 |
‘Critter
Crawl’ earns patent
A
new invention patented by UM aims to protect small animals from automotive
hazards. Created by UM biology Professor Kerry Foresman, the crawl
is a shelf suspended inside a culvert to allow animals to move more
easily and safely under a highway — even when the culvert
contains water. The shelf also sports a side tube for mouse-sized creatures
that don’t want to expose themselves. The devices are being manufactured
by Missoula’s Roscoe Steel & Culvert Co. and already are
in use beneath some Montana roadways.
School,
college take new monikers
UM
created the first named school in the University’s history
when the pharmacy school was renamed the Skaggs School of Pharmacy.
The move honors L.S. Skaggs, who has donated $11.7 million to UM since
the early 1990s through his companies and ALSAM Foundation. The Montana
Board of Regents also allowed UM to change the name of the School of
Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences to the College of Health Professions
and Biomedical Sciences. Dean Dave Forbes said the name change acknowledges
the expanding role of the college and its focus on teaching, research
and public service.
Speaking of new names ...
President
George Dennison has decreed that UM’s Science Complex
will now be known as the Charles H. Clapp Building. The update honors
Clapp, who served as UM president from 1921 to 1935 before dying in
office at age 51. The building had been officially named for Clapp
in 1971, but it always was known as the Science Complex, and that’s
what the sign out front read. However, with involvement of Clapp’s
descendents during spring Commencement weekend, Dennison held a naming
ceremony, unveiling a new sign bearing the Clapp name.
Student
lands prestigious fellowship
UM
doctoral student Florence Gardipee was awarded the first Boyd Evison
Graduate Fellowship. A student in UM’s Division of Biological
Sciences, Gardipee used the award to start new research on American
bison in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. She is using DNA
samples and data to document the genetic diversity of the herd. The
fellowship covers a maximum two years of funding, including tuition
assistance and a yearly stipend for travel and field research costs.
The fellowship honors Evison, who worked 42 years with the National
Park Service before directing the Grand Teton Natural History Association.
Video
reveals overlooked history
Sally
Thompson, director of UM’s Lifelong Learning Project,
has created a half-hour film titled “Contemporary Voices Along
the Lewis and Clark Trail.” The video allows viewers to visit
the descendents of American Indians encountered by the Corps of Discovery.
It offers dialogue from 18 men and women who represent 13 tribes from
Kansas to the mouth of the Columbia River. For more information, call
(406) 243-5890 or visit http://www.trailtribes.org.
 |
| Professor Ken Dial at UM's Center for Avian Science |
Paleontologist has big year
UM
geology professor George Stanley had a banner year. First he was
named a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The honor
goes to “scientists
of distinction who maintain a scholarly affiliation with the Smithsonian
and its research community.” He then was part of an international
team working in China that discovered sea anemone fossils more than
half a billion years old. And finally he helped the University gain
Board of Regents approval for its new UM Paleontology Center, which
includes a field station in the fossil-rich Fort Peck area and a partnership
with a nonprofit group there that promotes paleontology in eastern
Montana.
Construction
set for bird center
In
his August State of the University Address, President George Dennison
announced that $750,000 will be spent to complete renovation of UM’s
Center for Avian Science, located at Fort Missoula. The center is a former
U.S. Cavalry horse stable that has been converted to a state-of-the-art
research facility.
Book reveals complex Wild West
A
new book by UM archaeologist Kelly Dixon shoots some holes in the
Hollywood stereotype of Old West saloons, revealing a society that’s
more inclusive and complex. “Boomtown Saloons: Archaeology and
History in Virginia City” examines the excavations of several
Nevada saloons that represent a wide spectrum of wealth, race and class.
One saloon, the Boston, was owned by a black man and primarily served
African Americans. Delicate crystal stemware and bones from the finest
meals were found there, revealing a more diverse and cosmopolitan West.
 |
| Professor Carol Van Valkenburg and the winning Native News Honors Project publication |
Program
boosts business plans
UM
has launched a new entrepreneurship training program, “The
Montana Business Development Initiative.” Students enter the
program with an idea for a business and exit with a business plan prepared
under the guidance of UM faculty and business practitioners. The initial
offering of the program was held during UM’s first summer semester
May 23-June 24, and the course offered students two to four credits.
It’s aimed at junior or senior undergraduate students from any
Montana college or university who don’t major in business. Recent
graduates also may find the program attractive.
J-School lands RFK award
In
a coup for journalism scholarship at UM, the University’s
Native News Honors Project won a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award — often
called the “poor people’s Pulitzer.” The award honors
outstanding reporting on the poor and disadvantaged. Past winners include
the Washington Post, National Public Radio and CBS’s “60
Minutes.” Now
in its 15th year, the honors project is a class that allows UM students
to delve into pressing issues facing Indian Country. The students then
produce a special publication inserted in Montana’s largest newspapers.
The award-winning entry, “Sovereignty,” describe the struggle
of tribal communities to regain control over the welfare and future
of their people.