Highlights Of The Year

Steve McCool, a UM professor of wildland recreation management, received the U.S. Forest Service's Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Research Award, given each year to an outstanding scientist who works closely with wilderness managers to apply research to real-world situations. McCool earned the award for his studies of wilderness visitors and using the Limits of Acceptable Change planning framework in Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. The LAC process uses citizen involvement to decide how much human-induced change is acceptable in wildland areas. McCool also helped facilitate a new planning process, which led to a new recreation management direction for "the Bob." His planning processes are now used in many areas within the National Wilderness Preservation System.


Officials at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of the oldest institutions of higher education in China, have included UM in a ranking of the top 500 universities in the world for academics and research. UM comes in at 378 on the list, ahead of U.S. counterparts such as the University of Nevada-Reno, the University of Wyoming, Utah State University, Auburn University, Boston College and Brigham Young University-Provo. The Shanghai list ranks universities by several indicators of academic or research importance. Among these are alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers, articles published in the journals Nature and Science, and academic performance with respect to institution sizes.


Some of the genius-level math featured on the television program "Numb3rs" is being translated into exercises for kids by UM math Professor Johnny Lott. He leads a team that designs activities derived from the prime-time CBS program. The lessons for teachers, students and parents are then placed on the "We All Use Math Every Day" Web site. Lott receives a synopsis of the math used in each program before it airs. Then, under a tight deadline, he and his team boil the complex problems into exercises that can be understood by the average seventh- through 12th-grader. The Web site is a collaboration among CBS, Texas Instruments and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the world's largest mathematics education organization. Lott happens to be past president of NCTM.


It's worn by maroon-and-silver clad throngs at Griz sporting events and found on untold thousands of hats, T-shirts, sweaters, license plates, blankets and even cars across the nation and around the world. It's The University of Montana Grizzly bear logo, and it's everywhere. The increasing popularity of the bear and Griz merchandise have launched UM to the No. 46 spot on the Collegiate Licensing Company's list of 50 top-selling universities in the nation. That puts UM logo wear ahead of that sold by Division I-A schools Colorado State, Army Air Force and Boise State. UM licenses businesses to use its logos and image, and in return gets a royalty percentage with each licensee based on the wholesale price of individual items.


Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer has appointed UM history Chair and Professor Harry Fritz to represent the state on the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. The 15-member commission is charged with informing the public about Lincoln's impact on the development of the United States and finding ways to honor his accomplishments. Fritz, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the nation's 16th president, is a Lincoln impersonator who appears at schools throughout the state and even checks in on the Montana Legislature when it's in session. Besides personifying Lincoln through his vast knowledge of the past president, Fritz also is a nationally recognized expert on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He was the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Montana Professor of the Year in 2004.

Denise Dowling, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism's Department of Radio-Television, was named the most promising new journalism professor in the country by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The organization sponsors a contest each year to honor excellence in teaching by faculty members who have taught for fewer than five years. She was nominated by journalism school Dean Jerry Brown. Dowling came to UM in 2000 after a 20-year career in broadcast news. She has created several new courses and won numerous grants and research contracts. Her students also have won nearly every award given to college journalists.


UM opened its doors to a number of students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, including four from New Orleans' two law schools -- Loyola and Tulane. The UM School of Law was among the first such schools to open its classrooms to hurricane evacuees. Law school staff contacted Missoula attorneys and businesses to collect donations to ensure the students felt welcomed and were sheltered. Faculty and students campuswide joined forces to raise money to donate to the Red Cross for distribution in hurricane-ravaged areas.


UM celebrated the new John J. Craighead Chair in Wildlife Biology during a fall reception. Friends, associates and former students of Craighead provided $2.5 million to endow the position, which UM intends to fill in the 2007-08 academic year by hiring a scientist of Craighead's stature. Craighead led UM's Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit for 25 years and was named by National Geographic as one of this century's most eminent scientists. With his twin brother, Frank, Craighead accomplished groundbreaking work in wildlife biology and contributed to a growing environmental awareness for countless Americans through their National Geographic specials. Their pioneering research of grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of satellite imagery for mapping animal habitat and use of radio telemetry in research. The Craigheads also wrote much of the text for the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Acts.


UM's Farm to College program grabbed ink in the New York Times and Time magazine during 2005. The program's purpose is twofold: to support Montana producers and to supply fresh products that aren't processed with added preservatives. The program now offers food from 35 Montana vendors, spending money locally to help boost the economy. Mark LoParco, director of University Dining Services, created the Farm to College program in response to the growing expectation of customers regarding the origins of the food they eat.


Erick Greene, a UM professor, behavioral ecologist and acting associate dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, and former graduate student Chris Templeton have discovered a previously unknown level of sophistication in the calls of chickadees. Their work was notable enough to be featured in Science, one of the world's top research journals. The story subsequently made the New York Times and other national newspapers. The researchers found that common chickadees have a complex system of alarm calls that convey information about the size and danger of potential predators and tell the birds what sort of defense to mount in response. Basically, the more dangerous a predator is to a chickadee, the more "dee" sounds the birds tack onto the end of their trademark "chick-a-dee" call.

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