2006 PRESIDENT'S REPORT

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

CSI Missoula • Area seventh-graders got the chance to learn forensic science techniques when the University hosted “CSI Missoula,” a Saturday Science Day event of the Health Careers Opportunity Program. Using bones, ashes and casts, students learned how to distinguish remains found at a crime scene as male or female, human or nonhuman, and also learned how to determine a victim’s age, height and physical abnormalities. The course was taught by adjunct instructor Garry Kerr of UM’s anthropology department. Kerr is a perennial favorite of UM students.

Experimental Air Waves • Children in the KUFM public radio listening area can join UM Assistant Research Professor Katie George for “Science is Cool,” an interactive radio program that promotes scientific exploration using experiments that children can perform easily at home while adults are available for assistance and discussion. “Dr. Katie” and her lab assistants lead listeners in experiments every other Saturday morning during the two-hour “Children’s Corner” program aired from the studio at UM. A four-compact disc set of the first “Science is Cool” broadcasts also is available at Montana public libraries and elementary schools.

Corps Crop • The Peace Corps released its list of “Top-Producing College and Universities 2006” and UM retained its top-10 ranking for medium-sized institutions. With 39 alumni volunteers, UM ranked ninth nationally among colleges with undergraduate enrollments between 5,001 and 15,000. Last year UM was ranked 10th. This year’s ranking placed UM ahead of institutions such as Boston College and Brown, Harvard, Northwestern and Yale universities.

Studying Reconstruction • Sarah Halvorson, UM associate professor of geography, spent three months in Northern Pakistan assessing the impact of the recent South Asian earthquake after receiving the McColl Family Fellowship for 2006 from the American Geographical Society. The fellowship covers airfare to anywhere in the world to conduct research that results in an article suitable for publication in the AGS magazine FOCUS on Geography. Halverson made field visits to 10 mountain villages to explore challenges the large-scale destruction brought to local response and recovery efforts.

Environmental Enlightenment • Four graduate students in UM’s Environmental Studies Program are among 24 in the nation to be named 2005-06 Doris Duke Conservation Fellows by the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation. The fellowships went to students enrolled in multidisciplinary master’s degree programs at UM, Yale and Duke universities, and the universities of Michigan and Wisconsin. The UM students study a wide range of topics, including grizzly bears, water quality, watershed restoration and environmental justice issues. The fellowships pay for a year of tuition up to $25,000 and provide $5,000 for a summer internship.

Saturn Science • UM researcher Dan Reisenfeld was among the group of scientists that came across an amazing discovery while analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft. Reisenfeld says Cassini researchers last year noticed an odd deflection of the magnetic field of Saturn around Enceladus, the planet’s icy sixth moon, so they reoriented the probe’s trajectory for a close flyby. The team discovered a plume of gas venting from Enceladus. The plume evidently explains the mysteriously high levels of water vapor found in Saturn’s magnetosphere. The group’s findings were published in Science magazine. Reisenfeld, an astronomy and physics professor, is an active player in several NASA space probe missions.

Wonderful Winds • UM’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble performed for the College Band Directors National Association’s Northwest/Western Conference at the University of Nevada, Reno. The ensemble was one of two that were selected from the Northwest to play at the conference. The group was selected by members of the College Band Directors National Association after submitting an audition tape.

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