Vision 2003 | Research and Scholarship at The University of Montana-Missoula

UM Adds New Research Vice President
A chemist with research administration experience at universities in New Mexico and Maine now heads UM scientific efforts. Daniel J. Dwyer, formerly vice provost for research at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, became UM's vice president for research and development in August.

He replaces T. Lloyd Chesnut, who left UM to assume a similar position at the University of North Texas in Denton. In his six years at UM, Chesnut more than doubled the amount of grant-funded research, propelling it beyond the $60 million mark. Dwyer had similar success and much the same duties when he served as vice president for research at the University of Maine during 1996-2000.

Dwyer oversees UM's research and sponsored programs, technology transfer, information technology, federal legislative relations, international programs, environmental health and occupational safety, and laboratory animal resources. He earned a master's in chemistry and a doctorate in physical chemistry from Lehigh Universityin 1974 and 1976.

He has been both a teacher and researcher, specializing in surface science and technology. Dwyer spent 12 years on the Maine faculty after working for a decade as senior staff chemist and group leader of surface chemistry and physics at Exxon Corporate Research Laboratory in New Jersey.

Research Dollars Flow to UM
University faculty brought in a record $60.9 million in external funding during 2002-03, creating more jobs and providing better opportunities for students to be involved in cutting-edge research.

More than 60 percent of grant proposals submitted by UM faculty were funded last year, which is above the national rate.

During his tenure, President George Dennison — now entering his 14th year at the UM helm — has pressed for continual growth in funding from outside sources. When he came to UM in 1990, research funds totaled $7 million.

"Each year, I raise the bar," Dennison said in challenging faculty to exceed $65 million in the coming year, while also praising researchers for their current success. "The faculty members of this University have established a truly astonishing record in the success rate and volume of funded research awards."

Science Reveals Greener Planet
A NASA and Department of Energy study led by UM researcher Ramakrishna Nemani concludes the Earth has been greening over the past 20 years. As climate changed, plants found it easier to grow.

The globally comprehensive, multi-disciplinary study appeared in the June 6 edition of Science magazine and received major media attention around the world, including CNN, the BBC, Newsweek International and Pravda.

The study finds that climate changes have provided extra doses of water, heat and sunlight in areas where one or more of those ingredients may have been lacking. Plants flourished in places where climatic conditions previously limited growth.

"Our study proposes climatic changes as the leading cause for the increases in plant growth over the last two decades, with lesser contribution from carbon dioxide fertilization and forest re-growth," Nemani says.

Nemani and his colleagues constructed a global map of the Net Primary Production (NPP) of plants from climate and satellite data of vegetation greenness and solar radiation absorption. NPP is the difference between the CO2 absorbed by plants during photosynthesis and CO2 lost by plants during respiration. NPP is the foundation for food, fiber and fuel derived from plants, without which life on Earth could not exist. Humans use about 50 percent of global NPP.

NPP increased globally on average by six percent from 1982 to 1999. Ecosystems in tropical zones and in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere accounted for 80 percent of the increase. NPP increased significantly over 25 percent of the global vegetated area but decreased over 7 percent of the area, illustrating how plants respond differently depending on regional climatic conditions.

For online information about the research, visit http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0530earthgreen.html.

UM President Leads Research Group
UM President George Dennison has been elected to lead the Inland Northwest Research Alliance, a consortium of eight research universities in the northwest.

A nonprofit, scientific and educational organization, INRA fosters collaborative research programs that educate America's future scientists and engineers. It is the only program of its kind in the nation. INRA was formed to promote science and engineering research with a focus on studies that will result in practical applications, such as water treatments, soil remediation and forest fire prevention.

INRA is a partner with Bechtel National Inc. and BWX Technologies in the management and operations contract of the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Member universities are in Montana, Alaska, Idaho, Utah and Washington.

Students Garner Research Funds
Doctoral students in UM's Division of Biological Sciences earned unprecedented funding from the National Science Foundation this year. Three students were awarded prestigious Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants, while another earned a rare NSF Graduate Research Fellowship award.

"The fact we got three improvement grants and a fellowship in one year is a smashing success for our program," said Associate Professor Doug Emlen, the faculty adviser for two of the winners. "The number of awards we won is comparable to the very best programs in the country."

The research fellowship was awarded to Christine Miller of Billings. Her award includes $27,500 for research during the coming year, as well as a stipend and full tuition for the next three years. She studies the genetics and behavior of leaf-footed bugs and does her fieldwork in Panama.

The Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants went to Jose Hierro of Argentina, Judy Perkins of Denver, Colo., and Tara Prestholdt of Bridgewater, N.J. Each received between $10,000 and $15,000 for their doctoral research, and the awards generally cover two years.

Hierro is doing a comparative study of yellow starthistle invasive weeds in California and Argentina. Perkins studies seedling regeneration in whitebark pines. Prestholdt is delving into limb regeneration in walking sticks.

Grant Targets Cleaner Water
The Tri-State Water Quality Council has landed a $1 million grant for water-quality improvement projects with help from many partners, including UM's Watershed Health Clinic.

The council is a collection of citizen, business, industry, government and environmental leaders interested in improving waterways in the 26,000-square-mile Clark Fork-Pend Oreille watershed. The group was one of 20 organizations nationwide selected to receive a grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Watershed Initiative.
UM environmental studies Professor Vicki Watson has worked with the Tri-State Water Quality Council since its formation in 1993. She directs UM's Watershed Health Clinic, which matches University students and staff with community groups that need technical assistance with watershed conservation, preservation and restoration.

Regional and national experts selected the grant winners from a highly competitive field of more than 176 nominations. The grant will implement a set of restoration projects — ranging from dairy waste management to riparian habitat restoration — which are aimed at reducing nutrients and improving fish habitat in the northern Rockies. The council also is matching the grant with more than $1 million in non-federal funds.

Web Site Offers Asbestos Resources
The UM Rural Bioethics Project has launched a Web site to promote public education about health issues related to asbestos exposure. The site, "Asbestos and Libby Health," is at http://www.umt.edu/libbyhealth. It includes fact sheets, links to asbestos research findings, answers to frequently asked questions, edu-cational activities and more.
The site is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and is part of a five-year effort to offer a broad range of information about asbestos-related diseases, contamination and exposure. A partner in the effort is the Center for Asbestos Related Diseases clinic in Libby, a community struggling with asbestos issues because of a closed vermiculite mine in the area.

Ecologist Takes Trip of a Lifetime
UM ecologist Paul Alaback appeared in a two-hour PBS documentary last spring about one of the most important scientific treks in American history, the Harriman Alaska Expedition.

A century ago railroad tycoon Edward H. Harriman decided to lead one of the most ambitious scientific expeditions the world had ever seen to Alaska. In 1899 Harriman invited the top scientists and artists in the country to join him on a 9,000-mile exploration of the Alaskan coast. Many of these men were famous, and the trip would change them forever.

In 2001 Thomas Litwin, director of the Smith College Clark Science Center, organized an expedition to follow the path of the original one. Again it was stocked with a collection of top scientists — including UM's Alaback — though this time Alaskan native people were included. Called the Harriman Expedition Retraced, its purpose was to visit exactly the same places and see what changes the 20th century had brought to Alaska.

"I have studied the temperate and coastal rainforests of Alaska and South America for about 20 years," Alaback says, "which is how I got connected with the project. Our modern expedition took one month by ship and retraced the exact route of the original, exploring ways in which native peoples, the ecology, resource extraction and views of nature have changed in the intervening 100 years."

Alaback's principal role was to examine the writings of Bernard Fernow, the father of forestry in the United States, and his predictions about the prospects for the development of the sustainable timber industry in Alaska from the 1899 expedition, contrasting that with the controversies that beset the timber industry in Alaska's Tongass National Forest over the past half century.

More information about the 2001 expedition, the film and an educational teacher study guide is available online at http://www.pbs.org/harriman.

Summer Program Promotes Scientist Diversity
Every summer UM strives to recruit students from diverse ethnic, racial or cultural backgrounds into science fields through its Undergraduate Summer Diversity Research Program.

The program is offered by UM's National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a grant-funded entity that works to improve the science and technology infrastructure in states that have historically not had competitive extramural funding levels.

Following a competitive selection process, students are matched with UM faculty members who are actively involved in research. These select students are flown to Missoula in June for a 10-week program designed to expose them to UM's research and academic opportunities. The students then work side by side with world-renowned researchers to experience firsthand what a science career has to offer. With the aid of faculty mentors, they are counseled about graduate school and the various science programs available at UM.

Cary Shimek, Managing Editor
Judy Fredenberg, Office of the Vice President for Research and Development
The University of Montana-Missoula
32 Campus Drive | Missoula, MT 59812
phone 406-243-2522 | fax 406-243-4520
Copyright 2007 The University of Montana

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