The official NSF Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey numbers for University Research for FY21 just came out. The HERD numbers are the national standard for reporting research activity.   Among the top-tier Carnegie Very High Research (R1) schools UM is at #13 (out of 146 R1 schools) in terms of growth with a 202% growth rate over the past decade.  Kudos to our faculty and students!

Dr. Andrij Holian, UM Professor of Toxicology in the Department Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences has been invited to serve on the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council (NAEHSC).

According to Officials of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, “The National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council advises the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) on matters related to the research direction across the NIEHS, along with research support, training, career development of the extramural community and relevant stakeholders, and in assisting in setting research priorities along with program balance to meet the Institute’s mission. Dr. Andrij Holian was nominated and selected for this Council as based on his outstanding scholarship, academic accomplishments, and experienced leadership. Dr. Holian substantial research efforts in the fields of toxicology/nanomaterials, inflammation and the immune response, and signal transduction pathways in tissue injury, and his knowledge of the NIEHS priority areas are expected to contribute considerably to the objectives of this Council and the Institute.”

UM Mathematics Professor Bharath Sriraman had his Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences published by Springer.  The handbook Serves as an authoritative source for the interplay between mathematics and different disciplines and explores the most important questions on interdisciplinarity.

https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-319-57072-3

UM’s Flathead Lake Biological Station hosted the national Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) for the second year in a row. Flathead Lake residents and FLBS Advisory Board Member Lysbeth Anderson Working and her husband John Working were awarded the 2021 Mary Hufty Local Hero Award.  FLBS Research Professor Art McKee was named the recipient of the inaugural OBFS Distinguished Service Award.

https://flbs.umt.edu/newflbs/outreach/news-blog/posts/flbs-hosts-virtual-obfs-annual-meeting/

University of Montana faculty member Tobin Shearer and a group of humanities faculty members have received a grant of $500k thru ARPA funding providing emergency relief to institutions and organizations working in the humanities that have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

A new research award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to University of Montana with an intended total amount of $189,253.00.  This is part of a $500,000 joint award to UM, Montana Tech and MSU-Billings to help address mental health for graduate and professional students in STEM disciplines. This project, entitled “Collaborative Research: Mental Health Opportunities for Professional Empowerment in STEM (HOPES),” is under the direction of Ashby Kinch, the Associate Dean of the Graduate School at UM.

National Science Foundation (NSF) just announced a new research award of $793k to Jim Elser and the UM Flathead Lake Biological Station for “Collaborative Research: Testing for nutrient limitation in alpine snow algae ecosystems”

Just received notice of a US Department of Health and Human Services grant of $1.8M to UM’s National Native Children’s Trauma Center and Meagan Rides At The Door and an additional $1.2M for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes for important work they are doing together.

The Montana Code School is back! The18-week boot camp will prepare graduates to fill open roles within a tech industry that the global pandemic has accelerated due to the forced digitization of business and commerce. The school’s back-end program launches June 15. The front-end program begins July 22. https://www.umt.edu/news/2021/05/051721code.php

The research of Scott Mills, faculty member in Wildlife Biology at UM, is featured in two episodes of Sir David Attenborough’s three-part “Life in Color” series just released on Netflix. The “Chasing Color” episode shows videos of the difficulty Oregon snowshoe hares have being color mismatched in their white winter coats as snow duration becomes shorter and shorter. The “Hiding in Color” episode features the research of graduate student Marketa Zimova regarding the impact of climate change on ptarmigan in the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland.  A clip can be seen here: https://www.umt.edu/research/millslab/stories/lifeincolor.php