Quick Looks
UM Sets Research Funding Record for Third Straight Year
Research continues to surge at a record pace at the University of Montana, with the institution setting a record for external funding for the third year in a row.
UM brought in nearly $89.3 million in new funding during the past fiscal year to support homegrown Montana research, entrepreneurship and statewide outreach. This exceeds the previous year’s record of $86 million.
University researchers also set a record for expenditures from previously awarded grants and contracts in the amount of $88 million — a 12 percent increase from the previous year’s $78.5 million record total. The new expenditure total is 50 percent higher than the 2014 fiscal year amount of $58.3 million.
The number of proposals submitted by faculty for research support also increased, from 684 proposals last year to 716 in 2017.
Scott Whittenburg, UM vice president for research and creative scholarship, says these benchmarks all indicate that research at UM will continue to grow.
“Our upward trajectory indicates that the University of Montana continues to recruit and retain the best researchers from across the country and internationally,” he says. “The productivity of our faculty is on par with elite institutions anywhere.”
In fiscal year 2017, 15 faculty members had at least $1 million in research expenditures. The top five earners were:
- Reed Humphrey, College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences, $6.9 million.
- Vida Wilkinson, Missoula College, $5.4 million.
- Ragan Callaway, Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, $4.2 million.
- F. Richard Hauer, Center for Integrated Research on the Environment, $4.2 million.
- Donald Loranger, Defense Critical Language and Culture Program, $3.2 million.
Two Pillars of the University Research Community Retire
Two long-standing and lauded scientists recently retired from the University. UM Regents Professor of Ecology Steve Running and geosciences Professor George Stanley made great contributions to their fields and to campus.
Running, who first joined UM in 1979, is a world-renowned expert in climate change. He and his lab, which housed the Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, wrote software for environmental satellites in NASA’s Earth Observing System. His work on climate science shared a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. In fact, it was Running’s early NASA grants that necessitated bringing both the internet and email to UM, and he received UM’s first official email address. He also launched the nation’s first academic program in climate change at UM — a program that’s experienced 50 percent growth since 2009.
Stanley is a paleontologist lured to UM from the Smithsonian Institution in 1982. Here in Montana, he founded the UM Paleontology Center, which houses the oldest and most diverse paleontology research collection in the state. During his tenure at UM, he and his students made major fossil discoveries. As an international expert in fossil coral reefs and mass extinction, Stanley has traveled the world in pursuit of his research. He has been honored as a UM Distinguished Scholar, was the first recipient of the UM Dennison Faculty Award and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
MontanaPBS Produces Definitive C.M. Russell Documentary
MontanaPBS recently unveiled a new documentary about Montana cowboy artist Charles M. Russell (1864–1926). The three-hour program was screened in seven locations across Montana in September and October and premiered on public television statewide in November.
“C.M. Russell and the American West” is the first major film exploration of Russell’s life, art, writings and enduring legacy. The film tells Russell’s story through interviews with scholars, biographers and experts, along with archival photographs, film, and actor-voiced writings and recollections of Russell by his wife, Nancy, friends and fellow cowboys.
The documentary reintroduces Russell to a 21st-century audience and affirms his standing as a major American artist. The film suggests that Montanans’ lasting affection for Russell comes from his ability to show Montanans what they remembered, or wanted to remember, about the land and the history they shared. In the documentary Russell biographer John Taliaferro says Russell was successful and revered because he was genuine.
“Charlie Russell lamented the loss of a West that has passed,” Taliaferro says, “but then went on to convince us and convince himself that that West, that mythic West, had been quite real. And the way he was able to convince us really was because he was so authentic himself.”
Four well-known film and television actors lent their voice talent to the project: Academy Award-winner and UM alumnus J.K. Simmons is the narrator; Montana resident Bill Pullman (“Sinners,” “Independence Day”) voices the writings and reminiscences of Russell; Kathy Baker (“The Right Stuff,” “Picket Fences”) is Nancy Cooper Russell; and popular supporting actor Dylan Baker (“The Good Wife,” “The Americans,” “Spiderman 2” and “Spiderman 3”) is the voice of Russell’s friend and protégé Joe De Yong.
Gus Chambers, the UM-based co-producer and director of the documentary, searched photograph and film archives, filmed interviews, directed re-creations, captured Montana landscapes evocative of Russell’s art and edited the film.
Co-producer and script writer Paul Zalis spent four years assembling a coalition of art and film historians, Russell biographers, curators, art museum personnel, collectors, cowboys and cowgirls, and ardent fans to tell the story.
Brian Dippie, a history professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a noted Russell scholar, says Russell had an innate ability to turn his own nostalgia into a national nostalgia.
“It was an idea about loss, nostalgia, sentiment and a glowing vision of what it would have been like to be there when the world was young,” Dippie says. “Russell had the rare ability to project his realization of his youthful dreams, his fantasies, his realities, and make them the world’s.”
Key to Russell’s success was his wife, Nancy, who successfully promoted his art to well-heeled patrons across the country, making him the highest-paid artist in America at the time of his death in 1926. Russell wrote of his wife: “Without her, I would probably have never attempted to soar or reach any height, further than to make a few pictures for my friends and old acquaintances in the West. She is the business end, and I am the creative. She lives for tomorrow, and I live for yesterday.”
Several partner institutions and private art collectors provided access to the best, and sometimes obscure, pieces of Russell’s art. Two Montana museums, the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls and the Montana Historical Society, were central to the film’s success.
MontanaPBS is a statewide collaborative public television service of UM and Montana State University.
Center Searches Military Bases for Potential Endangered Species
The Center for Integrated Research on the Environment (CIRE) at UM is surveying the habitat of four potentially federally listed species on the Travis and Beale Air Force bases in California.
CIRE researchers are studying the western spadefoot toad, foothill yellow-legged frog, western pond turtle and tricolored blackbird on the Travis and Beale Air Force bases. Through the project, the team is determining the geographic locations of the species and surveying habitat characteristics to help the military better understand what species and habitats are present on its installations.
“This information will assist the base in the management and conservation of listed threatened and endangered species,” says Penn Craig, a Travis AFB natural and cultural resources manager.
The CIRE team is conducting visual surveys for the species, installing song meters at several locations to detect toad and bird vocalizations, and collecting water samples for environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling — a tool used to monitor for the genetic presence of an aquatic species — for the spadefoot toad and western pond turtle.
Once data are collected, the team conducts eDNA analysis in a UM genetics lab. They also plan to pioneer the development of a DNA primer to detect spadefoot toad DNA in water samples.
“Within the last 10 years, eDNA as a tool has just skyrocketed,” says Winsor Lowe, CIRE project principal investigator and UM professor of aquatic ecology. “There is a lot of demand for eDNA sampling in the management agencies.”
CIRE has had a busy year. The center also is studying the effects of aircraft noise on sage grouse at an Idaho air base, and it has taken a lead role in restoring a gun from the USS Maine, a historic warship that sank in 1898.
Major Exhibit Explores Montana’s Role in World War I
UM’s Montana Museum of Art & Culture presented a powerful exhibition this past fall commemorating America’s involvement in World War I.
“Over There! Montanans in the Great War,” taking place 100 years after the U.S. entered the so-called “Great War,” included more than 200 artifacts and works of art related to the lives of four Montanans who experienced the war’s victories and degradations firsthand. In addition, the exhibition explored the concept of how “the Enemy” was portrayed during the war.
The four individuals from or closely tied to Montana featured in the exhibition included Glasgow-born William Belzer, celebrated aviator and one of America’s first flying aces; Great Falls widow Josephine Hale, who served as a Red Cross nurse and became a notable painter in France; Sidney F. Smith, “doughboy” and hero of the infamous “Lost Battalion”; and James Watson Gerard, U.S. ambassador to Berlin until America’s declaration of war, who was married to Mary Daly of the famous mining family.
The UM museum’s Permanent Collection was featured in this exhibition through objects related to Hale, including her nurse’s uniform, photographs and works of art.
“By focusing on four Montanans who played major roles in the conflict, the exhibit reminds us that we are never isolated from important international events,” says Harry Fritz, UM history professor emeritus.
The exhibition was complemented by eight additional lectures and films, including an opening reception by H. Rafael Chacón, the UM professor of art history and criticism who spent six years planning the project. In addition, nearly 50 tours for UM students and the general public took place.
UM Earns Worldwide Ranking for Research Excellence
The research coming out of UM is among the best in the nation and world, according to recent rankings by the National Taiwan University.
Of the more than 4,000 research institutions worldwide, NTU ranks the top 800 universities based on their production of scientific papers and the impact of those papers.
UM is highly ranked in the field of agriculture, which includes agricultural sciences, environment/ecology, and plant and animal science. UM also ranks highly in the subject areas of environment/ecology, geosciences, and plant and animal science.
“The NTU ranking is another indicator of the world class faculty at the University of Montana,” says Scott Whittenburg, UM vice president of research and creative scholarship. “Faculty publications, the citation of those articles by other researchers and the high impact of those journals are primary indicators of quality and demonstrate that our faculty and students are conducting research on par with leading institutions around the world.”
NTU ranking is considered a reliable source for universities devoted to scientific research. It is entirely based on scientific papers, reflecting scientific performance from three perspectives: research productivity — the number of faculty publishing research in journals; research impact — the number of citations those publications receive from other researchers; and research excellence.
The 2017 NTU rankings for UM follow:
• Field of agriculture, world ranking: 123, U.S. ranking: 45
• Subject of environment/ecology, world ranking: 73, U.S. ranking: 31
• Subject of geosciences, world ranking: 161, U.S. ranking: 56
• Subject of plant and animal science, world ranking: 165, U.S. ranking: 47
UM is the highest-ranked higher education institution in the state and improved in both world and national rankings in every field and subject category compared to the 2016 NTU rankings.
Montana Research Group Harvests Stellar Eclipse Data
When the nation paused Aug. 21 to observe the spectacle of a total solar eclipse turning day to night across the middle of the country, research teams from Montana were busy gathering some of the best data resulting from the event.
Based at UM, Jennifer Fowler is assistant director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-funded organization intended to boost aerospace research and education. Fowler says her organization took three teams to the “path of totality” in Wyoming, where they launched 24 research balloons to study the eclipse.
“We gathered the highest spatial and temporal resolution of atmospheric data at our site compared to other research teams in the path of totality,” Fowler says. “We did some great science, and there may be breakthroughs and papers resulting from that data we gathered that day. Stay tuned.”
She says their 40-person research team divided into three groups to study the eclipse in north, central and south Wyoming. The groups were located in or near the towns of Lusk, Fort Laramie and Veteran.
“These locations were chosen to give the proper spatial resolution for our data,” Fowler says. “The goal was to be as close to the north and south edges of the eclipse path, and the central site was as close to the central line as possible.”
The groups arrived at their respective sites Aug. 18 to begin site surveys and system tests. Balloon data collecting was done Aug. 20–22.
The work included 19 radiosonde balloon launches. Also used by the National Weather Service, radiosondes are instruments flown to gather temperature, relative humidity and GPS measurements. Using GPS, the sensors infer pressure, wind speed and wind direction.
“These measurements will be used for a wide variety of projects, both current and future,” Fowler says. “The temporal resolution of our launches is unmatched for this eclipse.”
She says they started launching balloons from the central site in six-hour increments 24 hours before the eclipse. Then all sites launched four balloons from “first contact” of the eclipse to shortly after the moment of totality on Aug. 21. The final launch was on Aug. 22 to complete the baseline dataset.
Besides 19 radiosonde launches, there were five launches of larger balloons. Those balloons went up just prior to totality with payloads that included cameras, ultraviolet sensors, temperature sensors and tracking equipment.
“This was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had, because we got to see many different pieces and years of problem- solving come together flawlessly to make a novel system work,” says Frederick Bunt, a UM graduate student.
Antarctic Sea Spiders Use Guts to Move Oxygen
To keep blood and oxygen flowing throughout their bodies, most animals depend on a beating heart. But UM researchers reported this past summer that sea spiders use a strange alternative: They move blood and oxygen throughout most of their bodies by pumping their guts.
The sea spiders have an unusual gut in the first place, the researchers say.
“Unlike us, with our centrally located guts that are all confined to a single body cavity, the guts of sea spiders branch multiple times and sections of gut tube go down to the end of every leg,” says UM Associate Professor Arthur Woods. “In effect, sea spiders’ guts are ‘space-filling’ and ubiquitous in their bodies in the same way that our circulatory systems are space-filling and ubiquitous.”
So, how do they use that branching system to move fluids? The answer is gut peristalsis. In fact, the human gut also uses peristalsis — waves of involuntary constriction and relaxation of muscles — to mix gut contents and move them along. Sea spiders, which take in oxygen directly through their cuticles, show peristaltic waves that are much more vigorous than needed for digestion.
Woods’ team made that discovery after an Antarctic mission. He realized the sea spiders’ hearts beat weakly. Their hearts didn’t move blood beyond the spiders’ central portion. In contrast, he noticed, their guts showed very strong waves of peristaltic contractions.
UM Animal Weaponry Research Featured on BBC, ‘NOVA’
The BBC and ‘NOVA’ teamed up this past year to feature the animal-weaponry research of Doug Emlen, a professor in UM’s Division of Biological Science. Both organizations produced hourlong documentaries using much of the same footage.
The British BBC version aired in April and was titled “Nature’s Wildest Weapons: Horns, Tusks and Antlers.” The “NOVA” version on PBS premiered in November with an episode called “Extreme Animal Weapons.” Both programs were inspired by Emlen’s 2014 book, “Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle.”
Emlen has spent decades investigating how weapon-bearing species developed extreme ways to gouge and gore one another using their natural weapons. The BBC documentary explores how animal arms races may relate to their human equivalents — all the way up to nuclear warheads. Featured subjects in the film include Darwin’s and Rhinoceros beetles, which have pitchfork-like horns that measure one-third the length of their bodies; American elk, who deplete their skeletons to grow enormous antlers; and the U.S. Air Force’s development of the long-range Minuteman III nuclear missile, Earth’s most lethal weapon to date.
Sporting a Griz hat, Emlen took viewers to various locations in Montana and Washington, including a ranch with elk overlooking Flathead Lake and a building in Three Forks crammed with 17,000 shed antlers called Jim’s Horn House.
Glimpse
UM was awarded a two-year $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to launch a pilot project to enhance American Indian participation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Aaron Thomas, director of UM’s Native American Research Laboratory, says the funding will establish the American Indian Traditional Science Experience on the Flathead Indian Reservation. A separate UM research team also was awarded a $1.8 million grant to promote professional success for Native American faculty in the STEM fields. The National Science Foundation awarded UM and partner institutions the collaborative, four-year research grant for the Willow Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate. Salish Kootenai College in Pablo and Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota, as well as UM, form the alliance.
Research by UM postdoctoral fellow Shane Campbell-Staton appeared this past year in the journal Science. Campbell-Staton, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, was the lead author of a report titled “Winter storms drive rapid phenotypic, regulatory and genomic shifts in the green anole lizard.” His research focused on the effects of natural selection in green anole lizards after an extreme cold weather event in the southeastern United States during the winter of 2013–14.
The UM Paleontology Center has partnered with internet producer Hank Green to launch “EONS,” a new weekly YouTube series that explores the billion-years-plus history of life on Earth. Green serves as host of “EONS” alongside Paleontology Center Collections Manager Kallie Moore and science writer Blake de Pastino. The series premiered June 26. It can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/eons.
A recent study authored by UM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research and the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station concludes that increased costs and lower recovery of valuable grades of lumber combine to make beetle-killed timber less economical the longer the trees remain unharvested. It found if a stand is determined to be economically and environmentally suitable for salvage harvesting, there is substantial financial risk in delaying harvesting.
UM chemistry Assistant Professor Lu Hu received a $406,000 NSF grant for a three-year project, which aims to study the chemical composition and evolution of western wildfire smoke. The study employs a C-130 research aircraft that flies straight into wildfire smoke.
“Methods in Stream Ecology” was nominated for a prestigious PROSE Award, an annual accolade that recognizes the best in professional and scholarly publishing by the Association of American Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division. The two-volume book, co-edited by UM Professor Ric Hauer and University of Notre Dame Professor Gary Lamberti, is the primary source for understanding and managing river and stream ecosystems. Hauer says the book is the most widely used stream ecology book worldwide and is a primary driver of high-level research at a variety of levels.
Understanding how wild animals and plants survive in changing environments is the focus of a new collaboration between researchers at UM and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The network of researchers that are part of UNVEIL — Using Natural Variation to Educate, Innovate and Lead — aims to advance understanding of how organisms cope with environmental challenges and how complex traits arise from variation in genomes. Network members will collaborate on three core research projects.
The Consul General of Japan, Yoichiro Yamada, recently presented UM Professor Emerita Judith Rabinovitch with the Foreign Minister’s Commendation for 2017 in Helena. Rabinovitch was recognized for her contributions promoting Japanese studies research in the United States. She has devoted herself to promoting Japanese language and studies, notably by serving as a member of the editorial advisory board for Japan Review.
Researchers in the UM geosciences department received a $750,000 NASA EPSCoR grant to develop and apply remote sensing technologies to study hydrology on Montana’s agricultural lands. The research will provide insight into the state agricultural system’s resiliency to drought while studying the impact of agricultural activity on the hydrologic cycle, water security and other users. •
