University Science and Scholarship Highlights From the Past Year
In fiscal year 2025, UM posted yet another record for expenditures at $149.9 million. The high mark from the previous year was $143.8 million.
Scott Whittenburg, UM vice president for research and creative scholarship, says the new record reflects broader participation across campus from units seeking federal grants.
“We’re seeing more involvement from units that historically have not pursued external funding,” says Whittenburg, who has overseen 12 years of continual research growth at UM. “While our overall increase this year is modest, the growth is coming from more places across campus, and that’s encouraging.”
But has UM reached the zenith of its research growth? Whittenburg says expenditures represent a “lagging indicator,” reflecting spending from multiyear grants awarded in prior cycles. In FY25, federal agencies tightened the purse strings and issued significantly fewer requests for proposals. This is an issue for universities nationwide.
“There is uncertainty about what the trajectory will look like,” he says. “Because our awards typically span three to five years, the impact of fewer proposals is smoothed. But at some point, fewer proposals may mean lower research expenditures.”
Whittenburg says that while cuts have been recommended to major funding agencies, Congress has advanced plans to increase science funding — a development Whittenburg views as stabilizing.
Whittenburg says UM submitted 720 grant or contract proposals in 2024, and that number dropped to 564 last year. This will likely result in fewer awards in the coming year.
“Research was up through the first half of the year, which is reassuring in uncertain conditions,” says Paul Lukacs, UM associate vice president for research and creative scholarship. “But we have assembled a strong team of faculty and research support professionals who will ensure a bright future for research at UM.”
Scare Tactics: Using Drones to Promote Human-Wildlife Coexistence
UM researchers are experimenting with using an automated drone to haze wildlife away from high-traffic areas on the UM campus. In an innovative partnership between data scientists, computer programmers and wildlife specialists, efforts to build the aerial device are underway through UM’s Autonomous Aerial Systems Office. AASO serves as an anchor that pulls together all the experts needed, helping to steer a design that uses artificial intelligence to identify the animal type and then audio hazing that responds to incidents in real time.
Hazing — the use of nonlethal methods to dissuade animals from areas of high human activity — has long been a tool of wildlife managers. What is new, however, is the deployment of drones as the means for maintaining this harmony between people and animals.
Wesley Sarmento, a UM Ph.D. student in wildlife biology and co-principal investigator on the project, says drones have been game-changing in his line of work. Before returning to UM to earn his doctorate, Sarmento became the first entirely prairie-based grizzly bear manager in eastern Montana, where he developed new techniques to keep people safe and bears out of trouble.
Sarmento tested a variety of methodologies in keeping bears at bay, but he says none have been as effective as infrared heat-sensing drones for detecting and deterring bears. Not only can the drone locate wildlife no matter the conditions using its heat-sensing capabilities, it also can effectively and humanely move them away from conflict.
“With a drone, you can basically lead them exactly where you want them to go,” Sarmento says. “When I was a bear manager, I always had a drone with me. It’s become that essential.”
Drones offer a proactive solution that helps prevent conflicts from happening. Unlike traditional hazing methods like rubber bullets, sirens or trained dogs, drones offer more precision and significantly less risk of injury to both wildlife and people.
This is the concept: When an animal is spotted, an alert is sent to a trained drone pilot who deploys the drone from a centrally mounted box. Once launched, the drone flies to the wildlife’s location guided by GPS and emits targeted sounds to move the animal safely out of the area.
“Bears have been shown to react strongly to the sound of drones,” says Jeremy Crowley, AASO director and the other investigator on the project. “The drone’s sound mimics the buzzing of a swarm of bees, of which bears already have an instinctive fear.”
That distinctive buzzing sound, combined with carefully planned drone flight paths, allows handlers to guide bears toward a safer location. More importantly, the animal associates a negative experience with that distinctive sound, influencing their behavior and decreasing the chances that they will return. The result is fewer emergency calls to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and UM Campus Police, fewer vehicle-wildlife collisions and, critically, fewer lethal removals of bears and other animals.
UM and Hospital Launch Rural Health Collaborative
UM and Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula have united to launch RESOLVE — a pioneering rural health collaborative.
This first-of-its-kind initiative integrates clinical expertise, research infrastructure and community engagement to deliver research-driven strategies and tailored care models aimed at improving access and outcomes in rural and Indigenous health care.
RESOLVE reimagines how health systems and academic institutions work together, engaging rural providers and patient voices to co-create solutions that address the unique challenges they face. Unlike traditional models that adapt urban-centered solutions to rural settings, this collaboration builds from the ground up through joint governance, shared data systems and a unified operating model that translates research into care delivery tailored for rural communities.
“RESOLVE is not just a research initiative, it’s a new model for rural health innovation,” says Matt Fete, dean of UM’s College of Health. “We’re embedding community-engaged research into the fabric of rural care, ensuring that the people who know their communities best are leading the way. Partnering with Providence allows us to scale these ideas into meaningful change across the region.”
The collaborative is seeking $2.6 million in philanthropic support to build its foundation and launch research that addresses urgent rural health needs. Early projects co-led by Providence clinicians and UM researchers include studies on cardiovascular outcomes and air quality, cancer rehabilitation and emergency response to extreme weather events.
“RESOLVE is the architecture for a tremendous expansion of the exciting clinical research at UM that supports Montana’s rural communities,” says Scott Whittenburg, UM Vice President for Research and Creative Scholarship. “Collaborating with the vast Providence network of providers will create innovative teams of practitioners and researchers with access to a wealth of data, instrumentation and populations. The outcome of the effort of these teams will provide rural communities with access to cutting edge healthcare.”
RESOLVE aims to be self-sustaining through industry and government funding this year, providing a blueprint for transforming rural health care from within. Providence and UM invite rural caregivers, researchers and philanthropic partners to join this effort to reshape how health disparities are addressed.
New Center Will Advance Hunting, Conservation Science
UM and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation recently formed the Center for Hunting and Conservation to advance science, research, education and outreach to shape the future of land and wildlife management in the United States.
The center builds on existing partnership between UM’s №1-ranked wildlife biology program and RMEF, one of the most effective conservation and hunting advocacy organizations in North America.
The center will be the first of its kind in the region, focused primarily on advancing wildlife research and the vital role hunting plays in wildlife management. The Montana Board of Regents established the center as a result of a significant long-term financial commitment from RMEF to UM’s W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation.
“RMEF coined the phrase hunting is conservation, and we are proud to now join UM in the establishment of the Center for Hunting and Conservation,” says RMEF President and CEO Kyle Weaver. “This center will be the leading authority on hunting, conservation and wildlife management, driven by, and rooted in, sound research and science.”
The center will have three primary goals.
First, advance science and research at the intersection of hunting and conservation. By bringing together world-class researchers, the center will expand opportunities to advance effective wildlife management techniques supported by extensive research and data.
Second, provide an expanded platform for UM’s Wild Sustenance Program, a course available to UM students who are novice hunters. Launched in conjunction with RMEF, the class is open to students of all UM majors who wish to pursue knowledge and experience related to the full cycle of hunting and its role in conservation.
Third, engage in broad outreach promoting the best-available science and data on wildlife management and conservation, including the vital role of hunting. The center will additionally provide decision-makers access to the most recent, accurate and relevant data, resulting in more-informed wildlife management decisions, effective conservation and sustainable hunting opportunities.
Led by a director, the center also aims to expand UM’s research portfolio, with plans to attract additional research support in the years ahead.
UM Launches Statewide Telescope Library Program With NASA Support
The University’s spectrUM Discovery Area — a hands-on science museum located within the Missoula Public Library — recently launched a NASA-supported program to place telescopes in all libraries across the state.
The program is titled “Big Sky, Bigger Dreams: Telescopes for Montana Libraries.” This groundbreaking initiative will place telescopes in public and tribal college libraries across the state, making astronomy accessible to all Montanans.
Funded through a $250,000 NASA TEAM II STEM Innovator Award, this two-year project will empower families, students and amateur astronomers in rural and tribal communities to explore the night sky with user-friendly tabletop telescopes available for free checkout at local libraries.
“It has been a longtime dream of mine to make this project a reality,” says Nicholos Wethington, spectrUM’s associate director of library telescope programs. “The night sky belongs to us all and is part of our global cultural heritage.”
He says the project is about removing barriers.
“By putting telescopes in libraries, we’re giving every Montanan — regardless of income or geography — the chance to experience the wonders of astronomy firsthand.”
Highlights of the program include:
— 124 user-friendly telescopes modified for public use and distributed to public libraries statewide.
— Training and educational resources provided to librarians via the Montana State Library’s professional development platform.
— NASA content and virtual events that connect communities with NASA scientists and missions, including Artemis and Europa Clipper.
— Special outreach events like International Observe the Moon Night, which will be hosted in partnership with NASA and the Montana Space Grant Consortium.
Montana’s rural nature and low light pollution make it an ideal location for amateur astronomy. Now, free telescopes for checkout will be offered at libraries, which are existing community hubs statewide with educational resources like books and access to the internet.
UM Earns International Grant to Study and Compare Hunter-Gatherer Societies
UM and partner institutions in the United Kingdom and Sweden recently were awarded a $12 million grant to study the social and cultural evolution of pre-farming hunter-gatherer societies.
The European Research Council provided the Synergy Grant to an international team of four principal investigators. Anna Prentiss, UM Regents Professor of Anthropology, will serve as the PI in Montana, and she will work with co-PIs at the University of Cambridge (UK), University of York (UK) and Lund University (Sweden).
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“This grant is further confirmation that UM provides world-class faculty, staff and students who engage in globally significant research and education,” says Prentiss, who in 2022 became only the fourth Montanan ever elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
UM’s share of the six-year grant will be about $3.2 million. The grant is titled “FORAGER: Investigating Alternative Trajectories for Human Demographic Growth in Temperate Northern Holocene Societies.”
“FORAGER will offer unique opportunities to rewrite global demographic history by investigating the causes and consequences of population booms and busts before the advent of farming,” Prentiss says. “It will bring together a 37-person team of climate scientists, bio-archaeologists, cultural and evolutionary anthropologists, and descendant communities to investigate hunter-gatherer-fisher societies from temperate environments across Eurasia and North America.”
Despite living in similar environments, cross-cultural comparisons between hunter-gatherers from North America, East Asia and Northern Europe are rare. Prentiss says their work will shift away from the agenda that agriculture is the main driver for social and cultural evolution — an idea that has prevailed in Western thought for centuries.
Since 2003, Prentiss has studied a village site in British Columbia that is an ancestral home of the Xwísten, the Bridge River Indian Band. The Bridge River site was home to a hunter-gatherer society from about 1,800 to 150 years ago. These people lived in clustered pit houses — dwellings that were partially dug into the ground and covered. Some pit houses were occupied into the 19th century. She says the new funding will expand work at the site, which has always involved close collaboration with the Xwísten people.
New UM Lab Studies the Effects of Hearing Loss and Aging
A new research laboratory recently opened on the UM campus to study the connection between hearing loss and brain function as people age.
The Brain, Ear and Aging Research (BEAR) Lab launched this past fall in the basement of Curry Health Center, where the School of Speech, Language, Hearing, and Occupational Sciences is housed.
Dr. Anoop Basavanahalli Jagadeesh, director of the BEAR Lab and an assistant professor, says he needed a dedicated space to teach students and expand his research. The BEAR Lab is fully equipped with two sound-treated suits, where Anoop and his students will conduct hearing, electrophysiological and cognitive tests to explore how hearing and brain function interact throughout the aging process.
Anoop’s research focuses on how aging and hearing loss affects people’s brain function and their mental health. Hearing loss affects about 60% of people above age 70 across the globe, Anoop says, and hearing loss often makes people feel disconnected from conversations and society at large. He wants to better understand the results of that isolation.
“My line of research is on how as you grow older what are the consequences of that in terms of hearing and brain function and psychological well-being,” Anoop says. “When you have aging and hearing loss combine that leads to cognition problems, which all leads to someone having a lower psychological well-being.”
Anoop intends to partner with the Rocky Mountain Ear, Nose and Throat Center to have their patients visit the BEAR Lab for testing. He is also partnering with UM’s physical therapy program to test patients who suffered concussions to see how their hearing and balance is affected.
“In individuals with concussions, there is a strong possibility that both hearing and balance mechanisms are affected due to their physical closeness and shared neural connections,” Anoop says.
Anoop is happy to share his expertise with the UM community as the only dedicated audiology professor in UM’s speech language pathology program. He’s also enjoyed his time in Montana, which has been a much different experience than his upbringing in India.
“I had no expectations and no idea how Montana would be,” Anoop says. “The people here have been extraordinary.”
Research by UM Alum Led to the Invention of Bear Spray
Before bear spray, encounters between people and bears often ended in bullets. That changed when UM graduate student Carrie Hunt developed the life-saving deterrent in the 1980s.
Over 40 years later, bear spray is one of the most important tools for human-wildlife coexistence.
As a zoology student in Montana, Hunt learned how animals are wired and the science behind their behavior. These early experiences sparked a lifelong dedication to promoting coexistence between people and wildlife.
After college, Hunt spent three seasons with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team in Yellowstone National Park. Over those three years, she saw nearly every female bear she knew get relocated and later put down after conflicts with people.
“By that time I was starting to become aware that this was a big problem for bears everywhere,” Hunt says. “I knew if I wanted to do something for bears, I would have to go back to school.”
She joined UM in 1981 under the direction of biologist and bear advocate Dr. Chuck Jonkel. With only $500 in funding for her research, Jonkel asked her to test the efficacy of skunk repellent on charging bears.
“This wasn’t what I wanted to do,” Hunt says. “But I thought about all those bears getting in trouble in Yellowstone and decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start looking at deterrents.”
Before widespread bear safety policies, the №1 reason for human fatalities in bear attacks was food-conditioned bears entering campsites at night. Hunt set out to find something that would deter a bear in a situation like that where it’s difficult to deploy a firearm. She also didn’t want to kill the bear during the process.
“I started testing old-timey remedies like moth balls around the tent, railroad flares, human urine and boat horns,” Hunt says. “I was willing to try anything.”
The light-bulb moment came when Hunt discovered Halt, a capsaicin-derived pepper spray that mail carriers used to deter dogs. At testing sites like trash dumps, she built triggers into their systems that would deter a bear if it tried to come inside.
“I wrote down if they charged, if they came back and how long they stayed away,” Hunt says. “And those were the first tests of bear spray.”
Renowned Ceramics Artist Named UM Regents Professor
The Montana Board of Regents named Julia Galloway, UM’s director of ceramics, a Regents Professor — the highest honor conferred upon faculty in the Montana University System.
Galloway is the 14th UM faculty member to earn the professor rank since it was established in 1991, and she is the first visual artist from UM to receive the distinction.
“I’m delighted the arts are being recognized in this way,” Galloway says. “The Regents Award brings a level of real credibility to the arts as a sincere and endeavor of scholarship and research. This gives students hope in a different kind of way that they’re doing something essential and worthy.”
A video celebrating Galloway’s award can be found at https://bit.ly/UMClay.
An internationally recognized artist and educator, Galloway is celebrated for her pioneering work in ceramics in Montana and across the country, her commitment to sustainability and her lauded mentorship of generations of emerging artists.
Galloway joined UM in 2009 and has since transformed the University’s ceramics program into one of the most respected in the nation. Her work, known for blending traditional craft with ecological and cultural commentary, is featured in more than 30 solo exhibitions and 275 group shows worldwide.
Her current project, the decade-long Endangered Species Project, brings together art, science and environmental advocacy through the creation of more than 1,100 hand-carved porcelain urns, each representing a species either on or lost from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Endangered Species list. The series will embark on a national museum tour in 2028.
“Art has the power to make loss visible and inspire empathy,” Galloway says. “This project is about remembering that we are connected to all living things. The survival of other species is deeply tied to our own.”
Climate Office Leads Innovative Project to Strengthen Drought Resilience
UM’s Montana Climate Office is spearheading an innovative project to strengthen drought resilience in Montana and surrounding states.
The grant was awarded through the National Science Foundation’s Regional Resilience Innovation Incubators, known as the R2I2 program, to direct the Northern Great Plains Regional Incubator for Drought Resilience. This innovative project will strengthen drought resilience across Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.
“This award is a testament to the power of regional collaboration,” says Kelsey Jencso, the grant’s principal investigator and director of the Montana Climate Office. “This effort not only will improve how we monitor and respond to drought but also will ensure that tribal and rural communities are central to shaping resilient futures.”
In addition to Jencso, investigators on the grant include UM and climate office faculty Zachary Hoylman and Kyle Bocinsky.
NGP-RIDR responds to the growing threat of climate-related disasters such as droughts, wildfires and floods.
UM Emerges as Hub for Training Montana Drone Experts
From reimagining disaster monitoring to reshaping agriculture, drone technology is improving the safety and efficiency of industries across Big Sky Country — and UM is the state’s command center for training the experts who will pilot them.
As UM’s Autonomous Aerial Systems Office has grown, so too has its capacity to guide and support students, faculty and the public in navigating complex and often-changing regulations. AASO also drives drone-related innovation, entrepreneurship and workforce development across Montana.
“The University of Montana is primarily the main hub for all drones throughout the state,” says Bart Bauer, the office’s associate director.
Last summer, AASO accepted its largest class of interns in the history of the program. The office usually accepts about three students and turns some away. This year it took nearly 10. The majority were Grizzlies, but some journeyed from other areas.
Interns are funded through a few different grant sources — mostly the Montana Space Grant Consortium — and receive about $8,000 for the summer. In just three months, they leave with a variety of hands-on experiences that set them apart in a highly competitive job market.
Glimpse
Libby Metcalf, a UM professor of forestry and conservation, recently was named dean of UM’s W.A. College of Forestry and Conservation. She is the first female dean in the college’s 112-year history, marking a milestone for Montana’s cornerstone forestry and conservation unit that delivers statewide and national impact.
In an effort to deliberately focus its academic strengths, UM launched fall semester with two new colleges led by two new interim deans. The largest collection of academic units at UM — the College of Humanities and Sciences — was divided into two new units: the College of Science and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Bruce Bowler leads the science college, and Christina Yoshimura leads the humanities unit.
UM’s Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training program was awarded a $2.4 million federal grant to continue producing more providers serving those in rural and underserved areas of Montana — especially children and young people.
The University’s Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development earned a $1.2 million federal grant to support youth behavioral health programs and career pathways in rural Montana, addressing urgent needs in both youth wellness and workforce development. The grant was from the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program–Pathways initiative.
Troy Magney was named the first W.A. Franke Endowed Faculty Chair in Forest Conservation. Also, Yoichiro Kanno was named the Franke College’s inaugural Siebel-Lewis Endowed Chair in Fisheries Science. In addition, longtime UM researcher Mark Hebblewhite was named the college’s first Earle and Pattie Layser Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Conservation Biology and Policy. All positions were endowed by generous donations.
UM students interested in entrepreneurship had the chance to perfect their business elevator pitches during Griz Pitch, a recent competition that gave students 60 seconds to share their ideas in front of four judges and a live audience. It was hosted by the College of Business and funded through a grant from the Folley Foundation. Erik Guzik, a UM assistant clinical professor of management and entrepreneurship, launched Griz Pitch last year.
UM’s speech language pathology Ph.D. program launched in 2016 and has worked closely with the Graduate School and Office of Research and Creative Scholarship to increase the number of Ph.D. students enrolled and funded. The program started with one or two students at a time and now a cohort of three students. It is expected to increase in coming years.
Mikaela Balkind, a UM graduate student, created a new Women in Wildfire Training to encourage more females to work as wildland firefighters. The training was held last year at UM’s Lubrecht Experimental Forest. Women currently make up less than 15% of the national firefighter workforce. •
