News

Libby Metcalf, a CREWS project lead at the University of Montana working with the Natural Resource Social Science team, was named as the inaugural Joel Meier Distinguished Professor of Wildland Recreation in the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation. This honor recognizes Metcalf’s exceptional leadership and accomplishments in research, teaching, and service in and beyond the Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management arena.

Fifteen Montana University System undergraduates have received summer internships to research climate science related projects at sites throughout Montana. The Institute on Ecosystems students will work with faculty at The University of Montana and Montana State University on a variety of projects, studying everything from elk, marmots and snowshoe hares to Ponderosa pines and microscopic cyanobacteria. The students' research findings will be presented at the Institute on Ecosystems annual summit meeting in Helena on Aug. 21 to 23.

Two Montana Institute on the Ecosystems (IoE) Research Associates have been featured on the 'Cores of Discovery' show on Montana Public Radio. Dr. Ric Hauer, director of the IoE at UM, was featured on December 7th, 2012, and Dr. Maury Valett, an IoE research fellow discussing water quality in the Flathead River, was featured on December 21st. Tune in or listen to recorded podcasts to learn more.

UM Associate Professor, Tony Ward, received a National Institute of Health Science Education Partnership Award to develop inquiry-based science lessons that will prepare middle and high school students to conduct research studies on air pollutants. Teachers who are involved in the project will receive training, curriculum and air-sampling equipment to guide environmental health science education.

What is your specialty? I work in the space between statistics and machine learning.Statistical models are nice because they’re interpretable, probabilistic, and reliable to train. But they can struggle with large, complex datasets. On the other hand, machine learning models are great for large, complex datasets, but many of them are black boxes which are hard to interpret, and the training process can be unreliable and resource intensive. My research is about developing new methods which blend the best of these worlds. 

What is your specialty? I am a computational cognitive neuroscientist. I’m really interested in brain network dynamics and larger systems that relate to patients where you can pick out biomarkers that are similar across patients to help diagnoses.

Dr. Jacob Downs is a new associate professor in computer science at the University of Montana. With a background in machine learning and numerical modeling regarding environmental systems he is excited to engage with SMART FIRES researchers and inspire the next generation of computer scientists. How did you get into STEM?

For FY 2022, RII Track-2 FEC proposals are invited on a single topic: “Advancing research towards industries of tomorrow to ensure economic growth for EPSCoR jurisdictions.”

Video produced by Gerard Sapes (UM)