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> Office of the President
STUDENT EXCELLENCE
- Kathryn J. Conner (Great Falls-English literature) earned a 2003 Truman Scholarship, a national merit-based award granted to students who evidence potential and dedication to public service.
- Bonnie Kirkpatrick (Dillon-computer science) earned a 2003 Goldwater Scholarship. MSU ranks eighth in the country for colleges and universities with the most number of students that have received this prestigious award, given for excellence in math and science. MSU students have earned 41 Goldwater awards, more than students from Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Yale and other top schools.
- Ryan Johnson (Fort Collins, CO-pre-physical therapy) was selected for a 2003 NCAA Top VIII Award. This honor is awarded to the top eight student athletes in the NCAA. It cuts across gender, sport and division. The award is based on academic and athletic achievement as well as community involvement.
- Nathan Seldomridge (Colorado Springs, CO-electrical and computer engineering) earned a two-year fellowship from the NASA Graduate Student Research Program. Nathan competed with a national pool of candidates for the honor. He is a master's degree student at MSU, collaborating with a remote sensing applications group at the Stennis Space Center.
- Kay Kirkpatrick (Dillon-mathematics) earned the 2002 Alice T. Shafer Award. This honor is given to the top female math student in the nation.
- MSU student athletes compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.13 for the 2002-2003 school year. During this time they also won Big Sky Championships in men's cross country, football, women's basketball and women's track and were the only Division 1 institution in the nation to have two athletes - Ryan Johnson and Jon Montoya - named as First Team Verizon Academic All-America in Football.
UNIQUE and OUTSTANDING ACADEMICS
- The College of Agriculture has the only bio-containment facility west of the Mississippi River for quarantining and testing insects and plant pathogens for control of weeds and plant diseases. Research Center personnel are conducting one of the largest cattle grazing studies in the United States.
- Two College of Arts and Architecture graphic arts students earned first prize in the international Dixie Design Competition. Selected from 9,000 entries worldwide, MSU students Bridget Nagorney and Kendra Fellows received two of only eight first prize awards. The Department of Media and Theatre Arts offers the world's only degree program in Science and Natural History Filmmaking.
- The College of Business received a $3 million grant from the Gary K. Bracken Foundation. The money assists students through increased scholarship funds, new mentoring opportunities and enhanced undergraduate business courses. CPA students placed first in the nation on the 2002 CPA exam. MSU had a pass rate of 85 percent compared to 19 percent nationwide. This is the fifth time in 21 years that MSU has been ranked first.
- The College of Education, Health and Human Development has been awarded the second largest grant given by the U.S. Department of Education to develop and implement the Northern Plains Network for Career Transition, a program to support teacher certification for individuals making a transition to teaching from another occupation.
- College of Engineering students have a 95 percent pass rate on the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, compared to the national aggregate average of 79 percent. MSU is one of less than 10 percent of schools that require all graduating students to take the exam. MSU is one of only nine schools selected to participate in the Hewlett Foundation's "Engineering Schools of the West" program. This program will fund new initiatives in undergraduate education.
- The College of Letters and Sciences was selected for a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant to enhance the undergraduate biology curriculum. Only 44 grants were made nationwide. Other winners include Harvard, Stanford and Johns Hopkins.
- MSU's College of Nursing is the seventh largest general nursing program in the nation. Graduates have a 96 percent pass rate on the national licensing exam, compared to 86 percent nationally.
- The College of Graduate Studies will begin offering the first doctorate in the humanities at MSU. The doctorate in History will have an emphasis in Science, Technology and Society and in Environmental History.
DISCOVERY of KNOWLEDGE
- MSU posted a record $82 million in research expenditures in FY03, putting MSU near the top 100 public universities based on its research volume.
- Research at the new Center for Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials focuses on nanotechnology in the form of ultra-small vessels that can carry medicines in the body or provide computers with greater memory. According to the National Science Foundation, the study of nanotechnology "will influence every field and industry in the next 20 years."
- The National Science Foundation has awarded MSU $5 million over five years to study the colorful microbes in Yellowstone Park. The research is designed to answer one of the greatest challenges in all of science - how do microbes evolve? The MSU project was one of six chosen from 114 applications.
- The Center for Biofilm Engineering is considered the world's premier institute for the study of microbial biofilms, or slimy bacteria, which are a major source of chronic infections in humans. Students, researchers and industry representatives from 25 companies come from around the globe to learn about the sticky bacteria, which may also be harnessed to help fight bioterrorism.
- The National Institute of Health has awarded a $10 million grant to MSU to develop and implement a high-speed telecommunications network for biomedical researchers in six rural states in the West. This new network, called Lariat, will connect researchers in these states to the rest of the nation's research infrastructure, giving MSU the same level of connectivity as Stanford and MIT.
- The Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology, in partnership with a local company, has received licensing agreements and two multi-million dollar federal contracts to develop drugs to prevent infection from potential bio-terrorist agents, and to identify compounds that can boost the human immune system.
SERVICE and OUTREACH
- The MSU Extension Service's presence is felt throughout the state with 62 offices serving all Montana counties, reservations and tribal colleges. Extension agents provide crucial resources to families and communities, including a complete and up-to-date library for dealing with Montana's drought and other social, economic and environmental issues.
- Montana's Agricultural Experiment Stations are found in eight locations around the state. Researchers have developed new crop varieties, developed methods to prevent saline seep and pioneered performance testing of beef cattle. All activities focus on enhancing the economic viability of agriculture in Montana.
- The Big Sky Institute has created a vital partnership with resort businesses to offer tourists a first-hand experience discovering MSU's scientific research in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In addition, BSI teacher workshops have trained more than 100 K-12 teachers to bring the excitement and rigor of MSU's Yellowstone science research into their science and math classes.
- The Local Government Center has been awarded a grant from the Public Entity Risk Institute to provide training for Montana's mayors in February of 2004 and 2005 to help them reduce liability and risk exposure. The Local Government Center also works with the Montana Association of Counties to develop a continuing education for county commissioners.
- The Western Transportation Institute, through its work with national and international research partners, now conducts $5.5 million of rural transportation research each year, developing and testing leading edge technological solutions for challenges such as reducing animal vehicle collisions and forecasting road and weather conditions.
- Montana Shakespeare in the Parks presents a traveling professional repertory of Shakespeare and other theatrical classics. The eight-week summer tour emphasizes rural areas and features over 65 performances in 50 cities throughout Montana, northern Wyoming and eastern Idaho. In addition, the company conducts a Shakespeare in the Schools program that serves 35 public schools each fall, and features condensed productions of Shakespeare and other theatrical workshops.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
- Montana Manufacturing Extension Center (MMEC) has provided assistance to more than 470 Montana manufacturing firms and introduced Lean Manufacturing techniques to more than 800 employees from 90 Montana companies. MMEC's Customer Satisfaction scores rank fourth in the nation according to independent survey data of client projects at 65 Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
- TechLink Center has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce as one of ten exemplary models nationwide of federal technology transfer. TechLink has helped more than 100 Montana companies access new technology, expertise and R&D funding in the Department of Defense, NASA and other federal agencies. TechLink has also helped Montana companies secure more than $17 million for new technology development and provided seed grants exceeding $1 million to 50 Montana companies to assist in development or commercialization of new technologies.
- TechLink Center received a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to help launch new technology companies in Montana. The project involves MSU's Center for Entrepreneurship for the New West, TechRanch, and the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity and has already helped to start up five new technology firms in Montana.
- The Center for Entrepreneurship for the New West helps students to earn a minor in entrepreneurship while obtaining hands-on business experience. In the past two years, MSU undergraduates have provided more than 3,000 hours of supervised student research for Montana entrepreneurs and their start-up companies.
- Forty-one patents have been issued to MSU with another 146 pending. Thirty-nine technologies have been licensed, 16 with Montana companies.
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