Confluence 2015-2016

Brigit Noon (biochemistry), Riley Shearer (biochemistry, economics and chemical engineering) and Anna Scott (chemistry) received 2015 Goldwater Scholarships, the nation's premier scholarship for undergraduates studying math, natural sciences and engineering.

Economics major Alexander Paterson received a 2015 Truman Scholarship and a 2014 Newman Civic Fellows Award, both awarded for Paterson's commitment to public service.

Cara Thuringer, a double-major in liberal studies and photography, won a 2014 Udall Scholarship, a 2015 Truman Scholarship and a 2015 Boren Scholarship.

Political science major Garrett Lankford serves as the Associated Students of MSU (ASMSU) student lobbyist during the 2015 Montana legislative session.

Sachiko Tsuruta, a professor in the Department of Physics, received a 2015 Marcel Grossman Prize for her pioneering work on neutron stars.

Erik Grumstrup, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, received a five-year, $750,000 early career award from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance his efforts to reduce the cost of solar cells and make them more effcient.

Nicolas Yunes, as assistant professor in the Department of Physics, was the 2015 winner of the Young Scientist Prize administered by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), the world's most prestigious award for young scientists conducting gravitational research.

Julie Hobson Haggerty, an assistant professor of geography in the Department of Earth Sciences, was selected by INSIGHT into Diversity magazine as one of its Inspiring Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

Cell biology and neuroscience alumna Megan Rothstein won a 2015 Fulbright research fellowship to continue her research on Parkinson's disease in Germany. Spanish and engineering alumnus Brent Zundel won a 2015 Fulbright research grant to study water resources issues in Chile.

MSU writing students partnered with the National Parks Conservation Association to tear down old, dilapidated fences and put up new non-barbed fencing to allow elk, deer and pronghorn populations migrate safely.

The Montana Project Archaeology program received a 2015 Historic Preservation Award for Outstanding Education and Outreach from the State Historic Preservation Office.

In order to educate students to be competitive in the "Pacific Century," a term some use to describe the 21st century in recognition of the growing economic and geopolitical influence of the Asian-Pacific region, MSU is launching an interdisciplinary Asian studies major and minor.

The papers of the late Ivan Doig, called "a presiding figure in the literature of the American West," will return to the writer's native state, finding a home in the MSU Library's Special Collections and Archives.