CAMPUS REPORT
DATE:�� ����������� January 15, 2002
TO:������ ����������� Board of Regents
FROM:� ����������� W. Franklin Gilmore
����������� ����������� Chancellor, Montana Tech of The University of Montana
RE:������ ����������� Campus Report for the January 17-18, 2002 Board of Regents� Meeting
� Dr. Kumar Ganesan, Environmental Engineering, received about $750,000 from the Montana EPA-EPSCoR research program for 2001-03.� Half the dollar amount comes from EPA and the balance from state matching.
� Dr. Mary MacLaughlin, Geological Engineering, and Michael Stickney, Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology, have been invited by the Montana DNRC Dam Safety Program to serve on the Oversight Committee for the development of Earthquake Ground Shaking Maps for the state of Montana.
� Dr. Mary MacLaughlin has published �Investigation of slope stability kinematics using discontinuous deformation analysis� in the International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences.
� Dr. Mary MacLaughlin has been selected to co-chair a session on �Numerical Modeling/Modeling of Fractured Rock Masses� at NARMS-TAC 2002 to be held in Canada in July 2002.
� The Montana Dept. of Corrections has renewed the contract to provide wellness service from the Safety, Health, & I.H. Dept. to inmates at Montana State Prison.� The research on this program has produced four publications in peer-reviewed journals concerning service learning and health and fitness for inmates.
� The Mine Waste Technology Program is anticipating up to $300,000 available for researching mine waste topics starting in late 2002.� The deadline for proposals is mid-January.
� The Montana Tech Circle K Club sponsored the Fall Leadership Training Conference for 40 Circle K members from The University of Montana, MSU, Rocky Mountain College, Carroll College, and Montana Tech campuses.
� The MUS has been awarded the BRIN grant from NIH and had the first planning meeting in November.� The objective of the grant is to make Montana universities more competitive in health related fields and research.
� Tech hosted a scholarship banquet on November 6, 2001 to honor all scholarship donors and student recipients.� Over $614,000 in awards was given this year.
� Dr. Dan Trudnowski, General Engineering, in cooperation with Bob Gunderson of MSU, will be developing an autonomous navigation and control system for small mobile robots to be used for remote rescues.� The grant is for $40,000.
� Montana Tech has received nearly $8 million in grants to help the college upgrade computer labs from either the federal government or private corporations.
� The operational capabilities of the Earthquake Studies Office of the Montana Bureau of Mines & Geology have been substantially upgraded.� The US Geological Survey provided new monitoring stations over the last two years and in November 2001, the USGS provided a new state-of-the-art seismic-data acquisition and processing system and personnel to help install it.
� The college received information that three major initiatives will be funded by the Congress at the level of $900,000 in FY02.� Two of these are direct campus efforts while a third is a joint venture with St. James Health Care:
- The Dept. of Commerce will participate in a $300,000 effort to establish an economic resource center.� This will provide a focus at Tech to support regional economic development and to couple the campus resources to local economic development offices and continuing, growing or new business in the region.
- The US Dept. of Interior will participate with Tech in the beginning of a $200,000/year study of extremophilic life in the Berkeley Pit Lake and applications to remediation and pharmacology.
- The US Dept. of Labor will provide an initial $400,000 to St. James Health Care in Butte to develop a National Center for Health Care Infomatics.� Tech is a founding partner in this consortium and will provide educational programming to support the initiative.