June 22, 2009

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

• Montana NSF EPSCoR Year 2 Annual Report (August 1, 2008 – July 31, 2009)
• Research focus areas: Hydrogen and the Environment, Large River Ecosystems, and Cyberinfrastructure

Year 2 Highlights

• Eight new faculty hires
• Expanded cyberinfrastructure and network capacity
• Outreach programs reaching more than 7,500 K–12 students
• Increased tribal college student participation in research
• Leveraged funding and research investments

Scientific Achievements

Hydrogen and the Environment

• Fuel cell materials research
• Hydrogenase biosynthesis and enzyme studies
• Plant biotechnology and bioenergy research
• Yellowstone microbial and viral genomics investigations

Large River Ecosystems

• Hyporheic flow and river temperature dynamics
• Floodplain hydrology and aquatic vegetation studies
• Remote sensing applications for watershed analysis
• Climate and ecosystem productivity research

Participant and Workforce Development

• Undergraduate researchers
• Graduate students
• Postdoctoral fellows
• Faculty participation
• Participant demographics and diversity statistics

Programmatic Achievements

New Faculty Hires

• Trevor Rainey
• Geoffrey Poole
• Chaofu Lu
• Paul Gannon
• Jeffrey Heys
• Anton Vorontsov
• Valeriy Smirnov
• John Kimball

Research Capacity Building

• Faculty recruitment
• Student support and training
• Research infrastructure development

Outreach and Public Engagement

• spectrUM Discovery Area
• Science Learning Tent
• Circus of Science
• Super Science Squad
• Expanding Your Horizons
• Science Saturdays
• Outreach to Native American communities and schools

Budget and Investment Overview

• Research faculty hires
• Graduate and undergraduate support
• Native American outreach
• Community outreach
• Cyberinfrastructure
• Conferences and administration

Tribal College Collaborations

Fort Belknap Community College

• Milk River water quality and monitoring studies

Chief Dull Knife College

• River bacterial diversity and remote-sensing research

Fort Peck Community College

• Poplar River water quality and brine monitoring

Blackfeet Community College

• Two Medicine River and Cut Bank Creek ecosystem monitoring

Stone Child College

• Marias River macroinvertebrate and pollution studies

Salish Kootenai College

• Jocko River restoration and Flathead Lake invasive species research

Vision for the Future

Investing in faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, undergraduates, and research infrastructure to build sustainable scientific capacity in Montana.

Program Information

• Montana NSF EPSCoR partners
• Contact information
• Program offices at Montana State University and the University of Montana