Research and Creative Scholarship, University of Montana

Drones are a powerful technology that allow us to push the boundaries of research, first-responder services, and creativity to better serve our community and environment. From studying our local waters, to partnering with the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), to scanning the world’s largest larch tree, we are proud to acknowledge the interns of UoM’s Autonomous Aerial Systems Office (AASO) who have developed skills over the summer that place them on the forefront of redefining what’s possible with technology. GO GRIZ! Link to to the full article is in the comments.

Iris McKean, an undergraduate research assistant (Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana), went to Japan to study sexual selection in rhinoceros beetles. She was a member of a UM team recording the relational drama of mating (or not mating) beetles.

“It seems horn size matters, but maybe not as much as we previously thought,” McKean said. “The big horn indicates fitness and health to the female, but I keep thinking about these smaller males with shorter horns, and they get flipped off and keep coming back again and again...So resilience is a big factor, too. We didn’t find that females were always choosing the male with the biggest horn.” -Sophie Fitzgerald, project lead. Link to full article in comments.

As the Office of Research AND Creative Scholarship, we’re always happy to find students expressing their creative side! 😎🔥

Today, Faith (Media Arts student) and Evan (Fine Arts student) are taking out their
handcrafted cereal box cameras for a spin in analog photography! 🎥🎞️

These cameras are called pinhole cameras, and after the students are finished capturing their images, they’ll learn how to develop the film in UM’s darkroom.

“Film is a lost art that needs to be saved.” - Faith

Graduate students in the Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana and the University of Montana Bird Ecology Lab are investigating bird populations to assess the long-term ecological effects of the copper industry. A link to the full article by UM News is in the comments.

"'Baby birds are what we call ‘locally grown,’ Venegas said. 'The adult bird is not going to go further than a few hundred meters to forage for food, so the nestlings are getting fed from their immediate surroundings. So when we find heavy metal contaminants in the babies, we know those came directly from the bugs which came directly from the soil of this area.'”

The University of Montana and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation have launched the Center for Hunting and Conservation — a new initiative dedicated to advancing science, research, education, and outreach that will shape the future of land and wildlife management across the United States.

Building on a strong, existing partnership between UM’s top-ranked wildlife biology program and RMEF — one of North America's leading conservation and hunting advocacy organizations — the center will serve as a hub for innovative collaboration and impactful stewardship.

Read the entire article:
https://www.umt.edu/news/2025/07/072525rmef.php

Did you know the University of Montana's Blue Mountain Observatory hosts community open houses where participants can learn about astronomy and get a great view of our neighborhood cosmos? The next open house is August 16th. Purchase tickets through GrizTix: https://griztix.evenue.net/events/PLANET