Notable & Quotable

Campus notes and faculty quotes from around campus

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UM named Christopher Shook the new dean of the School of Business Administration. He most recently served as Russell Professor of Management in the Harbert College of Business at Auburn University and previously served as chair of Auburn’s Department of Management. He also has served as the director of Auburn’s Central and Eastern European Studies Program since 2004 and was director of the Lowder Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship from 2008 to 2011.

UM hired a former College of Forestry and Conservation faculty member to serve as dean. Tom DeLuca, who spent 12 years at UM, will begin his new duties on Jan. 1, 2017. He currently serves as the director of the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. “I am thrilled to be taking on responsibility as dean of one of the best natural resource programs in the nation, and I am very happy to be coming home to Montana,” DeLuca says.

Casey Massena of Santa Cruz, California, a chemistry doctoral student at UM, recently helped develop a new type of molecule, and his work was the cover story for a top scientific journal. Massena works in the UM lab of Assistant Professor Orion Berryman. Massena’s work was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, which has a global readership.

UM released its first mobile app, which was designed in-house by UM’s Information Technology department. Functions include a list of degrees and majors offered, hours of operation for various campus facilities, a list of current campus events, an interactive campus map, the daily Food Zoo menu and the UDash bus schedule. It can be downloaded for free from the Google Play store or the Apple iTunes App Store by searching for “umontana.”

UM selected Ray Ekness to become the next director of the Broadcast Media Center, which houses the broadcasting stations of Montana Public Radio and MontanaPBS. Ekness is a UM School of Journalism professor and former chair of the Department of Radio-Television. Ekness replaces William Marcus, who retired as director last year after a 40-year career in Montana public broadcasting.

The native garden surrounding the Payne Family Native American Center now is designated Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. The NWF program encourages homeowners, schools and businesses to provide habitat for wildlife through landscaping practices that promote visits from birds, butterflies and more. UM’s native garden features wide swathes of native grasses that are drought resistant and provide food for caterpillars and other beneficial insects. A grove of serviceberries produces a delicious berry crop for visiting birds, and nine rock circles in the garden each represent culturally important plants from Montana’s Native American cultures and people.

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