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Awards and Accolades
Accomplishments from UM faculty, researchers and students
Environmental studies Professor Neva Hassanein has received the Excellence in Public Service Award from the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society. The award honors AFHVS members whose contributions have significant public service impact on the advancement of agriculture, food and human values. Nominations for Hassanein described her as a national leader in sustainable agrifood systems and noted that “students trained and mentored by Hassanein have become a presence throughout the country … moving on to assume important leadership roles at universities, nonprofits and in the public sector.”
With a little help from robots, UM faculty member Sara Rinfret recently won a national pitch competition designed to enhance student education. Dr. Rinfret chairs UM’s Department of Public Administration and Policy and is an associate professor in the Alexander Blewett III School of Law. She took first place in the third annual Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration Voinovich Public Innovation Challenge. Her presentation illustrating how robots can provide another access point for student success in rural states like Montana.
Dr. Jingjing Sun will use a $200,000 grant from the American Indian/Alaska Native Clinical and Translational Research Program to help develop culturally appropriate trainings by examining Social Emotional Learning interventions for Native children. Sun and her team are developing a culturally appropriate, multilayer program through community-based participatory research that includes SEL trainings for children, educators and community members. Sun is an assistant professor in the UM Phyllis J. Washington College of Education’s Department of Teaching and Learning.
Regents Professor of History Anya Jabour published a new book, "Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women's Activism in Modern America,” whose work informed women's activism for decades and continues to shape progressive politics today. In October, Jabour presented a lecture at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, which was established by Breckinridge and became a feminist think tank that promoted public welfare policy and propelled women into leadership positions.
The Grizzly soccer team scored a number of accomplishments in the 2019 season, including winning the regular-season Big Sky Conference title, completing the season unbeaten in league play and at home and seeing seven players earn All-Big Sky Conference recognition. The Grizzlies allowed just two goals in their nine Big Sky matches and posted seven shutouts. Northern Colorado knocked off Montana in the conference championship tournament, but the Griz are already looking toward next year, when their entire roster will return and six new players will join the team. Go Griz!
As an undergraduate at UM, Kaitlyn Strickfaden completed her senior thesis project on identifying less - error-prone methods for performing wildlife surveys, specifically bird surveys. “False positives can have huge impacts on the reliability of population estimates,” she says. Now an alumna with a wildlife biology degree and a researcher with UM’s Avian Science Center, Strickfaden’s data showed that a double-observer method was less prone to errors than the single-observer method. That research was published in Ecological Applications this past fall, an impressive accomplishment for an undergraduate.