Scholarship Meets Service

Wildlife biology. Computer science. Machine learning. Wolverine research. Bella Wengappuly is building a future where conservation runs on data, drones and global curiosity. The UM student and Goldwater Scholar is blending technology with field science to modernize how researchers track and protect wildlife around the world, proving the next generation of conservationists might code just as often as they hike.

For the first time ever, the U.S. Forest Service has co-branded Smokey Bear with a select group of universities with nationally recognized fire science programs — and UM made the list.

Because at Montana, wildfire science isn’t nostalgia. It’s next-generation stewardship.

From prescribed burns and landscape ecology to wildfire modeling and boots-on-the-ground fieldwork, Grizzlies are helping shape how communities live with fire in the West.

The limited-edition collection features Smokey, Main Hall and Montana forestry heritage, with proceeds supporting wildfire prevention education nationwide.

Whitebark pine, one of the only trees that can grow at Montana’s highest elevations, is critical to our mountain ecosystems, providing food for grizzly bears, habitat for birds, and stabilizing snowpack. But due to climate change, disease, and other stressors, the species is in decline. Follow Ph.D. candidate Josh Beisel as he studies these trees from Glacier National Park to the Bitterroot Mountains.  

UM is proud to have graduated more than 2,000 Grizzlies for our 2026 Commencment Ceremonies. Please join us in welcoming our new UM Alumni who crossed the stage today, prepared to remake the world, The Montana Way. Thank you to the families, friends, faculty and staff who nurtured and supported their journeys!

Cadence Hatten (left) and Vivianne Ostheimer are the latest students from UM to be named Harry S. Truman Scholars, a competitive national grant award recognizing students with exceptional leadership potential, academic excellence and a commitment to careers in public service. Together, they are the 17th and 18th students from UM to receive the award. Their stories reflect a generation determined to lead differently: collaboratively, compassionately and with Montana communities at the center of the work.

What if making life-saving drugs didn’t require toxic materials or massive energy use? UM chemist Dong Wang is designing nature-inspired molecules that mimic biological enzymes to transform pharmaceutical manufacturing. Backed by a $1.2 million NIH grant, his team is pushing chemistry into cleaner, smarter territory, while training the next generation of Montana scientists to rethink what modern science can do.