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August 3, 2026

Research

NSF stands up 2 Materials Innovation Platforms with $50M investment

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National Science Foundation

In Wisconsin, the NSF Materials AI and Transformation through Research Infrastructure for eXtreme environments Materials Innovation Platform (NSF MATRIX-MIP) will be based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. NSF MATRIX-MIP will investigate how the chemical and structural complexity of materials influences their performance in extreme environments, like those with high heat or strong radiation. MATRIX-MIP will explore how to use complexity to design and create materials with superior properties in such environments. Researchers will design experiments that use AI to rapidly predict the properties of many new materials, fabricate them using high-throughput synthesis methods and then measure their resulting physical properties.

PETA calls for investigation after UW-Madison lab monkeys injured

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Wisconsin State Journal

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate UW-Madison’s federally funded primate lab after two monkeys sustained serious injuries there.

In the first incident, reported on March 12, a macaque injured another macaque’s arm as the two were reaching for food through openings in their side-by-side cages, according to a letter the university sent to the National Institutes of Health Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, or OLAW.

Campus life

Madison’s new regional bus station near State Street opening this fall

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The Cap Times

After nearly two decades without a permanent regional bus station, Madison is preparing to open a facility this fall as part of the redevelopment of the former State Street Campus Garage.

The site at 415 N. Lake St. is now home to Theory Madison, a 15-story student housing development built above a new public parking garage and regional bus terminal that will provide service to destinations including Milwaukee and Chicago.

State news

Crime and safety

A focus on road safety after pedestrian crash leaves mother, child injured

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Channel 3000

A vehicle hit a mother and a 1-year-old child in a crosswalk on Madison’s north side Thursday afternoon.

While this was not fatal, there have been five pedestrian deaths from similar crashes in the area this year.  

Traffic engineers study road structure and pedestrian safety for a living. Designing crosswalks and bike lanes with an extreme amount of caution for those using them.  

Although, unfortunately, safety can never be completely guaranteed.  

“You just can’t assume the vehicles are going to stop. You can’t assume the bikes [going to] stop you can’t assume the pedestrians is aware of the crosswalks,”  said University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Engineering, Transportation Engineering professor David Noyce.  

Health

Athletics

What Luke Fickell has liked from new Wisconsin football general manager Morocco Brown

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Badger Observer

Luke Fickell has appreciated Morocco Brown’s approach during his first two months in Madison.

The University of Wisconsin football program formally announced Brown as its general manager on June 4, and he arrived with plenty of NFL experience since the beginning of the century. His most recent roles were director of college scouting and later chief personnel executive with the Indianapolis Colts from 2017-25, where according to the Badgers’ release, he “managed Indianapolis’s college football department and contributed to the franchise’s annual roster breakdown.”

UW Experts in the News

Guaranteed tax revenue, river funding, affordable housing: What DeForest negotiated before a data center deal collapsed

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Civic MEdia

“The tax benefits are big,” said professor Ross Milton, a local government tax expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Milton said the guarantee means that even if the data center’s property valuation didn’t reach $1.2 billion, the village would still receive the amount of property tax revenue as if it did, though other local taxing bodies would not.

The weather can supercharge radio waves’ range

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Wisconsin State Journal

Question: What is atmospheric ducting?

Answer: Atmospheric ducting is a phenomenon that affects how radio waves travel through our atmosphere.

Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic energy that carry information as they travel by modifying certain properties of the wave, like their amplitude or frequency. In a vacuum, radio waves travel at the speed of light. In Earth’s atmosphere, radio waves travel at very nearly the speed of light.