Catching up on a couple higher education-related items …
** President Barack Obama named UW-Madison professor Douglass Henderson one of 15 recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The award earned by Henderson, an engineering physics professor, is the highest federal honor for mentoring in the country.
** Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop activist and the 2008 Green Party vice-presidential candidate, is speaking on the UW-Madison campus Thursday night.
** Washington State University has lured a professor from UW-Madison out west to take an endowed chair in small grains economics funded by the Washington Grain Commission, according to Washington Ag Today.