Christian Franck, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, leads PANTHER, an multi-institution research hub based at UW-Madison, focused on understanding, detecting and preventing traumatic brain injuries. The hub brings together experts from different disciplines.
PANTHER has received over $50 million from the U.S. Office of Naval Research since 2017, including an additional $10 million recently to investigate how pulsed microwaves might injure the brain.
“Most of the increase in recent decades is in relatively mildly affected children and adults, so maybe in the past we wouldn’t have called it autism,” explained Maureen Durkin, professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“There’s very clear evidence that screening prevents vision loss,” says Roomasa Channa, a retina specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.
Scientists, including Charles Raison of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Andrew Miller of Emory University, have meanwhile identified mechanisms by which inflammation can cause depression. Inflammatory cytokines circulating in the blood can weaken or even breach the protective barrier between blood vessels and the brain. Once inside the brain, they trigger its immune cells, called microglia, to produce further inflammatory agents.
The Universities of Wisconsin, a 13-institution system, paid Huron Consulting Group at least $51 million from 2019 to 2023, WORT reported.
Meanwhile, colleges faced intensifying financial pressures, cutting programs and staff to stay afloat. Throughout much of the year, a fired University of Wisconsin chancellor fought to keep his job in what became a closely watched test of academic freedom. The presidential election and the implications for higher education as well as a growing conservative backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion programs loomed over the year.
Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison named the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the most difficult issue to discuss on campus with racial inequality and affirmative action ranking second and third, according to a new faculty survey.
“I’ve watched the markets grow from just plain phone service to hybrid computers that are in our phones, so-called smartphones through which life is now lived,” said Barry Orton, a retired telecommunications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Old fashioned copper wire-based phones, which we all used to have in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s are now a thing of the past,” he added
Fifteen ambulances responded to the shooting. Four victims were transported to St. Mary’s and three to University of Wisconsin-Madison hospitals, Madison Fire Chief Chris Carbon said.
Officers from the Madison Police Department, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, Wisconsin State Patrol and Dane County Sheriff’s Department were on site. Barnes said he also had been in contact with the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The first year of expanded alcohol sales for University of Wisconsin football home games brought decreases in the number of arrests and citations issued. A 19% drop in both categories for the 2024 season compared to figures from 2023 was both expected and surprising, a UW-Madison Police official said.
“We do have strong tornadoes,” said Ed Hopkins, a climatologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison-affiliated State Climatology Office. “And it would be appropriate to have some warning to that.”
