Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who leads the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sees opening a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence as the right move to support in-demand majors and says funding the school won’t come at the expense of other areas of the university.
Rudolph Johnson, a toxicologist with experience working for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, started in the top role at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene in November, the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health announced Monday.
The technology is ready to treat at least some of these diseases, though. “There’s a whole toolbox now that can target arguably any part of the genome pretty precisely,” said Krishanu Saha, a gene-editing researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Researchers with a few more years of experience are more protected, but still facing setbacks. Fátima Sancheznieto is an associate researcher at the University of Wisconsin who studied biomedical sciences for her Ph.D., but now focuses on education and social science research. Before the Trump administration began cutting federal research funding, she was looking for faculty positions as an assistant professor — now she’s put that search on hold.
“You always have the — I don’t want to call it imposter syndrome, but — imposter phenomenon of, ‘Do I really belong here?’” Sancheznieto said. “When you start to notice maybe that you’re not getting as many job offers or career advancement opportunities and things like that — is it because I’m out and transgender?”
At a time when American politics are increasingly polarized and partisan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is launching a new undergraduate major focused on working across those divides to create evidence-based public policy.
In August, a group of former University of Wisconsin women’s basketball players sued former head coach Marisa Moseley, alleging psychological abuse.
The civil case, which also lists the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents and former UW senior associate athletic director Justin Doherty as defendants, seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
Supporters of isocycloseram said it could help with a pest that’s long shown resistance to insecticides. Russ Groves, an entomology professor and Extension specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the insecticide has been evaluated in Wisconsin to gauge its effectiveness at controlling the Colorado potato beetle. The pest eats the leaves off potato plants, resulting in serious yield losses.
“We’ve evaluated this tool alongside others, and we see that it’s a very good fit,” Groves said. “It performs well in controlling the insect.”
Several attempts to reestablish a population of turkeys in the wild in Wisconsin failed. All attempted to use game farm or other captive-reared birds.
But a 1976 change in strategy and source birds proved dramatically different. That project, a partnership between the DNR and Missouri Department of Conservation with assistance from the National Wild Turkey Federation and University of Wisconsin-Madison, transferred wild turkeys from Missouri to southwestern Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene announced its new director, Rudolph Johnson, who brings national leadership experience to the role.
The laboratory, established in 1903, serves as Wisconsin’s public laboratory focused on clinical, environmental, and occupational health, as well as genetic testing, forensic toxicology, cytology, outbreaks, emergency preparedness, and epidemics. It is a key partner of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and reports to the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Maile Lloyd studied art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she graduated in May 2025 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Originally from Madison, Lloyd is a graduate of West High School and also studied at Madison College
After graduating from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There, she met a newspaper editor leading an effort to recall Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the crusading anti-Communist who was attacking the loyalty of political opponents. She helped set up the Madison headquarters for a campaign called “Joe Must Go” and began going door to door to gather signatures for a petition.
Jackman, who was in town last week for the hometown premiere of “Blue,” gave kudos to his “friend and costar” via Instagram.
He posted a photo of the two of them from a promo for the movie, sporting Wisconsin Badgers crewnecks.
