As a Wisconsin resident, I am proud of the role played by UW-Madison in gene therapy and its future potential. Unfortunately, our Legislature fails to appreciate the university’s scientific contributions to humanity when it comes to funding.
Author: gbump
Why Wisconsin capped this successful coach’s bonus payments at less than he earned
The University of Wisconsin’s director of cross country and track and field was again its most-rewarded coach in bonuses for the spring season.
Universities of Wisconsin announces more leadership changes
All three of the Universities of Wisconsin’s vice presidents will be serving in interim status come September.
Wisconsin lands $49 million in funding for medical sciences
The Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub Consortium members include the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), the University of Wisconsin System Administration, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, GE HealthCare, Rockwell Automation, Exact Sciences Corporation, BioForward Wisconsin, Employ Milwaukee, Accuray, Plexus, WRTP Big Step, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Madison Area Technical College, the Madison Regional Economic Partnership (MadREP), and Milwaukee7.
Opinion | Redaction costs threaten police video access
UWPD spokesperson Marc Lovicott told me his department is “working through challenges” with the new law and hoping to receive guidance from the state’s Office of Open Government, part of the Department of Justice. “It’s a broadly worded law that’s really untested. We’re all trying to figure it out.”
Wisconsin biohealth industry named one of nation’s elite tech hubs
“We’re coupling Wisconsin’s innovation capacity with Wisconsin’s manufacturing capacity in a way that is really unique,” said Aaron Olver, managing director of UW-Madison’s University Research Park on Madison’s West Side and steering committee chair for the tech hub.
Leo M. Walsh
Leo began his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1964, first serving as an Assistant Professor in the Soil Science Department, then as an Associate Professor, and subsequently rising through the ranks, eventually becoming full Professor and Chair. Leo’s long and impressive career culminated in his appointment as Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) in 1979 and served in this capacity until 1991.
Tom Still: Solar, wind, nuclear: All of the above or other choices for energy transition?
The nuclear engineering program at UW-Madison is also part of the research mix.
UW dorm campaigning policies up for debate close to Election Day
Leaders of Wisconsin’s state universities are weighing whether to update policies on political campaigning in residence halls for the first time since 1988.
William C. Zarnstorff
He went on to complete his PhD in Physiology in 1970, and joined the UW faculty. Over the course of his career, he advanced engineering applications in medicine, taught, and mentored graduate students in Medical Physics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Radiology. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1994.
New cyclotron at UW Health to boost cancer, Alzheimer’s research, treatment
UW Health plans to build a new cyclotron, which makes radioactive atoms used in scans to detect tumors and other ailments, to expand research and treatment of cancer and conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Why does Kwik Trip have a cult following in Wisconsin?
Thomas O’Guinn, professor emeritus in marketing at UW-Madison, said businesses typically gain cult-like followings by accident. But it’s the businesses that help fulfill a person’s need to belong that stick out from the pack, he said.
Former Wisconsin star earns spot on US women’s soccer Olympic team
Former University of Wisconsin standout women’s soccer player Rose Lavelle will try to improve on her last finish with the U.S. Women’s National Team at the Olympics.
What Wisconsin tells donors torn between funding NIL or a new football facility
If donors have a set sum they’re willing to give to the Wisconsin athletic department, which category should it go to: the facility that has been eyed for years or the NIL funding that might make the difference in putting together a winning roster?
Paris Olympics: How UW swimmer Phoebe Bacon followed Katie Ledecky
Katie Ledecky and Phoebe Bacon have been “buddies’’ for decades. Or since Ledecky was in grade school and Bacon was in kindergarten and they were part of a “buddy’’ system.
A running list of Wisconsin-connected athletes competing in the 2024 Summer Olympics
List includes multiple former UW-Madison student athletes.
Olympics create golden opportunity for UW’s Sarah Franklin, Carter Booth with USA volleyball
The returning American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Americans are two of 14 college players who will represent the United States at the NORCECA Women’s Final Six Pan American Cup next week in the Dominican Republic.
Janesville visit celebrates UW’s founding, statewide partnerships
Bucky Badger, the Wisconsin Alumni Association and members of the UW band came to Janesville for a birthday party Tuesday.
Wisconsin lakes at war with invasive species, and some are losing
Jake Vander Zanden is director of the Center for Limnology at UW-Madison, a research center focused on Wisconsin’s inland waters. He is exploring whether lake ecosystems can themselves keep invasives in check. But for now, a lake district’s best bet is to “manage to minimize” the negative impacts, Vander Zanden said.
After last year’s drought, farmers finally have rain. Maybe a little too much
“The wet springs become even wetter, the drier springs become even drier. That creates risk that these producers need to manage,” said Jeff Hadachek, assistant professor of agricultural and applied sciences at UW-Madison.
Opinion | Give UW research primates sanctuary in retirement
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a primate problem. No, there aren’t primates running amok on the campus, but there are significant concerns about the ethics of animal research and the treatment of the campus’ over 1,500 primates.
Parthenon Gyros co-owner and recent grad Erin Vranas was already part of a Madison institution
It’s been quintessential to the college experience of Parthenon Gyros’ co-owner, Erin Vranas, in ways far more personal than most. As a new college student at UW-Madison in 2006, the Black River Falls native was still adjusting to a world where people outnumbered cows when she met her now-husband, Dimetri, outside his parents’ restaurant on State Street. At the time, nothing Vranas was studying at UW-Madison felt right — interior design, consumer science and astronomy all piqued her interest but ultimately didn’t offer what she wanted.
University of Wisconsin’s first dorm was completed 170 years ago
This State Journal report ran on June 23, 1854:
This engraving represents the university as it is to be when completed. At present, only the first dormitory building at the right of the central building is completed. The first one at the left is in the process of construction and will be finished the present season.
Wisconsin star swimmer punches ticket to Paris Olympics
The University of Wisconsin swim program is going to have to adjust its wall of Olympians.
That’s because senior Phoebe Bacon earned a spot on Team USA with her second-place finish in the 200-meter backstroke finals Friday at the USA Swimming Trials in Indianapolis. That means she’ll be part of the U.S. Olympic team this summer in Paris.
UW Health to open new regional Med Flight base in Janesville
UW Health is opening a new regional Med Flight base at the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport in Janesville, allowing faster response times for patients in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
Former Wisconsin track and field star lands third Olympic bid with decathlon silver
Zach Ziemek knows what it takes to reach the Olympic stage, having earned top-10 finishes in the decathlon at the 2016 Rio Games and the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Richard Wilbur Johnson
He retired from UW-Madison in 1997 as Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Counseling Psychology and as Director of Training at the University Counseling Service.
A year later, Richland campus closure leaves a void in education and culture
The Richland campus will officially close at the end of June, since UW system leadership has ended negotiations with Richland County officials over the future of the campus. The real death of the campus came a year ago, when classes ended.
Wisconsin volleyball pair earn spots on Team USA for upcoming tourney
Sarah Franklin, the reigning national player of the year, and Carter Booth both were selected to play for Team USA at the NORCECA Women’s Final Six Pan American Cup in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The tournament runs Wednesday through June 30.
Frank Emspak
In 1991, he applied to work at the School for Workers in Madison, WI, and started another chapter of his life.
Wisconsin prisons need federal oversight. Arrest of ex-warden shows why.
Column authored by Steven Wright, a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he directs the Constitutional Litigation, Appeals, and Sentencing Project.
Decades of gene therapy research pay off big for Madison company
Thirty years ago, when the idea that would give rise to Mirus Bio took shape in a UW-Madison laboratory, scientists were only beginning to piece together the puzzle of human genetics.
Gow pushes back on university claims of computer misuse, insubordination
Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow pushed back on claims that he used university computers to visit pornography websites during a hearing on whether the university has grounds to dismiss him from faculty.
Stephanie J. Davis
She worked in several Madison-area laboratories, most recently with the UW-Madison Carbone Center.
The details on the new contract giving Wisconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield a raise
Kelly Sheffield’s salary as University of Wisconsin volleyball coach is getting a boost, with more on the line for continued success by the Badgers.
What are pollinators and how do they ‘hold entire ecosystems together’? We explain.
Susan Carpenter, the native plant garden curator at UW-Madison’s arboretum, said she also likes to keep an eye out for the yellow bumble bee. It’s one of the species in Wisconsin in need of conservation, she said.
Fired UW-L chancellor Joe Gow defends his tenured faculty position
After two days of fiery exchanges at the Omni Center, former Chancellor Joe Gow and UW-La Crosse officials concluded their arguments Thursday about whether Gow should be allowed to keep his tenured faculty position.
A UW-Madison study mapped millions of acres of abandoned U.S. farmland. Here’s why it matters.
A team of scientists from the UW-led Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center mapped millions of acres of abandoned farmland across the U.S. over several decades in a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Knowing where this abandoned land is could help people evaluate it for different uses, including climate solutions, the team theorized.
How to stay safe during lightning storms – summer is the highest-risk season
Authored by Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist at UW-Madison and the manager of the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet. Vagasky is an expert on topics related to lightning data and lightning safety, meteorological measurements, and applications of weather measurements.
Expert insights on crossbred cattle nutrition
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, in collaboration with the UW-Madison Animal and Dairy Science Department, is set to host a series of four in-person workshops focused on Beef X Dairy crossbred cattle from July 29 to August 1, 2024.
Wisconsin football’s recruiting ace part of changes to the department
A BadgerExtra source said Thursday morning that director of player personnel Max Stienecker will be getting a new title and the Badgers will look to hire a new director of player personnel.
‘We don’t want to be known as PornU,’ interim UW-La Crosse chancellor says at first day of Joe Gow hearing
For UW-La Crosse, the hearing is the first step in a two-part process to finally purge Gow from its payroll and move on from what many see as an embarrassing chapter that damaged the university’s reputation.
Thousands in Wisconsin could benefit from new immigration rules
That’s particularly true in the state’s dairy farms, which are routinely staffed by undocumented immigrants, according to a 2023 report from the UW-Madison School for Workers. This has created new coalitions advocating on immigration issues in the state.
2024 Wisconsin County Agent Association award recipients named
Among the recipients are Luiz Ferraretto, UW-Madison Dairy Nutrition Extension Specialist, Department of Animal and Dairy Science, and PJ Leisch, Extension Entomologist, Director, Insect Diagnostic Lab.
Joe Gow spars with UW-La Crosse officials over porn, his future on campus
Former UW-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow and his former colleagues engaged in a harsh battle of words over Gow’s disputed faculty position Wednesday afternoon.
I-94 Rivalry game set for Wisconsin men’s basketball
The Badgers’ annual I-94 Rivalry game with Marquette has been scheduled for Dec. 7 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin announced Tuesday in a post to Twitter. No time has been announced for the game.
Editorial | Celebrate the Center for Black Culture this Juneteenth
A good schedule is on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion website.
Steve Feren talks about his serendipitous journey as a glass art outlier
He calls it a bit of a “roadside attraction,” which also welcomes in visitors by appointment during the week. The former head of the UW-Madison Art Department’s glass program for 30 years, Feren now works full time creating and delivering his wide range of artworks in glass, concrete, metal and wood.
Ralph Andrew Hawley
Soon after, the moved to Madison, where in 1955 Ralph was hired by John Bowers at the UW Medical School to be Business Manager but was immediately put to work shepherding the Alumni Association as his major focus for 34 yeas.
UW-Madison researcher develops ice cream that doesn’t melt
In the UW-Madison basement-level lab, the answer was largely predestined. One scoop was regular ice cream, not unlike what visitors could buy upstairs at the Babcock Dairy store. The other was a concoction of UW-Madison Ph.D. researcher Cameron Wicks, in which an addition of polyphenols — compounds naturally occurring in plants such as blueberries and green tea leaves — helps ice cream keep its shape by counteracting melting ice crystals.
Hearing for Joe Gow’s faculty position at UW-La Crosse begins Wednesday: What’s happened and what to expect
The UW-L faculty hearing committee will hear arguments from interim chancellor Betsy Morgan and Gow about his tenured faculty role.
New collaboration with UW-Madison lets 3 Wisconsin school districts grow their own principals
A new collaboration between the UW-Madison School of Education and three Wisconsin school districts — Madison, Lake Mills and Middleton-Cross Plains — proposes a solution: Through the District Leadership Preparation Pipeline, a group of Wisconsin teachers will earn their master’s degree from UW-Madison for no cost. In return, they commit to working in their home school districts as a principal or assistant principal for at least two years.
UW system set to close another 2-year campus, the sixth to be shuttered in the last 2 years
UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt and UW system President Jay Rothman will shut down UW-Oshkosh’s two-year branch campus in Menasha at the end of the spring 2025 semester. WLUK-TV was the first to report the news Thursday morning.
Partisan gridlock leaves millions in state funds for Wisconsin communities unspent
Officials with La Crosse County, the town of Campbell, UW-Madison, U.S. Geological Survey and the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey earlier this week drilled three “sentinel” wells to help identify PFAS migration in the area and monitor the untainted aquifer.
Sneak peek inside the tarp covering the Royal Thai Pavilion at Olbrich Gardens
The second phase, which began in March, involves cleaning, painting and applying decorative gold leaf, and repairing and replacing glass beads and tiles that add to the elegance of the pavilion. The project is being funded by UW-Madison, which was gifted the pavilion more than 20 years ago. The restoration will allow the pavilion to continue to shine on the east side of the botanical gardens.
Adaptive Gaming Expo gives gamers with disabilities options, community
Sloan Gibson, meanwhile, came looking for ideas she could bring back to her job in the information technology division at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “A rising tide raises all boats,” Gibson said. “Just because a game is accessible … or a piece of tech is accessible doesn’t mean it’s just for people who need the accessibility. It just means more people can use it and enjoy it.”
UW-Extension receives $1 million to help site solar and wind projects
The goal is to make large-scale solar and wind projects work for all involved, said Sherrie Gruder, sustainable design specialist and energy strategist for UW-Extension, who is overseeing the initiative. Gruder said the grant will help local governments and residents “have a voice in making the projects work well for the values and the goals of the communities in our state.”
Wisconsin cows must test negative for bird flu to attend fairs, state says
Bird flu has not been found in Wisconsin cows, but voluntary testing has been minimal since late April, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture mandated testing of dairy cattle moving between states and quarantines of herds that test positive, said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at UW-Madison.
UWPD cite 19 people from pro-Palestine Library Mall encampment protest
The citations come after an initial round of UWPD citations which were issued to protesters immediately after officers from the Madison Police Department and UWPD raided the encampment on May 1.
Scorpion, moths, beetles: Wisconsin bugs skitter into spotlight
UW-Madison Extension Entomologist PJ Liesch spends much of his time identifying and confirming insect sightings. This spring has brought him a number of unusual observations, including a scorpion.