Noted: In 2016, Taylor Amann competed and won “Team Ninja Warrior: College Madness”with two teammates while she was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
When the presidents and chancellors of the 14 Big Ten universities began discussing the prospects of students returning to their campuses last fall amid the coronavirus pandemic and with football season looming, they weighed many considerations, from public health to financial impact.
Quoted: “I think one of the unfortunate things about 2020 was that the election system itself was a top issue,” Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, told Newsweek. “It got debated and litigated more than just about any other issue in that election. … And that’s not how elections should be run.”
Noted: Psychologist Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, believes the brain can be trained, and that exercises including short meditation practices will become routine, like running and weight lifting. Emotional well-being will be as important as physical well-being in the coming years, according to Dr. Davidson.
Noted: Because the association wants to equip as many homes as possible with the Ring devices, leaders had to seek out grant funding to buy the equipment. Salb said Steve Chmielewski, a community educator with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension Waukesha County, has helped facilitate that process, which involves Community Block Grant Funds.
Noted: Chelsey has been a features writer for the Journal Sentinel since 2012, covering travel and outdoor activities. Chelsey grew up camping, hiking and biking all over Wisconsin, from her hometown of Pewaukee to a family cabin in the Northwoods. She has been writing about the places that make Wisconsin special since 2009, including a summer spent visiting every one of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. She is a former writer and editor for Wisconsin Trails magazine. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: A Menomonee Falls native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Koglin joined Channel 6 in 2004, spending most of her time at the station on the Fox affiliate’s morning news team.
Quoted: “Indoor settings with prolonged exposure present the greatest risk for transmission, hence why universal masking is particularly important — even if the individuals are immunized,” said Jim Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute.
Packers fans were forced to move on from a pipe dream Monday, when Wisconsin’s own J.J. Watt agreed to sign with the Arizona Cardinals and not with Green Bay.
Quoted: “Most mutations that occur do not cause the virus to be more infectious or deadly, but some variants have mutations that are more concerning,” said Ajay Sethi, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Quoted: Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said Brooks has a responsibility to disclose to his editors, and to readers, his connections with the Aspen Institute and Facebook.
“If the Times and David Brooks are asking people to trust his opinion journalism, then he should be clear about any entanglements that might affect the independence of that journalism,” she said.
Quoted: Whether a registration requirement complies with open-meetings statute has not been tested in the Wisconsin court system, said attorney Philip Freeburg, with UW-Madison Division of Extension’s Local Government Center.
“The main thing about open meetings is to provide open access,” he said. “If you’re putting up barriers to that, I think you may be at some risk.”
Quoted: In 2015, Congress convened a committee to study how to cut child poverty in half within a decade. Hoynes served on that committee, as did Tim Smeeding, a professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They say the group issued a clear warning to policymakers: Alleviating child poverty would cost billions, yes, but not doing so would be even more expensive.
“We argued that the cost of not doing anything was $800 billion” in lost productivity, as well as in increased costs associated with crime and health care, Smeeding says. “On the other hand, the cost of doing one of our [recommendations] was about $100 to $110 billion — an 8-to-1 return.”
Noted: The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shared the image on social media.
Noted: The number could rise as climate science advances, said Paul Kelleher, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in climate change economics. Advances in translating temperature increases to economic damage have enabled more precise measurements of climate impacts. And the Biden administration has emphasized equity considerations to take into account low-income areas and communities of color, which new modeling makes more possible.
Quoted: “The typical response by a losing party in a functioning democracy is that they alter their platform to make it more appealing,” Kenneth Mayer, an expert on voting and elections at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said. “Here the response is to try to keep people from voting. It’s dangerously antidemocratic.”
The Wisconsin Sea Grant recently released it’s biennial report addressing the organization’s progress on its four pillars: healthy coastal ecosystems; sustainable fisheries and aquaculture; resilient communities and economies; and environmental literacy and workforce development.
Part of the national Sea Grant, the Wisconsin Sea Grant has studied the Great Lakes for more than 50 years.
Jim Hurley, director of the Wisconsin Sea Grant, said it makes sense for the Great Lakes to be part of the Sea Grant because many of the issues that occur in the oceans and coasts also occur in the Great Lakes.
“Issues like sea level rise,” he said. “We’ve seen tremendous fluctuations in Great Lakes water levels. Where they may be looking on the ocean coast at small increments of sea level rise, we’ve seen changes in Lake Michigan of 4 feet over the course of maybe five or six years.”
Quoted: “At a time when we want to encourage saving and investment in the state, the Evers budget would sharply raise the cost of capital by increasing capital gains taxes,” Noah Williams, Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, told the Institute for Reforming Government (IRG), a Wisconsin-based think tank that recently published an analysis of Evers’ budget. “I also think it’s unlikely that the capital gains tax would raise the projected amount of revenue, as past episodes of capital gains increases have found that people either realize the gains before the tax takes hold or delay realization.”
Quoted: Because these mice mimicked Rett model mice in some ways but not in others, it may be that mCAC methylation, “although significant, does not account for the entirety of MECP2 function,” says Qiang Chang, professor of medical genetics and neurology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the work.
After changing the high school’s nickname from “Indians” to “Warhawks,” the Weyauwega-Fremont School District is now also looking for a new logo for the district.
The school district was in the process of trademarking its “WF” logo when it was contacted by the University of Wisconsin, which objected because it’s too similar to the Badgers’ “Motion W” logo, according to district administrator Phillip Tubbs.
UW spokesman John Lucas said the school does not proactively monitor school districts. But because Weyauwega-Fremont attempted to register its logo as a trademark, the university was notified and deemed it necessary to act to protect its trademark.
If you’ve wondered just how, or whether to, discuss the Holocaust with a younger child, Simone Schweber has a workshop that should be able to help you.
The Goodman Professor of Education and Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Schweber will be working with the Jewish Museum Milwaukee this week to host the online event: How to Talk to Your Kids About the Holocaust.
Quoted: Repeated, daily acts of racism at work — like those some employees described last year — can wear people down, said Jerlando Jackson, director and chief research scientist at Wisconsin’s Equity & Inclusion Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In workplaces where employees of color see that harassment is not handled well by supervisors, they might not speak up about their experiences, Jackson said.
The issue is two-fold, he said: most workers face both organizational and internal barriers to success. So even if companies work to address some of the structural hurdles, employees might be struggling silently if they aren’t given a chance to be heard.
Each person carries their burden differently. Many people in hostile work environments eventually quit or are fired, he said.
“Usually there’s no good end to it, for those people,” Jackson said. “Individuals leave opportunities they spent their whole lives trying to get.”
Noted: Brock was a pioneer in studying microbial ecology at Yellowstone, and his research was funded by the National Science Foundation, according to a recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Now 94, he retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after a distinguished career as a professor and researcher and runs a nature conservancy with his wife, Kathie.
Noted: Ruffalo had been nominated for Golden Globe awards three times before: for best actor in a comedy or musical for the 2014 movie “Infinitely Polar Bear”; best actor in a TV movie or miniseries for “The Normal Heart”; and best supporting actor in a movie for 2014’s “Foxcatcher,” as former University of Wisconsin-Madison wrestling coach David Schultz.
As a scientist, Tracey Holloway has spent a lot of time thinking about how climate change is going to affect the world.
As a mother of two young boys, she spends a lot of time thinking about what the world will be like when her youngest son — now only 10 months — turns 30.
“It always seemed like 2050 was so far into the future, but now my baby’s going to be 30 in 2050, and that’s not that far away,” she said.
Holloway, a professor at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been studying air quality and pollution for nearly 20 years. Now, she’s teaming up with other women scientists to help make understanding climate change accessible, forming a group called Science Moms.
Quoted: Omar Poler wants people to recognize that and to remember the people who lost their battle with COVID-19.
‘We never take the time to stop and reflect on the loss we’re all experiencing,’” “A friend said to me, ‘We never take the time to stop and reflect on the loss we’re all experiencing,’” Poler said. “At the same time, a newspaper article came out that said no collective mourning had emerged within the United States.”
Poler is UW-Madison’s Indigenous education coordinator. He wanted to change the way America looks at coronavirus-related deaths. He wanted people to spend a moment grieving.
“What we do is I spend some time before Thursday trying to learn about specific people,” Poler said. “I look through obituaries and try to come up with a way to remember them.”
The student government at the University of Wisconsin-Madison passed legislation that would establish a crisis response team trained to respond to mental health emergencies, rather than police.
Noted: Zone designation led to job growth in urban but not rural zones, according to a study led by Alina Arefeva, an assistant professor of real estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. Her study didn’t look at activity in 2020.
Noted: “Determined” tells the story of three women participating in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention, or WRAP, the world’s largest family history study of Alzheimer’s disease. The University of Wisconsin-Madison research group that began in 2001 is made up of primarily middle-aged adults with a deceased or living parent with Alzheimer’s, a factor that makes them 2½ times more likely to get the disease than those without a family history.
Quoted: Then there are antioxidants that aren’t exactly considered essential nutrients, but still have effects on cells and tissues, Bradley Bolling, Ph.D., an assistant professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tells SELF. You can find these in plant, animal, and other dietary sources.
Many of these non-essential antioxidants are being studied for their potential effects on optimizing health, preventing chronic disease, promoting longevity, and reducing inflammation, says Dr. Bolling. “There are varying grades of evidence for the effectiveness of these non-nutritive antioxidants,” he says.
A new memorial scholarship at University of Wisconsin-Madison is honoring former dairy science professor Dave Wieckert, who died in May 2020 at age 88.
Olivia Hancock and Dana Rettke decided independently to volunteer at the polls Nov. 3. The fellow University of Wisconsin students, who had never met, found themselves at the same polling place by chance.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s top-ranked women’s hockey team will close out its regular season this weekend with games against the University of Minnesota Duluth on Friday and Saturday.
Noted: Jonathan L. Temte, associate dean for public health and community engagement at the University of Wisconsin and a liaison to to the covid-19 work group that helped the CDC advisory panel issue its guidelines, called the result a “free-for-all.” The decisions could become even more torturous when a third vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson — which is expected to gain regulatory approval this weekend — joins the mix, though with only a trickle of supply at first.
Noted: Manny Teodoro, a public policy scholar at the University of Wisconsin, suggests that states should prioritize simplicity over precision — by using an allocation formula based on population and poverty. He argues in favor of a two-tier system. Large utilities, which generally have more experience with financial assistance programs and more administrative resources, should be capable of handling outreach and distribution on their own. Smaller utilities, which have less sophisticated billing systems and fewer staff, should be assisted by regional social services agencies.
Quoted: “Indoor settings with prolonged exposure present the greatest risk for transmission, hence why universal masking is particularly important – even if the individuals are immunized,” said Jim Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute.
Patrick Remington, former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s preventive medicine residency program, said if lawmakers who choose to go maskless are vaccinated against COVID-19, then the risk is lower.
“One obvious question for people not wearing masks is whether they have been vaccinated. If they have, then it seems to be a reasonable thing to do,” Remington said. “That is, the vaccine provides sufficient protection to significantly reduce the risk of becoming sick or getting others sick.”
Growing cow numbers and increased milk production have dairy experts walking on a knives edge when predicting the trajectory of milk prices for the coming year.
Mark Stephenson, director of Dairy Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Center for Dairy Profitability and Bob Cropp, emeritus professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, delved into the factors impacting milk prices for 2021 during the February “Dairy Situation and Outlook” podcast this week.
Quoted: David Canon is a political scientist at UW-Madison, and he echoes many of Gardner’s concerns.
“In my view, it’s clearly voter suppression…Our elections are very secure. The number of cases of voter fraud are so infinitesimally small that it’s just not something that changes the outcome of elections,” Canon says.
Noted: According to the announcement, the clinics will collaborate with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, the University of Wisconsin System, local public health departments and other local partners.
Former Wisconsin wide receiver Quintez Cephus said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the university that he was used as a scapegoat during a sexual assault investigation that resulted in his temporary expulsion.
Gov. Tony Evers wants to spend $2.4 billion on building upgrades across Wisconsin — nearly half of which would be spent on University of Wisconsin System campuses.
Noted: The daughter, 18-year-old Rebecca Wright, is among the new Eagle Scouts, having earned 102 merit badges. She now attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison and wants to be a genetics researcher.
Noted: Anderson eventually came to work with Vern Suomi at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1966. Suomi was known for his growing research in satellite meteorology.
Quoted: Benjamin Baird, a sleep researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who wasn’t involved in this study, told Scientific American the findings “challenge our ideas about what sleep is.” SciAm has more: Sleep has classically been defined as unresponsiveness to external environmental stimuli—and that feature is still typically part of the definition today, Baird explains. “This work pushes us to think carefully—rethink, maybe—about some of those fundamental definitions about the nature of sleep itself, and what’s possible in sleep.”
Noted: Engebrecht has been urging officials to prioritize people with significant health problems, or at least create wait lists so they could be contacted when extra doses are available. The family also has been taking precautions while awaiting doses of vaccine, to protect Nate, who recently moved back home from the University of Wisconsin-Madison because of the risk of COVID-19 on and around campus.
Noted: Brenda Gayle Plummer is a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in African American history, the history of U.S. foreign relations, race in international affairs and Caribbean history. She is the author of several books, most recently of In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956-1974.
As we approach a full year of this pandemic and attempt to survive sub-zero Wisconsin winter, many of us are tired; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I teach at UW-Madison and the beginning of the semester is always an intense energetic marathon for me so I find myself having to be extra mindful about resting. So this month’s piece isn’t about food, but about rest as a political practice of resistance.
Quoted: “That high-resolution temporal record is, I think, pretty impressive,” says Brad Singer, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the history of the Earth’s magnetic field but was not part of the research team. “This is only a small number of specimens that they measured, but the results look fairly reproducible in the different trees, and I think that’s a pretty impressive set of data.”
Noted: The connections between climate impacts, wood supply, and poverty have drawn researchers at the University Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Wisconsin to study wood banks on a national scale. Growing out of dozens of interviews of wood bank volunteers done by Clarisse Hart, director of outreach and education at the Harvard Forest, the team has identified 82 wood banks across the country.
Quoted: These findings “challenge our ideas about what sleep is,” says Benjamin Baird, a postdoctoral researcher who studies dreams at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and was not involved in this study. Sleep has classically been defined as unresponsiveness to external environmental stimuli—and that feature is still typically part of the definition today, Baird explains. “This work pushes us to think carefully—rethink, maybe—about some of those fundamental definitions about the nature of sleep itself, and what’s possible in sleep.”
Quoted: “This work challenges the foundational definitions of sleep,” says cognitive neuroscientist Benjamin Baird of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who studies sleep and dreams but was not part of the study. Traditionally, he says, sleep has been defined as a state in which the brain is disconnected and unaware of the outside world.
At least three-fourths of all University of Wisconsin System classes will be in-person this fall according to system interim President Tommy Thompson.
Noted: Demand for electricity goes up when temperatures drop, said Dr. Line Roald, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The surprising part of what happened in Texas was that so many generators — from nuclear and natural gas plants to wind turbines — stopped producing energy due to the freezing temperatures, she said.
Quoted: “That would be a really interesting future direction of this methodology,” Benjamin Baird tells Inverse. Baird is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison who studies lucid dreams, but was not involved in this study. He also has lucid dreams himself.
After being forced to host football games without fans in the stands in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, University of Wisconsin officials are taking a decidedly optimistic stance in preparing for the ’21 season:
Their goal is to see Camp Randall Stadium at full capacity.
University of Wisconsin System interim President Tommy Thompson told campus chancellors to aim to have at least 75% of their courses in person next fall, with the hope that COVID-19 vaccines will allow a return to some normalcy.
The legacy of Vel Phillips is one filled with firsts.
In 1951, she was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. In 1956, she was the first woman and first Black member of Milwaukee’s City Council. In 1971, she was the first woman and first Black judge in Milwaukee County.
Like so many great scientific discoveries, Tom Brock started the research that would go on to revolutionize the field of biology — and pave the road to the development of the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight a pandemic — with a question.
Quoted: “When you’re talking about winter, (humans) are really wimps,” said David Drake, professor of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It helps our appreciation of wildlife, I think, to understand how the animals are able to make it through the season.”
On Feb. 10, I had the pleasure of talking with Jennifer Cheatham from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and John Diamond from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on our Education Week show A Seat at the Table. When participants register to view the live or on-demand show, they are able to input one question they would like me to ask our guests, and the questions they offered focused on many different facets of racial equity.
