Wisconsin’s varsity eight defeated No. 1 Washington and the rest of the field Saturday to win the 2008 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships for the first time since 1990.
Rowing: UW wins championship
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Author: jnweaver
Rowing: UW wins again
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Second-ranked Wisconsin and defending nation Washington remained undefeated with narrow victories in the semifinals of the 106th Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.
Regents approve two new schools for UWM
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
For the first time in more than 30 years, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is poised to add new schools to its campus.
At Friday’s meeting, UW System President Kevin Reilly also announced the creation of a new statewide commission to advise the UW System on how to make faculty and staff compensation more competitive.
Board raises the stakes for Alvarez, Ryan
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Two of the most important figures in University of Wisconsin athletics had raises approved by the UW Board of Regents Friday.
The board approved a $150,000 raise for athletic director Barry Alvarez, boosting his salary for the 2008-’09 school year to $750,000. Men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan received a $225,000 bump in pay, which, according to Regent figures, increases his salary to $1,175,000.
Fed turns attention to inflation worries
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Federal Reserve Board is done cutting interest rates for at least a while, but don’t look for higher rates before fall, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said Friday.
Speaking at a conference on housing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, James Bullard said the Fed’s aggressive rate-cutting since last August has stabilized the economy, and inflation is now becoming a larger concern.
Kikkoman to open a lab in Madison
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Kikkoman Foods Inc. will open a research and development laboratory in Madison’s University Research Park this fall, chief executive officer Yuzaburo Mogi said Friday.
Turning bad loans into sold houses (Bloomberg)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Morris Davis, a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Blame Legislature for tuition hike
Capital Times
Money was flying everywhere at this week’s University of Wisconsin Board of Regents meeting.
The board gave new Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin a $437,000 salary — about $100,000 more than outgoing chancellor John Wiley made this past year — and hiked UW System President Kevin Reilly’s annual paycheck by $73,000 to $414,593.
At the same meeting, the board approved raising tuition for most students in the system by 5.5 percent. It will now cost most in-state undergraduates $6,678 in tuition alone for the next school year.
While it would be easy to criticize the regents for raising salaries in the face of the nation’s and state’s economic downturn and balancing higher costs on the backs of the students, if fingers need to be pointed, they need to point directly at the State Capitol.
UW men, women claim national rowing championships
Capital Times
CHERRY HILL, N.J. – The University of Wisconsin’s men’s and women’s crew teams both claimed national titles Saturday.
The men’s varsity eight defeated top-ranked Washington and the rest of a strong field to win the 2008 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships.
The UW women’s lightweight varsity eight beat Georgetown by over four seconds later in the day. The Badger women were clocked in 6:35.117. The Hoyas were second in 6:39.617 with Stanford placing third.
South Campus Union to open in 2011
Capital Times
The firm that built the world famous Santiago Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum has been named construction manager of the new South Campus Union at the UW-Madison.
Milwaukee-based CG Schmidt will head the $82 million project, which includes demolition of the existing Union South and building a replacement at the same site on Randall Avenue. It will manage the job out of its Madison office, with work to begin in January, 2009.
Tuition increase approved for UW-Madison engineering
Capital Times
MILWAUKEE — The UW System Board of Regents voted unanimously Friday to officially approve a differential tuition plan for engineering majors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
On Thursday, the Business, Finance and Audit Committee voted to approve the plan and forward it to the full Board.
Engineering students will eventually pay $1,400 more per year in tuition than most other undergraduates at UW-Madison. Business majors at UW-Madison are the only other undergraduates who pay differential tuition, with that major paying an extra $1,000 per year.
UW regents criticized for approving raise in private
Capital Times
MILWAUKEE — The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents drew criticism Friday for voting in private the day before to award President Kevin Reilly a $73,000 raise.
The regents approved the 21 percent raise in a closed-door meeting at UW-Milwaukee. The board also agreed to hire Biddy Martin as the next UW-Madison chancellor with a salary of $437,000. Neither action was approved in open session.
UW System spokesman David Giroux said the moves did not violate the state open meetings law, but advocates for open government said the law was uncertain on that point.
Alvarez, Ryan get significant raises
Capital Times
MILWAUKEE — The UW System Board of Regents approved a significant pay raise for UW-Madison athletic director Barry Alvarez and men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan on Friday. However, those raises are not coming from state funds.
Alvarez will see his current salary of $600,000 increase to $750,000 for the 2008-09 school year, which officially starts July 1. All of Alvarez’s raise will come from non-state funds pursuant to an outside compensation agreement. Overall, $250,000 of Alvarez’s salary comes from such funding.
Ryan, meanwhile, will see his salary jump from $950,000 to $1,175,000 for 2008-09, with the majority of his salary ($775,000) coming from outside compensation agreements. All of Ryan’s $225,000 raise comes from such funding.
Mayor’s spokesman to leave
Capital Times
The man who has served as the voice of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz for almost four years will soon be moving on, according to city officials.
George Twigg, who is in charge of public relations and community outreach for the mayor’s office, will be leaving for Vermont in July, aide Joel Plant said from the mayor’s office. Plant said Twigg is moving with his wife, who is an English professor with a job lined up in Vermont, and does not have any current plans.
Kikkoman to open research facility at UW
Capital Times
Kikkoman Foods Inc. will establish a research and development laboratory as well as an environmental studies scholarship in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The new lab, which will open this fall, will be located at University Research Park in Madison. It will be led by one of the company’s research scientists from its research and development facility in Noda, Japan.
Stem cell research forum open to public
Capital Times
People interested in stem cell research will be able to participate in a free, one-day public forum and festival on Sept. 21 on the UW campus. The event is part of the World Stem Cell Summit to be held at the Alliant Energy Center on Sept. 22-23.
Lawton leads drive to make state film incentives more competitive
Capital Times
MILWAUKEE — The state film’s incentives have been successful by anyone’s measure: They’ve attracted a big-budget Johnny Depp movie, independent films and TV shows. Businesses supporting the industry also are popping up.
But the architects of the 25 percent tax break for filmmakers want to rejigger the law to attract even more productions.
Madison natives hone their chops in ‘Kung Fu Panda’
Capital Times
So many people work on big-budget summer movies these days that the closing credits seem to run longer than the actual movie.
But local audience members who go see the new DreamWorks animated action-comedy “Kung Fu Panda” that opens Friday might want to stay in their seats as the names roll by, because they may see two names they recognize.
Matt Wang and Ben Lishka are Madison natives who both worked on “Panda” for DreamWorks Animation.
After rewarding key UW leaders, regents vote to raise tuition
Capital Times
MILWAUKEE — On the same day the University of Wisconsin System’s Board of Regents approved a 5.5 percent tuition increase for most students, Carolyn “Biddy” Martin became the highest-paid chancellor in UW-Madison history and System President Kevin Reilly received a raise of more than $70,000.
Martin, the provost at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., was unanimously approved by the Regents as next chancellor of UW-Madison here on Thursday.
Researchers tweak stem cell creation
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Researchers from California say they have improved a groundbreaking technique that reprograms skin cells back to the embryonic state, making the procedure safer by relying less on the use of viruses and genetic modification.
The technique, first used last year by teams led by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, turned back a cell’s developmental clock by inserting four genes into the cell using a virus.
UWM neighbors demand changes
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Members of a neighborhood association representing residents north and east of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus protested Thursday against the university’s enrollment increase and its policy on off-campus behavior by students.
Editorial: A natural fit for region
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents is expected to vote today on a proposal to create the country’s first school of freshwater science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Given the excellent work already being done at UWM’s Great Lakes WATER Institute and the position of UWM and southeastern Wisconsin on the shore of the planet’s largest freshwater system, the regents should have no doubts about following the lead of their Education Committee – which approved the proposal Thursday – and giving it their imprimatur.
Regents raise UW leaders’ pay
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Cornell University Provost Carolyn “Biddy” Martin will take a pay cut when she takes the helm of the state’s flagship public university this fall, but her salary sets a couple of precedents: She will receive more than the University of Wisconsin System president, and she will get a six-figure chunk of her pay from private sources.
Regents approve $73,000 raise for UW System president
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (AP) — The Board of Regents gave a $73,000 raise to University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly on Thursday, rewarding him for what its president called an outstanding performance.
In a closed-door meeting at UW-Milwaukee, the regents agreed to increase Reilly’s pay to nearly $414,600 on July 1 from its current $342,000, a 21 percent increase. The board said his salary would increase to $421,500 on June 1, 2009.
The regents also approved Cornell University Provost Biddy Martin as the next UW-Madison chancellor and gave her an annual salary of $437,000. That’s about $110,000 more than outgoing Chancellor John Wiley earns and marks the first time in the 37-year history of the system that a chancellor will make more than its president.
The raises are sure to draw criticism at a time when the state is facing a budget shortfall and a slowing economy. UW System officials said the raises brought the salaries of Martin and Reilly to the average of their peers nationwide and were needed to attract and retain top leaders.
Upscale clothing boutique debuts on the Square
Capital Times
New boutique owner Kristin Wild hopes to bring something special to Madison’s Capitol Square with her new clothing boutique, Atticus.
“There has been a successful rejuvenation of housing, business and culture on the Square for a few years now,” Wild said. “I think that retail is sort of the last piece of the puzzle that needs to be added, and I’m very excited to be a part of that.”
That’s why, at 24, she leapt at the chance to open her own store in the heart of the city.
Martin approved as next UW chancellor
Capital Times
MILWAUKEE — Carolyn “Biddy” Martin was formally approved as next chancellor of UW-Madison at a Board of Regents meeting here on Thursday.
Martin, the current provost of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., was recommended as the next leader of Wisconsin’s flagship university by UW System President Kevin Reilly and a Board of Regents search committee, led by chair David Walsh, on May 29.
On Thursday, the full board unanimously approved Martin during a closed session.
Although Martin will take a cut in base salary to come to Madison, she will be the first UW-Madison chancellor to make more money than the leader of the UW System as a whole — in this case, President Kevin Reilly.
Help sought in frat fire investigation
Capital Times
Fire investigators are looking for help from the public in the investigation into the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house fire May 13.
The Madison Police and Fire Investigation Unit issued the request for help Thursday.
Lenders cut college loans
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
At least two major lenders have said they will stop providing loans to students at Wisconsin’s 16 technical colleges and 13 two-year colleges, part of a national trend among some lenders that have found the two-year college market to be unprofitable because students borrow less for shorter terms.
Water, water everywhere. Let’s study it.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents will vote Friday on whether to establish a graduate-level School of Freshwater Sciences at UW-Milwaukee – a unique program that aims to anchor the Milwaukee region as a global center of freshwater research.
Concealed gun permit given
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Some local police departments have been issuing permits to carry concealed weapons for the past four years under a federal law allowing them to do so. But a host of other state and local agencies have been skittish about doing so because the Legislature has not guaranteed they would be immune from liability in a shooting or spelled out how to implement the federal law.
Among those declining to issue the permits are the Capitol Police, State Patrol, Department of Natural Resources’ Law Enforcement Bureau and University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department.
Can low-wage Midwest sell itself as an IT destination?
Capital Times
When customers telephone Paragon Development Systems looking for help with a balky printer they aren’t patched through to a call center in India, Eastern Europe or the Philippines. Instead, they get a friendly voice from Madison, Wisconsin usually with a Midwestern twang.
….The city’s high-tech profile has also received two more boosts in the past six months with Google setting up an engineering office to focus on software systems design and Microsoft opening an advanced development lab in partnership with the UW-Madison’s computer science department.
Nobody is ready yet to throw around the term “Madison Masala,” but viewing the region as a potential IT outsourcing destination is not so far-fetched. The combination of recent graduates from Madison Area Technical College and the University of Wisconsin, coupled with a wage scale lower than the coasts, provides some distinct advantages.
(Dean of International Studies Gilles Bousquet is quoted in this story.)
Public input wanted at 911 hearing
Capital Times
The Dane County Board wants to hear from the public about the 911 communications center.
A public hearing about the emergency communications system is set for 6 p.m. today in Room 201 of the City-County Building, followed by a presentation from Richard Tuma, the Waukesha County director of emergency preparedness, and a review and possible approval of what should be included in a planned internal audit of the county’s 911 system.
County Board Chair Scott McDonell said the public is invited to talk about anything regarding the 911 center, which has come under fire since a call that came from Brittany Zimmermann’s cell phone April 2 was mishandled. Zimmermann was murdered in her downtown apartment right about the time the phone call came in to the 911 center.
Mike Lucas: From ‘retirement’ to the Redskins
Capital Times
You don’t want to use the word “rejuvenate” around Washington Redskins defensive line coach John Palermo unless you’re proposing that the former University of Wisconsin assistant is looking forward to helping restore one of his former UW pupils, Erasmus James, to his youthful self and the dominating edge-rusher that he showed that he could be at times as a collegian. “When I met with him the other day, it was like old times,” Palermo gushed. “His attitude was awesome.”
So, yes, in this context, Palermo is hoping a change of scenery and a return to health will rejuvenate James, a former No. 1 draft choice of the Minnesota Vikings, whose productivity as a pro has been limited by knee injuries.
Uninsured face long waits at Madison’s few free health clinics
Capital Times
It was a gorgeous Saturday morning and one of his two days off a month from work, but Lakhwinder Singh had to spend it inside a clinic on South Park Street, waiting.
….Singh’s bright orange turban was a welcome splash of color in the clinic, where about a dozen people with illnesses from diabetes to stomach pain waited … and waited. For Singh, it took 4 hours before he got his pills. But patients at South Side MEDiC Clinic rarely complain. Although only open on Saturday mornings, the clinic is free, the medical care is expert and caring, and few patients there can afford to go anywhere else.
Madhatters finds a new home on Gorham Street
Capital Times
After two years in the lurch, Madhatters finally has a new home.
The popular campus bar at 3 University Square closed in June 2006 with the redevelopment of University Square mall. Ted Gervasi, who has owned the establishment for 20 years, plans to reopen it at 328 W. Gorham St., before UW-Madison students come back in the fall.
The license was approved last month by the Alcohol License Review Committee and was adopted without discussion by the City Council Tuesday night.
Back to Plan Commission for Camp Randall hotel
Capital Times
Bob Sieger will have to wait two more weeks to begin demolishing his building at 1501 Monroe St. after the Madison City Council voted Tuesday to send his permit back to the Plan Commission for further review.
Sieger has been planning to alter the property, near Camp Randall, for more than three years but has run across numerous complaints from nearby neighborhood associations about the plans, which have included a mixed retail and housing unit as well as a five-story hotel. The building at the corner of Monroe and Regent streets is currently a multi-business structure.
How often do helicopters save lives?
Capital Times
The dramatic buzz and whir of a helicopter lowering to the scene of an accident is an emblem of modern emergency medicine.
So strongly does UW Health identify with the image that marketers chose a scene of a patient being transported from a helicopter for the cover of its latest annual report.
But do helicopter emergency medical services mean better outcomes for patients?
It depends on the condition of the patient, the distance to be traveled, and such logistics of transport as traffic or terrain, say experts. But it is hard to predict which patients will do better if moved by air, they say.
UW Med School disputes grade in national report
Capital Times
The UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health is asking the American Medical Student Association to review and revise its PharmFree Scorecard, a report on conflict of interest policies, after UW got a D in the report.
“Our grade is not appropriate,” said Patrick McBride, associate dean for students. “We provided AMSA with the information, but they missed many critical details.”
The scorecard graded 150 medical schools around the country on conflict-of-interest policies such as accepting pharmaceutical samples or gifts, allowing drug company representatives to make their sales pitches or getting paid honoraria to speak about their products.
Article slamming expected new UW chancellor circulated among GOP pols
Capital Times
Is the state Legislature’s most vocal critic of the University of Wisconsin gearing up to give the new UW-Madison chancellor a hard time?
An aide to Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, circulated a Web link Monday to a National Review Online story slamming Carolyn “Biddy” Martin, the provost at Cornell University, who is expected to be confirmed this week by the Board of Regents.
“Can you be an obscure, self-indulged, theory-laden, post-modern scholar and manage to be an effective university president?” writes Travis Kavulla, a former associate editor of the National Review.
Bascom-bound: MATC is top feeder to UW-Madison
Capital Times
When Tim Fish made the difficult decision to leave his parents’ home on the Osage Nation Indian Reservation in Oklahoma after his junior year of high school, he did so with the dream of bettering his life.
“I didn’t want to leave home, but I knew that I had to if I wanted something better, something much bigger in life,” said Fish, who noted that unemployment was high and opportunities were scarce on the reservation.
Toppling SUV sales sink GM Janesville plant
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Gary Green, director of the Center for Community and Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Regents consider 5.5% UW tuition rise
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Students who are resident undergraduates at four-year schools in the University of Wisconsin System would pay 5.5% more for their tuition this fall – in part to subsidize tuition for veterans, who can go to public colleges here for free under state law.
How Hillary Clinton turned an air of certainty into a losing run
Guardian (UK)
Quoted: Ken Goldstein, an expert in campaign advertising at the University of Wisconsin.
Going green seen as job aid
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Mentions a report released in March from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That study says that “many skills of the greener future are closely related to the skills of today.”
Mike Lucas: Tom Butler was a sportswriter you could trust
Capital Times
….He was an old school journalism throwback to a faraway day when people read and newspapers mattered — when personal accountability carried far more weight than internet access, and excess.
“When the air gets a little crisper and leaves turn to flame, excitement mounts around the old Civil War training ground called Camp Randall,” Butler wrote in his book “The Badger Game.” He was a historian who took great pride in the many traditions that have defined University of Wisconsin athletics, especially football.
“Society likes to identify with something — a church affiliation, a lodge, a club, an athletic team,” Butler wrote. “Badger football, which started more than a century ago, remains a favorite tradition to thousands …”
GM news met with sadness: ‘It’s kind of like the death of an elderly parent’
Capital Times
As manager of Madison’s longest-operating Chevrolet dealer, Tom Thorstad has toured the General Motors plant in Janesville many times and remembers well the friendly faces of those working on the assembly line.
“It’s hard work standing there all day, but they took a lot of pride in what they did,” he said. “I was always impressed how they took the time to look up and wave at you.”
So Thorstad was obviously saddened Tuesday when he got the news that General Motors was closing four truck and SUV plants, including its iconic manufacturing facility in Janesville, which first which opened in 1919. Some 2,600 workers there are expected to lose their jobs over the next two years as the plant is shuttered.
Quoted: Laura Dresser, a researcher with the UW-Madison Center on Wisconsin Strategy
UW plan would hike tuition by 5.5% at 4-year campuses
Capital Times
Students at four-year schools in the University of Wisconsin System could see a tuition increase of 5.5 percent for the coming school year.
The plan released Tuesday would keep tuition at the 13 two-year UW colleges frozen at current levels for the second straight year.
UW School of Medicine gets D on conflicts of interest in nationwide scorecard
Capital Times
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health received a grade of D in the American Medical Student Association’s PharmFree Scorecard released Tuesday.
The scorecard said most U.S. medical schools are failing to address conflicts of interest caused by pharmaceutical industry marketing. Only 21 of 150 medical schools surveyed by the AMSA have strong policies (those graded A or B), according to the scorecard.
Study: Presidential Candidates Spent $200M On TV Ads
WISC-TV 3
U.S. presidential candidates have spent nearly $200 million on television advertising so far this primary season, according to research done by the Wisconsin Advertising Project.
The data compilation released on Monday said that the majority of the spending has been by Democratic candidates, who have spent around $135 million on campaign advertising. Republican candidates spent about $57 million.
John McCain, Barack Obama trade charges on Iran, Iraq
Los Angeles Times
Quoted: Ken Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin political scientist, whose Wisconsin Advertising Project analyzes candidates’ ad spending.
UW System wants full funding for veterans tuition benefits
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin System leaders want lawmakers to pay the full cost of tuition benefits they’ve given to veterans.
Wisconsin veterans can attend the UW System and Wisconsin Technical College System for free under a 2006 law.
Gas stations at mercy of market
Wausau Daily Herald
Quoted: Rodney Stevenson, a business professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fixing pharma (CBC)
CBC News
Drug discovery is a cruel business. A hundred thousand people die every year because of adverse drug side effects. Millions die too young because drugs just aren’t good enough.
The problem is that scientists invent medicines to treat people, but they have to use animal or tumor cells to do it. Heart cells, brain cells and liver cells all die when you try to keep them in a petri dish. So over decades researchers have come up with jury-rigged tests. They use preserved kidney cells extracted from a human fetus 30 years ago to see if an experimental drug will disrupt the rhythm of the heart. They use cells from a rat’s digestive tract with human receptors stuck in. They force huge doses of every potential medicine down the throats of rodents.
“The system is failing,” says Gabriela Cezar, who left Pfizer to study stem cells at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Local stem cell firm gets fed grant
Capital Times
Madison-based stem cell company Stemina Biomarkers Discovery Inc. has learned it will receive a $150,000 Phase I grant from the National Cancer Institute through the federal government’s Small Business Innovation Research grant program, the Wisconsin Technology Council said in a news release Friday.
Stemina, founded in late 2006 by chief executive officer Beth Donley and UW-Madison stem cell scientist Gabriella Cezar, is aiming to use human embryonic stem cells to help determine whether new drug candidates will cause birth defects in humans. So-called “biomarker” research can also test drug toxicity in other ways.
John Nichols: Wisconsin Idea key to UW future
Capital Times
The great challenge facing the great state University of Wisconsin is to forge a 21st century variation on the Wisconsin Idea — the relationship between the UW and the state that enriched both during much of the 20th century.
That the linkage has been weakened is beyond debate.
While there remain some institutions within the university that are engaged with the state and its citizens — such as the Center on Wisconsin Strategies on the UW-Madison campus — the vital connection that once existed has frayed.
There is plenty of blame to go around.
UW student stabbed on State St.
Capital Times
A University of Wisconsin-Madison senior was stabbed early Sunday morning while walking in the 700 block of State Street.
Jason H. Lawler, 26, suffered stab wounds to the left side of the lower back and left elbow.
Newsletter to address psychological aspects of environmentalism
Capital Times
UW-Madison and the UW Cooperative Education faculty have collaborated to create a free newsletter that will address psychological aspects of environmentalism.
Called “Environmental Communication and Social Marketing,” the newsletter will provide psychology-based strategies to promote behaviors that impact our environment in a positive manner.
Former UW-Madison lab worker sentenced in attack (AP)
A former University of Wisconsin-Madison lab worker who broke into a student’s apartment and gave her a dose of ether has been sentenced to two years in jail.
Wisconsin Idea key to UW future
Capital Times
The great challenge facing the great state University of Wisconsin is to forge a 21st century variation on the Wisconsin Idea — the relationship between the UW and the state that enriched both during much of the 20th century.
That the linkage has been weakened is beyond debate.
Huge possibilities, tiny product
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Graphene Solutions is a 3-month-old company with a patent-pending technology that dissolves carbon nanotubes, graphene nanosheets and other materials so they can be purified and spread in a layer one atom thick.
That could pave the way for electronic components, like computer chips, that are dramatically smaller with much greater capacity.
“If you can very easily, reproducibly lay out a one-atom-thick layer of carbon, this is the new silicon,” said Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, which helped the company get started. WARF is the patenting and licensing arm for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.