Human stem cells genetically engineered to produce a substance that might protect the brains of Parkinson’s patients were successfully transplanted into the brains of monkeys and rats by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists, a feat that represents a crucial step in developing a promising treatment for the disease.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board would allocate up to $50 million to two Wisconsin venture funds that have made most of their investments in state companies, under a plan given preliminary approval Wednesday.
Here are five gift ideas that deal with classical music, the visual arts and the theater. Of course, all of them can be, and should be, customized to your financial resources as a giver and to the taste of the recipient.
All these suggestions have one thing in common: The notion, which grows deeper as I age, that the ultimate gift is companionship.
(The UW-Madison School of Music, Cinematheque, Memorial Union and Chazen Museum of Art are among several recommended sources of gifts involving the university.)
n just one season at the University of Wisconsin, Brian Calhoun made a case for himself as the best two-way running back in school history, amassing a school-record 26 touchdowns and becoming the second Big Ten Conference player to rack up 1,000 yards rushing and 500 yards receiving.
Brandon Williams had a season to remember, too, capping a steady and productive career with a breakout performance in which he set all-time school records in receptions and kickoff return yards, and proved a worthy successor to Jim Leonhard as a punt returner.
Students and anti-sweatshop activists celebrated University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley’s embrace of much of their plan to reduce sweatshop labor.
But they said they would proceed carefully to make sure the university and its 150 clothing licensees proceed in good faith to help the workers who make UW logo apparel receive better pay and working conditions.
No one was required to be there, yet physicist Brian Greene filled the Union Theater to the top of its balcony for a discussion on general relativity, quantum physics and his own area of expertise, string theory.
String theory, also called superstring theory, attempts to provide an overall theory of the universe by unifying Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and quantum mechanics and proposing that all matter can be described in terms of the vibrations of tiny “strings.”
A conservation activist and former chief of the U.S. Forest Service says that it’s up to the nation’s politicians and its citizens to preserve and protect the legacy of American land conservation, a legacy secured in part by the late politician and environmental activist Gaylord Nelson.
Speaking Tuesday night at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Michael Dombeck, professor of global environmental management at UW-Stevens Point, said that political partisanship is hampering efforts to improve land and water conservation efforts.
It is usually my practice to refrain from public displays of religious belief. I am a professor and it would be unfair for me to use my position to sway young people in their religious journeys.
The people of Wisconsin pay my salary. They expect me to help students to acquire the tools and knowledge necessary to have rewarding lives – not to expound on my personal religious beliefs.
….The university can best serve the people of Wisconsin by staying neutral in the matter of religion while encouraging students to ask questions and pursue knowledge.
(Edward G. Young is chair of the UW-Eau Claire economics department.)
Kevin Reilly, president of the University of Wisconsin System, weighed in Tuesday on a policy at UW-Eau Claire prohibiting resident assistants from leading religious and political activities in their dorms, saying he believed the assistants should be allowed to do “anything they want” in their dorms as long they don’t coerce other students.
In an odd twist on history, the story of Robert Wollersheim’s professional life begins with the space program and moves back into the hills of a 19th-century vineyard.
The result was the Wollersheim Winery, overlooking the Wisconsin River near Prairie du Sac. Wollersheim – then engineering manager and a project manager for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center – was already starting to grow grapes when he discovered the long-abandoned vineyard.
Three top executives of Milwaukee-area start-ups said Monday that southeastern Wisconsin has the potential but nowhere near the critical mass of companies needed for a vibrant biotech effort.
An educated work force, the relatively new master of science in biotechnology program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison geared toward producing managers, and a desire to develop a biotech industry are all helping efforts in the region and the state, said Frank Langley, chief executive officer at PointOne Systems LLC in Wauwatosa.
If you’re catching a cold, and need some quick money for holiday shopping, consider enrolling in a research study to test the effectiveness of echinacea, a popular herbal medicine.
Study participants with a scratchy throat and the sniffles can earn up to $120 in the cold study being conducted by researchers in the department of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Michael Apple, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin.
A landmark downtown Madison tavern has closed its doors after nearly 30 years in business. Stillwaters, which has anchored the high profile intersection of State Street and East Johnson since the 1970s, has not renewed its lease at 250 State St. and will not reopen.
….(Marsh) Shapiro, who owns the two Nitty Gritty taverns in Madison, said he didn’t think the city smoking ban had anything to do with the closing.
“I’d like to say that’s the reason but I don’t think it had much to do with it,” Shapiro said.
But Shapiro said all downtown tavern owners are feeling the pressure over the class action lawsuit filed by UW-Madison students over the end of campus area drink specials. The case is still pending.
Bret Bielema is still more than a month away from officially taking over as the University of Wisconsin’s next head football coach, but he moved one step closer to that job title Friday.
The UW Board of Regents announced it had approved a contract for Bielema, who has agreed in principle to a deal which has been in the works since July, when current coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez announced he had hand-picked Bielema to be his successor following the 2005 season.
….Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Alvarez said he used the contract of Arizona coach Mike Stoops as a starting point. Stoops signed a five-year contract with an annual base salary of $650,000 when he took over the Wildcats’ program as a first-time head coach in January of 2004.
A senior scientist at the Waisman Center on the UW campus was killed Friday morning when his car skidded out of control on a slippery rural road and was struck by a pickup truck.
Killed was Vladimir Budker, 64, who lived on Sunrise Ridge Trail in the town of Springfield. Along with his work at the Waisman Center, Budker was a co-founder of the Mirus Bio Corp., a gene therapy firm that has been exploring ways to combat such diseases as muscular dystrophy and anemia.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents is considering new ways to make the UW System more affordable, including charging students different tuition rates based on their family’s income.
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents is right to look for ways to help low-income students attend college.
Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, has been selected by Gov. Jim Doyle, to head the state Building Commission�s Higher Education Subcommittee. She took over the post and oversaw her first committee meeting last week.
Bret Bielema acknowledges that during his few free moments this year he has contemplated the makeup of his first coaching staff when he takes over as Wisconsin’s head coach in 2006.
“I had an idea, a theory, in my mind midway through the season what direction my staff was going to go,” Bielema said after UW’s first bowl practice Friday.
Whether Bielema’s original blueprint will remain intact remains a mystery to most outside the program. UW’s second-year defensive coordinator has declined to comment publicly on any candidates and on which of UW’s current assistants will be retained.
Quoted: Bridget Schigoda, a junior in food science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is taking a class titled “Candy Science and Techniques.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison administrators and a travel consultant disagreed with state officials when the bidding process for a statewide travel contract was changed, according to e-mails.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison lobbyist who was ordered to stop selling Capital One Bowl tickets to state legislators has been in the habit of selling tickets to lawmakers for a variety of university sporting events, including sold-out games, Roth Judd, director of the state Ethics Board, said Friday.
A byline that’s been a familiar one to readers of The Capital Times for just short of 45 years will, unfortunately, go away soon. Matt Pommer, the dean of the Capitol press corps, is retiring.
….He was in the UW’s Commerce Building when the so-called Dow riot occurred, phoning developments back to the newsroom. There were no cell phones then, and a good reporter had to commandeer a land line. When he moved from the copy desk to the reporting ranks, one of his duties was covering the UW Board of Regents.
Longtime Madison energy executive Erroll B. Davis has a new job that will take him out of Wisconsin and into academia. Thursday morning, in a unanimous vote, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved the appointment of Davis as the system’s new chancellor.
Davis becomes both the first African-American and the first person from outside academia to hold the chancellor’s job, though he told The Capital Times last month that academia “has always been an interest of mine.” Davis served for seven years (1987-94) on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents and also served on the boards of trustees of Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Chicago.
Former UW President Katharine Lyall’s idea that parties such as business interests might appoint a share of regents, and not just the governor, didn’t find fans among the regents at a meeting here.
Last week, Lyall suggested that because state financial support for the university has slipped in recent years, those who are picking up the slack, including private interests, might reasonably expect more of a voice in the university’s governance.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison rescinded an offer Thursday to sell lawmakers tickets to see the Badgers football team play in a Florida bowl game after the state’s ethics watchdog said it may be considered special treatment.
….Jay Heck of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a government watchdog group, said he was “dismayed that the university and its lobbyist didn’t realize that this offer might fly in the face of our ethics law.” He said allowing lawmakers to avoid the $20 processing fee clearly represented special treatment.
The Manager’s Workshop, created in the mid-1990s by University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business professor Randall Dunham, is used by numerous business schools across North America.
Dr. Vanessa N. Gamble, director of Tuskegee University�s National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, has been elected to membership in the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Gamble is the founder and former director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
University of Wisconsin-Madison rescinded an offer Thursday to sell lawmakers tickets to see the Badgers football team play in the Capital One Bowl after the state’s ethics watchdog said it may be considered special treatment.
A group of students and faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine are being credited for coming to the rescue during last summer’s devastating hurricane season. Campus officials say that while most people watched in horror as news details of Hurricane Katrina unfolded, a few dedicated souls traveled south to help by bringing back numerous animals that needed foster care or adoptive homes.
Writer-director Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau’s didn’t follow a traditional path to a film career. She grew up in Ladysmith, earned a degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then, for the next decade, worked in the pharmaceutical industry. Q&A interview.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison lobbyist who offered legislators the opportunity to purchase tickets to the Capital One Bowl game through the chancellor’s office was forced to rescind his offer Thursday after the state Ethics Board said it was unethical.
One of the great lessons of the must-see show “Dual Vision” at the University of Wisconsin Chazen Museum of Art is that there are so many ways to approach it and appreciate it.
This big and beautiful blockbuster show includes works by some of the biggest names in 20th century art: George Grosz, Robert Motherwell, Dale Chihuly, Larry Rivers, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein.
Mike Kelley and Brian Wardle went one-on-one Wednesday night at the Kohl Center. Again. Only this time they weren’t in competitive overdrive like they were during their collegiate playing days, when the University of Wisconsin defensive stopper (Kelley) used to draw the assignment of holding down the Marquette offensive sniper (Wardle).
Madison police costs for the Halloween weekend on State Street this year increased by nearly $100,000 over 2004.
Madison police, with about 60 more officers staffing the event, spent a total of $349,000 on the weekend, according to a statement released by the department (yesterday), with about $126,500 going toward overtime and benefits.
The total cost for all law enforcement agencies was about $580,000. That breaks down to $76,600 for the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, $98,400 for UW Police, $45,000 for the town of Madison, $8,800 for the State Capitol Police and $42,000 for the State Patrol.
After a nearly three-year impasse with the state, teaching assistants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have officially relented on the state’s demand that they pay for health insurance.
The Teaching Assistants Association ratified a contract with the state covering the 2003-05 and 2005-07 bienniums, the association reported Tuesday. The contract requires the teaching assistants to pay for health insurance for the first time in their history.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is spearheading a pilot project to convert rundown student rental housing in the Vilas and Greenbush neighborhoods to owner-occupied housing.
The project, unveiled at a meeting Wednesday night, would encourage more UW employees to live near work and to upgrade and stabilize the neighborhoods on the campus borders.
The project would encourage the employees to walk or bike to work, reducing the number of cars on campus.
Wisconsin scientists say agriculture dominates more than a third of the Earth’s landscape and is a major source of global environmental change.
Critical mass is important in building collaborations such as the one about which InvivoSciences is in preliminary discussions with Madison-based Gilson Inc.
Gilson is a privately held business started by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor in 1953 that makes lab equipment like the Gilson Pipetman, a range of pipettes, or glass tubes that lab workers use to suction fluids.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is planning an expensive facelift over the next 20 years with the goal of creating academic districts, shorter buildings and more open space on campus.
A blueprint of the projects, some of which are already under way, will be presented to the UW Board of Regents today.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the government can seize a person’s Social Security benefits to pay old student loans.
Retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the decision that went against a disabled man, James Lockhart, who contends he needs all of his $874 monthly check to pay for food and medication.
His government benefits had been cut by 15 percent to cover debts he incurred for college in the 1980s.
Bucky Badger vs. Pope John Paul II? It’s a slam dunk for hoops fans and very late night viewing for put-off pontiff buffs.
Wednesday night’s University of Wisconsin men’s basketball game will pre-empt the second part of the CBS miniseries “Pope John Paul II” on WISC-TV/Channel 3, prompting irate phone calls and e-mails to station management from viewers of the first part of the biopic Sunday night, who don’t want to stay up until 1 a.m. Thursday morning to see Jon Voight as the late pontiff John Paul II.
Luther’s Blues may be reborn as a Latin dance club – with free salsa lessons on Saturdays – if brothers Javier and Martin Palacios can convince the city that their business plan is sound.
….The brothers say they have gotten positive feedback from meetings they’ve had with local officials. Javier Palacios joined the Dane County Tavern League in March to network and seek advice about the venture.
But two UW administrators who have influence with the alcohol license committee say they are taking a wait-and-see attitude. They both are concerned that the venue, no matter who runs it, is too large to operate in the middle of campus.
A former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater dean filed a racial discrimination complaint against campus officials on Tuesday, saying he was subjected to intense scrutiny and demoted because he is black.
Lee Jones filed the complaint at the state’s Equal Rights Division, which handles discrimination complaints against state agencies, alleging UW-Whitewater officials singled him out for an audit because of his race.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court appeared ready today to uphold a law that says colleges cannot turn away military recruiters in protest of the Pentagon’s policy on gays if the universities also want to receive federal money.
New Chief Justice John Roberts said schools unhappy with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy have a simple solution: Turn down federal cash.
David Wilson, associate provost and vice president for outreach at Auburn University, has been recommended to serve as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Extension and the UW Colleges, which includes 13 freshman-sophomore campuses.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison real estate professor Kerry D. Vandell.
Dear Editor: The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center offers its appreciation to The Evjue Foundation for giving a grant of $17,000 for the 2005-2006 academic year.
This funding will allow us to continue providing high-quality individualized writing instruction to members of the local community – many of whom would not otherwise have access to university resources – at two public library branches, the Lakeview Branch on the northeast side of Madison and the South Madison Branch on South Park Street.
What is it about the concept of privatization that makes the brains of public officials turn to jelly?
….Last week I heard Katharine Lyall, former UW System president, push her new book, “The True Genius of America at Risk.” The subhead suggests that our public universities are headed toward “de facto privatization.” It almost sounds like she is opposed to privatization but after listening carefully and looking over her handouts, it was my conclusion that her message really is, “Hey, it’s inevitable so why fight it?”
A member of the national championship University of Wisconsin cross country team faces a felony battery charge after allegedly smashing a wine glass on his girlfriend’s nose.
Robert “Bobby” L. Lockhart, 22, also faces a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge in the Nov. 23 incident, which happened during a party shortly after 1:30 a.m. at a downtown apartment.
Lockhart, who has been suspended from the cross country and track teams for violating the university’s student-athlete discipline policy, was released Monday on a signature bond during a short initial court appearance.
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater failed to monitor the spending of a former dean who improperly used $50,000 on an academic group he founded and took trips that may not have been in the university’s interest, according to an audit released Monday.
The attorney for Lee Jones called the errors minor and said Monday they were the result of poor training and were blown out of proportion because the former dean is black.
An anti-war group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says it is the target of harassment by campus police and the Dean of Students Office.
But police say the group has consistently crossed the line between protest and intimidation; the Dean of Students Office says it needs to balance the right of free speech with the right of the university to go about its business.
The student group (Stop the War) planned to rally at 2 p.m. today on Library Mall, and march to Bascom Hall.
A dental student at Marquette University has been suspended for the rest of the academic year and ordered to repeat a semester after a committee of professors, administrators and students determined that he violated professional conduct codes when he posted negative comments about unnamed students and professors on a blog.
Wisconsin senior Bobby Lockhart, a member of the men’s cross country and track teams, has been suspended indefinitely after violating the school’s student-athlete discipline policy, UW announced Monday.
A partial face transplant in France has raised interest and concern about whether such procedures will occur in Wisconsin – and whether they should.
….Dr. Michael Bentz, professor and chairman of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said face transplants are a fascinating idea, but one that’s not ready for him to consider.
{UW-Madison professor of law and bioethics Alta Charo is also quoted in this story.)
The Wisconsin Alumni Association is working to mobilize its graduates in an effort to improve the university’s situation at the other end of State Street.
The association announced the creation of Alumni for Wisconsin, a coalition designed to inform alumni about the latest challenges facing the university at the Capitol, and help them get their voices heard.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater removed a dean from his administrative post Friday amid questions about his use of university funds.
The school demoted Lee Jones, the school’s dean of continuing education and summer session, one day after The Associated Press reported that he had faced allegations of misspending while an associate dean at Florida State University.
Wisconsinites are among the most tightfisted charitable givers in the country, according to a new national report.
