The awards are given annually to community members who embody “the values of service, equity, and justice that Dr. King championed.” Gift Akere, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, pursuing a degree in electrical engineering, will be honored with an MLK Humanitarian Award in the category of “Youth Leader.”
Carrie Coon – a University of Wisconsin-Madison grad who performed with the Madison Repertory Theatre, American Players Theatre and Renaissance Theaterworks – was nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television for her role as Laurie Duffy in “The White Lotus.”
The HBO program led all shows with six nominations, including best drama series.
Co-authored by rofessor in the Information School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chiara Cirelli, a neuroscientist who researches sleep at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved with the new work, tells Nature that she was impressed by the study. “Every time somebody adds to the list of species that sleep, it is a very important step for the field,” she says.
But, for comparison, she wishes the researchers had kept some of the creatures awake after inducing the DNA damage to their neurons. She wonders if similar DNA repairs might be taking place while the creatures are awake but not actively learning.
“The legal standard basically is that a federal officer is immune from state prosecution if their actions were authorized by federal law and necessary and proper to fulfilling their duties,” said Robert Yablon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Yablon, who is the faculty co-director of the school’s State Democracy Research Initiative, said state prosecutors would have to consider both state and federal laws to overcome the hurdles of immunity. They would first need to show a violation of state statutes to bring charges, but also that the use of force was unconstitutionally excessive under federal law.
“If the actions violated the Fourth Amendment, you can’t say those actions were exercised under federal law,” he said, referring to the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
David Drake, a forestry and wildlife professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, likens them to America’s “sacred cow.” As Drake and a colleague have outlined in a paper proposing a model for commercialized venison hunting in the U.S., any modern system would be fundamentally different from the colonial-era approach because it would be regulated, mostly by state wildlife agencies. But powerful coalitions of hunters and conservationists remain both faithful to the notion that wild game shouldn’t be sold and fearful that history will repeat itself.
John P. Gross, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Law who has written extensively about officers shooting at moving vehicles, said while more departments have added explicit policies regarding use-of-force and moving vehicles, officer training also needs to improve.
“If this woman was blocking the street and a law enforcement operation, they are entitled to arrest her. What they are not entitled to do is to use deadly force to arrest her,” Gross said. “From just watching the video, this seems like an egregious example.”
The salary pool for University of Wisconsin football coaches now represents more than what the Badgers pay to coaches in the rest of their sports combined.
Wisconsin’s 18 football coaches from the 2025 season totaled salaries of $14.61 million this school year. The 66 other coaches had a salary pool of $14.39 million, according to records released by the school.
The doors of a new academic building will open, three-year-old scaffolding is expected to come down, and designs are being drawn up to revamp a historic site on UW-Madison’s campus in 2026.
Upcoming plans for development projects at UW-Madison signal another busy year of changes happening on campus. In 2025, UW-Madison notably opened a new building that houses its new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence: Morgridge Hall, a privately funded $267 million, 343,000-square-foot facility.
One of the proposed constitutional amendments, SJR 94, takes aim at DEI programs throughout state and local government in Wisconsin. Republicans have been targeting DEI programs for years and have at times found success, including when they elicited concessions from the University of Wisconsin system in 2023.
While conflict can feel messy, it’s not a sign something is broken. According to Hernando Duarte, farm labor outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it’s a reality of farm work.
“In labor-intensive environments like farms and other agricultural operations, conflict between employees [and family] can happen,” Duarte explains. And on farms, that friction is hard to avoid.
“Conflict doesn’t have to be a negative thing,” Duarte says. “When handled properly, it can lead to stronger communication, better teamwork and long-term improvements and innovation.”
“It is unprecedented,” said Allison Prasch, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who studies presidential communication. “I really tried to use that word sparingly, because everything is unprecedented, but I think that’s apt.”
Trump has shifted from a foreign policy approach that advertised military interventions as a way to deliver freedom and democracy, done in conjunction with other western nations. On Wednesday, U.S. officials announced its plans to sell Venezuelan oil as news outlets reported a crackdown on dissent by the government the United States left in place.
“Just try to imagine George W. Bush standing up and boldly proclaiming that he has started this war because of the oil alone,” Prasch said in an interview.
The high court ruling is narrow, according to Bryna Godar, an attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. The ruling finds that “most matters relating to judicial disqualification [do] not rise to a constitutional level,” Godar noted in an email to WPR.
“Typically, state supreme courts provide the final word on attorney discipline proceedings. But where an attorney raises federal constitutional issues, like due process, that can in some cases open a path for federal court involvement,” Godar wrote.
Donahue said the funding has been the result of years of working with people at all levels of government, as well as University of Wisconsin-Madison and U.S. Geological Survey experts.
“This has come after years of immense collaboration,” she said.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have unlocked a potential new treatment to target an incurable form of childhood cancer with the help of a fast-reproducing pest known for swarming kitchen produce.
Professors Melissa Harrison and Peter Lewis used fruit flies to to study how cellular pathways are misregulated by a cancer-causing mutant protein. The pesky bugs were perfect lab subjects for the project because two-thirds of the cancer-causing genes in humans are shared by fruit flies.
According to the Badger Institute, Wisconsin has less than a handful of driverless vehicles for testing and research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Gateway Technical College in Racine.
The effort is somewhat comparable to solving a modern serial killer mystery by looking for the same DNA across different crime scenes, says John Hawks, an anthropologist and a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was also not involved in the study.
“If you can find the same DNA pattern on paintings, drawings or even places connected with Leonardo,” he says, “you would have some confidence you are looking at his genome—even without being able to find genealogical relatives today.”
UW-Madison should centralize its human resources operations and consolidate its capital projects into one plan in order to improve oversight, a third-party report commissioned by the university recommends.
The report, which was completed by consulting firm Deloitte, highlighted issues with the school’s HR structure that led to inconsistencies in recruiting, payment and salary adjustment. The university was also found to have limited coordination on capital projects leading to inefficient planning.
Despite restrictions on the city government, there are a handful of Flock cameras set up within Madison, four around Capitol Square maintained by Capitol Police, and eight arrayed across the UW-Madison campus, according to UW-Madison Police spokesperson Marc Lovicott.
Paul Mitchell, chairman of the Agricultural and Applied Economics program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said many farmers weren’t prepared for the drop seen in soybean prices in recent years, and the tariffs compounded the situation.
“It creates a lot of uncertainty,” he said. “That’s the effect of these trade wars.”
In 2025, the Universities of Wisconsin had another packed year.
The fallout from the Trump administration canceling students’ visas, federal funding uncertainty for research, the closure of a branch campus and downsizing of another, the rollout of new policies faculty called controversial and campuswide budget cuts at UW-Madison are just a few of the moments the State Journal covered.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison class started the fall semester with a big question to tackle: Which families are opting not to enroll their children in the Madison school district, and why?
After a semester of conducting background research, analyzing data and reaching out directly to Madison families for interviews, one key finding was that nearly 1,600 middle and high school students open enrolled out of Madison schools into another public school district over the last three years — with white families being the most likely to leave.
The “Old Timer” is gone.
Jerry Apps told the Wisconsin stories of barns, cheese, one-room school houses and circuses. He encouraged children to eat rutabagas, made regular appearances on Wisconsin Public Television and Radio and, when he was not writing from his home in Madison or teaching at UW-Madison, could be found on his farm property in Waushara County, where deer roamed and he grew potatoes in his garden.
Apps, an award-winning author and one of the most prolific storytellers in Wisconsin history, died Tuesday at Agrace Hospice in Fitchburg. He was 91.
“Low wage folks were saying ‘the minimum wage is going up, but my groceries are going up, my rents going up. Like I don’t necessarily have more left over, right?’ And so, raising the wage is a big political deal, but it’s only one tool we have to help people deal with the rising cost of living,” said Callie Freitag at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Using fruit flies, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are uncovering a new way to think about treating an aggressive and deadly form of childhood brain cancer.
By understanding how different proteins affect genetic mutations in the flies’ wings and eyes, the researchers say it could lead to new ways to silence genes behind the disease
The consulting firm Deloitte is recommending changes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison following the demotion of the school’s diversity leader over financial concerns.
UW-Madison paid Deloitte $395,000 to evaluate its financial and budgetary controls between March and July 2025, according to Mark Pitsch, a spokesperson for the broader UW system, which signed the contract with the firm.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has reclaimed its status among the top five institutions nationally for research spending – the highest ranking the state flagship has earned since 2014.
UW-Madison’s national research ranking has been a sore spot on campus for a decade after the university fell out of the top five for the first time in nearly 45 years. It dropped to No. 8 in 2018. UW-Madison officials at the time attributed the slide in rankings to state budget cuts and the loss of senior faculty members.
Written by Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
Research suggests that even if you don’t actually meet up with someone or send them an email or text, it can be enough to simply send good thoughts their way. “You can start with a simple appreciation practice,” Cortland Dahl, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds, previously told HuffPost. Just bring a friend or loved one into your mind, then consciously focusing on the things you really cherish about them.
Nedergaard and her colleague Prof Gary Lupyan at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the US, decided to explore the potential effects of lacking inner speech, recruiting people who scored low on a questionnaire with statements such as “I think about problems in my mind in the form of a conversation with myself.”
By coining the term ‘anendophasia’ – from the Greek an (lack), endo (inner) and phasia (speech) – Nedergaard and Lupyan hope to create a similar keyword that will help to catalyse research into those lacking inner speech.
“They could draw the districts as they wanted, and they went to town,” said Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “They were very successful in drawing districts that advantage their party in the state Legislature and in the congressional districts, but they also wanted the process to be different if there was going to be litigation.”
Starting Jan. 1, Wisconsin will have a film incentive program and film office, both efforts to attract moviemakers to the state.
This means we might get a few more iconic big-screen moments in familiar places, akin to seeing downtown Madison in 1994’s “I Love Trouble,” Milwaukee County Stadium in 1989’s “Major League,” the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus in 1986’s “Back to School,” the many Wisconsin backdrops in 2009’s “Public Enemies” or the car chase scene filmed near Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge in Milwaukee in the 1980 classic “The Blues Brothers.”
Two Wisconsinites were given their first Pro Bowl selections, including one rookie who spent most of his college career at the University of Wisconsin, when the National Football League named its teams for the 2026 NFL Pro Bowl Games.
UW-Madison’s Geology Museum
Glowing rocks, dinosaurs and meteorites await visitors to this free museum, offering visitors an up-close look at the minerals and stones that comprise the natural world around them. Dinosaurs and fossils guide guests through physical history, beckoning those who want to know more about extinct species. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Though acting remains the career goal, Nate Buescher is also focused on life beyond the screen. He recently started his freshman year in Madison, studying biology. “I’m already kind of dabbling in the acting portion of my life. Might as well just try something new, just trying to expand my world,” he said.
The decision to come to Wisconsin was an easy one. “I’m really familiar with the Midwest. I like the cold weather, even though that sounds a little weird,” he said. “I was lucky enough to get a pretty good scholarship at Madison, and it’s also been a dream school of mine for a really long time.”
UW-Madison is among the top five universities in the country for research spending — the highest ranking the institution has earned since 2014.
A National Science Foundation survey released Tuesday ranked UW-Madison No. 5 out of 925 universities for the $1.93 billion it spent for research in fiscal year 2024, which ran from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024.
A common quip about nuclear fusion is that the technology is perpetually 30 years from deployment. Fusion research has not been funded to the same levels as other, already-realized clean technologies like solar, wind and fission, but new billion-dollar investments signify interest is picking up.
University of Wisconsin-Madison fusion spinoff company Type One Energy aims to bring nuclear fusion to the grid within a decade, backed by funding and a physics-based model.
Despite the proposed changes, Wisconsin wetlands are likely to fare better than most states. A 2001 law provided robust protections for isolated wetlands or those that aren’t directly connected to streams and rivers, said Steph Tai, a law professor with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
“Anyone who’s looking to fill in wetlands within Wisconsin is still going to have to go through permitting through our DNR,” Tai said.
Julie Klinger, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin who studies extraction and resource frontiers, says these things deserve more scrutiny. “Particularly as we’re moving into a time where there is much more overt taxpayer-funded support of critical mineral mining and processing projects, the taxpayer does need to have quite a bit more information,” she said.
A Vietnam War and retired U.S. Air Force veteran received a refurbished vehicle at the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball game at the Kohl Center on December 22.
American Family Insurance, Gerber Collision, and Glass team up to present Mark Knowlton with the car during a first-half timeout. The companies collaborated with Veterans Outreach Wisconsin to select Mark for the gift.
The Food Justice Collective is still in the early stages of exploration. No location has been selected, and no formal business plan has been announced. Instead, the group is focused on learning from past efforts in Milwaukee and from the University of Wisconsin Extension’s Center for Cooperatives.
Established in 1960, the center says it provides “state-of-the-art resources, including supercomputers, research aircraft, sophisticated computer models and extensive data sets” to the atmospheric and related Earth system science community. It’s funded through the National Science Foundation.
Among other things, the center has helped improve early warnings in weather forecasts and air safety, the American Meteorological Society said in a statement.
There are a few main ways of looking at attendance for University of Wisconsin football games, and they all produced ugly results in 2025.
The Badgers played in front of the smallest average home crowd in the two decades that it has been tracked using ticket scanners. No-shows climbed to a level never seen in that same period.
Aaron Seligman, a Madison native who previously worked for the Universities of Wisconsin, joined the cohort in February when taking on the new title of director of community relations at Madison Hillel.
The 13 professionals “take on the work of being that adult in the room that models and leads in relationship building with administrators, faculty and other Jewish communal professionals,” Simon said.
Seligman is focusing on areas the University of Wisconsin-Madison found specific needs for in the more than two years since Oct. 7. So far, Seligman has been “collaborating with the university administration on campus policies” and “engaging in media around campus climate and antisemitism,” Seligman said.
The marquee race in this battle for control over Wisconsin’s government is the gubernatorial race, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden.
“It feels as though either party could win that race. And statewide races for governor have been very close in recent years, and it’s likely to set the tone for everything else on the ballot,” Burden said.
UW Health’s Med Flight also started a whole blood transfusion program last year. Dr. Ryan Newberry, assistant medical director for UW Health Med Flight, said around 90 patients have been given over 160 units of whole blood in the first year of the program.
Launched in February, the lab is a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business and the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. It provides an opportunity for students from across the university to try emerging technologies — including AI, blockchain and virtual reality — and use them to potentially solve real-world problems.
“I love it because I see students progress remarkably,” said Sandra Bradley, the lab’s executive director. “When you give them a lot of … space and then hand them things that they need, the magic happens.”
“My take on the inflation story is that a lot of that is uncertainty,” says J. Michael Collins, a professor of public affairs and human ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “A lot of that is, ‘I enjoyed a world better where I knew kind of what my rent was going to be in three years. Now, I have no idea how much my rent’s going to get jacked up in 2028, and that freaks me out.'”
The Chazen Museum of Art has added 28 photos taken by acclaimed photographer Irving Penn to its collection.
The photos were donated to the museum by the Irving Penn Foundation in Penn’s name. It was a gift in honor of UW-Madison alumnus and former Museum of Modern Art photography director John Szarkowski, according to a statement from museum spokesperson Kirstin Pires.
A proposed bill in the package would create and fund two agriculture and climate change research positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.
According to the co-sponsorship memo, the two new positions would be dedicated to studying climate change and agriculture, as well as learning about how the changing climate impacts the state’s landscape and economy.
Two-thirds of Wisconsin residents hold a favorable opinion of the state’s 16 technical colleges, and a majority believe the state benefits from the education the schools provide.
Those are two findings from a statewide public perception study the Wisconsin Technical College System conducted online this spring, with over 2,300 adults completing the blind survey.
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are sounding the alarm over a Trump administration plan to dismantle a prominent weather and climate research center, saying it could jeopardize the future of weather forecasting.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research is based in Boulder, Colorado, but is overseen by a consortium of universities, including UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. The center allows researchers to work together on large projects that no one scientist or university could do alone.
In the Midwest, Indiana, Purdue, and Illinois show similar bottlenecks. In the Northeast, Northeastern’s combined engineering-CS programs have become harder to crack than many Ivy divisions. Even the University of Wisconsin, once known for broad access, now reports sharply lower admit rates in engineering and data science.
For parents and students, the message is sobering: the real competition may not be “between” colleges, but “within” them.
Giving health testing and monitoring gifts comes with some tricky etiquette questions.
“There is some risk of offending,” says Evan Polman, a consumer psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has studied gift giving. It could convey that the recipient is somehow inadequate, he says.
If you are giving devices that track both sleep and physical activity, such as those from Oura and Whoop, Polman suggests highlighting the sleep monitoring—not the fitness.
When giving health-testing and tracking devices, he suggests buying them for yourself, too. “If we’re doing it together, I think it takes away almost all of the judginess,” he says.
“This is not what people voted for,” said Derek Clinger, a senior counsel at the State Democracy Research Initiative, an institute at the University of Wisconsin Law School, who has studied the events in North Carolina.
“Living donation is the gift of a lifetime because a kidney from a living donor often lasts longer than a kidney from a deceased donor,” said Dr. Dixon Kaufman, the director of the UW Health Transplant Center and a professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “We see the urgent need for more donors every day, which motivated us to launch this initiative.”
Life is a whirlwind these days for Eric Mateos.
In the eight days since he was announced as the Wisconsin Badgers’ new offensive line coach he has met the linemen on the roster, offered scholarships to at least four high school prospects, watched a ton of film on high school players, potential portal targets and some of the Badgers’ games this season.
As the Journal Sentinel reported, one UW-Madison study found 40 percent of species changes in northern Wisconsin and Michigan forests were tied to over-eating of plant life by deer, from stunting native tree regeneration to wiping out some plants altogether.
Andrea Ruppar, a special education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, describes seclusion and restraint as traumatic.
“Restraint and seclusion are two ways of restricting students movement within a school. And they are interventions that are meant to be used very rarely and only in cases of emergency,” Ruppar said.
