In a sunlight-dappled room in UW-Madison’s Science Hall, between historical maps from around the planet, rests a world unlike the others: the fantasy land of Middle-earth.
Curated by Mark Fonstad, the exhibit showcases the hand-drawn maps, writing tools and stories behind the atlas depicting the “Lord of the Rings” realm his mother Karen Wynn Fonstad created.
“For example, if you’ve been immunized for polio, and then you get a measles infection, the immunity you had to polio could be wiped out or reduced,” said Malia Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology. “You wouldn’t even know that you’re susceptible to some of this stuff.”
Wisconsin Watch spoke with two University of Wisconsin-Madison experts: Dr. Jim Conway, a professor in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Global Pediatrics; and Malia Jones, an assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Health.
While transparency is an important democratic value, the tone and substance of the piece ignore the real complexities of steering a major public institution through extraordinarily difficult times.
The UW administration is working diligently — behind the scenes and under intense pressure — to ensure the university’s long-term viability and academic excellence. That work deserves respect, not knee-jerk criticism.
Launched this spring, The SoulFolk Collective is the first research lab to be housed in UW-Madison’s Department of African American Studies. The group is made up of about a dozen undergraduate and graduate students and is led by Jessica Lee Stovall.
“As a Black studies professor,” Stovall said, “I’ve been really interested in the ways that we can create learning and research environments that are Black affirming, that center Black joy and Black liberation, Black organizing.”
Dr. Ahmed Elbayomy, a research fellow in neurological surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author on two of the studies said in a statement: “More research is certainly needed, but seeing the potential protection offered by these medications is a fascinating finding.”
Written by Greg Wiercioch, a member of the clinical faculty at the Frank J. Remington Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
Michaela Hoffelmeyer, an assistant professor of public engagement in agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recalled interviewing early-career queer farmers who worried that valuable internships and apprenticeships would place them in hostile work environments or unsafe communities.
Queer farmers may also be forgoing good farmland because they want to avoid harassment, Hoffelmeyer said.
New changes from the Trump administration set stricter borrowing limits on students in professional programs like medical school. The head of one of Wisconsin’s medical colleges expects the change will add new barriers for people training to become doctors.
University of Wisconsin football fans have new options to fly nonstop from Madison for two road games in 2025.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have added direct flights from Dane County Regional Airport on the weekends of Badgers games at Alabama and Oregon.
Incoming Wisconsin students will pay in-state tuition at a public Iowa university starting this fall.
The University of Northern Iowa is offering in-state tuition to new first-year and transfer undergraduate students from its neighboring states, including Wisconsin, in the next academic year in an effort to attract students from throughout the Midwest.
Wisconsin residents will now pay in-state tuition if they decide to attend the University of Northern Iowa.
The Iowa Board of Regents approved the new tuition rates on Wednesday for Wisconsin and the five states bordering Iowa.
The flower was received as a donation from UW-Madison in 2002, and last bloomed in 2023.
Heads up, Badgers fans! The Dane County Regional Airport has announced the return of nonstop flights to select University of Wisconsin-Madison football games.
These flights, as provided by Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and United Airlines, offer UW football fans to travel to the University of Alabama and University of Oregon.
Dr. Katie O’Brien, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been leveraging social media to bridge the gap between doctor and patient, fostering a more familiar and approachable relationship.
As one of only two specialty-trained pediatric adolescent gynecologists in Wisconsin, Dr. O’Brien dedicates her career to diagnosing and treating common female pelvic conditions. She practices at the Teenage and Young Adult Clinic in Middleton and the UW Health Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic in Madison.
In an increasingly tough housing market, a University of Wisconsin program seeks to give renters a leg up in their search for safe, affordable housing by educating them about the process and improving their standing with landlords.
Rent Smart, a free, six-module course developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, covers the essentials of renting — everything from what’s affordable, what to look for during an apartment inspection and what to ask a landlord while applying.
Susan Monarez, who was confirmed to the role by the U.S. Senate on July 30, grew up on a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin and holds bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in microbiology and immunology from UW-Madison. She has drawn some attention as the first person to take on the job without a medical degree in more than 70 years, but she has spent her career in the health field.
In pregnant women, the effects are particularly impactful, as such DNA changes not only play out in the mother, but in the developing fetus and also the germ cells within the fetus, the precursors to sperm and eggs.
“This means that malnutrition has the potential to influence three generations—the mother, her child, and her grandchild,” says Hasan Khatib, a professor of genetics and epigenetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Such effects have been seen in the descendants of both the Great Chinese Famine and the Dutch Hunger Winter during World War II, where the children of babies starved in the womb carry genetic alterations that have placed them at higher risk of diabetes, as well as addiction and even schizophrenia in adulthood.
The connection between mental health and extreme heat is relatively new, but it’s a big one, said Jonathan Patz, a professor at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
We don’t always see this level of direct confrontation when a group member is accused of being dangerous, according to Jessica Calarco, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin.
“Most will tend to continue the friendship,” Calarco said. “This is because when someone close to us – or even similar to us – engages in violent or toxic behavior, we’re less likely to blame them for their actions than we would be if we saw the same behavior from someone to whom we’re not close.”
A recent survey by UW-Madison shows that 80% of Americans say they go to a farmers market at least once a year.
In the 1980s, everything changed. President Ronald Reagan slashed funding for renewables and research and development into solar power. “It was really ideological,” said Greg Nemet, professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “They cut the solar budget by 85 percent within a couple of years.”
Mark Copelovitch, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote on Bluesky: “Signs you might be a far right authoritarian party (#3191): Casual normalization by a sitting Senator of a ‘third term'”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to create a new administrative unit to collaborate with the business community amid campus-wide budget cuts, led by a new Associate Vice Chancellor for Entrepreneurship who will drive business growth at the university “beyond patents.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Eva Golos created a graph of the USGS data illustrating the moment the tremors reached the Midwest.
Given how well this summer’s concerts at Camp Randall Stadium were received, music fans might not have to wait another 28 years to attend another.
“The overall success of these shows demonstrates that we are capable operationally of hosting more shows and there is definitely an appetite and demand for more in the future,” said Mitchell Pinta, deputy athletic director and chief revenue officer for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s athletics department.
The 2025-27 Capitol Budget passed at the beginning of July includes $7 million for virtual mental health services to University of Wisconsin students at all campuses apart from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The inclusion of the funding follows a bill introduced by Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, and Senate Republicans on June 2 to address mental health issues among UW System students.
New federal loan restrictions passed as part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act are expected to reshape how thousands of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pay for their education, potentially increasing reliance on private loans and reducing access for low-income families.
Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) announced plans in late June to cancel “University of the Air” along with three other legacy shows in part because of federal and state funding challenges.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Public Affairs Manual Teodoro has issued report cards for nearly every water utility around the state as part of his Wisconsin Waterworks Excellence Project.
“The idea here with the report card is to signal to the public where utilities are doing well, and where they are doing poorly in a way that is easily accessible,” said Teodoro.
Monarez, the first CDC director without a medical degree since 1953, holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focused on developing technologies to diagnose, treat and prevent infectious diseases.
Like the Skobot, most new A.I. technologies developed by Native scientists are designed for a specific language community. Jacqueline Brixey, a computer scientist formerly at the University of Southern California and now joining the University of Wisconsin, created a chatbot called “Masheli” that can communicate in Choctaw. Drawing from a collection of animal stories, the chatbot can listen and respond to users in both English and the target language, helping conversational skills.
David Kreling, an emeritus professor at the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy, said he’s never seen this level of tariffs in his 40-year career.
“We in the U.S. are very dependent on international producers,” Kreling said.
University of Wisconsin Hospitals ranked #1 on the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals list for the 14th year in a row, UW Health announced Tuesday.
A software program UW-Madison faculty and students use on a daily basis has added artificial intelligence tools to assist with grading and summarizing discussion posts.
But the university says some of the tools could run afoul of guidance it provides instructors against using AI to automate student feedback.
Greg Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, served as a lead author on a United Nations panel report on climate change. He called the move a political change that’s meant to prop up fossil fuels.
“The change seems to be to get rid of that ruling that greenhouse gases are a danger to humans, and there’s certainly no scientific basis for that,” Nemet said. “Over time, there’s just been more and more evidence about how damaging it will be to have a hotter climate.”
Wisconsin is coming out of a drought, which can mean more mosquitos, said PJ Liesch, an extension entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“We finally hit the point where no parts of Wisconsin are experiencing drought anymore. That’s a good thing for plants and crops, but … that can mean more mosquitoes out and about.” Liesch said. “So recent reports that I’ve had at the UW Insect Diagnostic Lab do suggest that there’s quite a bit of mosquito activity out there in Wisconsin, although it can vary from location to location.”
The program began in 2019 as part of a certificate partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and Centro Hispano, funded through a five-year grant by the Wisconsin Partnership Program.
This year, Rutgers University-New Brunswick launched a center offering students a food pantry, a free textbook rental program, a clothing closet, a lounge and more. The pantry is designed to feel like a mini Trader Joe’s with baskets and rows of shelves filled with fresh produce, frozen meat and non-perishable goods.
True, the Tesla Resistance didn’t have the revolutionary romance of yesteryear: running through tear gas at the U of Wisconsin Dow Chemical demo (it made napalm) hand in hand with my then-girlfriend, Judy, who would soon leave me for a history grad student and break my heart. It didn’t have the grit of the People’s Park sieges in Berkeley in ’69, getting kicked in the stomach by Alameda County sheriff’s deputies on the way to the Santa Rita jail, throwing debris at the Northside home of H-bomb avatar Edward Teller. It didn’t even offer the thrill of marching across the Brooklyn Bridge during Occupy Wall Street and seeing the beacon of the 99 percent beamed onto the blank corporate slab of the Verizon Building, proclaiming ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE.
Students at Madison’s largest college campuses are increasingly turning to school food pantries to feed themselves and their families.
As the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison College work to meet students’ needs, here’s how community members can support local efforts.
“Don’t leave your seat at the end of the third quarter,” they wrote. “That’s when Wisconsin fans ‘Jump Around’ to the 1992 House of Pain classic of the same name, often causing Camp Randall to shake and vibrate. The tradition started in 1998, took a very brief, highly controversial hiatus in 2003 and became a rallying cry during the Badgers’ development into a Big Ten powerhouse under former coaches Barry Alvarez and Bret Bielema.”
Republican lawmakers are proposing a state law to limit tuition increases after the University of Wisconsin system approved another tuition hike earlier this month.
Advancements in x-ray lasers have potential for research in many fields. We talk to a UW-Madison physics professor about his work. Then, the Weather Guys are back to explain what we’ve been experiencing climatewise.
ales of previously owned homes in Wisconsin rose 8.1 percent in June compared to the same month last year.
That’s according to the Wisconsin Realtors Association’s latest housing report. Kurt Paulsen, professor of urban planning in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called the sales jump a “mixed signal.”
The goal of AIS Snapshot Day is to help the public learn to identify, report and control harmful species in state waters, said Emily Heald, rivers educator with the University of Wisconsin Madison Division of Extension.
The events are free and hosted by local experts on or near lakes, ponds, rivers and wetlands.
Students for Justice in Palestine announced in a social media post Sunday that the Registered Student Organization had been suspended from the University of Wisconsin campus for violating university policies at an April protest.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison suspended Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for violating five university policies following an April protest at a campus event hosting a former U.S. Ambassador.
As college students locally and nationally struggle to feed themselves due to rising costs and other challenges, schools have tried to find ways to address the growing needs. UW-Madison and Madison College recently expanded their pantries and offerings, and UW-Madison hired a full-time employee just to concentrate on students’ basic needs.
The bill was introduced following a report by news platform Wisconsin Right Now, which found that the University of Wisconsin System employs nearly 500 foreign workers on H-1B visas, with salaries totaling almost $43 million annually. The report also noted rising tuition rates at the same institutions.
Universities did great things during the 20th century. Presidents and faculty found strength and legitimacy through relevance. They helped in the all-out effort to win the Second World War. Universities anticipated the needs of the Cold War. Research labs produced products that improved people’s daily lives. The University of Minnesota patented Honeycrisp apples. The University of Wisconsin patented fortifying milk with vitamin D.
“We inherit the memory of trauma on a molecular basis,” said Hasan Khatib, a professor of genetics and epigenetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension is ending its 30-year-old FoodWIse nutrition education program and laying off more than 90 people after losing a federal grant.
As a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student studying taxonomy and systematics, Marsh categorizes insects. Examining the insects with a microscope, she divides them into species, which is the smallest grouping of an insect. Those species could be classified simply by the number of hairs that are on their wings or the shape of their abdomens.
“I love to organize,” she said.
The study was a nationwide Phase 3 trial led by UW-Madison surgery professor Dixon Kaufman. The goal was to test a new stem cell infusion treatment for safety and efficacy.
“There are many benefits to them (immunosuppressive drugs),” said Kaufman, the medical director of the UW Health Transplant Center. “But of course, there are side effects and downsides.”
Michael Notaro, director of UW–Madison’s Center for Climatic Research launched STEM camps in Beloit, Wisconsin Dells and at Madison’s Henry Vilas Zoo with a simple mission: make science accessible to all children with neurodivergences – but the camps are at risk.
“The main goals of the camps is to support the kind of interest and pursuit of science, degrees and careers, to foster and support neurodiversity and to celebrate it,” Notaro said.
UW-Madison Extension will wind down its FoodWIse programming following federal funding cuts, administrators announced Friday.
The move comes after the passage of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which eliminated funding for the National Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program (SNAP-Ed). The funding cuts go into effect on Sept. 30.
Political experts say this will reshape Wisconsin’s political landscape significantly. Howard Schweber, a professor with UW-Madison’s Department of Political Science, believes this decision could encourage several Republicans who previously stayed out of the race to now consider running.
“This opens the field on both sides,” Schweber said. “I think there were several potential Republican candidates who are likely not throwing their hat in the ring because they assumed Evers would be very hard to beat.”
The camp is organized in collaboration with Dr. Michael Notaro, director of the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. With prior funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Notaro and his team have led similar camps in Beloit, Madison, and Wisconsin Dells.
However, future programming is uncertain. Federal support for the camps ended earlier this year when NSF grants were discontinued. While funding remains in place for this summer’s sessions, organizers are seeking alternative sources to continue beyond 2025.
If you are not feeling well and need an urgent care appointment, UW Health has an app letting you know the wait times at each clinic.
