This is a tale of two forests, Densetown and Stumptown, whose paths diverged after a succession of wildfires. One illustrates the historic resilience of the dense Yellowstone pinelands; the other portends a much sparser future for these forests under climate change.
From famous scientists to accomplished actors and politicians, many notable people graduated or attended UW-Madison. Here’s a sampling.
The UW-Madison lab that checks deer carcasses for chronic wasting disease says new scientific research shows the importance of testing.
Two 2016 UW-Madison graduates from Oconto County are among just 26 people selected for a sought-after rural medical education program through the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
We can now watch Irma and Jose’s stunning fury nearly in real time. Researchers and engineers at the Space and Science Engineering Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison stitched together daytime and nighttime imagery for a full, composite picture of the storms, made available to TIME.
Podcast: In centuries past, few children other than those of wealthy, aristocratic families received a formal education, certainly not one that had them sitting in a classroom for hours on end, from morning through early afternoon. That all started to change around the time of the Industrial Revolution, according to Andrew Ruis, medical historian at the University of Wisconsin and author of a new book, Eating to Learn, Learning to Eat: The Origins of School Lunch in the United States.
From Marshall Shepherd, who visited UW–Madison on 9/7/17. Includes image from and link to UW AOS: Our weather models tipped us off many days ago that Irma might be a long and dangerous storm. However, there were some things that did surprise me.
Well, if you liked reading about this innovative source of green energy, then you might want to check out University of Wisconsin-Madison engineer Dr. Xudong Wang’s equally astonishing triboelectric nanogenerator, or TENG, technology.
Social genomics is a new field that merges sociology with genetics. It asks how our genes affect our functions in society. Social genomics is a topic of interest to Jason Fletcher, professor of public affairs and sociology in the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison. He will be teaching a sociology class on this topic this fall, called Molecular Me: Social Implications of the Genetic Revolution.
Rob Radwin, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at UW-Madison who studies how robots can help relieve physical stress in the workplace, sees a future in which machines will increasingly be employed to handle highly repetitive tasks, while humans will be employed in fields that require complex judgments, adaptation to unexpected events and interactions with other humans.
“I have never been so stunned in my life. I went from thinking I was going to pass out a few samples to getting my own hashtag, messages of support from DJ Khaled and one heck of a challenge,” Jeschke said. “But the best part was all of the people I met. The entire student body rallied behind me. It was an experience I’ll never forget.”
A study of rural children in the Marshfield area suggests that kids raised on dairy farms are much less likely to suffer severe respiratory illnesses, allergies and chronic skin rashes, according to the University of Wisconsin.
Christine Seroogy, associate professor of pediatrics, and James Gern, professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, worked with researchers at the Marshfield Clinic on the study.
Inside the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, Madison chef Tory Miller stands over a tiny bamboo serving boat, concentrating as he pipes a dollop of bearnaise to finish off a bite-sized dish.“Tomato,” he says, almost reverently, placing the specimen in front of a hungry dinner guest. But it’s not your standard grocery-variety (or even garden-variety) fruit — it’s from a special breeding line developed as part of UW-Madison’s Seed to Kitchen Collaborative.
African American children fail and drop out of school at an alarmingly high rate, but providing them with skilled teachers who bring African American culture into the classroom can reverse that trend. Gloria Ladson-Billings, an internationally acclaimed scholar of education at UW–Madison credited with the concept of “culturally relevant pedagogy,” discusses hip hop as a transformative educational tool.
“The series is a testament to the Wisconsin Idea, sharing UW-Madison expertise with the community,” Auerbach said. “The retired faculty members appreciate the chance to speak on subjects close to their hearts, and attendees enjoy seeing eminent scholars they may have only heard about.”
The interim director of a cell and gene product development facility at UW-Madison is now the permanent managing director.Carl Ross began his new duties on July 1 after more than a year as the Waisman Biomanufacturing interim director.
A new analysis from the University of Wisconsin’s Space Science and Engineering Center has determined that Harvey is a 1-in-1,000-year flood event that has overwhelmed an enormous section of Southeast Texas equivalent in size to New Jersey.
There is a lifesaving drug that owes its existence to moldy hay, sick cows and rat poison.The drug is called warfarin sodium. It prevents blood clots, and it can be a lifesaver for patients who’ve had a heart attack or stroke. It’s one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world.
The Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison determined that many areas of Southeast Texas have received rain that is expected to come around only once every 1,000 years (or having a 0.1 percent probability of occurrence), assuming a stationary climate.
The Food and Drug Administration has deemed MDMA a “breakthrough therapy” in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, putting it on a fast track for possible approval. MDMA is also known by the street name Ecstasy. “MDMA opens up a space where people feel safe, they feel better about themselves, and they feel better about other people…,” said Dr. Charles Raison, a psychiatrist and member of the scientific advisory board of MAPS, which stands for Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.
Charles R. Bentley, who in the 1950s led a team of scientists that measured the West Antarctic Ice Sheet for the first time, and who later explained the mechanics of the fast-moving ice streams that drain the sheet, died on Aug. 19 at his home in Oakland, Calif. He was 87.
The three-week Madison program will be offered twice in this academic year, in partnership with the UW-Madison Computer Sciences department and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, as gALPHA+CS. It will focus on helping computer science students and industry experts from across campus partner to build companies.
When Lake Mendota turned the color of a bad Gatorade experiment in June, you should have seen it through Steve Carpenter’s eyes.Carpenter, who is retiring this month after 28 years at the UW Center for Limnology, talks about Lake Mendota with a subtly relaxed sense of time.
“There is so much to celebrate about Wisconsin’s $88 billion agricultural industry, which encompasses dairy, livestock, field crops, fruit and vegetables and so much more,” says Kate VandenBosch, dean of the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) has started a two-year “virtual dairy farm brain”project that will use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze data in real time helping dairy farmers improve their management decisions.
The “Thank You 72” campaign is traveling across the state as the university aims to show appreciation for support, according to the release.
The release highlighted Walworth County residents and UW-Madison graduates Debra Alder and Jeffrey Scherer as examples of people doing good work for the community.
“I was ready for a change and wanted to get back to Wisconsin,” he said. “I had this idea and figured I’d give it a shot.”
He still has a full-time job so for the time being brewing beer is a sideline. He teaches at the Farm and Industry Short Course at UW-Madison and is associate director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the university.
Along with the traditional items like alphabet borders, illustrations of cursive writing, teachers put up word walls, post “standard operating procedures” for tasks such as lining up, and “I can” statements, such as “I can identify a numerator and a denominator” or “I can write a number in expanded form.”
Although genetic information has become more accessible through direct-to-consumer testing, the secrets it reveals are not always as clear as a crystal ball.“They’ll tell you whether you like cilantro, which is a genetic trait,” said Jason Fletcher, a professor of public affairs and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “They’re right with that — I hate cilantro. … But they’re wrong when they tell me that I shouldn’t be bald.”
Stephen Kantrowitz, a history professor at UW-Madison who specializes in the Civil War era, said he believes a replacement marker is appropriate to explain the historical context of the Confederate soldiers’ burials. But he takes issue with how the plaque “celebrates their actions as heroic.”
Hundreds of people who converged on UW Space Place at noon Thursday were disappointed to find that all 250 pairs of solar eclipse-viewing glasses were sold out before they were even scheduled to go on sale.
Last year, UW-Madison launched Project 72, which aims to recognize and thank Wisconsin’s 72 counties for contributing to the university’s success. Part of the project includes a red and white truck that travels the state to dispense free ice cream, according to the release.
The embattled UW-Oshkosh Foundation filed for bankruptcy Thursday, with leaders saying their hand was forced by a “flip flop and ill-advised political gamesmanship” from University of Wisconsin System officials who backed out of a potential settlement with the foundation’s creditors.
Brancel, who officially left office on Aug. 13, said that after Governor Scott Walker appoints a successor, he hoped that person would agree to serve on the board, to keep in close touch with its activities, both in Madison and at Barron.
“I see the lab as more than regulatory,” Brancel said. “It is a viable, public facility, not only important to animal health, but also in its relationship to human health.”
Three years ago, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association put new rules into play to limit contact in high school football practice. A University of Wisconsin-Madison study showed it’s working. Concussions were more than twice as high in the two seasons before the rule change.
Researcher Paul Moberg with the University of Wisconsin School of Public Health says the crisis concept is certainly borne out here in Wisconsin, where in 2015 there were 614 deaths from opiods. “In 2016, we had 588 traffic deaths, so we now have surpassed the number of traffic deaths with our number of deaths due to opioid drugs,” Moberg said.
However, heifer calves born as twins with a bull have about a 92 percent chance of being sterile, according to a 2001 review on twinning in dairy cattle written by Paul Fricke from the Department of Dairy Science, UW-Madison.
Wisconsin averaged over 17,200 fans across 17 games at the Kohl Center last season, good for sixth in the country and first in the Big Ten. The Badgers posted a 15-2 record at home en route to another Sweet 16 season.
If you got rid of the 7 percent of calories consumed through soda, would that be enough to affect weight?” asks Jason Fletcher, Ph.D., a professor of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has studied the issue. “The answer is yes, if you take all those calories and just remove them from your diet.” But, he says, “If you substitute those beverages with other high-calorie drinks, then you haven’t reduced your calories at all.”
When asked if he thinks the Trump administration might try to dismiss or suppress the (climate change) report, one of the study’s lead authors, James Kossin, a physical scientist with National Centers for Environmental Information (and a scientist at UW’s SSEC), says “there’s nothing to suggest that has happened or will happen.”
Cellphones, laptops, battery-operated flashlights, our electronics are getting smaller and our need for energy is getting larger. So what if there was a way to take those items and mix them with your everyday routine to create an eco-friendly way to recharge them? That’s the bright idea of Marianne Fairbanks who has two degrees in fiber arts.
UW-Madison Engineering Dean Ian Robertson talked about the need for engineering graduates to fill Foxconn-related jobs, either directly or indirectly, and noted the college must add faculty to meet those demands over time.
Maximizing yields is the top priority for field corn growers. When it comes to sweet corn, taste and appearance are more important, said Joe Lauer, a UW-Madison agronomy professor.Sweet corn seeds are shriveled and cracked compared to field corn. That makes a less resilient plant that is more susceptible to disease, he said.
Baits often consist of high-calorie foods like meat, candy or cookies. MacFarland, along with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sampled bear bait and native foods in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest for the study. They then compared those samples to tissues taken from black bears during the 2011-2013 hunting seasons.
But R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, who co-led the national committee on human embryo editing, said historically ethical overreach with reproductive technology has been limited.
“We are seeing a lot of species shifting their ranges — locally and globally — in response to climate change,” said Jonathan Pauli, an associate professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“This has been widely reported as the dawn of the era of the designer baby, making it probably the fifth or sixth time people have reported that dawn,” says Alta Charo, an expert on law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And it’s not.”
R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at University of Wisconsin at Madison, who led the committee with Dr. Hynes, said the new discovery could also yield more information about causes of infertility and miscarriages.
Specifically, Foxconn would need 1,600 process equipment engineers, 463 integration engineers and 300 computer-integrated manufacturing engineers. Ian Roberston, the dean at the College of Engineering at UW-Madison, said he believes that UW System, along with other schools in the area, would be able to address Foxconn’s workforce needs — as well as those of other companies in the state — but it would require growing the number of engineering students enrolled at undergraduate institutions.
Over the past few years, UW-Madison’s engineering school has completed a series of renovation projects on its laboratory and facilities, Robertson said, and it has the capacity to handle an additional 500 to 600 students.
What it doesn’t have is the necessary faculty and staff numbers to handle an influx of students that large, he said.
“I’m confident that we can increase our capacity, with an appropriate investment, in order to meet that demand,” he said.
Colleges across the country are giving students common reading assignments. Some campuses go against the liberal trend. At least four schools, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have chosen a best seller written by a young conservative: J. D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which explores issues of social breakdown among working-class whites, such as drug use and child neglect.
If your only exposure to archaeology is watching the Indiana Jones movies, than let us quickly disabuse you of the notion that archaeologists spend their days dodging bullets and nabbing ancient idols.Archaeology is dirty work. The researchers that dedicate themselves to the discipline are a dusty sort, armed with an array of trowels, brushes and other tools for unearthing long-lost artifacts.It’s that kind of gritty, grimy, sweaty archaeology that’s a hallmark of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Archaeology Field School at Aztalan State Park.
Walker said part of wooing Foxconn to Wisconsin included meetings with chancellors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Milwaukee and the president of Gateway Technical College to talk about training opportunities so graduates would be prepared to work at the plant.
In 2013, the Wisconsin’s wine industry supported more than 700 jobs statewide, generating about $151 million in sales and another $9 million in state and local taxes, according to a UW-Madison Extension study about the impact of the industry.
Carrie Laboski, Extension Soil Fertility/Nutrient Management Specialist, UW-Madison said with continued precipitation and water lying on fields in many areas, growers are concerned about nitrogen loss from corn fields.
Using improved travel data, Robert Schneider and Aida Sanatizadeh of UW-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning and Jason Vargo of the UW-Madison Global Health Institute calculated the rates of fatalities for walkers and bicyclists in 46 American regions with populations greater than one million.
Researchers at the Upper Midwestern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases, a CDC-funded center to increase surveillance efforts in the Midwest, have identified three individuals of the mosquito, Aedes albopictus, in Wisconsin for the first time, according to a press release.
A brand-new, first-of-its-kind program at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health is aiming to fill a shortage of doctors in rural areas.
Experts predict Wisconsin could be facing a shortage of up to four-thousand doctors by the year 2035. The problem is even more extreme in rural areas and in women’s health care.
James Tinjum, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Engineering Professional Development (EPD), will travel across four Midwestern states by bicycle in July to visit wind turbines and bring attention to wind energy.
Tinjum will “bike the wind” in a 1,250-mile long journey entirely by bike that will take him past more than 50 wind energy sites in an educational journey that combines his passions for bicycling, sustainability and energy.
While the species can carry the virus, UW-Madison entomologist PJ Liesch says there’s no sign of it happening in Wisconsin right now. He says this type of mosquito is already widely found across the southern United States, while the only cases of Zika transmission in the U.S. have been in southern Florida and in southern Texas.
A study done by the University of Wisconsin shows that keeping dairy cows ‘udderly’ content can lead to those cows producing more milk. For Five Star Diary in Elk Mound, that’s leading to a few farm upgrades.
“We’ve added sprinklers, we’ve added foggers and a lot of fans,” said Five Star Dairy owner Lee Jensen.
