Pfizer Inc. on Tuesday announced a licensing agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, for the development of drug therapies using human embryonic stem cells.
The pharmaceutical giant said it would use embryonic stem cells, discovered by UW-Madison researcher James Thomson in 1998, to improve drug safety, screen new drugs and develop cell therapies.
The Chazen Museum of Art celebrated its groundbreaking ceremony Friday with Madison community members.
Over 100 students, faculty, and community members gathered at 750 University Avenue to witness the ceremony. When completed, the museum will offer twice the gallery space than that of the current museum, an outdoor plaza, study rooms and a glass-walled lobby that students will be able to peer into when passing by.
Living and working in the New York region’s financial-media complex in 2009 means daily, compulsory attendance at a gathering of the glum. The economy may be shrinking at a 6 percent annual rate, but finance and media have contracted by about 30 percent. For the past year, the daily routine has meant sitting in a depopulated office (assuming you still have a job); following the latest grim news of magazine closings, buyouts, and layoffs; and commiserating with friends, family, and neighbors. And, of course, the angst extends far beyond directly affected companies. Finance dominates the area’s economy to such a degree that everybodyâ??lawyers, accountants, real estate brokers, waiters, retailers, and cab driversâ??have all been affected.
Recent UW-Madison graduate Marissa Arnold works as a public relations associate for a small firm in New York City, and like many other recent grads looking for work in a tough economy, she feels underwhelmed and disappointed by employment prospects.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business moved up a notch in the latest edition of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.”
The school ranked 28th overall, up from 29th last year. The school’s marketing specialty ranked 22nd, and the supply chain/logistics specialty tied for 15th, the university said.
Who says business school doesn’t rock? Pretty much everybody, actually, and with the endless media onslaught on the decline of the economy, it’s likely that economists are near the top of most people’s shit lists. So what business does a bunch of business professors and economists have playing in a rock band? Turns out it’s serious stuffâ??at least according to Morris Davis of Toxic Assets, a band comprised of UW-Madison biz-school faculty. Decider spoke with Davis about playing Rock Your Stocks Off, a b-school throwdown coming up on Sunday at the High Noon Saloon.
Madison police broke up a large brawl early Sunday morning outside the Madison Avenue nightclub, but no one was injured or arrested.
Electric bicycles. Bring-your-own-bottle vending machines. Ergonomic piano benches. Disease assessment tools for developing countries.
Those are some of the ideas that UW-Madison students want to turn into working companies.
They presented their concepts Friday at the G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition at Grainger Hall, home of the School of Business.
The annual G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business will take place on Friday.
This year’s entrants range from high-tech flavored plastics and eco-friendly vending machines to micro-gifting services and medical devices for emerging countries, according to a UW news release.
Officials including President Obama have recently stated the economic crisis that has gripped the country might be bottoming out.
However, financial indicators across Wisconsin point toward some uncertainty and tough decisions for several months ahead, with no recovery guaranteed, according to numerous economic observers.
Carl E. Gulbrandsen, WARF managing director, told a recent WisBusiness.com luncheon that the new federal stimulus package is good news for UW-Madison research.
â??The university is in the sweet spot of the stimulus package,â? Gulbrandsen said, singling out projects like the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery being built on campus, and the medical research, bio-energy and green energy sectors.
He said WARF, which helps spur UW-Madison research then licenses results to the private sector, is an â??83-year-old start-upâ? that has had â??one home run after anotherâ? dating back to Vitamin D discoveries in the 1920s.
By most accounts, the proposed redevelopment of the Badger Bus depot on West Washington Avenue into a mixed-use retail and luxury apartment site is a relatively modest project, maxing out at five stories along one of the city’s most prominent corridors. But it’s what the development will replace — a downtown transit hub that has been in place for decades — that is generating controversy and sparking di
Madison has long dreamed of a leafy “Central Park” in the blighted industrial corridor between East Washington Avenue and Williamson Street. Ambitious plans there have included water features, gardens, market space and walking paths.
While the concept has been generally well received — who’s against turning a train yard into a parkway? — hassles with the railroad, tight budgets and other priorities at City Hall have the project on a slow track.
But the area some real-estate types are now pitching as “Willy-Wash” is slowly emerging on its own as a center for housing, business, entertainment and employment rather than a respite from urban living.
Last week, the University Research Park gave the area a badly needed boost by unveiling its “Metro Innovation Center” inside the former Marquip factory at the corner of East Wash and Baldwin Street. Old-timers will remember the site as the Gisholt factory, which at one point made huge gun barrels for Navy war ships.
Advocacy groups have long claimed Wisconsin’s overly litigious climate costs state businesses money and keeps others from locating here in the first place. For the past few years, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, has made reforming the state’s legal system one of its top priorities — proclaiming that excessive litigation “is costing businesses and individuals billions of dollars, and is affecting our international competitiveness.”
Not true, says a new study published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Law School that aims to “examine some of the persistent myths” about civil litigation. In fact, it says, the number of civil cases in which individuals seek compensation for personal injury and property damage fell 17.4 percent in Wisconsin from 1996-2007.
To prove the power of touch, the researchers placed two products, a Slinky and a coffee mug, in front of 231 undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin. About half were told they could touch the products, while the other half were prohibited from fiddling with them. Students were then asked to express their sense of ownership of the products, and to indicate how much they money they were willing to pay for both the Slinky and coffee mug.
The results were clear: those who touched the items reported statistically significant higher levels of perceived ownership. They were also willing to pay more to purchase the products. “If you don’t want to spend more money, be careful what you touch,” says Joann Peck, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin’s business school and the study’s other co-author. Peck happily describes herself as an expert in haptics, the science of touch; she has published six other papers on the subject. “Touching something gives you that little sense of control,” she says, “and that alone can increase your feeling of ownership.”
A landmark Near East Side factory building has come back to life as a high-tech business incubator aimed at brewing the big ideas of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and faculty.
The Metro Innovation Center is open for business â?? a sleek set of 10 suites equipped with the latest voice and data technology as well as two conference rooms and a small kitchen.
When Derek Jose enrolled in the University of Wisconsin’s Stephen L. Hawk Center for Applied Security Analysis in September 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was racing to 14,000 and the program’s freshly minted grads were settling into investment jobs that paid an average of $84,000 plus bonuses.
Now, Jose is 28, newly married, burdened by $60,000 in student loans and on the cusp of graduating into an investment world shattered by a calamitous bear market.
Welcome to Wall Street, kid.
World wind power leader Vestas is partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering to propel wind energy research and provide funding support to students working on new wind technology.
The partnership was announced Wednesday.
“Wind energy is a growing source of new power generation in the world, and the technology has even greater untapped potential,” said Thomas Jahns, professor of power electronics and electrical machines. “By teaming with an industry leader like Vestas, our research environment will thrive.”
Noted: The Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has seen the number of companies coming to campus shrink by approximately 15 percent as compared to 2008, according to Steve Schroeder. Heâ??s the assistant dean of that universityâ??s undergraduate program and the director of the career center at the school.
â??Students are getting fewer job offers and some companies have unfortunately rescinded some offers. In 2008, a typical student probably had three to five job offers. In 2009, students are excited to get one or two offers. There is general uncertainty and nervousness from recruiters as well as students,â? said Schroeder in an e-mail to Challenger researchers.
Just about every plan to help revive the American economy includes talk of green jobs.
President Barack Obama has used the phrase frequently in the past months, vowing to create 5 million “green collar jobs” during his first term in office.
The goal would be accomplished by ensuring that 10 percent of the nation’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012; weatherizing one million homes annually; developing clean coal technology and prioritizing construction of the Alaska natural gas pipeline.
Quoted: Joel Rogers, director of the university’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy
Even in light of current economic turmoil, Wisconsin hospitals have remained strong and benefit the stateâ??s economy, according to a study released Thursday by UW-Extension and the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
Madison was ranked third behind Provo, Utah, and Boulder, Colo., among 124 midsized metropolitan areas for the best quality of life, according to a new study by Bizjournals, a publisher of metropolitan business newspapers.
The ranking noted the presence in Madison of a major university and the state Capitol, giving the city a stable and upscale employment base. The study also said 44 percent of Madison workers hold management or professional jobs, higher than the 33 percent for a typical midsized metropolitan area.
Noted: Other schools on the entrepreneurship vanguard: Arizona State University; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Oberlin College; University of Iowa; California State University, Fresno; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
There will be a lot of empty space at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s upcoming career fair for students from the College of Letters & Science. Last year, 43 employers turned out to talk up their internship programs and full-time opportunities; this year only 23 plan to attend. It’s gotten so bad that business students, who normally clamor for jobs with investment banks and consulting companies, are settling for less. “Retail used to be not that appealing to business studentsâ??it’s kind of a back-up plan,” says career services director Leslie Kohlberg. Not anymore.
Two Madison biotechnology companies are working together on a new type of influenza vaccine, and a new way to give the immunization.
FluGen, which is developing vaccines to fight flu and other infectious diseases, says it has obtained exclusive rights to technology developed by Ratio. Terms are not being disclosed.
Ratioâ??s disposable device is about the size of a poker chip and is equipped with a set of tiny needles. When a button is pressed on the device, a pump sends the vaccine through the needles and into the skin. It doesnâ??t go through the skin and into the muscle, though, as a traditional vaccine syringe does.
The method makes the vaccination painless and more effective, the two companies say.
Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” has always had nice things to say about Madison. In his 2002 book, he ranked Madison No. 1 among small cities with metro populations of 250,000 to 500,000.
Florida has long argued that communities which offer a stimulating working environment for creative people will thrive in the 21st century. This includes towns that embrace the arts, pop music, gay people and ethnic food.
Quoted: UW-Madison professor of real estate Steve Malpezzi, who says it’s way too early to proclaim the housing is crisis over.
….Globe University is a career college that works closely with the Minnesota School of Business.
Said Brock Vandervelden, who’s with the university, “We extend an opportunity for people who want something different. Let’s say they were downsized. The can come here get some retraining and get placed in a career they want to get into.”
Not only will the university employ and train local workers for the future, they are also making a more current economic impact.
Local biotech entrepreneur Russell Smestad announced the launch of a Web site that aims to enhance the visibility of the Madison biotechnology industry, to facilitate finding local career opportunities in biotech, and to provide a private networking forum for its executive talent.
Smestadâ??s new company is Biotech Profiles LLC and the site is BiotechProfiles.com.
Despite a recent stock market rally, no one is yet calling the current recession over.
As countless large companies across the nation have suffered losses due to the economic downturn, small locally-owned businesses are trying to avoid the same fate.
And many of them are turning to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Small Business Development Center for advice.
The University of Wisconsin System tied with Harvard University for educating the most chief executive officers of major companies in 2008, according to one report.
That Harvard University is churning out the heads of top businesses in no surprise, but the perch of UW System graduates is perhaps more unexpected.
The calculations, by global executive search firm Spencer Stuart, include individuals who graduated from any school in the UW System, although the majority are likely University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni.
With all the stimulus money getting tossed around these days, you’d figure biotechnology would be near the top of the wish list.
Instead, specific funding for early stage science companies was practically written out of the $780 billion package, claims the president of Madison-based Centrose LLC.
A line inserted into the massive spending bill says $10 billion in stimulus funds provided to the National Institutes of Health are exempt from a previous requirement that 2.5 percent of NIH research money go to private companies.
MADISON (WKOW) — Students at Madison Area Technical College are preparing for a new wave of interest in stem cell studies, after President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding. Even though MATC wouldn’t directly receive any money, instructors say the possibility of stem cell labs benefitting from President Obamas decision could trickle down to the school in other ways.
MATC offers the only 2-year program in the country with training in embryonic stem cells, according to a spokesperson. Right now, more than 60 students are working toward biotech laboratory degrees.
President Obama is set to sign an executive order Monday reversing President Bushâ??s ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison fired the manager of its landmark dairy store last year for selling outdated ice cream and for other food safety and quality problems, according to her dismissal letter.
The manager, Eileen Karre, claims she was unfairly let go and is appealing to get her job back.
Directors of the third annual Wiscontrepreneur Challenge awarded cash prizes to four creative, unique student projects.
On Monday afternoon, for what may have been the first time in 30 years, I was back in a classroom on the UW-Madison campus.
Like the old days, I tried to hide in the back row. Still, once I heard about this event, there was no keeping me away.
“This is like the Academy Awards,” Doug Bradley was saying into a microphone, up on stage. “Only a week later.”
Dozens of entrepreneurial University of Wisconsin-Madison students took part in a 100-hour “Wiscontrepreneur” challenge.
The contest required teams to use materials from the UW Swap shop — the campus store selling surplus equipment — to create a valuable, innovative or socially beneficial product.
“I think you learned a little bit about what it might take to be an entrepreneur. I hope some of you are invigorated with that spirit and are ready to take the plunge and do something with this,” Doug Bradley, of the UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations, said to the participants.
A dress made of air filters, a â??drunk tankâ? that captures party crashers, a water purification system and a terrarium made of test tubes became winners Monday of the University of Wisconsinâ??s third annual 100-Hour Challenge.
MADISON (WKOW) — Madison Alderman Eli Judge is working with UW-Madison students to develop a “Madison Property Ratings” website for the campus area.
The project will help renters and property owners by focusing on the quality of campus area housing in Madison.
The site will be similar to the already popular “Rate My Professor” site, but instead will encourage renters to rate their landlords and the properties they rent.
A dress made out of air filters, yellow wire, vacuum filters and foam peanuts was the most creative entry in the annual 100-hour Wiscontrepreneur Challenge on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
A record 63 entries made by almost 200 students competed for honors in four categories in the third annual competition, put on by UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations.
Winners were announced Monday in the University of Wisconsin’s 100-Hour Wiscontrepreneur Challenge.
The third annual event attracted a record of nearly 200 students and 63 entries, compared to last year’s 17, during the four-day competition.
President Barack Obamaâ??s new budget for the 2010 fiscal year proposed Thursday called for the abolition of bank-based student loan programs and directed funding towards maximum Pell Grants.
Three power plants in Wisconsin and Illinois are planning to uses hundreds of thousands of tons of biomass fuel as their fuel source, but the big question is, where will the fuel come from?
Farmers, conservationists and foresters will get together on March 6 for a “biomass briefing” at the Ramada Inn in Richland Center. The goal is to learn about what types of biomass are possible to be grown in southwest Wisconsin and if biomass is a sustainable energy source.
A Madison biotech firm is getting a state loan to help develop and finalize clinical trials of new regenerative tissue products.
Stratatech Corp. is getting a $500,000 loan from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce for help funding an $11 million project to develop cell-based, tissue-engineered products for wound care.
The Madison City Council voted early Wednesday morning to approve an application for federal funds to grow the city’s bio-agriculture industry, but held off on committing any of its own dollars yet.
….The incubator would provide start-up companies in the bio-agriculture industry — a combination of biotechnology, agriculture, food science and sustainability — with lower rents and shared resources such as greenhouses, technology and field testing sites.
After watching friends and colleagues lose their jobs, their retirement savings and increasingly their hope, I’ve got only one thing to say to any state worker worried about paying more for their health insurance: Cry me a river.
Here in Dane County, where a quarter of the workforce draws paychecks from the government, one can sense the growing rift between the public and private sector as the economy worsens. And we’re doing better than just about everywhere else in Wisconsin.
When they are up and running in 20 months, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery should be a â??cauldron of exciting interactionsâ? between researchers, social scientists, artists, educators and the public, former UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley said today.
â??Ten years from now, I hope weâ??ll look back on a lot of great new stuff and say this is where it started,â? said Wiley, who is the interim director of the public half of the new research center that backers hope will be a model of interdisciplinary and collaborative science.
Wiley was joined at a Wisconsin Innovation Network luncheon by Carl Gulbrandsen, WARF’s managing director and board chairman for the Morgridge Institute for Research (MIR), the private half of the $150 million, 165,000-square-foot WID project. It is going up on the 1300 block of University Avenue between Randall Avenue and Orchard Street and is expected to open in the fall of 2010.
Providing college students with ways to make the most of their money, especially during a recession, is the focus of a seminar being held this weekend at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison Business School professor Ron Smith says the financial independence seminar will give students advice on how to budget, save, and invest their money. He says students approaching graduation are often uninformed about financial issues and have a lot to learn before they start their career. (Final item.)
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board unanimously approved a reduced athletics budget for the 2009-10 academic year Friday but opted to maintain current ticket prices.
Back in the mid-1990s, a young African-American UW student named Lee Hawkins wrote some gutsy, provocative op-ed columns for us. We knew then he had a great future ahead of him.
….Today he works as the Journal’s correspondent with CNBC and at 8 p.m. this Thursday night he will anchor a one-hour documentary that is based on a book he’s written called “NEWBOs: The Rise of America’s New Black Overclass.”
A panel of experts will share information on funding and resources for young businesses at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Gilson Discovery event Tuesday, Feb. 24.
FARGO, N.D. — Devin Krauter sits on the end of his bed, tapping buttons on his video game controller to shoot down alien beasts while chatting with other players through a headset, texting on his cell phone and talking to a visitor.
The 17-year-old high school junior is ranked by a video game Web site among the best players at “Gears of War 2,” in which soldiers attack the enemy with an assault rifle that has a mounted chain saw bayonet. He says the game teaches him to think on his feet – and that he thinks about succeeding, not slaying.
That intrigues Microsoft Corp.
A UW-Madison business school faculty member told 27 News President Obama’s $275 billion mortgage plan to try to stem the tide of home foreclosures neglected the next wave of distressed borrowers.
“It is an unmitigated disaster,” business school real estate division assistant professor Morris Davis told 27 News, as Morris attended a professional conference in Atlanta.
Time magazine has named a UW-Madison graduate and his business partner among the 25 best bloggers in the world for 2009.
High school buddies Anthony David Adams, who now lives in New York City, and Chuck Steinfurth, of Orlando, Fla, earned that honor for their self-described “irreverent” blog, Detentionslip.org – referred to as the Perez Hilton of education news for its reports on gun-carrying Texas teaches and students handcuffed over skimpy prom dresses.
The old line about first killing all the lawyers doesn’t apply to Madison’s Don Becker.
Becker has quietly become one of the most charitable givers in town.
The Big Ten Network has certainly taken its share of lumps over the last two years.
Sometimes, that abuse has been merited. Most notable was BTN’s role in the virtual blackout for customers within its targeted customer base, by way of its game of chicken with the cadre of cable companies that cover Big Ten territory.
But once that issue was resolved, and the hard feelings eased, it’s been hard not to view BTN as a win-win for fans.
A San Diego real estate group has purchased seven properties in downtown Madison from local landlord Harold Langhammer, with eyes on redeveloping the busy corner of West Washington Avenue and Broom Street.
Cardinal Group Investments, LLC announced Tuesday it acquired the seven properties totaling 78 bedrooms for $4.5 million.
The purchase includes the historic 25-room Zeta Beta Tau fraternity building at 233 Langdon St
University of Wisconsin System students might face bigger classes and fewer course offerings under Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s proposed budget, but tuition for poor and middle-class students will not increase in the next two years.
In a first-of-its kind provision for the state of Wisconsin, needy students from families that earn less than the stateâ??s median family income of $60,000 a year would be exempt from tuition hikes at System institutions.
“This is a first ever and we did it because we really want to recognize how tough the times are for students and families all over the state, and not just the poorest,” said System President Kevin Reilly.
For the third consecutive year, University of Wisconsin students of all backgrounds are encouraged to express their creativity and entrepreneurial skills by participating in the Wiscontrepreneur 100-Hour Challenge.
Two Madison-based biotechnology firms are collaborating to advance research into human embryonic stem cells.
Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. and Promega Corp. announced the collaboration Monday.
