Students dressed to impress for this years Spring Career Expo.
With 115 companies including Geico, General Electric and Epic, it was a buffet of jobs and these potential grads are hungry.
“Be confident, go in and talk to people. Hopefully my confidence will reflect how the conversation goes,” says UW student Sunchit Mulmuley.
It’s hard to find any good news on the job front and hundreds of graduating college seniors are doing their best to stay optimistic.
Tuesday night at the UW sponsored job fair it was hard to do.
Some students say they feel a little bit cursed, like they’re graduating at the worst possible time.
It has them reaching for anything they can get.
From construction to factory work and even retail the jobs keep disappearing.
A Madison firm has developed a bacteria-fighting skin substitute that should help prevent infection from burns and other severe skin injuries.
Stratatech Corp. announced the innovation Tuesday in an article published online by the journal Molecular Therapy.
The bacteria-fighting skin substitute was developed without using a virus, which is believed to be the first time such an approach has been successful.
Sarah Manski was talking to Sara Alvarado early last November when she was struck by a bolt of inspiration. A green-business entrepreneur, web designer, consultant, print and radio journalist and UW-Madison graduate student in life sciences communications, Manski was interviewing the principal of the Alvarado Real Estate Group about the firm’s green orientation. Manski was impressed by the way Alvarado had networked her business with green builders and contractors, and got to wondering about the way green ideas spread from business to business.
MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) — The University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc will hold a teach-in Thursday to educate the public about global warming.
UW-Manitowoc is one of more than 500 schools and organizations nationwide that plan to participate in the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions.
The trend of small and midsize dairy farms closing will probably accelerate after having slowed in 2007 and 2008, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy specialists.
Noted: Then there is the fact that companies often continue to see high turnover, always a destabilizer, even after the layoffs are done. A study by Charlie Trevor and Anthony Nyberg of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that companies with big staff cuts saw, on average, an annual turnover rate of 13%, compared with 10.4% for firms with no layoffs.
Call them crazy for buying a bankrupt retail store amid the toughest economy in a generation. But the owners of Campus Sport Sportswear think the concept of selling sweats, T-shirts and hats to college kids remains a sound business model.
Local businessman Mark Dunbar and two partners have purchased the leases of former Steve & Barry’s stores, one in Madison and one in East Lansing, Mich. They now operate as Campus Street Sportswear.
Anyone looking to party hard after the 28th annual Crazylegs Classic run April 25 may have to find an outdoor venue other than the Stadium Bar.
The city of Madison is taking steps to crack down on alleged violations at the huge beer garden across from Camp Randall Stadium, which can legally hold up to 2,500 patrons.
Among the changes: limiting the operation of the Stadium Bar beer garden to just UW home football games.
It could be an uphill climb to lobby for more higher education funding in the current economic climate, but a new report from the Wisconsin Technology Council argues that the state would reap economic benefits by reversing the downward trend in support of its university system.
Citing the link between academic research and job creation, the report concludes that unless the state begins to reverse the slide in higher education funding, it could become an â??also-ranâ? in the knowledge economy.
….Over the past few years, Madison has become one of the Midwest’s leading centers for what the cosmetic industry likes to call the “enhancement” and “rejuvenation” of faces, bodies and, some insist, souls.
“The number of people doing good work here has increased exponentially,” said plastic surgeon John Siebert, recently recruited from New York by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to help staff a sleek new cosmetic surgery clinic called Transformations. “People used to hop on an airplane and travel. Now, it’s right in your backyard.”
The Acacia Fraternity house, a stately three-story Tudor revival built in 1927 at 222 Langdon St., is badly in need of expensive repairs.
To pay for the redevelopment, the fraternity has formed a joint venture with the Alexander Company that calls for a new five-story apartment with 18 units to be built in a gravel parking lot fronting Lake Lawn Place.
But plans by the developer to renovate the historic frat house on the UW-Madison campus, and squeeze an upscale apartment building behind it, remain up in the air.
University of Wisconsin officials say they are launching important initiatives designed to deal with conflict of interest policies at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly and UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin made those comments in a letter sent Monday to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
“A task force was established for this purpose, with the goal of identifying, managing and eliminating conflicts of interest in clinical care,” the letter stated.
The city of Madison’s new economic development director appears energetic and knowledgeable — especially when it comes to regional cooperation and high-tech economic development.
The hiring of Timothy Cooley last week suggests Madison is making progress on the important task of encouraging job creation and high-paying jobs.
Milwaukee Electric maintains partnerships with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Young Wisconsin companies raised $75 million of venture capital last year – less than a year earlier, but in line with national trends.
Nationally, venture capitalists invested $28.3 billion in 3,808 deals in 2008.
That represented an 8% decline in dollars and a 4% decline in the number of deals, according to the MoneyTree Report, released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.
A new program is being established in Wisconsin to help biotechnology companies take discoveries from the lab to the market.
The program is run by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Engineering and the Small Business Development Center. They will work with firms NeoClone in Madison, Catalent in Middleton and Invitrogen in Milwaukee.
Gov. Jim Doyle has created a new office to oversee the massive distribution of federal economic stimulus money that is expected to flow to the state.
The Office of Recovery and Reinvestment will also look for ways to send the funds quickly to schools, local governments, and companies by speeding through the regulatory process while still keeping environmental and quality standards, Doyle said.
….Gary Wolter, president and chief executive officer of Madison Gas & Electric will be in charge of the new office while maintaining his job with the utility. Al Fish, UW-Madison’s associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management, will also join it.
Memorial Union employees submitted a letter to Union administration Thursday afternoon asking that a policy banning non-University of Wisconsin students from being employed as Union building managers be reconsidered.
Seven new directors have been elected to the board of directors for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business association, with headquarters in Madison.
University of Wisconsin-Madison orthopedic surgeon and researcher Dr. Thomas Zdeblick has received millions of dollars in royalty payments from a medical device company for a variety of spinal implants he helped invent, according to an investigation recently made public by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
But a review by The Capital Times finds that the university has no legal right to share in Zdeblick’s windfall. University policy only requires its researchers to patent inventions through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation if their discoveries are funded with federal money.
Every year for the past decade, the biggest customer at the Columbus Antique Mall has been Famous Dave’s barbecue. The franchise regularly bought up bric-a-brac to decorate the restaurants’ walls.
Until last year, that is, when the biggest spender was Universal Studios.
(Jeopardy’s 2008 College Championship and scenes from “Madison” were filmed on the UW-Madison campus and students worked on both productions.)
President Barack Obama must act to address a “crisis of confidence” in the financial markets in order to help pull America out of the recession, UW-Madison Business School Dean Michael Knetter told business executives at an economic forum in Milwaukee today.
Knetter said Obama also must act to restore the publicâ??s faith in the economy, while continued action by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department is needed to prop up banks in order to keep them lending.
The “For Sale” signs haven’t yet gone up, but General Electric could soon be seeking a buyer for an $11 million building in the Old Sauk Trails Business Park in Middleton.
….An outgrowth of UW-Madison research, Lunar Corp. joined GE’s ranks in 2000 when it was purchased for $142 million by GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric Co.
….Despite the twin pillars of state government and the University of Wisconsin, Madison certainly hasn’t been immune to the unprecedented economic slowdown.
Madison will be host to several Olympic cycling events if Chicago is chosen to host the 2016 summer games, officials announced Friday.
Neil Lerner, director of the Small Business Development Center at UW-Madison’s School of Business, said even if small-business owners aren’t planning to retire soon, outlining a succession plan is a smart thing to do.
Whether the owner is planning to sell just the real estate, or sell the business to a family member or someone outside the family, it’s important to make the necessary preparation, Lerner said. “It’s still good practice to think ahead and plan for that.”
A Sweden-based biotechnology company has signed a license to use human embryonic stem cells discovered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Cellartis AB said the agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation opens the door to the U.S. market for its stem cell-related products. The company is focused on using the cells and related products in drug discovery and regenerative medicine.
The medical industry has 20 billion reasons to expect cooperation from doctors in marketing its products. That’s how many dollars the industry spends each year in payments and gifts, according to Senate estimates.
The practice should be banned outright, but for now, we’ll settle for full disclosure, which a Senate bill introduced in 2007 by Sens. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would require.
SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo will pay new CEO Carol Bartz at least $19 million in cash and stock during her first year on the job and top it off with an incentive package likely to yield a huge windfall if she can turn around the long-struggling Internet company.
The details of the UW-Madison graduate’s compensation emerged Thursday in a regulatory filing made two days after Yahoo hired the tough-minded technology veteran to replace co-founder Jerry Yang as its chief executive.
The former Lunar Corp., now known as GE Healthcare Lunar, will be closing operations at 726 Heartland Trail in Madison in June and consolidating functions at the GE Healthcare facility located at 3030 Ohmeda Drive in Madison.
John McNamara used to curse a blue streak when the city snowplow truck would leave a big pile at the foot of his east side driveway. But this winter, McNamara is having the last laugh.
In December, McNamara dumped his 1992 Toyota Corolla and signed up for Community Car, the local service that rents wheels by the hour to members.
Ethanol and biodiesel manufacturers have been extremely optimistic about the potential of food crops such as corn and soybeans to produce biofuels, but a new study suggests that the projections they relied on have not been realistic.
The study by University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota researchers, published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters, determined the global yields of such crops have been overestimated by 100 percent to 150 percent.
SAN FRANCISCO â?? Yahoo named technology veteran Carol Bartz as its new chief executive Tuesday, bringing in a no-nonsense leader known for developing a clear focus â?? something that has eluded the struggling Internet company during a three-year slump.
The decision to lure the University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate away from software maker Autodesk ends Yahoo’s two-month search to replace co-founder Jerry Yang, who surrendered the CEO reins after potentially lucrative deals with rivals Microsoft and Google both collapsed.
Wisconsin-reared Carol Bartz, who grew up on a farm near Alma, took over Tuesday as CEO of one of the country’s most famous tech companies, Yahoo Inc.
A 1971 computer science graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bartz brings to the struggling Internet search giant a track record of accomplishment and toughness.
Quoted: Michael Knetter, dean of the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
We have an incredible research university in UW-Madison that’s turning technology into successful businesses and high-paying jobs. We have a dynamic health industry and soaring farm exports. Our manufacturers are finding niche global markets in which to thrive.
The coming year needs to be a turning point for the economy. Above all else, the State Journal editorial board will advocate for smart economic policies that produce good jobs for hardworking people.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The University of Wisconsin-Madison has quietly decided to stop manufacturing its signature aerosol chambers used for researching infectious disease, which were involved in a few dangerous lab accidents nationwide.
The College of Engineering is shutting down the business after an internal audit found it was poorly managed and carried the potential for huge liability costs in the event the chambers failed, exposing researchers to toxic agents.
One of Madison’s oldest biotech research operations will be closing at the end of the year, affecting about 70 employees at the former Novagen.
EMD Chemicals Inc., a subsidiary of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, announced Friday it will close the company’s facility in University Research Park and consolidate all bioscience operations at the company’s San Diego facility.
Forbes.com has released its list of the 10 best cities to look for work in 2009, and Madison tops the list.
The publication looked at big employers in Madison, like the University of Wisconsin-Madison and jobs in the biotech and health care sector.
That’s good news for the University Research Park, where several companies are hiring despite a sluggish economy.
“The Research Park is doing very well. We’re growing. Our companies here in the park generally rely on the technologies that are spun out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus,” said Mark Bugher, director of University Research Park.
The University Research Park on the West Side has 115 mainly biotech companies and 4,000 employees.
The nation’s stock market is already in recovery and gross domestic product should begin to recover in mid-2009, University of Wisconsin-Madison Business School Dean Michael Knetter said today.
High unemployment, however, will linger through the year, he predicted.
Knetter told Milwaukee Rotarians during their weekly luncheon that the change in the presidential administration is part of the reason for the market’s rebound.
….Maybe people are too busy to take the time to pay attention to what’s going on around them, even if it is at their own risk. Maybe the corporate takeovers of media have driven deep wedges between citizens and “their” newspapers. Maybe people really believe they can get all they need to know from the Internet and radio and TV talk shows. Perhaps the de-emphasis of journalism programs in high schools and universities across the country has led to a general devaluing of the trade’s important place in society. Whatever the reasons, we are losing or witnessing the downsizing of important sources of information, arguably at a time when we need them more than ever.
Noted: Madison has several things going for it. Not only is the University of Wisconsin a major employer, but the university’s research arm, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, has been fueling growth in the biotech, health care and medical-devices industries. The foundation provides grants and helps scientists affiliated with the university to patent new discoveries. It has aided Madison in becoming a regional hub for those industries.
Economists are hanging black crepe on the New Year’s baby even before the tyke pushes the old guy out the door. And no wonder: From the financial industry to real estate to auto manufacturing, there’s plenty of grim news seeping into almost every sector.
Technology-based businesses are not immune, but some emerging national and global trends suggest most of Wisconsin’s tech-driven companies and clusters can survive 2009 and even prosper in 2010 and beyond.
….When it comes to clean energy, the Badger State has a unique combination of assets that can help us capitalize on such a plan and lead the way into the new energy future. We have vast renewable energy potential from wind and solar power, the research laboratories to develop new energy technologies, the manufacturing base to build them, and the farms to grow the next generation of fuels.
Their tassels turned, the real work is beginning for midyear college graduates trying to find jobs in a slumping economy.
The job search already is months old for some. For others, more schooling is the answer as their peers struggle to find a foothold in a new career.
At first blush, southeastern Wisconsin is coming out strong this year for the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan contest.
Organizers of the annual contest say they already have 25 entries, nine of which came from businesses or individuals in the corridor running from Sheboygan to Kenosha. That’s on track to reach last year’s total of nearly 300 entries, said Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, which runs the contest. Mentions a participant from UW-Madison.
Signs will be posted in UW Health clinics next month telling patients that drug companies may be paying their doctors for research or consulting work.
A Madison company that is developing a better way to grow stem cells has received a $50,000 grant from the state, the governor’s office confirmed late Monday.
Shiloh Laboratories LLC was formed last year and began expanding its operations in the last few months following a scientific breakthrough, said Thomas Primiano, the company’s founder.
As hundreds of new University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates filed out of the Kohl Center on Sunday, some huddled close with friends and family, others lingered inside in their caps and gowns, while several trudged into the into the subzero afternoon making new prints in the snow.
On many of the about 1,500 graduating minds was the blistering economic news of recent months and the uncertain prospects of the job market.
VistaGen Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in suburban San Francisco, has signed a deal to use human embryonic stem cell patents from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
VistaGen, which is located in South San Francisco, Calif., will use the license to accelerate its commercial programs focused on using stem cells as next-generation tools for predictive toxicology and drug discovery screenings.
A Quiznos submarine sandwich shop in the new food court at University Square will not be able to sell beer after a unanimous vote by the city’s Alcohol License Review Committee Wednesday night.
Susan Crowley, the director of prevention services for UW Health Services — the largest tenant in the student services tower part of the development — spoke against the move. She said the large seating area would make it nearly impossible to control the distribution of alcohol once it was sold by Quiznos.
Wisconsin scientists hit the media big-time in 2001 when UW stem cell master James Thomson graced the cover of Time magazine.
Now, with much less fanfare, another UW lab whiz has made a splash in the venerable news weekly.
Randy Cortright, the co-founder of Madison-based Virent Energy Systems Inc., was the lead in a feature on 50 Best Inventions of the Year in the Dec. 4 issue, where he was lauded for his “grass to gas” technology.
Cellular Dynamics International, the company founded by UW-Madison stem-cell pioneer James Thomson, is adding three executives.
Every area has a niche, and local leaders defined ours Tuesday: food production, innovation, biomedicine, health care and transportation.
More than four years after its inception, the 56-member Collaboration Council has drawn what it calls a road map to business development and cooperation among communities in southern Wisconsin that for decades have competed for tax base.
Richard Schifreen is the new president and chief executive officer of Platypus Technologies. The Fitchburg company is developing a series of products based on technology that uses liquid crystals to quickly detect molecular interactions. He is also a faculty member in the Masters of Science in Biotechnology program at UW-Madison.
Keith Agoada, 22, became interested in the idea of rooftop farming after winning the top prize â?? $10,000 â?? for his Sky Vegetables concept in the University of Wisconsin School of Business 2008 G. Steven Burrill business plan competition. He says that turning a profit is key.
â??We want the farm to have a financial feasibility,â? he said. â??The idea is to minimize the carbon footprint while maximizing the profit. Without economic viability, itâ??s hard to have adaptors.â?
Moving school funding away from property taxes, shortening high school time from four to three years, eliminating the corporate income tax. These are a handful of the many ideas an influential group of business and lobbying leaders in the state are hoping to spur a discussion about long-term solutions to Wisconsin’s economic woes.
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are hoping it becomes a hub for student life. But for now, it is just a nexus for cardboard boxes, dollies, work gloves and shelving units.
The new Student Services Tower on the southeast end of the University Square complex stands poised and ready for business, except for the fact that it is still mostly empty. On Wednesday, the university began the process of moving units into the tower, which will take 117 truckloads and the better part of six weeks to complete.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin-Madison seniors say they are having a tough time finding jobs – and some are considering graduate school to delay entering the work force.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students looking for a job this year dont need a dismal report from the National Bureau of Economic Research to tell them the United States is officially suffering through a recession.
They’re living it.
