Category: Business/Technology

Neither Wisconsin’s economy nor its environment can thrive for long if the state continues to depend so overwhelmingly on nonrenewable, imported energy sources that contribute to climate change.

That warning should enlighten policymakers and voters as the debate accelerates over the recommendations from Gov. Doyle’s Global Warming Task Force.

When Aldo Leopold spoke on June 17, 1934, at the dedication of the UW Arboretum, he stood in the middle of two square miles of derelict farmland.
There was no rumble of traffic from the Beltline because the Beltline did not exist. To the south was nothing but more farmland. There were a few housing developments nearby but mostly the city and the Arboretum’s parent university were miles away across more fields and woodlots.

A state that has experienced historic floods and the announcement of a major plant closing could use some good news. Perhaps it’s found in the steady growth of Wisconsin’s biotechnology industry.

UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz meet for lunch from time to time to keep each other informed about all that’s going on around town.

It was about a year ago during one of these get-togethers that Wiley talked about his hopes of developing an urban research park — targeting high-technology entrepreneurs — on East Washington Avenue.

“And I dropped my dessert fork,” Cieslewicz recalled Monday. “And I said, ‘Chancellor, if there is anything we can do to make that happen, we want to make that happen.’ ”

On Monday, University Research Park Director Mark Bugher announced plans to open a new urban campus in 6,000 square feet of space leased in the former Marquip Building at 1245 E. Washington Ave., which is just more than a mile from the Capitol Square.

MADISON — The University of Wisconsin Research Park is looking to expand, and officials are eyeing a historic property on Madison’s East Side.

The new urban research park would be housed inside the Marquip Building, a Madison landmark that has been vacant for more than five years.

“Some would say, ‘Why here in this location?'” said Mark Bugher, director of the research park. “First and foremost, it’s close to the UW campus, close to the (Madison Area Technical College) campus. It’s a vibrant edgy neighborhood.”

It’s a big boost for a Madison neighborhood. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz couldn’t be more pleased, as the University Research Park announces a new urban campus just east of the city’s downtown. “This could be the spark, that really makes the East Rail Corridor take off,” says Mayor Dave.

MADISON (WKOW) — With the successful growth of the University Research Park on Madison’s West Side, the UW wants to expand into downtown.

They will renovate the former Marquip building on East Washington into a 6,000 square feet Urban Research Park.

It’s a big boost for a Madison neighborhood. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz couldn’t be more pleased, as the University Research Park announces a new urban campus just east of the city’s downtown. “This could be the spark, that really makes the East Rail Corridor take off,” says Mayor Dave.

The “urban research park,” announced Monday by Chancellor John Wiley and Research Park Director Mark Bugher, will make six thousand square feet of space will into ten incubator sites and two conference rooms ready for occupancy by early next year. Unlike the existing research park which is geared to faculty startups, this urban park will be aimed at attracting recent graduates.

For more than a century, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been the stateâ??s academic research powerhouse.

From embryonic stem cells to vitamin D-related technologies, anti-coagulant drugs like Coumadin and TomoTherapy, UW has churned out discoveries that have helped make the world a better place, created jobs and generated revenue for the state.

The University Research Park, a 260-acre suburban oasis for start-ups on Madison’s West Side, will be trying to attract young student and faculty entrepreneurs with an edgy new urban incubator in an abandoned industrial building on the near East Side.

ARLINGTON — Several hundred guests gathered at the UW-Madison Arlington Agricultural Research Station to get their first peek at the newly opened dairy barn and milking facility.

The $5.1 million dairy complex includes two freestall dairy barns, a Double 16 WestfaliaSurge milking parlor, a sand bedding recycling system and 350 dairy cows that are milked twice a day. Soon 450 cows will make their home there.

But the dedication ceremony Wednesday was about more than the technology and details incorporated into the modern dairy facility — there are many other barns similar to this one across the state. It was also about the unusual road taken to get the much-needed facility built.

Powerhouse companies are focusing on the Madison area for acquisitions, and not just to steal away their Midwest technology and talent.

A string of local companies purchased over the past two years features buyers with big names, including Roche and Microsoft. (Numerous UW-Madison spinoff companies are cited.)

More than 25 government officials and environmental experts from China are in Madison to attend the first â??China-US Water Symposium: A Wisconsin Idea Approach, Connecting Science, Policy and Practice.â?

The gathering is the brainchild of Xiaojun Lu, a UW-Madison microbiology doctoral candidate from Beijing and one of 1,300 Chinese students and 100 Chinese faculty on the campus.

The average gasoline price in Madison set a daily high this week, topping $4.02 a gallon on Tuesday.
On the same day a federal forecast warned that gas prices nationwide are likely to remain above $4 a gallon for the rest of the year and into 2009.

The higher cost of gas is a costly problem that underscores the importance of proceeding full speed ahead with efforts to develop biofuels as an alternative to gasoline.

Companies like Virent that spin off research at the university are magnets for biocapitalism, pumping money into the Capital Region economy via property taxes, purchases and payroll.

The Wisconsin foundation that holds several key embryonic stem cell patents said Thursday that it has received certificates signaling the end of a long-fought challenge to the patents.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, known as WARF, received the so-called re-examination certificates from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week, WARF spokeswoman Janet Kelly said. The certificates confirm the patent officeâ??s ruling in March to strike down a challenge to the patents that started in October 2006.

UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, who late last year announced he would leave his position in September, has been named interim director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, the public portion of a public-private, $150 million research center expected to be completed on the university’s campus in 2010.