Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: “Reversals are generated in the deepest parts of the Earth’s interior, but the effects manifest themselves all the way through the Earth and especially at the Earth’s surface and in the atmosphere,” said Brad Singer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison geologist to CNN. “Unless you have a complete, accurate and high-resolution record of what a field reversal really is like at the surface of the Earth, it’s difficult to even discuss what the mechanics of generating a reversal are.”

Quoted: “I’m always fascinated to see something invisible become visible,” says John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: The amount of rain and snow so far this year broke the previous record of 40.09 inches set in 1938, according to Steve Vavrus, senior scientist with the Nelson Institute’s Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: Now, she’s made a home in the city of Madison with her husband, Anthony. In addition to being on television, Fitzgerald is currently pursuing her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working as faculty within Madison College’s Psychology Department, and serving as Director of Family, Youth & Community Engagement for Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). When she’s not wearing either of those roles she may be giving others financial planning advice.

Quoted: “The establishment has gone after Thanathorn with such force because FFP has catalysed a change in how citizens imagine the Thai polity and their role in it,” said Tyrell Haberkorn, associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an expert on state violence and dissident politics in Thailand.

Quoted: Discoveries reported in 2019 brought Denisovans into focus — but left plenty of room for interpretation. As fossils accumulate, investigators will grasp how Denisovan anatomy influenced the skeletal makeup of its mating partners in the Homo genus. Thanks to Denisovan discoveries, “we can now see that hybridization contributed to our own origins,” says paleoanthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Quoted: Kathy Farid, a Danish native, has lived in Madison for the last 20 years, working as a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Scandinavian studies department.

Noted: Finding warmth and feelings of coziness is ingrained in Nete Schmidt.  The Danish native has lived in Madison for the last 20 years, working as a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Scandinavian studies department.

Noted: “You’re seeing it across so many spheres where trust in journalism is going down,” said Kathleen Culver, the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: Nete Schmidt is a Scandinavian studies professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She spent most of her life in Denmark.

“You can choose to go two ways.  You can ignore the weather or you can embrace the weather, and I think that in Denmark, I just chose to ignore the weather,” Schmidt said.

Noted: Games where a player takes on another person’s perspective or becomes immersed in a specific environment can be beneficial in building positive interpersonal relationships, according to Tammi Kral, a research assistant at the Center for Healthy Minds at University of Wisconsin-Madison who is not affiliated with Junub Games or Salaam. Kral says that as video game developers explore the potential for games to inspire “prosocial” behavior, they would do well to collaborate with psychologists and behavioral scientists who understand the impact of games on specific brain networks.

Noted: The November meeting did draw some reading experts — including UW-Madison cognitive neuroscientist Mark Seidenberg and Madison reading advocate Laurie Frost — who have been publicly critical of the district’s teaching approach to reading. When they spoke, Morateck emphasized that the meeting was meant for parents, not the community at large, although she did not ask anyone to leave.

Noted: Mark Stephenson, the director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said this deal gets the U.S. dairy industry back about where it was in the original North American Free Trade Agreement, and it was the best the U.S. could get after fractured relationships from the original call for a renegotiation.

Noted: As winter asserts its dominance with a new cover of white over major portions of Wisconsin, Brody and Jill Thein-Nissenbaum offer tips about how to stay safe while shoveling. Thein-Nissenbaum is an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Doctor of Physical Therapy Program.

Quoted: Mark Stephenson, the director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said this deal gets the U.S. dairy industry back about where it was in the original North American Free Trade Agreement, and it was the best the U.S. could get after fractured relationships from the original call for a renegotiation.

Noted: Not everyone agrees. A 2017 survey at the University of Wisconsin-Madison asked 1,600 members of the general public about their attitudes toward gene editing. The results showed 65 percent of respondents think gene editing is acceptable for therapeutic purposes. But when it comes to whether scientists should use technology for genetic enhancement, only 26 percent agreed.

Quoted: Quantifying the ramifications of more-limited water vapor measurements to meteorological models is difficult, says meteorologist Jordan Gerth of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “Short-term weather forecasts for areas far away from cities where these 5G networks exist may not be impacted substantially,” he says. “Long-term forecasts downstream of big cities and populated areas may be impacted more.”

Quoted: Suskind and Katherine Magnuson, director of the Institute on Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, keynoted the session.

Magnuson said, “Those inequalities that we see at 16, 17 or 18 are present when kids enter school. Those first five years forecast what comes later.”

Noted: The greatest challenge for teachers is that, though impeachment is a question of national urgency, it also aggravates partisan divides. Despite these trends, I have written about and researched with the dean of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education, Diana Hess how teachers do find ways to engage students in political discussion in ways that their parents and other members of their communities suppo

Quoted: “We do this ’Keeping up with the Joneses’ thing, where we compare what we have to what other people have. But really, that is a recipe for unhappiness,” says Christine Whelan, a clinical professor of human ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Adrian Treves, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and founder of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab, thinks the DNR has undercounted the number of illegally killed wolves.