Category: UW Experts in the News

Noted: Paul Wilson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison nuclear engineering professor, disagrees, saying nuclear can play a role in the reduction of carbon so long as the U.S.’s current fleet of about 100 nuclear power plants is maintained and innovation in the field — such as building smaller reactors that are less expensive — is supported.

Quoted: And mobilizing those voters is always key, said Ryan Owens, a professor of political science at UW-Madison and director of the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership on campus. “Whoever mobilizes is going to be able to get there, get the victory. That shouldn’t be a huge shock. I think every election is like that,” he said.

Quoted: “When you do store things, the information the manufacturer provides can be really important,” said Barb Ingham, who as professor and food science extension specialist for the University of Wisconsin fields questions about food safety from around the state. “The shelf dating is really important … to getting the most for the money you spent for that product,” she said. “You’ll get the most quality for what you consume if you follow that date.

Quoted: “Generally young people don’t vote in midterms. They vote even less in spring elections. Spring elections are for school boards and mayors and young people are often a little more transient and less engaged with those local issues,” said University of Wisconsin – Madison journalism professor Lewis Friedland.

Quoted: The three main pollutants of most concern in Earth’s atmosphere are ground-level ozone, fine particulate matter and carbon dioxide, Tracey Holloway, University of Wisconsin professor and air pollution and public health specialist, said.

“The U.S. is very active and successful in eliminating emissions that affect public health, carbon dioxide is not one that affects public health,” Holloway said.

Quoted: Barry Burden, University of Wisconsin political science professor and director of the UW Elections Research Center, said the GOP spending increases were not necessarily a surprise.

“Because of the expected ‘blue wave’ and the success that Democrats had in several special elections earlier in the year, there was more sense in 2018 that Republican control was in jeopardy,” Burden said. “This was especially true in the State Senate, where Democrats only needed to pick up two seats to become the majority party. As a result, several key Senate seats saw a tremendous amount of spending by both sides.”

One reason is people tend to care more about politics after finishing their education, getting a job and starting a family, said Connie Flanagan, associate dean of the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology and an expert on youth and politics — milestones that millennials and Gen Zers are hitting at later ages than previous generations.

Noted: Donna Friedsam, health policy programs director of UW-Madison’s Population Health Institute, said Boasberg’s criticism of work requirements could be applied in other cases that challenge such rules. She said the threat of litigation could also persuade some states to think twice before implementing their requirements.

Noted: UW Madison College of Engineering Associate Professor Laura Albert says picking special numbers like birth dates don’t increase your odds of winning.

In fact, if you pick higher numbers in the 40’s and up-it’s more likely you won’t have to share your winnings should you hit the jackpot.

Quoted: “I expect her to win and potentially by a large margin,” Barry Burden, a UW-Madison professor of political science and director of its Elections Research Center, said in an interview last week. He speculated that the decision of outside conservative groups “not to invest in Hagedorn’s campaign tells me that they have concluded that the campaign is in trouble, and don’t want to throw good money after bad.”

Quoted: “It’s so important that we see them as an employee of a school district,” said Katie Eklund, an assistant professor of school psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who’s also been a school psychologist and school social worker. “It’s important for them to think that SROs are here as a resource.”

Quoted: “Scientists buy heavily into this argument that to know us is to love us,” said Sharon Dunwoody, professor of mass communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But that just isn’t backed up by empirical evidence. The problem with scientific literacy surveys, she and Besley told me, is that they’re often being interpreted by people who are starting from a couple of inaccurate premises: That everyone ought to know a wide variety of science facts, even if those facts don’t affect everyday life; and that the more science facts people know, the friendlier they’ll be toward science. Neither are true, they said. And, ironically, pushing those incorrect beliefs — and the resulting conclusion that Americans are scientifically illiterate — could actually make people less science friendly.

Quoted: His attorneys, Charles Glynn and Richard Jones, have probably advised him against pleading guilty, said Keith Findley, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and a former defense attorney.

“It’s highly unusual for anyone to plead guilty at an arraignment,” Findley said.

Quoted: “There are black-white achievement gaps in virtually every school district in the country, but Madison’s gaps have been, historically, among the largest in the country,” said UW-Madison professor Geoffrey Borman, whose research includes testing ways to close them. “I can’t point you to a particular district that has closed gaps.”

Noted: The Environmental Law & Policy Center commissioned the study by researchers from several universities, including Daniel Vimont, director of the Nelson Institute Center For Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: With a Madison school board election coming up April 2, and with conversations around charters and vouchers affecting the last several school board races, we feel it’s important that voters be fully informed. So I spoke with Dr. John Witte, an expert on educational policy at the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Witte has studied charter and voucher policies and their effects for more than 30 years.

The guest is Laura Albert, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering