Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate Programs Damon Williams held a press conference Tuesday outlining the schedule for the 2012 Diversity Forum, which will take place Friday, Oct. 12. Lani Guinier, a civil rights attorney and Harvard Law School professor, will be the keynote speaker at the forum. Guinier will discuss the process and consequences of the affirmative action case to face the U.S. Supreme Court beginning in October.
Category: UW Experts in the News
Classes, tests moved due to Obama speech
As University of Wisconsin-Madison employees begin work all over campus to prepare for President Barack Obama?s visit Thursday, professors and students are finding ways to continue academic business as usual. Due to the president?s visit, all buildings located on Bascom Hill will be closed Thursday, and several other surrounding buildings will have restricted access, disrupting many classes. Jon Pevehouse, professor of political science, decided to reschedule his exam planned for Thursday to the following week out of concern that the rally would disrupt the exam.
Can GOP find votes in wreckage of Pennsylvania voter ID law?
Quoted: ?That?s where you have Republicans seeing this as an issue they can push, that having a photo ID handy is not a big deal for Mr. Middle Class Voter, and, secondly, the powerful appeal [of the idea that] ? your vote should not be diluted by the votes of ineligible voters,? says Charles Franklin, a polling expert at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison.
Scientific research fraud is on the rise
Noted: Although instances of research misconduct are few, they can have a substantial ripple effect, notes Heather McFadden, who heads the Responsible Conduct of Research program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison?s Graduate School Office of Research.
Ten of the Most Effective Presidential Campaign Commercials Ever Made
Noted: That?s according to University of Wisconsin Journalism Professor James L. Baughman, who documents the rapid rise of TV in American life. ?No other household technology,? he writes, ?not the telephone or indoor plumbing, had ever spread so rapidly into so many homes.?
Conditions just right for box elder bugs
Noted: University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri said 2012 has been one of the worst years for box elder bugs since 1988 when Wisconsin endured drought-like conditions during the spring and summer months.
Tougher penalties not enough to thwart chronic drunken drivers, some say
Quoted: Nina Emerson, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Resource Center on Impaired Driving, said it?s incorrect to assume chronic offenders have a deep disregard of the law.
University of Wisconsin-Madison considers expanding summer school
For some college students, the idea of year-round classes has appeal.”That would be awesome,” said UW-Madison junior Michael Van Voorhis of taking engineering courses during the normally slow months between spring and fall. The chemical engineering major from Minneapolis took an organic chemistry class over the summer two years ago and wishes the university had offered a lot more required engineering classes during the summer. And he?s sure his friends would prefer to spend summer taking classes to get ahead in their degree program “instead of going home and doing nothing,” he said.
“Part of this is starting to think what it may mean to have a 12-month calendar because a lot of our thinking now is around a nine-month calendar,” said Jeff Russell, vice provost for lifelong learning and dean of continuing studies. Katherine Duren, an associate dean in the university’s continuing studies department, will oversee the proposed expansion in regular meetings with associate deans from the university’s colleges and schools.
Brief: President appoints Bahr to nuclear waste board
University of Wisconsin-Madison hydrogeologist and professor of geology Jean Bahr was recently appointed to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Obama. Bahr was sworn in Sept. 27 along with seven other new members of the board. She will serve a four-year term with the possibility of a single-term renewal. Bahr was nominated by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and was approved by the president.
Sustainability project receives grant
The National Science Foundation awarded a grant to a University of Wisconsin sustainability project through the Sustainable Energy Pathways program.
Ask the Weather Guys: How is the ozone hole doing?
A. Currently, the ozone hole is not as large as it was in 2011, but it is larger than it was in 2010. The ozone hole refers to the rapid depletion of stratospheric ozone over Antarctica. This ozone is located in a layer about 15 miles above the surface. Human activity has contributed to the deterioration of the ozone layer by adding chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, to the atmosphere.
Curiosities: Why are dinosaur fossils not found in Wisconsin?
A. It?s simple: No rocks formed during the dinosaur epoch still remain, said Phil Brown, professor of geoscience at the UW-Madison. “If you could fire-hose off all the glacial deposits, the rocks beneath would be between 2,800 and 350 million years old, and the dinosaurs only arose about 230 million years ago and went extinct 65 million years ago.”
Campus Connection: UW researchers to study cultural component of green buildings
Whenever a new building opens on a college campus these days, it?s common for the institution to trumpet the facility?s many ?green? or ?sustainable? attributes. It?s not uncommon to read about new projects that take advantage of natural sources of light, use geothermal heating and cooling systems, implement high-tech, energy-efficiency controls and so on.
And while such ideas and technological advances are no doubt important, an interdisciplinary team of UW-Madison researchers earlier this month was awarded a federal grant to, in part, examine an oftentimes overlooked aspect of operating a green building — the folks who occupy the facility.
How having self-control as a kid can affect your health later
Noted: That?s why initiatives like New York?s proposed ban on mega-sized sodas make sense, says University of Wisconsin psychologist Tanya Schlam, the study?s lead author. ?The best self-control is setting up a situation where you don?t need to exercise self-control,? she says.
Momentum shifts to Democrat in tight Wisconsin Senate race
Quoted: “Tommy Thompson has gotten himself into somewhat of a hole,” said Barry Burden, a politics professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “He?s taken a pounding and he?s not where he wants to be with less than six weeks to go.”
U.S. kids exposed to 4 hours of background TV daily
Quoted: Heather Kirkorian, an assistant professor of human development and family studies a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has published studies on background television?s impact on both parent-child interaction and children?s play patterns, says “until now we could only guess at the extent of the impact in children?s day-to-day lives.” The new study “documents just how great the real-world impact may be, particularly for very young children.”
Crowdfunding rescues provocative SKorean film
Quoted: “One of the biggest reasons that it isn?t easy to find an investor is that the movie is about punishment,” said Kim Nak-ho, a Korean comics researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “While other Gwangju-related movies focused on victims? suffering, this thriller shows people who retaliate against Chun and his collaborators.”
Ethnic Studies curriculum may see change
Student government officials are beginning to express interest in proposing changes to the University of Wisconsin?s ethnic studies general education requirement.
Panel addresses energy issues
A principal adviser to President Barack Obama joined a roundtable discussion on national energy policy Wednesday on the University of Wisconsin campus to speak on the policies, technologies and incentives influencing the future of energy.
Brief: Stem cell research aims to answer how tissue develops
New research done at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery is helping to explain how stem cells create the differing tissues which make up the human body. University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor Randy Ashton has been working with two molecules dealing with cellular communication?sonic hedgehog and ephrin ligands. These two molecules determine what cell type stem cells develop into.
Meg Hamel out as Wisconsin Film Festival director
Meg Hamel, who has been the Wisconsin Film Festival?s director and public face since 2007, will no longer serve in that position, UW Arts Institute officials said this week. The Institute, which runs the festival with the UW Department of Communication Arts, notified Hamel that she would no longer serve as director.
Seely on Science: Twisted path to understanding stem cells
Years ago, the idea of growing healthy tissues in the laboratory to treat human illnesses still seemed more science fiction than reality. But on the UW-Madison campus researchers have, through years of tedious and complex research, moved the science of stem cells incrementally forward, from theory to the doorstep of clinics where doctors are on the verge of being able to treat everything from blindness to heart disease with healthy cells grown from a patient?s own tissues. The work provides valuable insight into how science gets done.
Mentioned: Professors James Thomson and Randolph Ashton
Ginseng poachers take to the woods as prices soar
Quoted: Sara Souther, a University of Wisconsin-Madison botanist who worked on the West Virginia University ginseng team, said multiple times she has encountered poachers trying to harvest the plant.
Chris Rickert: Be careful when you blame the referees
In ripping Dane County Judge Juan Colas as “activist” for striking down key portions of the law ending most public-sector collective bargaining, Gov. Scott Walker is just the latest lawmaker to blame the ref for his own poor play….Donald Downs, a UW-Madison law professor, doubted the courts would look favorably on a First Amendment challenge to the law ? i.e., that restricting collective bargaining restricts union members? freedom of association. An equal protection argument ? that the law discriminates against some union workers because it doesn?t apply to public safety employees ? could get more traction, he said.
LovePalz App Designed in Hope Couples Can Have Long-Distance Sex With Sensation
Quoted: But Joanne Cantor, a University of Wisconsin psychologist who specializes in the stressful aspects of the digital revolution, said LovePalz could be a poor substitute for the real deal.
Michelle Obama coming to Lawrence University
Quoted: Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said as long as the President Obama and Mitt Romney campaigns continue to invest in Wisconsin, it means both sides think the state is still up for grabs.
Board wants judge to reconsider wolf hunt rules on dogs
Noted: Patricia McConnell, adjunct associate professor of zoology at UW-Madison and the author of several books on dog behavior, told the board that dog-wolf conflicts are nearly certain to occur.
Women play larger role in science at UW
Recent studies are finding that the number of women participating in science-related fields has increased at the University of Wisconsin after years of male domination.Â
Coordinating Council Meeting
Dean of Students Lori Berquam presented their plans for funding for a project that would examine salaries of Division of Student Life employees at a meeting of the student government Tuesday evening.
Walker as witness delicate matter
Legal experts say if Governor Scott Walker testifies in an upcoming criminal trial of one of his former aides, he will join the ranks of other top officials in the unenviable position of having to take the witness stand.
Women constitute higher percentage of faculty at UW-Madison than in past years
The number of women faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has steadily risen over the past few decades, due in part to efforts by the university to reduce biases in hiring, according to a university news release. Women accounted for only 18 percent of the faculty at UW-Madison in 1990, but constituted 31 percent of professors and instructors last year.
Study identifies four types of breast cancer
Researchers say new findings could be the start of a new way to study and treat diseases.
Science Festival features chocolate, beer and Angry Birds
If you told people you wanted to talk with them for 50 minutes about the crystallization of polymorphs, you probably wouldn?t get too many takers. Good thing professor Richard Hartel has found a sweeter way to sneak that message into his demonstration at the Wisconsin Science Festival: Chocolate.
Your detour to a stress-free life
Noted: “Our brains are constantly being shaped, most often unwittingly,” says Richard Davidson, director of the Lab for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But there are things we can do to purposefully shape them and reduce anxiety.”
Fair predicts close race
Quoted: Bruce Hansen, professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said he admires Fair?s work.
Dairy research wins funding
A University of Wisconsin research center will receive one million dollars over the next two years in funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce for their proposed projects.
Healthcare providers to offer end-of-life talks
Madison?s local medical community will begin providing end-of-life planning discussions for patients and their families.
Campus Connection: UW researchers to test if mobile apps can help addicts
UW-Madison researchers have landed a $3.5 million grant to examine whether smartphone applications can be used to help trim health care costs while still delivering quality treatment and relapse prevention tools to those with substance abuse problems.
Ask the Weather Guys: Did we hit record for 90-degree days?
A. Though it isn?t unprecedented to get another day above 90 degrees this late in the year (the all-time latest such day in Madison?s history is Oct. 14, 1975), it is very likely our run at the record of 90-degree days in a season will end at 39 ? agonizingly one day shy of the record 40 set in 1955.
Curiosities: Why is lifesaving station called ‘Harvey’?
Sean Geib, assistant supervisor at the station, explains that one of its first supervisors was an individual named Harvey C. Black, a man noted for his ?Popeye? forearms. Black worked at the station from 1938 through 1970. During his career he performed more than 20,000 rescues. His name became synonymous with lake rescue on Lake Mendota.
UW creates mobile application to help substance abusers
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers received a $3.5 million grant to develop and test mobile applications to help prevent relapse in patients who suffer from substance abuse.The grant, provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, will enable UW-Madison researchers, in collaboration with a team from Dartmouth College, to create and test applications with features specialized to help those who struggle with substance abuse to fight urges and cravings.
Quoted: UW-Madison Professor Dhavan Shah, the scientific director of the grant.
Theater review: Let?s take a fresh look at some guys we thought we knew
Forward Theater Company captures the energy and the skepticism of election season with ?44 Plays for 44 Presidents,? a clever, riotously entertaining production running through Oct. 7 in the Overture Center Playhouse.For 2 1/2 hours, a gifted cast of five actors wrestle, posture and shimmy their way through American history, abridged….Patrick Sims, an associate acting prof at UW-Madison, casts looks of mock astonishment at the audience, as if to make sure we?re in on the joke. It fits that the professor plays PhD-educated Woodrow Wilson, and gives ?A Lecture on Myself.?
On Milestone Anniversary, Boston Recalls Its Abolitionists
Noted: Brookline native Stephen Kantrowitz is a University of Wisconsin historian who spoke this week as part of commemorations at the African Meeting House in Boston. His new book chronicles the struggle to abolish slavery through the lives of black activists in and around Boston who were still fighting for full citizenship even after the legal end of slavery.
Act 10 may face years of legal fighting
Quoted: Donald Downs, professor of political science, law and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he expects the ruling to be overturned on appeal, though he said it?s ?not a slam dunk.?
Box elder bugs booming
There could be a boom in Wisconsin?s box elder bug population this fall. UW-Madison bug expert Phil Pellitteri says the orange and black bugs are common this time of year, but their numbers tend to explode following dry summers, much like what most of the state experienced this year.
26 Chinese students in US receive govt award
Noted: “I was quite surprised when I heard the news that I got the award, because recipients were chosen by experts who were organized by my country. It means that what we have published here is recognized at home. This really stimulated my mind,” said Xiongwei, a student at University of Wisconsin – Madison.
#UNL24 focused on showing student life through social media
Noted: Schadwinkel said the original idea for the #UNL24 project came from a similar type of campaign at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the spring 2012 semester.
Wisconsin obesity rate among adults on the rise, study finds
A study published this week showed Wisconsinites may need to watch their weight if they do not want to see more than half the state?s adults obese by 2030.
Extra seating for “God particle” lecture at UW
– So popular is the discovery of the “God particle”, that an extra lecture by one of the researchers has been added at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Campus Connection: UW adds another lecture to highlight ?Discovery of the Higgs’
Physics professor Sau Lan Wu — who heads up a UW-Madison research team based at the Large Hadron Collider and who has spent more than two decades searching for experimental evidence of the Higgs boson — is giving a second free public talk on Friday that?ll provide an inside look at the Higgs search and the excitement surrounding the discovery.
UW named a top school for veterans
The University of Wisconsin-Madison was named to the 2013 Victory Media list of ?Military Friendly Schools,? which honors the top 15 percent of universities nationwide that best accommodate veterans. Currently, UW-Madison has over 600 military students enrolled. For these students, the university offers special social programs and academic support, including keeping accounts of students on active duty open, allowing them to continue checking email and register for classes before returning to campus.
John Bechtol, assistant dean of students for veterans, said he hopes to look out for the best interests of student veterans and help them whenever he can.
Higgs boson researcher speaks at UW
The University of Wisconsin-Madison welcomed one of its own professors to campus Thursday to speak about her role in the discovery of the Higgs boson, also referred to as ?the God particle.? Sau Lan Wu, a physics professor at UW-Madison since 1977, told a crowd of over 100 people how researchers detected the particle and how the university played a star role in the discovery.
New HR plan outlines UW personnel changes
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Human Resources redesign project will be released to the campus community Friday after over a year of development, with a goal of improving university employee recruitment and retainment in response to the recent decline in state support. According to an advanced copy of the plan sent to The Daily Cardinal by the Wisconsin University Union, the redesign aims to maintain the university?s reputation as a world-class institution by improving employee benefits to attract talented faculty and staff.
According to Robert Lavigna, director of human resources and project leader, the flexibilities granted to the university in the new plan would allow for ?a community and workforce of the 21st century that is engaged, is diverse, has the right talent and is also adaptable.?
Kurt Kaczmarek: Keep life-saving devices a requirement in codes
Proposed electric safety rule changes making ground-fault circuit interrupters optional in Wisconsin residences are ill-advised. Had these changes become effective 15 years ago, I likely would not be alive to write this letter.
Epic Systems founder Judy Faulkner joins Forbes list of richest Americans
One of the 20 newcomers on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans is from the Madison area. Judy Faulkner, 68, who founded medical software company Epic Systems Corp. in 1979, has a net worth of $1.7 billion and comes in at No. 285 on the annual list, which was released Wednesday. Forbes notes that 40 percent of the U.S. population will have its medical information stored with Epic software by next year. Faulkner is ranked No. 764 on the Forbes list of billionaires worldwide.
“It may seem like it’s, in some ways, an overnight success but they built it over the years,” said Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at the UW-Madison School of Business. “They’ve had a great strategy of being very focused on customers that it targets and solving their customers’ problems.”
Donata Oertel and Peter Lipton: Harassment of researchers must stop
Almost everyone at some time receives medical care that improves the quality of life, extends it or even saves it. Health care is effective because the underlying causes of diseases are understood, often because treatments have been developed and tested on experimental animals. Our children are protected from polio by animal research. The veterinary care of our pets and farm animals, too, has benefited from experimental work on animals. But the development of new treatments for humans and animals here in Madison is being threatened by the actions of animal rights activists, notably People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and their subsidiary, the Alliance for Animals.
(Oertel and Lipton are both professors in the UW-Madison Department of Neuroscience. The column was written by them on behalf of 65 UW-Madison faculty members.)
Motives questioned in Ivory Coast genocide charges
Quoted: ?I think it?s a mistake to even suggest that what happened here was equivalent to genocide,? said Scott Straus, a professor at the University of Wisconsin who has studied the violence in Ivory Coast.
Arctic sea ice shrank to record low
Noted: A 2012 study by Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University and Stephen Vavrus of the University of Wisconsin suggests Arctic sea ice loss is adding sufficient heat to the atmosphere to change the course of the jet stream, the river of air at high altitudes along which storms track toward the polesand the equator. It suggests the jet stream is slowing down and becoming more wavy, meaning extreme weather patterns may be becoming more persistent.
UW study says boys’ pacifier use limits social development
Bring up the subject of pacifiers among new parents, and you?ll probably spark a spirited conversation that will wake up every sleeping baby within a block or so. Now, a UW-Madison study is likely to fuel even more debate about the trusty old nuk. Or nuki. Or binky. Or na-na. Or whatever you have chosen to call the device that serves as a remarkably effective volume control for most babies. Paula Niedenthal, a psychology professor and lead author of the study, found that boys who used pacifiers as babies scored lower on tests that measured their emotional development.
Healthy competition? Critics say consumers lose as providers build, bicker
As president of the Madison-based health insurance buying pool The Alliance, Cheryl DeMars spends her days haggling with providers over the cost of services. It’s a tough job, given that health care spending continues to skyrocket.
“I understand the public sees what appears to be overbuilding but you need to look at each project on an individual basis,” says Jeff Grossman, president and CEO of the UW Medical Foundation, the clinical practice organization for faculty physicians in the UW-Madison?s School of Medicine and Public Health. Still, critics wonder how adding new buildings can do anything other than increase how much is spent on health care. And that?s a lot.