Noted: Iraqi students first started coming to American universities more than 70 years ago, al-Khalili said. In the late 1940s, Iraq had as many as 40 students enrolled at the University of California-Berkeley, and Nazik al-Malaika ?an Iraqi poet who is considered one of the Arab world?s most-renowned contemporary artists ? earned her master?s degree in comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1959.
A UW Madison researcher will be honored at The White House on Friday.
Dr. Angela Byars-Winston will receive an award for her efforts to enhance job opportunities for young girls, women and minorities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Quoted: Dave Long, a researcher with the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: Dietram Scheufele, a communications professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert in media and political campaigns.
Tim Riddiough, professor of real estate and urban land economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he expects 2012 to play out much the same as 2011 in terms of economic recovery efforts. Includes a video interview with Riddiough.
The annual “Once Upon a Christmas Cheery” science shows, which have been produced by UW-Madison chemistry professor Bassam Shakhashiri for more than four decades, will not take place this year. The university announced in an emailed news release Wednesday that the programs scheduled for Saturday and Sunday have been canceled “due to a family medical emergency.”
A new state policy that governs protests and other gatherings at state buildings, most notably at the Capitol where the “solidarity singers” meet daily to peacefully protest recent Republican policies and Gov. Scott Walker, appears destined for a legal showdown.
Donald Downs, a UW-Madison political science professor who teaches a course on the First Amendment, says he is not aware of any other state that requires a permit for four or more people. Downs says any law or policy that affects First Amendment rights tends to be legally sound if the rules aren’t overly restrictive as to the time, place and manner the speech occurs. For example, there is a policy on the UW-Madison campus prohibiting megaphones from being used at Library Mall because classes may be going on, making it a “reasonable” restriction of free speech, Downs says, adding “It is a balancing act.”
Eight state legislators mailed a letter Friday to members of the Madison Area Technical College District Board asking that they listen to a proposal from the school?s part-time teachers union to create a member-owned, nonprofit corporation that would provide adjunct faculty staffing and support services for the college.
“It’s an interesting concept and as a board member I’m always interested in learning about efficiencies,” says Noel Radomski, a member of the MATC District Board who is director of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, a higher ed think tank on the UW-Madison campus.
One of the best ways of ensuring the integrity of our elections is to have an independent, nonpartisan watchdog. Wisconsin already has that, in the form of the Government Accountability Board. The GAB is made up of retired judges and a nonpartisan staff charged with keeping elections clean. But now the independence of the GAB is under threat.
(Donald Moynihan is the associate director of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs and a professor of public affairs.)
UW-Madison law professor Jonathan Lipson wants to correct what he says is a big misconception about where he works. The university?s law school isn?t anti-business, Lipson said, and it does a lot more than try to help the disenfranchised and free the wrongly convicted.
Quoted: Conversely, the state has benefited from its larger proportion of older people, since young people tend to move more often, said Dave Long, a researcher with the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: ?With Thompson, you have a governor whose positions were certainly seen as conservative at the time he took them,? explained University of Wisconsin, Madison professor Charles Franklin. But those positions, staked out more than eleven years ago, ?may not look conservative [anymore],? he said.
Quoted: ?We have this fantastic network of specialists who talk to each other,? said Giulio Tononi, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin. ?It focuses our thinking as neuroscientists and guides the thinking of the computer scientists.?
UW-Madison could have an office in Shanghai by June, according to university officials who recently visited China to explore the possibility of bolstering ties between the university and the Asian country.
Alongside a university atmosphere that gives Madison an intellectually and educationally high-powered air exists an achievement gap that separates students of color from their peers, a problem that is currently a flashpoint of debate among city officials.
Mentions and quotes Jeremi Suri, a former University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who now teaches at the University of Texas-Austin.
Quoted: Gary Radloff, head of the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative.
A UW-Madison office in Shanghai could be open as soon as June, according to officials who just returned from a trip to China to explore the possibility of the university?s first foreign outpost. Gilles Bousquet, dean of the division of international studies and vice provost for globalization, said that would be the “ideal” timeline but it hinges on continued support here and getting the necessary permits in China. He said UW-Madison is convening a planning team to determine next actions.
Ken Streit, a clinical professor at the UW-Madison Law School said while he?s not in favor of people packing heat at church, he doubts a sign would really stop anyone intent on doing harm. His primary objection is that the law?s advocates have forced churches and other organizations to react to their agenda.
A: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?s Climate Prediction Center issues seasonal climate outlook maps for the nation. The organization?s forecast for Wisconsin?s 2011-12 meteorological winter (which started Thursday and runs through Feb. 29) is for below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation.
A. “The size and shape of bubbles and balloons are determined by a competition between their surface tension, which makes them contract, and their internal pressure, which makes them expand,” said UW-Madison physics professor Clint Sprott, who is founder of “The Wonders of Physics” campus and traveling show.
Even though UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said the field is “wide open” for a Democratic contender to face Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election, he asserts that no potential candidate stands out. Despite popular opinion from supporters, former Sen. Russ Feingold has reiterated that he will not run should the recall bid prove successful.
No one was more surprised than Forest Shomberg when he was suddenly released from the Dane County Jail after serving six years for a wrongful conviction for sexual assault. The Wisconsin Innocence Project presented evidence including DNA results that the Madison man was the victim of mistaken identity, but Shomberg was told not to get his hopes up.
?The sad irony is that if you?re guilty of a crime, the state provides a lot more support upon release from prison than if you?re innocent,? said Keith Findley, co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. ?If you?re innocent, you?re just set free.? Findley is working with state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, on legislation that would provide ?meaningful relief to help innocent people get back on their feet.?
Quoted: “There are lots of governors with approval ratings in the 30s and 40s who aren?t recalled. Just being unpopular isn?t sufficient,” says political science professor Barry C. Burden at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who believes petitioners will meet the signature requirement. “You?ve got to convince the public that this person, who has not even had a year to govern, is doing so poorly ? or that he has deviated from his original course.”
Science reporters and bloggers are lighting up the Internet with posts noting the creation of a genetically modified version of the deadly H5N1 bird flu which can be easily transmitted among ferrets, which closely mimic the human response to flu. Although many of these reports focus on the work coming out of this Dutch medical center, most also note University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka conducted similar work. Sources within the university confirm that’s true.
Quoted: ?It?s another fascinating twist on the story of how the heart can maintain and repair itself long term,? said University of Wisconsin, Madison, stem cell biologist Tim Kamp, who was not involved in the study. ?They make a strong case that these [cells] are resident within the heart, and are poised to do the maintenance of the structure of the heart.?
Quoted: ?I think what this race may tell us is something about the direction of the Republican Party in Wisconsin,? said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin. ?Will this be the new party or the old one? There is a generational issue and also an issue of political leadership.?
Noted: Thompson, who was first elected to the state Assembly in 1966 and was elected governor four times starting in 1986, has cultivated a base of supporters unlikely to leave him, while Fitzgerald and Neumann are fighting over largely the same pool of more conservative voters, said University of Wisconsin political science professor Charles Franklin.
Quoted: ?Whole fruits are much better for you,? said Dr. Frank Greer, a University of Wisconsin, Madison, professor and former head of the pediatrics academy?s nutrition committee.
A new medical school in Wausau would open in 2013, admit up to 150 students a year and reduce Wisconsin?s looming doctor shortage, according to organizers of the plan announced Wednesday. The Wisconsin College of Osteopathic Medicine, likely to be built next to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, would be the state?s third medical school….Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the UW medical school, said it would be cost-prohibitive for the new school to set up enough residency programs for the additional training required after medical school.
“A brand new medical school at this point would be a bridge to nowhere,” Golden said.
Noted: Thompson, who was first elected to the state Assembly in 1966 and was elected governor four times starting in 1986, has cultivated a base of supporters that is unlikely to leave him, while Fitzgerald and Neumann are fighting over largely the same pool of more conservative voters, said University of Wisconsin political science professor Charles Franklin.
Several state agencies have unveiled guidelines created in congruence with University of Wisconsin researchers to promote the continued use of biomass energy in Wisconsin, despite the state?s current categorization as a leader in the field of biomass crop planting.
Quoted: Julia Isaacs, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
It?s not uncommon for state and local governments to provide such incentives, said Barry Gerhart, Ellig professor of management at the UW-Madison School of Business. “It is a reality that companies like Spectrum Brands can be mobile. There?s nothing that I know of that requires them to produce batteries here in Wisconsin,” he said.
….Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison, agrees there are areas in southwestern Wisconsin enjoying the benefits of the local food trend, but adds that there is little research proving it?s an economic driver.”Twenty years ago, all the research said local foods was such a small market it wasn?t worth worrying about,” he says. “But over the past five or more years, there has been a ?push back? on large-scale commercial agriculture.”
Quoted: Geoffrey Swain of the U-W Madison medical school says parents who opt out of vaccinations for their kids are putting others at risk — including those who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons, or because their parents cannot afford it. Swain, who?s also Milwaukee?s chief medical officer, says people frame it as a personal-and-private matter — and it?s not.
The nation?s college financial aid system is badly broken and getting worse. Students from mostly low and middle-income families now face nearly $1 trillion in college-related debt and, despite making such large investments, prospects are still low for college graduation. President Obama and congressional leaders have tried to address this problem by maintaining support for the federal Pell grant and making changes in loan programs.
Quoted: “This is the best study to date looking at frequency of sexual thought,” says Janet Hyde, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She reviewed the study but was not involved in it.
When it comes to Occupy Wall Street, everyone?s got an opinion. In his recent op-ed in the Wisconsin State Journal, for example, Karl Garson called the movement “raucous and inarticulate ? and bound to fail.” The reason, Garson claims, is “screw-you wealth” ? Wall Street doesn?t care what the people think. We agree that Wall Street doesn?t give a fig about Main Street, but we disagree with Garson?s conclusions. Occupy Wall Street, in its second month, is facing police repression, cold weather and other stumbling blocks, but it shows no sign of giving up the ghost.
(Susan Kepecs, MFA, Ph.D., is a freelance arts and culture writer, an honorary fellow in the Department of Anthropology and author of numerous scholarly and popular articles.)
Quoted: “Despite the runs, the surges that other candidates have had, Romney remains the most likely nominee. And I think the Obama people seem to believe that, as well,” said University of Wisconsin political science professor Charles Franklin.
Noted: This reporting caught the eye of a Jesse Ellis, a researcher in the Zoology Dept. at University of Wisconsin – Madison, who got interesting results by tabulating all of the snowy owl reports across the country as of Thanksgiving weekend.
Pepper spray is literally made from peppers, but it?s name might make it seem more innocuous than it is, wrote Deborah Blum, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin, in Scientific American. It ranges between 2 and 5.3 million Scoville units, which are used to measure the intensity of a variety of peppers. The Habanero, for example, ranks significantly lower ? 200,000 to 350,000 units.
Story cites figures from the University of Wisconsin?s Institute for Research on Poverty that show the poverty rate would be about double what it is now without government programs such as Social Security, SSI, food stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit and other programs. The UW figures show a 23.8% Wisconsin poverty rate in 2009 if you don?t count those programs, 11.5% if you do. (These figures are the UW group?s version of the poverty rate – a measure that is undergoing revisions nationally.)
Wayne Feltz is a self-described weather geek. Last week, he stood one afternoon on the wind-whipped roof of UW-Madison?s Space Science and Engineering Center, where he works as a researcher, and stared up through the canopy of dish antennas that top the building like some crazy, bristly hairdo.
“We?re running out of room!” Feltz shouted. There was a hint of geeky pride in the pronouncement. And why not? Thanks to what researchers such as Feltz are accomplishing in this building, you will be accurately forewarned this winter of the snowstorms that will turn your driveway into a ski hill. Hunched over their computers, scientists here have advanced meteorology to where we can now literally peer into the future and predict everything from the landfall of hurricanes to the formation of tornados.
A. “Carbonated” beverages get their name from dissolved carbon dioxide. The bottling process increases the pressure and amount of carbon dioxide in the liquid and air inside the can to levels much higher than in the air outside.
A. The most common way to define the start of winter is to appeal to the solstice, the day on which the noontime sun is positioned at its farthest southern point of the year. This is the astronomical start of winter ? Dec. 22 this year. On that day, the noontime sun will be directly overhead at 23.5 S latitude.
In a sense, this movement was inevitable. Higher education has been transformed over the last 50 years, reshaped in many ways that bring into question what it?s for, how it works, who should lead it, and most importantly who it is serving. It is the failure of colleges and universities to sufficiently grapple with and address those key questions that led students to Occupy Colleges, and faculty to stand with them, and that set up college administrators to be largely inept in response.
Sara Goldrick-Rab is an associate professor of education policy studies and sociology at UW-Madison.
Quoted: This fall I went to meet Sandra Sawchuk, the chief of primary-care services at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. Sawchuk is the rare veterinarian who owns a bulldog. ?I should know better, but I?m a sucker for this breed,? she told me. ?I?m also a vet, so I feel I can handle any problems that come up. But if anyone else tells me they want a bulldog, my immediate response is, ?No, you don?t.? ?
Quoted: Controlling for the demographics of a whole class can be messy, says Douglas Harris, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who has studied both value-added modeling and how a student?s peers affect his or her own achievement.
Quoted: But Jack Huddleston, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and expert in economic development, said no studies have shown that tax credits lead to job creation. Credits simply transfer wealth from the state to companies, he said.
Quoted: Layaway sometimes is the only option for people who want to get the hottest holiday gifts but don?t have cash saved or credit cards, said Cynthia Jasper, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and expert in retail and consumer behavior.
Quoted: Andre Phillips, of the UW-Madison admissions and recruitment office, said the school has no immediate plans to revise its transfer rate. But administrators are well aware of “a host of factors that push more talented students into the community college pipeline,” he said.
Quoted: Other programs are also working with schools to help increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Sara Tedeschi is the state Farm to School Director for UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. She says Farm to School helps create interest by promoting locally grown foods that connect students with the source.
In the super conference environment, there are powerful incentives to ignore the interests of student athletes. They deserve a share of the proceeds of their labor. And they deserve a seat at the tables where the terms of future conference alignments are determined. [A columns by UW-Madison law professor Linda Greene, a co-founder of the Black Women in Sports Foundation.]
Quoted: Douglas Harris, a University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison, political science professor Charles Franklin
Shawn F. Peters was so captivated by the HBO series “The Wire,” he was sure his students would be, too. So the UW-Madison instructor decided to make the Baltimore-centric drama the centerpiece of his fall course, Integrated Liberal Studies 275: Narratives of Justice and Equality in Multicultural America. Peters, 45, coordinates teaching and learning at UW-Madison?s Center for Education Opportunity.
At first glance, a program launched last week that will provide college scholarships for up to 2,600 current ninth-graders attending public schools in Milwaukee looks similar to a growing number of initiatives across the country designed to give students the boost they need to pursue a college degree. But The Degree Project is different in one significant way: It was built from the ground up as a research project to collect data and to examine whether these so-called promise programs are a wise use of funds in an era of limited resources.
“What we want to look at is if there is clear evidence that these programs work,” says Douglas Harris, a UW-Madison associate professor of educational policy studies who helped design the project and is its evaluator.
Mentions research by University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Richard Davidson that has shown that experienced meditators exhibit high levels of gamma wave activity and display an ability — continuing after the meditation session has attended — to not get stuck on a particular stimulus.
Quoted: Douglas Harris, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.
