Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

Quoted: Hussain Bahia, a paving expert and professor of civil and environmental engineering at UW-Madison.

Quoted: John Hall, UW-Madison?s military historian.

What?s love got to do with it, this coupling of plant and passion? You can blame, or credit, the other Darwin, said Theresa Kelley, a UW-Madison English professor, expert on plants in romanticism and author of the forthcoming book, “Clandestine Marriage: Botany and Romantic Culture.”

Parker Dietry didn?t know what he was in for when he walked away as the state?s champion speller in March.In the past two months, the 14-year-old Waunakee eighth-grader has exchanged video games for word lists and gets to shoot hoops only if he?s simultaneously spelling words such as ?feijoada? and ?ferrochromium.? But he?s optimistic the time he?s devoted to studying and spelling ? about 25 to 30 hours a week ? will pay off this week as he heads to Washington, D.C., for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. His efforts have meant working with Jeff Kirsch, director of the Spanish and Portuguese Independent Learning program in the UW-Madison division of continuing studies.

Quoted: That?s in line with other polls, said Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-founder of the polling site Pollster.com.

Quoted: “Detecting antibodies to the virus is important because that will tell us much more about the infectivity of the virus and also tell us if the fish has been exposed to VHS in the past or just recently,” said Anna Wilson, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a researcher in the VHS project.

Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, an economics professor at UW-Madison?s La Follette School of Public Affairs, understands why people get confused about Wisconsin?s budget deficit. “The concepts are complicated, and the terms get defined differently by different people.”

Quoted: UW-Madison meteorology professor Gregory Tripoli says the jet stream is being further energized by temperature contrasts on the other side of the globe, in Asia.

Quoted: UW-Madison School of Business professor Ramon Aldag.

Jignesh Patel is a professor of computer science at UW-Madison. He says after 9-11 the FCC enacted the E911 mandate, requiring wireless carriers to provide emergency personnel with more precise location services.

Quoted: In effect, a Democratic senate takeover would “put the brakes on what otherwise would be a runaway train,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison political expert Charles Franklin, referring to a Republican-dominated redistricting process.

Quoted: “We need to plan for this proportion of children needing services,” Maureen Durkin, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Reuters Health.

Quoted: Steven A. Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

Quoted: Tony Goldberg, an expert on emerging diseases and a professor of pathobiological sciences in the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs.

Noted: At The Neural Interface Technology Research and Optimization (NITRO) Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, brain-machine interfaces have been used in conjunction with social media. Through the noninvasive EEG devices, researchers were able to send tweets via thought.

Noted: UW-Madison?s Prof. David Canon, an expert on election law, says those opposing the voter identification bill may have “a credible, strong case.”

Quoted: “What this doesn?t tell us is anything regarding the relative risk of having a partner who?s circumcised vs. uncircumcised,” said Dr. Jonathan L. Temte, professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and a voting member on the CDC?s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. “I don?t think this changes the argument very much regarding pros vs. cons on circumcision.”

Quoted: Rising export demand for dairy products including dry-milk powder and butter from buyers in Asia and Mexico also is fueling the jumps in prices and production, said Bob Cropp, an economist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who has been studying the industry since 1966.

Quoted: ?There is a non-trivial percentage of the state that has never voted for Thompson,? said Charles Franklin, a political expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, referring to young voters. ?The party has shifted to some extent in its policies.?

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the race could be an interesting look at the dynamics of the state Republican Party.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, UW-Madison Political Science Professor, said, “The trouble is having come so close and backed out at each previous time.. it?s very hard to know whether this time.. he?s finally serious… if he is serious, he?s a formidable candidate.”

Quoted: Barry Gerhart, a professor of management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Tim Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs.

Quoted: That uncertainty and disbelief is likely to continue until most Republican leaders and candidates publicly affirm that they believe the issue has been settled, says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin: “Partisans are rarely convinced by partisans on the opposite side.”

Quoted: “We?ve seen the state tilt both directions rather sharply in just a two-year period,” said Charles Franklin, a founder of pollster.com and a University of Wisconsin political science professor. “This is the tie breaker, the chance for the state to decide whether it wants to reconsider in either direction.”

Quoted: “It?s the perfect storm,” said Michael Jacob, project coordinator at Covering Kids and Families, a grant-funded project through the University of Wisconsin-Madison that works to reduce health disparities.

Quoted: But this legacy has some scholars wondering whether the connection between airwaves and mass graves has been overstated. Scott Straus, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, has raised doubts about the potential culpability of the media in large-scale violence. In a 2007 paper drawing on the content of RTLM programming, interviews with perpetrators, and an analysis of RTLM?s broadcast range compared to where violence occurred, Straus concluded that the station had, at worst, a “second-order impact” on the genocide that could not be equated with the influence of other factors, among them face-to-face mobilization by local leaders.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed. He said Kohl?s retirement “had been rumored for some time.”

Quoted: ?Some of the committee?s proposed changes will take the Managed Forest Law program in new directions,? says committee member Mark Rickenbach, a University of Wisconsin-Extension forest policy and management specialist and associate professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology. ?The question we asked ourselves was ?How can we make this program good for the next 25 years???

Noted: The new, much lower, estimate is based on a report (PDF) prepared by Charles Quagliana, a historic preservation architect who works for the UW-Madison. Quagliana conducted an “initial walk-through” of the building on March 10, just after the last of the major protests, and subsequently returned to verify his findings.

Quoted: Katherine Curtis, demographic specialist at UW-Madison.

Quoted: Dan Veroff, director of the UW-Madison Applied Population Laboratory, and Jim Leary, who teaches folklore and Scandinavian studies at UW-Madison.

Quoted: Katherine Curtis, demographic specialist with the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: The UI is not alone among public universities in offering real-time notification of obstruction or closings. Cathy Trueba, the University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant dean for Student Services and the McBurney Disability Resource Center director, told the DI Editorial Board Wednesday that Madison has had a similar system for the five years she?s held her position.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus Karen Holden, who advised “Sesame Street,” notes that preschool is an ideal time to lay the groundwork about personal finance because it is about making choices, suppressing immediate urges, assessing opportunity costs, budgeting resources over time and accepting financial risk.

Quoted: Joanne Cantor, is a Professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin in the Communication Arts Department.  She says social media can become too much.  For example, “It?s sort of like if you keep eating and eating and never stop, when are you going to digest your food?” 

Quoted: Katherine Curtis, demographic specialist at UW-Madison.

Quoted: Those kinds of decreases in the younger population contribute to a higher median age, said Katherine Curtis, demographic specialist with the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “Reasonable people can disagree on how much high stakes should be placed on the information,” said Rob Meyer, director of the Value-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Morris Davis, academic director at the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin political science professor said more candidates are unlikely to change the dynamics of the race against President Obama.