Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: Terry Warfield, an accounting professor at UW.

Noted: The UW-Madison faculty who are helping citizen organizers launch Badger Rock Middle School on Madison’s south side.

Quoted: Robin Whitty-Novotny, director of Wisconsin Singers, a song-and-dance troupe at UW-Madison.

Quoted: UW-Madison School of Business Dean Mike Knetter.

Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, an entomologist at UW-Madison.

University of Wisconsin Business School Dean Michael Knetter also spoke and agreed the economy is set for a “muted early recovery” that could be derailed by any unexpected surprise developments politically, economically or otherwise.

Bold plans for a new kind of middle school in Madison deserve encouragement and strong consideration. The proposed Badger Rock Middle School on the South Side would run year-round with green-themed lessons in hands-on gardens and orchards. UW-Madison faculty are helping citizen organizers launch Badger Rock.

Quoted: The bill also mandates annual fitness assessments of all schoolchildren. The test would consist of a 20-meter shuttle run designed to measure aerobic capacity. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has found this PACER test a good gauge of fitness and an indicator of diabetes risk, said Dr. Aaron Carrel, a UW pediatrician.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the success of President Barack Obamaâ??s election campaign in using online media convinced a lot of campaign professionals that there is real potential in social media.

Noted: The UW Survey Center, which conducted a survey about satisfaction with city services.

Quoted: Jonathan Martin, of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences, said Arctic oscillation is behind the extreme cold.

Quoted: Judith W. Leavitt, who was on the panel as a parent and is a professor of the history of medicine, history of science and womenâ??s studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, described different messages she received as she went off to college. Her parents told her to “be sure you learn how to type and get your credentials as a teacher because if you donâ??t get married, thatâ??s what youâ??ll be.”

Quoted: Donna Weihofen, a nutritionist at UW Hospital and Clinics.

Letter written by Steven Deller, a professor of applied economics at UW-Madison.

Quoted: Pop-culture expert Jonathan Gray said celebrity influence on pet owners may be inevitable. People already looking for a pet will take cues from media stars who suggest one breed might be desirable over another, said the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.

Quoted: UW-Madison zoology professor Warren Potter says studies showing BPAâ??s safety concentrate on toxicity –not other negative health effects. He says the current safety criterion focuses on whether or not the chemical kills rather than is it affecting a childâ??s immune system or their ability to function neurologically.

Quoted: Scott R. Craven, extension wildlife specialist and professor in the forest and wildlife ecology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “Any time someone in a setting of excitement has a sudden cardiac arrest, especially at a young age with a seemingly normal heart, you have to consider [an inherited condition] such as long QT,” said Dr. Richard Page, chair of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and president of the Heart Rhythm Society. “One of the genetic variants is especially predisposed to having an arrhythmia when exposed to loud sound.”

Quoted: “My own feeling is there is an actual increase in incidence of autism, but itâ??s not at an epidemic level. And we have to be careful we donâ??t identify it as such,” said Darold Treffert, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

Quoted: Economic issues will be at the top of the agenda, said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.

Quoted: â??Itâ??s not unusual for the task of supervising students to fall to someone who already has plenty of responsibilities,â? says Elizabeth A. Tyron, the community learning coordinator at the Morgridge Center for Public Service at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. â??If service learning is not well coordinated by the academic institution, it can place a lot of burden on the community partner.â?

Quoted: â??If youâ??re not one of those few obvious schools, you need to be able to offer students and employers real depth,â? says Blair Sanford, assistant dean and director of M.B.A. career services at the business school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which enrolls about 125 students a year.

Her name is Joanne Cantor and she is a â??recovering cyber-addict.â?

â??I love my work and Iâ??m a pretty industrious person when working on a project,â? says Cantor, the director of UW-Madisonâ??s Center for Communication Research and an expert on the psychological impact of media and communications. â??But my life was getting so cluttered with all this information that I was never getting anything done. If e-mail came in I felt a need to read it right away. Or Iâ??d go to look up one thing on the Internet, and Iâ??m so curious Iâ??d get distracted and spend time reading all these interesting articles. I figured if I was experiencing some of these problems, others were, too.â?

Quoted: Jessa Valentine, a senior research specialist at UW-Madisonâ??s Center on Wisconsin Strategy.

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl said Wednesday he supports President Obamaâ??s nomination of Louis Butler as a federal judge in Western Wisconsin despite the nomination being turned back in the U.S. Senate on Christmas Eve. A justice on the state Supreme Court from 2004 to 2008, Butler was defeated for re-election by current Justice Michael Gableman. He is currently jurist in residence and a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Mentioned: Prof. Alfred McCoy, a torture expert from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

University of Wisconsin-Madison experts helped create the first new strategic plan for the Madison School District since the early 1990s.

Quoted: Peter Carstensen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor who specializes in agricultural marketing issues.

Quoted: Joel Pedersen, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies soil science and prions.

Thereâ??s little doubt Governor Jim Doyleâ??s decision to not seek a third term was the top state political story of 2009. It blind-sided most Wisconsin political observers, including UW political scientist Charles Franklin.

Quoted: â??Itâ??s interesting because of the personal stories of that, as well as for the way it shapes the political story that will run throughout 2010,â? says UW political scientist Charles Franklin of the Democratsâ?? race for governor, which generated headlines as early as August.

Six years ago, as a senior at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Meg Goodwin was motivated in her job search by social anxiety as much as anything else. Her friends had positions lined up, so she wanted one, too. She went to the career counseling center and signed up for interviews for 10 different jobs, none of which she particularly wanted.

Quoted: The latest smart phones have applications for just about everything, but every single download uses up a valuable resource. According to Barry Orton, professor of telecommunications at the University of Wisconsin, the broadcast spectrum is filling up one download at a time and he said that reality requires a change.

Quoted: Dr. Adam Rindfleisch with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health said he often suggests people with fibromyalgia and depression get involved with a volunteer activity.

Quoted: Dr. Jonathan Patz, University of Wisconsin: Many of our communities combine storm water with sewage, simply because itâ??s too expensive to separate these systems.

Noted: Grubs attack a treeâ??s roots, said Chris Williamson. He is an associate professor of entomology for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Extension, and heâ??s also Lieschâ??s supervisor. An older tree, with a more extensive root system, can tolerate losing some roots to grubs, he said. Young trees, those about 18 inches tall, canâ??t.

Quoted: As Dr. Sandra Sawchuk, an instructor at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine put it, “Pets have gone from the barnyard to the bedroom.”

Quoted: â??When Queen Victoria and her German husband, Prince Albert, decorated a Christmas tree in Windsor Palace in 1848, it was widely reported in popular American publications,â? says Jim Leary, professor and director of the Folklore Program at UW-Madison. â??Well-to-do, fashion-minded Americans soon followed suit, with rural and working-class folks not that far behind. By 1856, President Franklin Pierce gave the Christmas tree official sanction when he had one decorated in the White House.â?

If youâ??re a parent, you may want to consider getting a Facebook page in the new year. Thatâ??s advice from Kathleen Culver, a professor at UW School of Journalism & Mass Communication. â??I really do encourage all of the parents . . . of children in their teens or younger, anyone who has a person living in their home who has a Faceboo account, you should also have a Facebook account, because you need to know how it works,â? says Culver.