Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: Howard Schweber, a professor of law and political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin, suggests that you find out whether the recruiters, doctors and nurses involved in the study are “likely to be influenced in their judgments by money or professional connections to the study sponsor.”

Quoted: Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of geology and geophysics and leader of the study. “There have also been studies of volcanism, and some eruptions correspond to extinction, but many do not.”

Quoted: Shanan Peters, an assistant geology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the rate of rainfall was more than a spillway near a dam could handle, though neither failed. What probably happened, he says, is that excess water flowed to a low point in the lakebed and saturated sandy soil beneath the road until it gave way.

Quoted: Morris Davis, a former senior economist with the Federal Reserve and now a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business.

Quoted: Dr. Mark Moss of the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

MADISON (WKOW) — Mosquito season has officially begun in Wisconsin, and this past month’s flooding hasn’t helped keep the bugs at bay.

Flood water is a mosquito’s paradise, and entomologists say right now, you can stand outside and get bitten 40 to 50 times in under a minute. They say the heavy rain we got two weeks ago caused a massive mosquito hatch. And, the standing flood water that remains doesn’t help.

But, entomologists say record flooding does not necessarily mean record mosquitos. In fact, UW entomologist Dr. Phillip Pellitteri says there were actually fewer mosquitoes in the past three or four years.

Are some farming practices making floods worse? UW Madison Geography professor Jim Knox says there were several factors contributing to this month’s massive floods, including high corn prices. “With the economic situation, and the move towards ethanol production from corn, prices are higher,” notes Knox.

The heavy rains and flooding earlier this month mean mosquito season is hitting Wisconsin hard.

The air is buzzing heavily with the blood sucking insects and UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri says it’s not hard to figure out why. He says all the rain and flooding in recent weeks has provided ample breeding areas for mosquitoes.

Quoted: Robert Pearce, who chairs the anesthesiology department at the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison

Quoted: Monica Turner, professor of Wildland Ecology at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: John Karl Scholz, a visiting scholar at Brookings and a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist.

Quoted: Sociologist Sara Goldrick-Rab of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, meanwhile, has found that students from lower-status socio-economic backgrounds are more likely than their well-off peers to transfer in ways that reduce their odds of earning a degree.

Quoted: Menzie David Chinn, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who worked at the White House Council of Economic Advisers in 2000 and 2001.

MADISON, Wis. – State officials are re-evaluating whether infrastructure is being built and maintained to strict enough standards to handle severe weather.

Engineering professor Ken Potter of the University of Wisconsin-Madison says some design standards reflect rainfall data that’s 40 years old. But since storms have been increasing in frequency and severity over the last few years, bridges might too low and sewer pipes too small.

MADISON, Wis. — Many residents are still working to rid themselves of this season’s floodwaters, but all that standing water could be inviting to some unwanted visitors.

The recent rains and flooding means more mosquitoes could be moving into the area this summer, according to Phil Pellitteri, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s entomology department.

Quoted: Ken Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin political scientist who specializes in campaign advertising. “If we see this sort of buy in September or October, we’ll know the race is over.”

An immunization expert says the Human Papiloma Virus (HPV) vaccine would work on males too. Dr. John Temte, an immunization advisor for the Centers for Disease Control, considers Gardasil to be very effective in females for preventing HPV, which leads to the majority of cases of cervical cancer. As an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at UW Madison, he says the biology of HPV is “basically the same for men and women.”

Earwigs are making a return in a big way, in parts of Wisconsin. UW bug expert Phil Pellitteri says they like the wet weather we’ve had across much of the state, and if your flower garden is under attack it’s probably from earwigs.

Quoted: Botanist Ken Cameron of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who says that other work has shown interesting chromosomal traits in vanilla.

Quoted: Environmental health professor Jonathan Patz at the University of Wisconsin.

One concern from flooding is combined sewer overflows, said environmental health professor Jonathan Patz at the University of Wisconsin. That’s when drainage systems designed to collect rainwater runoff and domestic sewage in the same pipe overflow, sending untreated human sewage and industrial waste into rivers and other waters. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Iowa has 19 of these types of overflow systems and Illinois has about 100.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison agronomist Joe Lauer says itâ??s too late to replant corn except for livestock feed and Sheboygan County ag agent Mike Ballweg says crop insurance wonâ??t be enough to cover the losses.

Quoted: Kenneth Potter, a civil and environmental engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says many scientists agree that climate change is likely to increase the occurrence and severity of storms as well as droughts, and thus increase the likelihood of flooding.

Quoted: The wet, humid weather can create a fungus that kills gypsy moth caterpillars, said University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri.

Quoted: “We may find ourselves with whole regions of the country where virtually every pharmacy follows these limiting, discriminatory policies and women are unable to access legal, physician-prescribed medications,” said R. Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin lawyer and bioethicist. “We’re talking about creating a separate universe of pharmacies that puts women at a disadvantage.”

Quoted: Dr. Mark Linzer, an internist at the University of Wisconsin who has done extensive research on physician unhappiness.

Quoted: Kenneth Goldstein, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Quoted: Larry Meiller, a professor and director of undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has a positive opinion on the topic.

Southern Wisconsin got soaked with rain last summer, walloped with record snow this winter and now faces widespread flooding and storm damage.

Add in soaring gas prices and the lagging economy — illustrated by the recently announced closure of Janesville ‘s General Motors plant — and life here can seem bleak.

“When you start piling things like this on top of everything else, it becomes more problematic for people to cope, ” said Dr. Jerry Halverson, a UW Health psychiatrist.

Quoted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin professor of political science who had Bolger as a teaching fellow at Harvard.

Quoted: Sean Carroll, a geneticist at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin professor who had Bolger as a teaching fellow at Harvard, lauds his communication skills with students. Despite Bolger’s hectic schedule, he never let the stress show. People would “rarely â?¦ see a crack in that veneer,” Burden says.

Quoted: Dr. Jonathan L. Temte, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Quoted: Bruce Jones, a farm management specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Volker C. Radeloff, an associate professor of forest ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said this expansion is a particularly dangerous trend.

Quoted: Jonathan Martin, chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Atmospheric Sciences Department.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Mosquitoes will be out in greater numbers than usual after all the wet weather in Wisconsin, but Illinois may bear the brunt of the insects from the severe storms.

University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri says that the flood conditions may have washed many of the mosquito eggs downstream and even out of the state.

He says just because we’ve had record rain doesn’t mean we’ll have record numbers of mosquitoes.

Quoted: UW-Madison political scientist Ken Goldstein.

Quoted: Shawn Conley, a state soybean and small-bean specialist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

The result reminded University of Wisconsin-Madison sedimentary geologist Shanan Peters of a glacial lake draining, which is exactly what exposed the Dells millenniums ago. A finger of water found its way through loose soil and the soft sandstone, and then a torrent followed it.

WTMJ’s John Jagler chats with University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri about how the big floods we’ve seen could lessen the effect of mosquitoes this summer. (Audio.)

Quoted: Norman Fost, a pediatrics professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Quoted: Morris Davis, a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Edward Churchwell, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who is the principal investigator for the GLIMPSE team.

Quoted: Dr. Ron Diamond, a University of Wisconsin-Madison psychiatrist.