Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: James Stein, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin who works with Merck, Pfizer and other drug makers.

Quoted: Monika Chavez, a professor of German at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says that with funding for language departments tight, the report has touched off “heated debate” at her institution over how it might affect jobs and hiring.

UW-Madison faculty members Ahna Skop and Sterling Johnson were among 58 researchers awarded the 2006 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers Thursday at the White House in Washington, D.C.

A return to normal pricing would be “favorable,” said Ken Lonergan, a clinical pharmacist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s University Health Service pharmacy, where prices for birth control rose from $7 or $8 to $30 to $50 a month in January.

The headlines that Yahoo had handed over Chinese journalist and democratic activist Shi Tao’s e-mails and IP address to China’s secret police dominated the news last year. This sent a panic through an industry usually praised for its social responsibility and unaccustomed to external scrutiny. Congress called in the general counsels of four of our leading high tech firms – Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo – to account for their collaboration with the Chinese government. In the course of events, it became clear that the problem in the high-tech sector was not isolated but endemic.

Author: Michael Likosky is a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and author of “Law, Infrastructure and Human Rights,” (Cambridge University Press).

Quoted: Alfred McCoy, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the book, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror (Metropolitan Books, 2006).

Quoted: Barry Orton, U-W Madison professor, calls it the most AT&T-friendly bill in the country, and the least consumer-friendly.

Quoted: UW Telecommunications Professor Barry Orton, who opposes the bill.

“We’re on track to get the most AT&T-friendly bill in the country and the least consumer-friendly,” said Barry Orton, a UW-Madison telecommunications professor who opposes the bill.

Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, an entomologist with the University of Wisconsin, said insect life has followed the plants.

Quoted: Kenneth Goldstein, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin who studies campaign advertising.

Quoted: John Magnuson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Donna Weihofen, Senior nutritionist with the UW Hospital and Clinics in Madison.

Quoted: Robin Alta Charo, a professor of law and medical ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Karyn Riddle, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison, says research supports the idea that what children watch does affect them. She cited a study from Strasburger & Wilson that addresses children ‘s reactions to adult-themed media.

Quoted: Jonathan Foley, a climatologist at the University of Wisconsin who has studied Lake Chad extensively and admires Gore’s work on climate change, said the primary explanation for the disappearance of the lake appeared to be regional climate cycles exacerbated by local irrigation practices.

Quoted: Dr. Michael Fiore, a University of Wisconsin professor of medicine who is also chairman of the federal Public Health Serviceâ??s guidelines panel on smoking cessation.

Quoted: Kathy Christoph, director of academic technology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Lori Berquam, UW-Madisonâ??s dean of students.

Quoted: Patricia McConnell, an animal behaviorist and professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, believes that “much that informs our relationships with dogs right now is an emotional connection,” which is “not to be demeaned…

Quoted: David Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and president of the Long Term Care Institute, a nonprofit group.

Quoted: Volker Radeloff, an associate professor of forestry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Ken Zeichner, associate dean of the UW-Madison’s School of Education and former director of that school’s student teaching program.

In studies of Buddhist monks, Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, found that activity in areas of the brain associated with self-focused rumination decreased among adept meditation practitioners. The findings suggest that mental training can alter our propensity to second-guess ourselves.

Quoted: Giulio Tononi, a sleep researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Members of Congress are prodding the Department of Agriculture to strengthen its oversight of laboratory-animal welfare by raising fines for violations.

The proposal comes after a four-year period, from 2002 to 2006, when the agency doubled the annual number of citations, including those involving animal care, that it issued against research facilities. But the department has rarely fined offenders, and when it does, the fines are generally only a few thousand dollars. Unless the number and size of the penalties are raised, colleges and other facilities will face little incentive to improve compliance, say animal-welfare activists and at least one congressman.

Quoted: Holly McEntee, administrator of the Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says inspectors seem better trained than in the past.

Quoted: Erica Halverson, a fantasy football player who has made fantasy baseball part of her research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Ken Zeichner, associate dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education and former director of that school’s student teaching program.

Quoted: Robert Asen, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty.

Quoted: Alta Charo, professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that there is always a level of uncertainty when research moves from animals to humans.

Quoted Miron Livny, a professor of Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and principal investigator of the Condor Project.

Quoted: Ken Goldstein, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Allan R. Odden, a co-director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin said Giuliani faces the challenge of appealing to conservative Republicans skeptical of his support of abortion and gay rights.

Quoted: Michael Scott, University of Wisconsin law school.

Quoted: Michael Scott, a University of Wisconsin law professor who has studied panhandling, says the educational message is valuable.

Quoted: Bob Cropp, a dairy economist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: John Bamberg, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and Director of the US Potato Germ Bank.

Quoted: Anthropologist Kevin Kniffin of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, cautions that cooperation is more complicated in the real world.