Category: UW Experts in the News

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.

Included: Helen Blackwell, chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Anna Pidgeon, an avian ecologist in the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin gets a look at a couple of presidential contenders this week. Today in Madison it’s Senator Barack Obama . UW political scientist Charles Franklin says the Democrat is a candidate with a problem.

Harold Scheub has taught African storytelling for decades, but he still has the unflagging enthusiasm that kept him walking through southern Africa decades ago to find storytellers in remote areas and learn from them.

The 76-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison professor speaks nonstop rapid-fire to the 460 students crowded into a huge lecture room in Bascom Hall. He talks about the importance of storytelling and how the same patterns of stories have developed over the years in countries on different continents.

“I love my research, I enjoy writing, but my passion is teaching. I haven’t thought of retirement yet,” he said later.

Arts fund raisers should have ready explanations for donors who want to know why culture groups need their gifts as much as social-service charities that serve the poor, writes Andrew Taylor on The Artful Manager.

Mr. Taylor is director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. He points to articles published in Good magazine and The New York Times, as well as commentary by former Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich that question the validity of giving tax breaks for some types of philanthropy.

Quoted: Michael Pariza, director of the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A UW-Madison historian, who spoke Wednesday night about his recent book â??Henry Kissinger and the American Centuryâ? at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, was named a young innovator in a special edition of Smithsonian magazine earlier this month.

Quoted: Robert Hawkins of the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Physics professor Franz Himpsel of the University of Wisconsin. Mr. Himpsel sits on the scientific advisory board of the Max Planck Institute in Berlin.

Quoted: Perry Kivolowitz, with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Computer Science Department, was the final witness called Wednesday. He testified as an expert for the state, indicating three of the 33 images in question in the case appeared to be digitally altered.

Quoted: David Streckfuss, a Southeast Asia scholar who did a PhD on lese majeste and defamation in Thailand for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Frank Tuerkheimer, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin who focuses on Internet-related issues.

In January, Host-Jablonski started working on a three-year project to build straw-clay homes on tribal lands in the state. Sue Thering, a UW-Madison assistant professor of landscape architecture and a community development specialist for UW-Extension, is coordinating a partnership with several Native American communities in the state to create affordable, energy efficient housing through a grant.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Quoted: Doug Wubben, an outreach specialist in the UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.

Quoted: Brian Kirkpatrick, a professor specializing in genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Quoted: Ingrid Jordt Applbaum, a former Buddhist nun in Burma and now a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, when I asked to speak to her.

How refreshing.

Tea, something that people around the world enjoy consuming, might actually be good for you.

“The most fascinating thing is, to my knowledge, there is no other natural product known that has such diversified effects,” says Hasan Mukhtar, vice chair of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.