Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: Karen Steudel, professor of zoology and anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, sees a disconnect between the data and the main conclusions.

Quoted: Rusty Bishop, director for the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research and professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: Emily Auerbach, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the book â??Searching for Jane Austen.â?

Quoted: Michael Oliva, a University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, said poorly rated bridges were not likely in danger of having major problems, especially since many of them see low traffic volumes.

Quoted: Robert Hamers, the chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The collapse of Minnesotaâ??s busiest bridge will lead to revisions in the terminology inspectors use to label conditions of the structures, predicts an expert in bridge ratings.

The term â??structurally deficientâ? â?? used to describe the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis and more than 2,000 bridges in Wisconsin â?? can be misleading, said Lawrence Bank, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Michael Oliva, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering for UW-Madison.

Hearing that twenty-one hundred bridges in Wisconsin are deficient doesn’t mean they’re ready to collapse.

There are degrees of deficiency according to UW-Madison Civil Engineering professor Mike Oliva. And, he says, that doesn’t mean a bridge declared deficient is necessarily ready to collapse. It could mean inspectors need to take a closer look to see what’s going on and keep close track of it.

Hearing that twenty-one hundred bridges in Wisconsin are deficient doesn’t mean they’re ready to collapse.

There are degrees of deficiency according to UW-Madison Civil Engineering professor Mike Oliva. And, he says, that doesn’t mean a bridge declared deficient is necessarily ready to collapse. It could mean inspectors need to take a closer look to see what’s going on and keep close track of it.

Wisconsin officials have dealt with bridge section failures in the past. They will be watching Minnesota’s bridge collapse investigation closely, and preparing to make safety changes here, if problems are discovered which apply to Wisconsin’s bridge structures.

UW-Madison bridge engineering professor Mike Oliva said the design of Minneapolis’ 35-W bridge reflects an older design without newer safety features. “The industry is definitely moving away from bridges where there are critical members that cause a collapse.”

Quoted: Lawrence Bank, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

“Structurally deficient” does not necessarily imply a bridge is dangerous, said Lawrence Bank, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It means the bridge has undergone wear and tear.

“Structurally deficient means that some or all of the components of the bridge might not meet their original design capacities. They may have degraded in some way,” Bank said. “Not everything is expected to remain in a new and pristine state.”

Michael Oliva, a structural engineer at UW-Madison, agreed the state’s bridges are in better shape than the national average. But the Minnesota collapse was sobering, he said, because large portions of the bridge failed.

“Even for an engineer like myself, this is scary because we never expect this to happen in design,” Oliva said, noting that most bridges are engineered so that at most only a limited section of the bridge can fail.

Quoted: Michael Oliva, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin, said the bridge in Minneapolis had some unique characteristics.

Quoted: Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin law professor who studies bioethics.

Quoted: Michael Oliva, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said poorly rated bridges were not likely in danger of having major problems, especially since many of them see low traffic volumes.

Quoted: Michael Oliva, a structural engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed the state’s bridges are in better shape than the national average. But the Minnesota collapse was sobering, he said, because large portions of the bridge failed.

Quoted:Allan R. Odden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said at Wednesdayâ??s meeting. And best of all, it doesnâ??t have to mean spending twice the money.

Quoted: Moneera Alghadeer, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, published an article this year in The Journal of Arabic Literature that analyzed Alsanea’s novel.

Quoted: Dr. Barbara Knox, who specializes in child abuse cases at the University of Wisconsin Childrenâ??s Hospital

Quoted: Timothy Donohue, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who works as scientific director for the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.

….as Edwards completed his “Road to One America” tour of impoverished areas in the South and Midwest last week, many were asking: Is Edwards really a modern day RFK?

Quoted: Associate professor of political science Katherine Cramer Walsh

Quoted: Dr. Bruce P. Barrett, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved with the review, said he was not convinced of the value of combining the studies in a single analysis.

Quoted: Lawrence H. Landweber, professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who was also part of an early effort to bring the Web to Africa in the mid-1990s.

Quoted: Matthew H. Edney, director of the History of Cartography Project at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Quoted: Susan B. Millar, a senior scientist in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who studies teaching in science and engineering.

WASHINGTON â?? Despite warnings that America’s dogs are being vaccinated too much and too often, most veterinarians continue the practice as a way to keep clients coming in the door, according to a leading animal immunologist.
Vaccines for rabies and three other major canine diseases â?? distemper, canine adenovirus-2 and canine parvovirus â?? should be given no more often than once every three years, said Ronald Schultz, a veterinary immunologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Scott Craven, a University of Wisconsin wildlife ecologist.

Quoted: Ed Jesse, a dairy and agriculture policy economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Washington-based Child Trends, in a research brief published in May using the National Center for Education Statistics’ Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, finds that 52 percent of nonmarital births are to cohabiting couples. The University of Wisconsin’s Center for Demography and Ecology reached the same conclusion in a working paper it expects to publish this summer after analyzing data from the National Center for Health Statistics’ National Survey of Family Growth.

Mentions Jamie Peck, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has written that the pursuit of the creative class “has become a cliche of contemporary urban regeneration.”

Q. There was a lot of talk earlier this summer about the 17-year cicadas making an appearance in southern Wisconsin. We didn’t see anything in the Madison area. What happened?

A. “If you got to the right spot, it was like a science fiction movie,” said UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri, who witnessed the creature feature in June at the Big Foot Beach State Park area near Lake Geneva.

Quoted: Frank Greer, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Deborah Carr, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Rutgers University

Quoted: Steve Meili, a UW-Madison law professor and director of the Consumer Law Litigation Clinic.

Quoted: Tom O’Guinn, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business.

Quoted: Steve Meili, a University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor and director of the Consumer Law Litigation Clinic.

Quoted: Kent Peterson, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Quoted: Dr. Christopher Olsen, a professor of veterinary medicine and an influenza researcher at the University of Wisconsin

Quoted: Ann Hoyt, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied cooperatives.