Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: Richard J. Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: Jed Woodworth, a history graduate student at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Kenneth M. Goldstein, director of the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Cindy Alvarez, the wife of the University of Wisconsin’s coach, Barry Alvarez.

Chemistry * To Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, for “conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: Can people swim faster in syrup or in water?” (The answer? It doesn’t seem to make a difference.)

At 8:49 last Saturday morning UW- Madison research scientist Nasim Akhtar was resting quietly in bed and enjoying a vacation at the home of family members who live in Pakistan.
At 8:50 his life’s priorities changed as the earthquake that shook the country and killed thousands began to tear his family’s house apart. “We ran out into the courtyard and the walls on three sides of us began to fall,” he said in telephone interview Friday. “My whole family thought they were going to die.” Akhtar survived the earthquake’s six minutes of terror without injury.

That means more deer and, according to research by conservation biologists such as the UW-Madison’s Don Waller, an overabundance of deer are destroying the diversity of plant life in the North Woods.

The prosecution plans to call UW- Madison political science professor Dennis Dresang, who is expected to testify that Chvala had nearly unchecked power over legislation in the Senate, which would allow him to carry out his extortion threats.

There is a widespread belief that U.S. workers’ education and skills are not adequate for the demands of jobs in the modern economy.
Thus Michael J. Handel, a UW- Madison sociologist, introduces his book “Worker Skills and Job Requirements: Is There a Mismatch?”

His answer: No.

Quoted: Peter Spear, provost at the University of Wisconsin

Quoted: Roderic Lakes, a materials scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison

Quoted: Beth Graue of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Tom Jeffries, a bacteriologist at UW-Madison.

Part of the reason for the nonchalance on the part of consumers has resulted from long-term improvements in how Americans use energy, UW-Madison economist Don Nichols said.

The amount of energy American industry needs to produce a fixed amount of goods has dropped by nearly 40 percent since 1980, meaning the relative percentage of income that goes to utilities and gasoline is much lower.

Robert Hauser, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, held a seminar at Davis� International House on Monday, exploring the causes and consequences of social and economic inequality.

“Color is more than psychological,” said Joy Dohr, a professor in the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology. “Color is light. Human beings have always related to natural light for a sense of well-being. Color offers the awareness people need.”

Quoted: John Stier, associate professor of environmental turfgrass management at UW-Madison and the UW-Extension.

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

Quoted: Dr. Howard Bailey, the Director of Chemo Prevention at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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

Quoted: David Ward said that when he was the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he had what he called the “smell test.” “If it didn’t smell right or didn’t look right, we didn’t do it,”

Quoted: Byron Shafer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Jeremy Freese, who received tenure in sociology this year at the University of Wisconsin

“It’s not for everyone, but for an awfully lot of people, it’s been the pivotal experience that’s taken them into other opportunities,” Joan Gillman, a faculty associate at the UW- Madison School of Business, said of direct sales. “They acquired skills they ended up using in other businesses and other areas of their lives.”

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

Quoted: Menzie D. Chinn, professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo

Quoted: Menzie Chinn, of the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: James Ferris, president of the society and a faculty associate in communication arts at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: Jane Gogan, a psychologist with the UW-Madison’s Postpartum Depression Treatment Program.

Roseanne Clark, an associate professor in the UW-Madison Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and director of the Parent-Infant and Early Childhood Clinic and the Postpartum Depression Treatment Program.

President George W. Bush announced his nomination of Harriet Miers for Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Monday.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin law and bioethics professor R. Alta Charo.

President Bush’s latest Supreme Court nominee may make Democrats happier than conservatives, who may be unhappy with the choice.

That’s the view from UW Madison law professor, Ann Althouse. Chief White House counsel Harriet Miers has no judicial experience, but Althouse says Miers may actually be exactly the sort of nominee that Democrats in the U.S. Senate have said they want. “Minority Leader Harry Reid had said that he specifically wanted that,” said Althouse, which she found “puzzling, (because) he was criticizing (Chief Justice nominee John) Roberts for never having never having taken a deposition or conducted a trial.”

Quoted: Charles O. Jones, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin.

(UNDATED) A new study shows grazing dairy cows is economically competitive with large-scale confinement facilities. The ten-year analysis compared the farm financial records of large and small farms in Wisconsin.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison agriculture economist has compiled years� worth of financial records from all types of farms. Tom Kriegl says there�s been a big shift in dairyland in the last decade. (First item.)

Quoted: University of Wisconsin biologist Sean Carroll

Quoted: Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of applied economics and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: George Huber and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsinââ?¬â??Madison.

“Most of these telecom companies have to have one lawyer for every engineer,” said UW- Madison communications professor Barry Orton.

Quoted: Dr. David Dickson, professor emeritus in dairy sciences at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: Giulio Tononi, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

If today’s young people can destroy aliens and jump through mazes on a computer screen, maybe that same computer screen can help them sort through complicated science concepts and other educational material, too.
That’s the idea behind 3D- Readers, a series of software products developed by a young Madison company, The NeuronFarm, to help students better understand what they’re reading.