Skip to main content

Tag: featured

UW-Madison to debut METAL, ACE manufacturing workforce hubs

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

The University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to debut public, free-of-charge metals casting and CNC machining Wisconsin Hubs this summer in partnership with the U.S. Department of War (DOW).

Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeships & Learning (METAL) and America’s Cutting Edge (ACE) are Department of War-sponsored hubs offering free, hands-on workforce development courses. ACE’s bootcamps focus on introductory CNC machining, a process involving a computer-controlled machine that carves material into a user-designed part. METAL’s offerings focus on introductory metals casting and forging.

In Antarctica, UW-Madison researchers answer questions about the hidden giants of our universe

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

“When the neutrino interacts in the ice, it shatters an atom and the splinters from that direction are a lot of energetic subatomic particles,” UW-Madison professor of physics and astronomy — and frequent IceCube collaborator — Justin Vandenbroucke said. “A fraction of those have electric charge, and they make a flash of blue light.”

Prescribing improv to improve patient-doctor relationships

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Amy Zelenski, associate professor and director of Education Innovation and Scholarship at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, teaches an elective class in improvisational theater.

She recently visited WPR’s “The Larry Meiller Show” to discuss the relationship between improv and improving health care.

“I started my career working with medical residents, and I realized that they could say the words, but they were struggling with the connection piece,” Zelenski recalled.

How UW-Madison’s WSUM became the best campus radio station in the country

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

On Feb. 21, the station took home one of the highest awards in college journalism: the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System named WSUM the best college station in the nation.

Kelsey Brannan, the director of student radio at WSUM — one of the station’s two full-time employees — said WSUM’s students provide listeners with authentic shows and music that aren’t replicated on other stations or streaming services.

“You’re hearing students bring in music that you’re not hearing anywhere else,” Brannan said. “They’re telling news stories from their perspective that you’re not getting from the national news or even local outlets — it’s a really unique perspective. You’re hearing sportscasters who are students who are calling the games that their peers are participating in. There’s something really special about that.”

UW-Madison dance major — the first in the nation — turns 100

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

University of Wisconsin-Madison President Edward Birge did not want the university to be known as a dancing school.

But after physical education instructor Margaret H’Doubler began teaching dance classes in 1918, that’s the direction things were headed. Hundreds of students signed up each semester, and H’Doubler and her students were being invited to colleges and universities across the country to share their methods.

Birge took away H’Doubler’s travel privileges, to no avail.

“It was too late. Other institutions were inviting H’Doubler all the time, and if she couldn’t come to them, they would come to her,” said Andrea Harris, professor of dance history and Buff Brennan faculty fellow in dance at UW-Madison. “The interest outweighed any pushback that there was at that time.”

I went into phone-free silence. Something disturbing happened.

Posted on
The Washington Post

“We are often so externally focused that we don’t recognize what is going on in our minds, and when we begin to pay attention to that, it’s genuinely exhausting for most people,” Richard Davidson, a University of Wisconsin psychologist who studies meditation. It also can make us more anxious, at least at first.

How Bad Bunny took Puerto Rican independence mainstream

Posted on
NPR

How Bad Bunny became the global voice of a generation in crisis — and what it means when resistance becomes profitable. Includes interview with Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, a professor of Puerto Rican, Caribbean and Latin American History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He’s the author of Puerto Rico: A National History. He is also the author of  the history visualizers for Bad Bunny’s DTMF album.

They’re 2 feet tall, born of AI and vying for world soccer domination

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

It’s like the World Cup. The stadium is on edge, and a player kicks the ball, scoring the winning goal.

The crowd erupts.

But at UW-Madison in Morgridge Hall, the soccer stars are autonomous humanoid robots.

Josiah Hanna, a UW-Madison assistant professor of computer sciences, leads the university’s student RoboCup team, which uses artificial intelligence to teach soccer-playing robots humanlike behaviors, all while producing research to advance the field.

UW-Madison sophomore launches productivity startup aimed at simplifying student life

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

Growing up in a first-generation Indian household, Armaan Jain was thrown into activities from a young age — baseball, basketball, soccer and everything but football. The packed schedule forced him to learn time management early, a skill reinforced by parents who deeply valued education and structure.

“From elementary school onward, I had to have systems in place to succeed,” he said. “I learned early that motivation isn’t always there, so you need something that keeps you going anyway.”

Scientists just watched these entities rapidly evolve in Space. They could save our lives

Posted on
Popular Science

To fill in this knowledge gap, the research team (led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) analyzed two bacterial samples of Escherichia coli (E. coli)—one located on Earth, the other on the ISS, and both infected with what is known as a T7 bacteriophage. Eventually, they found that while the outcome of the arms race remained the same in each location—the bacteriophage eventually infected its bacterial prey—there were distinct differences in how this battle played out between the two samples.

“Space fundamentally changes how phages and bacteria interact: infection is slowed, and both organisms evolve along a different trajectory than they do on Earth,” the authors wrote. “By studying those space-driven adaptations, we identified new biological insights that allowed us to engineer phages with far superior activity against drug-resistant pathogens back on Earth.”

UW-Madison, Immuto partner to target new colorectal cancer treatments

Posted on
WKOW - Channel 27

The University of Wisconsin–Madison and Immuto Scientific have teamed up to explore new therapeutic targets in colorectal cancer. According to the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, this collaboration aims to use Immuto’s AI-enabled platform to discover novel treatments for solid colorectal cancer tumors.

Dr. Dustin Deming, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, leads the project. “Our collection of patient-derived colorectal cancer organoids enables exploration of tumor biology and therapeutic vulnerabilities in ways that traditional models cannot,” said Deming.

Wisconsin researchers lead natural food coloring breakthrough as industry phases out artificial dyes

Posted on
WMTV - Channel 15

Within UW-Madison’s Department of Food Science, Professor Bradley Bolling has pioneered research of anthocyanins, natural pigments responsible for the vibrant hues in fruits like cranberries.

“We want to understand how the pigments in cranberry are stabilized,” Bolling said.

Bolling developed a patented process using lecithin, an emulsifier, to extract natural pigments from cranberries without using alcohol or acetone. This makes the process safer and more environmentally sustainable.

How NIH ending funding for human fetal tissue research could affect studies

Posted on
ABC News

Dr. Anita Bhattacharyya, an associate professor of cell and regenerative biology in the school of medicine and public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she was hoping to apply for a future NIH grant to study human fetal tissue research and will now not be able to do so.

Bhattacharyya explained she currently uses human-induced pluripotent stem cells, which are reprogrammed cells that are similar to embryonic stem cells, in her work. However, the loss of NIH funding for human fetal tissue research could affect future work.

“My reaction was, ‘How are we going to do some of our research if we can no longer use human fetal tissue?'” she recalled to ABC News. “In particular, my lab studies Down syndrome and so we know that in Down syndrome, the brain develops differently to lead to the intellectual disability that people with Down syndrome have.”

Photo of the day: Quilt exhibit

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Tarah Connolly, a PhD student at UW-Madison, looks at a quilt from the 1870’s that is on display at the “Find Your Quilt” exhibit in the Ruth Davis Design Gallery in Nancy Nicholas Hall at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wis. Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026.

How one UW-Madison lab improves sheep’s quality of life

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

An assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences wants to improve sheep’s quality of life.

Sarah Adcock focuses her research on the welfare of farm animals, including specializing in the docking of lamb tails, a routine procedure on farms that can lead to acute and sometimes even chronic pain for the animal.

UW-Madison’s new center for aging research studies metabolism, biology, genetics and more

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

“We don’t have the fountain of youth— nobody ever found it,” said Dudley Lamming, co-director of the Wisconsin Nathan Shock Center (WiNSC) and professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “but can we find ways [to] get to the end of our lives, still fit and functional?”

Education has seen unprecedented changes in Trump’s second term

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Last year, just as she was finishing a teacher residency program through the University of Wisconsin-Madison, federal funding for the project was cut by the Trump administration.

“So we were in the spring semester and we were all like, are we going to be able to continue?” Lind said. “Are we going to still be able to get our teaching license? Are we going to have to pay this back?”

Could a drug slow aging? UW-Madison researchers seek answers in trial

Posted on
The Cap Times

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are studying whether a drug used for organ transplant patients could slow aging in humans.

Some compelling evidence in recent decades shows rapamycin — also known as sirolimus — can increase the quality and quantity of life in animals, said Adam Konopka, a UW-Madison assistant professor of geriatrics and gerontology.

“This got people really excited that maybe this drug could be used to improve human healthy longevity,” he said.

A new Humanities building and other developments UW-Madison has in the works this year

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The doors of a new academic building will open, three-year-old scaffolding is expected to come down, and designs are being drawn up to revamp a historic site on UW-Madison’s campus in 2026.

Upcoming plans for development projects at UW-Madison signal another busy year of changes happening on campus. In 2025, UW-Madison notably opened a new building that houses its new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence: Morgridge Hall, a privately funded $267 million, 343,000-square-foot facility.

5 UW professors reflect on the year when Trump upended federal research

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Avtar Roopra’s research has effectively stalled since President Donald Trump started his second term and upended the federal research funding landscape. Agencies have cut projects, delayed grant reviews, fired thousands of federal employees who offer guidance to researchers and reduced the number of new projects getting funding.

“This is like the Holy Grail of epilepsy, what we’ve been looking for for hundreds of years,” Roopra said. “All of it is on hold. It’s extremely frustrating.”

What UW-Madison researchers learned from an experiment in outer space

Posted on
The Cap Times

Vatsan Raman never expected he would send a research experiment to outer space.

“This is like a box that’s sitting on our lab bench one day, and the next day it’s on a rocket that’s going up to (the International Space Station). … It was really quite surreal,” said Raman, an associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW-Madison research foundation seeks next ‘diamonds’ amid federal cuts

Posted on
The Cap Times

The organization is set to provide $206.9 million in total support to UW-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research this school year, including $50 million toward research projects and nearly $36 million for faculty, graduate students and staff.

Now in its second century, the nonprofit faces challenges, though. The Trump administration’s widespread cuts to federal research funding could limit the number of discoveries coming to WARF.

Viruses may be more powerful in the International Space Station’s microgravity environment

Posted on
Space

To better understand how microbes may act differently in space, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria, also called phages — in identical settings both on the ISS and on Earth. Their results, published recently in the journal PLOS Biology, suggest that microgravity can delay infections, reshape evolution of both phages and bacteria and even reveal genetic combinations that may help the performance against disease-linked bacteria on Earth.

“Studying phage–bacteria systems in space isn’t just a curiosity for astrobiology; it’s a practical way to understand and anticipate how microbial ecosystems behave in spacecraft and to mine new solutions for phage therapy and microbiome engineering back home,” said Dr. Phil Huss, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the study’s lead authors.

January 11, 1887- Aldo Leopold was born

Posted on
WMTV - Channel 15

Aldo Leopold was born in Burlington, Iowa and moved to Wisconsin in 1925. He taught game management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the first courses for it in the country. Leopold is best known for his collection of essays “Sand County Almanac” that explains the way the natural world works and ways conservation could be used to preserve it.

Twin brothers make “Money Magic:” UW professor & his financial adviser twin brother drop children’s book

Posted on
Madison 365

Quentin Riser pursued academia, earning a PhD and eventually joining the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Human Ecology, where he studies child development and family outcomes. Quinlan went into the financial world, spending nearly a decade at Principal Financial Group before becoming a financial advisor and later leading an insurance business.

“It’s designed to be a two-generational book,” Quentin Riser said. “The kids are going to ask their parents, ‘Mom, Dad, what is estate planning?’ And if the parents don’t know, they’re going to have to go look that up.”

Twenty years on, celebrating the University of Wisconsin’s twin hockey titles

Posted on
Madison Magazine

It had never happened before, and it hasn’t happened since — the men’s and women’s hockey teams from the same school winning NCAA championships in the same year. 

But in 2006, both the men’s and women’s University of Wisconsin hockey teams won national titles, and the teams were led by a brother and sister who grew up playing youth hockey in Madison. 

UW-Madison set to finish two new buildings in 2026, start another

Posted on
The Cap Times

tudents are on track to take classes in a new humanities building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall. And the athletics department plans to finish an indoor football practice facility next to Camp Randall Stadium this summer.

As those two projects wrap up in 2026, Wisconsin’s flagship public university also plans to break ground on a visitor and education center at the Lakeshore Nature Preserve, near Picnic Point.

A new Humanities building and other developments UW-Madison has in the works this year

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The doors of a new academic building will open, three-year-old scaffolding is expected to come down, and designs are being drawn up to revamp a historic site on UW-Madison’s campus in 2026.

Upcoming plans for development projects at UW-Madison signal another busy year of changes happening on campus. In 2025, UW-Madison notably opened a new building that houses its new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence: Morgridge Hall, a privately funded $267 million, 343,000-square-foot facility.

UW-Madison researchers using fruit flies to find potential treatment for incurable cancer

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have unlocked a potential new treatment to target an incurable form of childhood cancer with the help of a fast-reproducing pest known for swarming kitchen produce.

Professors Melissa Harrison and Peter Lewis used fruit flies to to study how cellular pathways are misregulated by a cancer-causing mutant protein. The pesky bugs were perfect lab subjects for the project because two-thirds of the cancer-causing genes in humans are shared by fruit flies.

Can fruit flies lead to new treatments for incurable childhood brain cancer?

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Using fruit flies, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are uncovering a new way to think about treating an aggressive and deadly form of childhood brain cancer.

By understanding how different proteins affect genetic mutations in the flies’ wings and eyes, the researchers say it could lead to new ways to silence genes behind the disease

This growing UW-Madison lab helps students create using AI, other tech

Posted on
The Cap Times

Launched in February, the lab is a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business and the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. It provides an opportunity for students from across the university to try emerging technologies — including AI, blockchain and virtual reality — and use them to potentially solve real-world problems.

“I love it because I see students progress remarkably,” said Sandra Bradley, the lab’s executive director. “When you give them a lot of … space and then hand them things that they need, the magic happens.”

Chazen showcases local influence in newly acquired photos

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

The Chazen Museum of Art has added 28 photos taken by acclaimed photographer Irving Penn to its collection.

The photos were donated to the museum by the Irving Penn Foundation in Penn’s name. It was a gift in honor of UW-Madison alumnus and former Museum of Modern Art photography director John Szarkowski, according to a statement from museum spokesperson Kirstin Pires.

UW scientists alarmed by Trump plan to break up national weather research center

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are sounding the alarm over a Trump administration plan to dismantle a prominent weather and climate research center, saying it could jeopardize the future of weather forecasting.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research is based in Boulder, Colorado, but is overseen by a consortium of universities, including UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. The center allows researchers to work together on large projects that no one scientist or university could do alone.

Wisconsin’s 32 Most Influential Black Leaders for 2025, Part 2

Posted on
Madison 365

Dr. Earlise Ward is faculty director for the Cancer Health Disparities Initiative (CHDI) and co-director of the T32 Primary Care Research Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She conducts community-engaged clinical intervention research focused on African American adults’ mental health and culturally competent mental health services. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Baruch College, master’s degree in counseling and Brooklyn College and PhD in counseling psychology at UW-Madison.

Donald Dantzler is an alder for the City of Fitchburg, candidate for Dane County Board, and a Survey and Research Specialist for the Madison Metropolitan School District. He was previously faculty and adjunct faculty for UW-Whitewater, and has also worked as a research associate at Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory and a project assistant for the UW System Administration Office of Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Success.  He earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UW-Whitewater and is a doctoral candidate in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program at UW-Madison.

In manure, UW-Madison researcher Brayan Riascos sees the future of plastic

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

When Brayan Riascos looks at the Wisconsin cattle herds, he sees untapped potential.

A third-year Ph.D. civil and environmental engineering student from Colombia, Riascos’ research looks at what most consider the least attractive part of dairy and beef cattle — the piles of manure — and he sees what could someday be the building block of a more sustainable plastic than traditional petroleum-based production.

Any plastic made from manure undergoes several chemical makeovers before it’s a finished product, and certainly looks — and thankfully, smells — nothing like its source material.

Wisconsin’s 32 Most Influential Black Leaders for 2025, Part 1

Posted on
Madison 365

Maurice Thomas is chief operating officer at Greater Holy Temple Christian Academy, a 4k-8th grade Christian school in Milwaukee. He is an alum of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and expects to earn a master’s degree in education leadership from Harvard in 2027.

Jerry Jordan is a nationally-known painter working in the style of contemporary realism. He counts the unsung artists of the Harlem Renaissance as his artistic role models. By day, Jordan is an academic and multicultural advisor with the UW-Madison School of Education. He holds a degree in art from UW-Whitewater.

Dr. Bashir Easter is founder of Melanin Minded, a company that aims to empower Black and Latino communities by culturally appropriate resources and support for individuals affected by Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. He began his career in elder care nearly 15 years ago with Milwaukee County as an elder abuse investigator, human services worker, and dementia care program specialist, and later served as associate director of the All of Us Research Program at UW-Madison.

 

‘Pride in ourselves’: Indigenous UW-Madison students learn to sew ribbon skirts

Posted on
The Cap Times

“It’s important to be able to express ourselves through our clothing and kind of use it not only as a statement … that we’re still on campus, but also just have some pride in ourselves and our traditional attire,” said Miinan White, an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.

UW-Madison’s woodworking program combines art and craft

Posted on
Isthmus

Their very first assignment is hand carving the utensil out of a block of poplar. But there is a reason that Katie Hudnall — the director of UW’s woodworking and furniture program — calls it the “not a spoon” assignment.

“If the project was just shaping a perfect wooden spoon, they wouldn’t really get the chance to design something for themselves,” says Hudnall. “The assignment is really to create not just a spoon. The design element is what gets them to unlock their art brains.”

Women’s work: the hidden mental load of household decision-making

Posted on
The Cap Times

“I really saw a turning point during the pandemic when parents were really struggling, and moms in particular were really struggling,” said Allison Daminger, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the division of labor in adult romantic relationships.

Daminger’s book, “What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life,” examines how gender shapes household duties and why women are more likely to carry the mental load.

UW-Madison chancellor says new AI college will connect campus, serve most popular majors

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who leads the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sees opening a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence as the right move to support in-demand majors and says funding the school won’t come at the expense of other areas of the university.

Americans drank more milk in 2024, reversing a decade-long decline

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Leonard Polzin, dairy markets and policy outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension, said whole milk has benefited from the diet craze around protein, driven in large part by health and fitness influencers online.

“The more protein, the better. Consumers are all about that,” he said. “The other portion is kind of a shift towards healthy fats too. So for example, cottage cheese is having a real moment right now.”

UW-Madison earns $1 million for winning Big Ten blood drive competition

Posted on
WMTV - Channel 15

The University of Wisconsin-Madison won the Big Ten “We Give Blood Drive” competition, earning $1 million that will go toward student or community health initiatives.

The competition, sponsored by Abbott, challenged all Big Ten schools to collect the most blood donations to help address the nationwide blood shortage.

‘The next step:’ UW-Madison details $80 million college focused on AI

Posted on
WMTV - Channel 15

 For the first time in more than 40 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is launching a new college.

Approved by the UW Board of Regents on Thursday, the “College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence” is set to open in July.

“We see the new college as kind of the next step,” UW-Madison Interim Provost John Zumbrunnen said. “We envision it as a hub around computing, data and AI on our campus, but really beyond our campus too.”

Matchmaking website could connect retiring farmers with younger farmers

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

“If we want land to be available to new or beginning farmers, figuring out ways that the land can be affordable for them and still provide the income that the owner generation needs is key,” said Joy Kirkpatrick, a farm succession outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.

UW-Madison’s new Hub envisions seeding students’ startups across Wisconsin

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

Surrounded by tools and wires in his lab at UW-Madison, Luis Izet Escaño holds up a tiny object, 3D-printed with metal powder in a device he created. It’s a little product that could lead to something much bigger, and he’s crafted it through his startup company.

That effort is getting some help from a new program at UW-Madison, through which he gets some seed money from the university and one year of training, with the help of campus experts, to get his company out of the door and pitch it to real-world investors.

University of Wisconsin wins Big Ten blood drive, securing $1M for health initiatives

Posted on
WKOW - Channel 27

The University of Wisconsin won in the second season of Abbott and the Big Ten’s We Give Blood Drive, overcoming Nebraska in a close contest.

Running from Aug. 27 through Dec. 5, the “We Give Blood” competition, was announced at the 2025 Discover Big Ten Football Championship Game in Indianapolis.

UW-Madison’s proposed AI-focused college gets Regents’ OK

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison has the go-ahead to start a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

The UW Board of Regents on Thursday gave UW-Madison permission to move the School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences (CDIS) out of the College of Letters and Science and transform it into the new college.

UW Board of Regents approves new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence

Posted on
The Badger Herald

The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents approved the reorganization of the School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences to create a new, standalone College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence during its December meeting on Thursday.

UW receives approval to move L&S’s largest majors to new AI-focused school

Posted on
The Daily Cardinal

The University of Wisconsin-Madison received approval to separate the school’s largest and fastest-growing majors into a new college focused on Artificial Intelligence and computing ahead of next fall.

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents voted unanimously Thursday to authorize creation of a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence (CAI) at UW-Madison, the first new academic division since 1983, when UW-Madison created the School of Veterinary Medicine.