Two community projects involving professional schools from the College of Letters & Science will receive Community-University Partnership Awards on June 12. The projects are: The Jail Library Project, a partnership between the Dane County Library Service, Dane County Sheriff’s Office and the School of Library and Information Studies. Southwest Madison Community Organizers, a partnership between [...]
The Rodney Dangerfield of celestial bodies is back. Ceres is a dwarf planet ambiguously added to the roster of planets in our solar system by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, the same year Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status. But Ceres is still considered by some to be an asteroid, giving it a [...]
Madison taxpayers can now pay their property taxes in four installments due to an ordinance change adopted by the city council June 5, a couple years after a La Follette School of Public Affairs analysis found that property owners are less likely to be late with tax payments if they can make three installment payments [...]
Joy Zedler, professor of botany and Aldo Leopold Chair of Restoration Ecology, was elected fellow of the Society of Wetland Scientists at the group’s annual international conference this week in Duluth, Minn. The award subcommittee called Zedler “a world leader in wetland restoration ecology and invasive species ecology, who made restoration a science by using [...]
In an early-morning action, the Joint Finance Committee of the Wisconsin Legislature voted to adopt a motion that would separate the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from its collaboration with the students and staff of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Motion 999 reads: “Prohibit the Board of Regents from permitting the Center for Investigative Journalism [...]
Michele Hilmes, professor and chair of the Department of Communication Arts, has received a Fulbright Award to enable her to conduct research into “transnational” British and American broadcasting at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom for six months in 2013-14. Created by treaty in 1948, the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission is the only bilateral, transatlantic scholarship program, offering [...]
An award from the United Nations is honoring the work of Araceli Alonso, a senior lecturer in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women recently notified Alonso that she is the recipient of the 2013 United Nations Public [...]
John Karl Scholz, Nellie June Gray Professor of Economic Policy and chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been selected as the next dean of the College of Letters & Science, UW-Madison’s largest academic unit. Scholz will succeed Gary Sandefur, who has led Letters & Science since 2004. Sandefur, a sociologist, [...]
Watching and discussing television — its production, social impact and sense of place — has given Myles McNutt a unique perspective on the American experience. Through social media, McNutt, now a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Arts, has found the perfect intersection between research and real life. During the past [...]
Nine students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Letters & Science have received 2013-14 fellowships from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the country’s flagship program for international exchange. The program provides recipients with funding for a full academic year of study, research or assistant teaching abroad. The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and [...]
A Facebook profile is an ideal version of self, full of photos and posts curated for the eyes of family, friends and acquaintances. A new study shows that this version of self can provide beneficial psychological effects and influence behavior. Catalina Toma, a UW-Madison assistant professor of communication arts, used the Implicit Association Test to measure Facebook [...]
Wisconsin’s labor market shows no evidence of an existing or impending general “skills gaps,” according to a new analysis by a team of graduate students at UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. The students analyzed the supply and demand for labor by building projections for both overall levels of educational attainment and specific occupations and by [...]
The solid aluminum cast of an elephant on Warren Porter‘s desk has been waiting for 25 years. With a novel melding of biology, engineering, and art, the 10-inch long cast has now been transformed into a 3-D digital model, capable of simulating interactions between a real African elephant and its physical environment. Porter, a University [...]
Over the last several years, state agencies and environmental nonprofit organizations have targeted dam removal as a way to quickly improve the health of aquatic ecosystems. Dams keep migratory fish from swimming upriver to spawn, block nutrients from flowing downstream, and change the entire hydrology of a watershed. From an ecosystem perspective, taking down a [...]
Computing can be a complex and difficult topic for those without technical experience. Stephen Rader’s easy-going manner made his colleagues in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Physics feel at-ease with technology and helped support their research successes. “Steve assuaged computing fears and helped members of the department achieve their computing goals with his confident expertise,” [...]
Randall Goldsmith, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has received a 2013 Shaw Scientist Award from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Goldsmith is one of two recipients of the honor, which supports young scientists engaged in groundbreaking research in the fields of biochemistry, biological sciences and cancer research. The other award winner is [...]
Manon van de Water, a professor of theatre research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has won the American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s 2013 Distinguished Book of the Year award for “Theatre, Youth, and Culture: A Critical and Historical Exploration” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Van de Water has been a faculty member at UW-Madison since 1998. [...]
Large-river specialist fishes — from giant species like paddlefish and blue catfish, to tiny crystal darters and silver chub — are in danger, but researchers say there is greater hope to save them if major tributaries identified in a University of Wisconsin-Madison study become a focus of conservation efforts. The study says 60 out of [...]
In an age when microbial pathogens are growing increasingly resistant to the conventional antibiotics used to tamp down infection, a team of Wisconsin scientists has synthesized a potent new class of compounds capable of curbing the bacteria that cause staph infections. Writing online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a group led by University [...]
Flipped classrooms. MOOCs. Clickers for real-time class surveys. New technologies are constantly changing the educational landscape. Tehshik Yoon, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of the professors at the forefront when it comes to thinking about and testing out new technologies while teaching. His students and colleagues say his efforts [...]
Emily Auerbach, professor of English and the director of the Odyssey Project, recently received the Leadership in Social Justice Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Student Personnel Association at the group’s annual awards ceremony. The Odyssey Project offers a free six-credit humanities class each year to 30 students who have faced overwhelming obstacles to higher [...]
Professor Robert Drechsel has been named director of the Center for Journalism Ethics (CJE) and Burgess Chair in Journalism Ethics at the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Drechsel will take over for Stephen Ward, the founding director of the CJE. Ward is leaving to take the position of director of the Turnbull Center in Portland, Ore., in the [...]
A massive telescope in the Antarctic ice reports the detection of 28 extremely high-energy neutrinos that might have their origin in cosmic sources. Two of these reached energies greater than 1 petaelectronvolt (PeV), an energy level thousands of times higher than the highest energy neutrino yet produced in a manmade accelerator. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, [...]
Seven projects in the College of Letters & Science have received funding to advance the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s commitment to Education Innovation. Educational Innovation is a campus-wide initiative to create innovative approaches to education and research and set the university on the path to greater self-sufficiency. All of the EI projects were chosen based on [...]
Lewis Friedland, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has received a grant from the Morgridge Center for Public Service to support service learning and community-based research. Friedland, one of eight grant recipients across campus, receieved $14,500 for two years for his Madison Commons project. The Madison Commons, a [...]
Professors, instructors and advisers enlighten, challenge and inspire us. They can shape our opinions, push our work to new heights and spark an interest to learn more about a topic or discipline. In the 2011-12 academic year, the College of Letters & Science asked graduating seniors to nominate faculty or staff members who impacted their [...]
Last month, the financial picture looked bleak for the Dictionary of American Regional English. But the picture has improved with a $100,000 gift from an anonymous donor, announced last week following the dictionary’s Board of Visitors meeting in Chicago, and a $30,000 gift from the American Dialect Society — the group that in 1962 asked the [...]
Suzanne King, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently won the 2013 Plural Publishing Research Scholarship. The award is given by the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders. King’s research focuses on the pathogenesis of vocal fold scar and the immunological response [...]
When the “Jeopardy!” College Championship was filmed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in April 2008, Julia Sprangers sat in the Kohl Center audience to watch then-senior Suchita Shah compete. Now Sprangers, a junior studying economics and Spanish, has her own chance to make a mark — and she traveled around the world to make it [...]
Bassam Shakhashiri, a chemistry professor and William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has received the 2013 Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science. Named for the astronomer whose enthusiasm and broad scientific knowledge helped inspire a generation to look at science as a fascinating discipline that makes [...]
The Department of Chemistry recently recognized 70 undergraduate and graduate students at its 2013 Student Awards Ceremony. Thanks to the generous support of alumni and friends, the department was able to recognize students for their outstanding achievements in chemistry teaching and learning, research, and outreach. This year’s award winners were: 2013 Summer Undergraduate Research Awards [...]
Finalists for dean of the College of Letters & Science will conduct public presentations and question and answer sessions ahead of the end of the semester. As part of formal campus interviews, the sessions will be held at 3:30 p.m. in the Gordon Dining and Event Center, 770 W. Dayton St., on the following dates: —Thursday, May [...]
Three University of Wisconsin-Madison professors, along with a fourth candidate who taught at UW-Madison for 18 years, have been named finalists for the position of dean of the College of Letters & Science, UW-Madison’s largest academic unit. The new dean will succeed Gary Sandefur, who has led Letters & Science since 2004. Sandefur plans to step [...]
Two graduates of the College of Letters & Science were named Librarians of the Year by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries earlier this month. Susan Barribeau (BA’77, English; MA’91, Library and Information Studies), English language humanities librarian at Memorial Library, received the Librarian of the Year award given to a librarian who has worked more [...]
What do you do with a doctorate in medieval history if there are no teaching positions or you want to reach a wider audience? With a $1.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the UW-Madison Center for the Humanities will develop career opportunities beyond academia for humanities doctoral students. The grant also will support faculty and [...]
The Dictionary of American Regional English has reached the end of the alphabet, but ‘Z’ is not the end of the road for the definitive source on American speech. Chief Editor Joan Hall says the dictionary known as DARE still has more to accomplish. The dynamic nature of language means that updating the dictionary is an ongoing [...]
As the shapes of galaxies go, the spiral disk — with its characteristic pinwheel profile — is by far the most pedestrian. Our own Milky Way, astronomers believe, is a spiral. Our solar system and Earth reside somewhere near one of its filamentous, swept-back arms. And nearly 70 percent of the galaxies closest to the [...]
Students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication will be honored in May during the 82nd annual Milwaukee Press Club Awards for Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism. Students in two sections of Journalism 335: Intermediate Reporting created the UW Election Connection, which extensively covered the 2012 November election. The website placed in [...]
Can journalists remain independent as the line between editorial and advertorial blurs, and as journalists write increasingly for corporations, academic centers and nonprofit agencies? The question will be explored at the fifth journalism ethics conference, to be staged by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Journalism Ethics on Friday, April 5, entitled: “Who is Shaping the [...]
Lousy day at work or a bad grade on an exam? New research suggests people feeling deflated seek solace in their Facebook profiles to puff themselves up. “The appeal of Facebook is greater and greater every year, which leads us to believe there might be some universal psychological needs that are being fulfilled by the [...]
Monumental discoveries were made. Critical projects were finished. Laudable programs were celebrated. And scholars and alumni were remembered in the College of Letters & Science’s 124th year.
These were just some of the markers of 2012 in L&S. Here are some of the moments that made 2012 a memorable year for the College.
A 17-member search and screen committee has been appointed to assist in identifying a successor to Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters & Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
After retiring in 1994 as associate dean in the College of Letters & Science, Blair Mathews has maintained his connection with the university through a variety of channels. Now, as a poet, Mathews brings a different kind of work back to campus. Two current exhibits showcase Mathews’ collaborations with local artists. “Remembering” links Mathews with [...]
Scott Gilbert, a professor of biology at Swarthmore College noted for using stories, images and analogies to get scientific points across, will give two free public lectures in Madison Dec. 12 and 13. “Scott Gilbert has this amazing ability to talk at multiple levels at once,” says Lynn Nyhart, professor of the history of science at the University [...]
A remarkable new view of the dark side of our planet from space released today by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is just a peek at the nighttime capabilities of the agencies’ newest weather satellite, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Named for the father of satellite meteorology, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Verner Suomi, [...]
Ten years ago, a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism students wanted to show how Wisconsin extends beyond the stereotypes of cheese curds and green and gold. Since then, Curb magazine has featured everything from Sheboygan surfers to the state’s top 10 employers in the annual publication that encourages readers to step “beyond the curb” and discover [...]
Near-normal rains in October did little to alleviate the long-term drought that has gripped the Badger state since the spring, says State Climatologist John Young. South-central Wisconsin, the region that encompasses Dane County, gets 35 inches of rain in the average year, but received just 23 inches in the 12 months that ended Oct. 31. “Especially [...]
Emily Auerbach, Professor of English and the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Odyssey Project, is one of nine semi-finalists in the Local Lady Godiva program. The Odyssey Project offers a free six-credit humanities class each year to 30 students who have faced overwhelming obstacles to higher education such as homelessness or addiction. Participants receive [...]
It took seven years and the efforts of an international collaboration of scientists to turn the South Pole ice into the world’s largest, most innovative telescope: the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. A new outreach project is now bringing the benefits of this worldwide effort back to its Wisconsin roots. IceCube is a Wisconsin-based project, with key partners [...]
Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig will give the keynote address as a part of Ethics Week, sponsored by the Howard Carver Ethics and Professionalism Program at the Wisconsin School of Business. Selig’s remarks, titled “Perspectives on Ethical Leadership — A View from the Commissioner,” will be from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, [...]
The second session of L&S Learning Support Services‘ 2012-13 online workshop series starts Monday, Nov. 19. The workshop series explores various special topics in teaching with technology, with the second session entitled “Media Arts Production.” Through self-paced Learn@UW sessions that span three to four weeks, LSS will provide resources, activities, and discussion forums for each [...]
Now that voters have written an ending to the grueling presidential campaign, the nation’s political reporters will spend the next few weeks digesting the results and the lessons learned from the 2012 election. Among them will be Dan Balz, chief political correspondent for the Washington Post. He will bring his post-election view to the University of Wisconsin-Madison [...]
President Abraham Lincoln is more monument than man to many Americans, with his image printed on our our currency and seated atop Bascom Hill, among other places. On Friday, director Steven Spielberg’s movie “Lincoln,” with Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role, opens in theaters. UW-Madison experts discussed the depiction of presidents in the [...]
Wow. Wacky. Witty. Winter. Whimsical. Wonderful. That’s UW-Madison. Our alumni have stories, photos and memories. And we want to hear about that wonderful. For the first time ever, the University is launching a new multi-media effort to encourage alumni to support their alma mater through an annual gift.
Faculty and students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will lend their expertise to conservation efforts in central Africa as the first university member of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.
It took a trip halfway around the world to bring two University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists together.
After growing up in the heat of Mississippi and Louisiana, Dorothy Pearson (’60 MSSW L&S, ’73 PhD L&S) felt the cool breeze off Lake Michigan in June and sensed it was the wind of change. The year was 1958, and Pearson had just graduated from Southern University. She was on vacation in Milwaukee visiting a [...]
Every day researchers add another sea of data to an ocean of knowledge on the world around us — billions on top of billions of measurements, images and observations of the tiniest subatomic particles up to the movement of planets and stars.
Soon, the Department of Botany greenhouse will be filled with the stench of rotting flesh. Well, not real flesh. Big Bucky –, a titan arum or “corpse flower” — is due to bloom in late May or early June. This gigantic flower is known for its distinct scent and its rapid blooming process. Once the [...]
An academic program for freshman at UW-Madison received a $5,000 award from the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents this month. First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs) was chosen above other departments, programs and units within the entire UW System as the recipient of the 2012 Regents Teaching Excellence Award. Each year, the award recognizes a [...]
There is a stack of notecards on Ieva Reich’s desk in the Daniels Chemistry Building off University Avenue at UW-Madison. The cards do not contain equations or formulas. There are no diagrams or talking points on the cards either. Reich, the soon-to-be retired instructor in the Department of Chemistry, uses the notecards to learn the names [...]
The Chazen Museum of Art is pleased to announce that the expansion project has received recognition this spring from Wisconsin business media and architecture organizations, including In Business Magazine‘s Project of the Year Commercial Design Award, citing its aesthetics for patrons of the arts, its contribution to the East Campus Mall, and its compatibility with [...]
Frederick “Fritz” Schenker, a doctoral student in ethnomusicology at the School of Music, has received one of 17 Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources. He will use the fellowship to pursue research in Manila and Singapore for nine months beginning in September 2012 for his dissertation topic, “Performing Empire: Music and Race in [...]
UW-Madison students have had one more distraction to combat during finals week this year. Three baby red-tailed are growing up before their eyes. A webcam from the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) is capturing a live stream of a hawk nest located on a ledge of the Geoscience building, Weeks Hall, which is near [...]
The Milwaukee Press Club has released the results of the 84th annual Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism awards, and students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication are listed among this year’s winners. The students will learn in May whether they earned gold, silver or bronze awards. Best TV Feature Story The Badger Report, the video [...]
Bit by bit over the last two decades, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s iconic Washburn Observatory has been restored to its original sheen. The dome was refurbished in the 1990s and the building itself was restored and updated in 2009. And this week, a final but crucial touch up — the cleaning and refurbishment of the [...]
Speech and language pathology graduate students in the Department of Communicative Disorders are pioneering new ways to support children with severe and complex communication needs. The AAC Story Time Preschool at the University of Wisconsin Speech and Hearing Clinic is incorporating technology, such as iPads, to help facilitate speech and language development in children ages 2-4. [...]
University of Wisconsin-Madison seven students took home prizes at the Midwest Universities Chinese Speech Contest held at Northwestern University in Chicago last Saturday. The UW-Madison team consisted of seven students who won awards in all categories: 3 gold medalists: Alicia Montague-Keels, Dalian Urbonya and Isaac Hube 3 silver medalists: Richard Young, Samantha Moritz and Sei [...]
As former mayor of Madison and a graduate of UW-Madison, Dave Cieslewicz has seen both the city and the university go through many transformations. Years after graduating, he is back in historic Science Hall this spring to teach the next generation of city planners. With ancient wooden desks covered in graffiti, the lecture hall looks [...]
Professor Emeritus of History, Alfred Senn celebrated his 80th birthday on April 12, 2012 with a visit to Lithuania, where Vytautas Magnus University in Kauna sponsored a formal presentation of his new book Lithuania in my Life. The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also presented Senn with a medal, “Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy,” and the [...]
More than 75 UW-Madison students and members of the public attended an April 25 panel discussion on internship and career opportunities in U.S. intelligence and national security agencies for students with language and cultural competencies. Panelists, representing the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Language Service Corps, National Security Agency, and the [...]
Shawn Peters is “remixing” his teaching style this spring by bringing social media into the classroom. Peters is an instructor in Integrated Liberal Studies (ILS)—an undergraduate program in the College of Letters &Science that emphasizes interdisciplinary learning by incorporating several academic disciplines into each course. Students in Peters’s class – “Remix and Appropriation in the Western [...]
On Friday, April 28, students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison showcased their research and discovery with alumni and friends of the institution. As part of the Alumni Weekend, students played a part in welcoming alumni and friends back to campus for events and programming. Alumni Weekend is an annual cross-campus event each spring. The College of [...]
Mayor Paul Soglin has signed a proclamation designating this Saturday, April 28, as Chican@ Latin@ Studies Day in the city of Madison. It is the 35th anniversary of the program. Sylvia Garcia, administrator of the Chican@ & Latin@ Studies Program (CLSP), and associate director Petra Guerra approached Madison Common Council alderperson Shiva Bidar-Sielaff to introduce [...]
Temporary increases in safety net programs and tax credits for working families helped keep many in Wisconsin from poverty during the recession and its aftermath, a new report by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds. The fourth annual Wisconsin Poverty Report study, conducted by the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP), revealed lower numbers [...]
