The College of Letters & Science is the liberal arts powerhouse at the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We make groundbreaking research discoveries that influence the lives of people in our state and around the world. We teach more than 19,000 students from all corners of Wisconsin and beyond, equipping them with the skills and perspective to make a good living and lead a good life. We willingly and joyfully share our knowledge outside of campus. We change lives.
In 2015, L&S faculty, staff and students continued to live out our research, teaching and service mission. The following are some of the stories and events that shaped the year in UW-Madison's largest college:
A new species of human
John Hawks, the Vilas Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of Anthropology, played a major role in the headline-grabbing fossil find of Homo naledi, the newest addition to the human family tree. "We now have the biggest discovery in Africa for hominins," said Hawks. Graduate student Alia Gurtov helped unearth the fossils, while postdoctoral researcher Caroline VanSickle analyzed the pelvis bones.
Spotlight on the humanities
UW-Madison's Center for the Humanities, part of L&S, hosted the annual meeting of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), a three-day event with a theme of "Humanities by the Numbers." The meeting also included some news: the Center for the Humanities will take over administration of the CHCI in 2017, further amplifying the spotlight on humanities outreach and scholarship in L&S.
A lot of help from our friends
The staff of the UW-Madison Geology Museum. (Photo by Sarah Morton, College of Letters & Science)
L&S could not retain world-class faculty researchers, offer eye-opening courses or support innovative projects without loyal support from alumni and donors. The college received $100 million for faculty and staff support as part of the Morgridge match, including gifts from the Lubar family to benefit the Department of Computer Sciences, from the Lesar family to sustain the UW-Madison Geology Museum and from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch a new undergraduate humanities initiative.
Alumni Jerome and Simona Chazen made yet another gift to support the campus art museum that bears their name, while the Mead Witter Foundation generously donated $25 million to allow the School of Music's new performance center — the result of a lead gift by the Hamel family announced last December — to be built in one phase.
Preparing students for success on campus and beyond
The L&S Career Initiative successfully launched a new academic- and career-planning course in January, then partnered with University Housing to open a new, one-of-a-kind immersive residential career program in Ogg Hall. And LSCI surveys show L&S alumni are flourishing after earning their undergraduate degrees.
Getting their due
The L&S faculty includes brilliant researchers and extraordinary teachers, so it's no surprise when their work is recognized. Among the honors in 2015:
-L&S professors won a whopping 10 of 12 campus Distinguished Teaching Awards
-Amy Barger (Astronomy), Jordan Ellenberg (Mathematics) and Lynn Keller (English) received Guggenheim Fellowships
-Jenny Saffran, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
-Melanie Matchett Wood, assistant professor of mathematics (pictured left), won a prestigious Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering
Melanie Buhr-Lawler with her father, R. Paul Buhr. (Photo by Sarah Morton, College of Letters & Science)
The Wisconsin Idea
Our faculty and staff pursue projects that help the people of Wisconsin. Take Melanie Buhr-Lawler, a clinical associate professor of audiology who led a hearing conservation outreach project at the Tomah Tractor Pull as part of an effort to address the broader — and surprising — problem of rural noise. And L&S students get in on the act, too. Sophomore Laura Schmitt, an English and journalism major, used a Wisconsin Open Education Community Fellowship project to create a new literary journal for middle and high school students in Green Bay.
Among the best
Every year, our inquisitive, hard-working students earn recognition among the brightest and best in the country, and 2015 was no different. Colin Higgins (pictured right), a graduate student in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and a May graduate of L&S with three majors, won a Rhodes Scholarship, one of the top honors in higher education. Phoenix Rice-Johnson, a political science and international studies major who grew up in relative poverty in Hawaii, received a Truman Scholarship. Three more L&S students earned Goldwater Scholarships for undergraduate excellence in the sciences.
College of discovery
L&S researchers take on challenges that span the humanities, social sciences and physical and natural sciences. Assistant Professor of Chemistry Trisha Andrew is working with a colleague in the School of Human Ecology to create a solar textile. Ben Liblit and Thomas Reps, professors of computer sciences, are developing an autocorrect system for computer programming code. Political science Professors Barry Burden, David Canon and Kenneth Mayer and public affairs Professor Donald Moynihan have devised ways to increase voter turnout. A class project by art history Professor Ann Smart Martin and her students resulted in a Smithsonian Institution exhibit. There were too many compelling research projects in 2015 to list them all.
Saying goodbye
The college lost two longtime, esteemed faculty members in 2015: Claudia Card, a bold teacher and a pioneer in the area of feminist philosophy, and Stan Kutler, a historian who fought for the release of hours of tape recordings related to the Watergate scandal.