Moments in Time 2023

Two people sit in lawn chairs with their backs to the camera. They're sitting on the ice of frozen lake Mendota and watching the sun set. They each raise their hands overhead to make a W sign with their thumbs and forefingers.

Taking advantage of mild winter weather, with temperatures in the mid-40s, UW alumna Lauryn Gullberg (left) and senior Tyler Lien (right) throw W hand signs as they chill on frozen Lake Mendota. Photo by: Jeff Miller

A group of friends seated in a row burst out laughing as they take photos of a giant gold lion puppet during a Lunar New Year celebration.

From left to right, first-year students Emily Mei, Rachel Hong, Priscilla Louey and Anna Chen can't suppress their laughter as a traditional lion-dance performer approaches them during the Vietnamese Student Association's Lunar New Year celebration. Photo by: Jeff Miller

An overhead photo shows a wooden box of seashell specimens on a black table top. The hands of students taking notes and reaching for shells enter the frame from the sides of the table.

Undergraduate students get hands on with various shell specimens as they learn to identify the characteristics of different species during a lab section of Zoology 301: Invertebrate Biology and Evolution. Photo by: Jeff Miller

A man wearing blaze neon on his winter hat, coat and pants stands on snow-covered cement steps. He's using an orange snow shovel to clear a path up the stairs.

A little ice and snow can't stop a Badger. Scott Schuette, a metal recycling specialist with Facilities Planning & Management, uses a snow shovel to clear sidewalks and steps for safe passage at the base of Bascom Hill. Photo by: Bryce Richter

A woman wearing a black tank top and black sweatpants and white ice skates glides across the Lake Mendota ice with her arms stretched graceful overhead and her eyes closed.

Losing herself in the moment, UW–Madison first-year student and former competitive skater Sutton Kreutzfeldt skates on frozen Lake Mendota for the first time. Photo by: Jeff Miller

Friends and family gathered on March 4 to remember Chancellor Emerita Rebecca Blank, who passed away on Feb. 17. Blank left enduring legacies from each chapter of her storied career, both in government and higher education. Under Blank's leadership, the university created new programs, most notably, Bucky’s Tuition Promise, to further open the doors of the university to lower-income students across the state. She also led increases in undergraduate enrollment, made strides expanding campus diversity and helped reduce the average time it takes students to graduate from the state’s flagship campus. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

A woman stands at the front of a class and holds a green plastic plant container with multiple sprouting daffodils emerging from its soil. Behind her, another woman interprets her words into American Sign Language. Several more containers with daffodils in various stages of growth and blooming sit on a long table standing between the two women.

“If it were possible, she would teach all of the horticulture classes!” one student enthused this spring about Johanna Oosterwyk (right), who received an Academic Staff Excellence Award for her creative, engaging and empathetic instruction. Here, Oosterwyk lectures in a class on cultivation while behind her, Clara Culligan interprets the lecture in American Sign Language. Photo by: Jeff Miller

In a close-up photo, Jane Goodall speaks from a podium. The image on a large screen behind her is out of focus, as is a stuffed animal monkey sitting on the podium. Goodall is speaking and gesturing with one hand.

There's still time for the planet if we stay hopeful. Jane Goodall, the internationally renowned ethologist and conservationist, shared this message to a 1,160-person capacity crowd at Memorial Union’s Shannon Hall in March. She discourages dwelling on “gloom and doom,” preferring a message of hope. Photo by: Jeff Miller

In a large corridor lit by floor-to ceiling windows at one end, two men appear in silhouette as the walk past each other in the hall. They reach out in greeting with an elbow bump.

You've got this. Two students greet each other with an elbow bump as they walk through the main atrium of the Engineering Centers Building. Photo by: Jeff Miller

A man sits at a bank of monitors stacked two high and six wide. More monitors are mounted from the ceiling above him. He's speaking into a walkie talkie held in his left hand while he moves a computer mouse with his right.

A team of thousands, including Charter Street Heating and Cooling Plant senior operator Ramkumar “Solomon” Bhulai, keeps UW–Madison running every night after dark. Bhulai feels nostalgic for the days when campus was powered by coal. “It kept your brain more active,” he says. But he admits the cleaner natural gas on which UW–Madison’s boilers now run is much better for the workers, the campus and the planet. Photo by: Bryce Richter

A man sits at a computer desk in his home office. He's moving a mouse with his right hand as he looks at the monitor. Behind him, his young son is holding onto the back of his office chair and making a surprised face as he looks directly to the camera.

Professor Nathaniel “Nate” Chin works in his home office under the close supervision of his son Auggie. As medical director of UW–Madison’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and medical director of the Wisconsin Registry of Alzheimer’s Prevention, Chin is on a mission to treat and even reverse the disease. Photo by: Jeff Miller

In a close-up photo of a glass cup holding tiny baby squid that cling to the side of the glass. They are white with brown spots, resembling the patterns on a giraffe, only much, much smaller.

Who wants five hugs? A clutch of teeny bobtail squid cluster together in a container the size of a drinking glass in the Mandel Lab, where researchers study the squid as a model for microbiome colonization. Photo by: Bryce Richter

A photo of cherry trees in bloom in front of the steps of Memorial Union, a large sandstone building with Italianate columns.

Flowers blossom on the trees in front of Memorial Union on an early spring evening as campus begins to shake off the winter chill. Photo by: Taylor Wolfram

Jennifer Mnookin stands on stage with a crowd of dignitaries, all wearing academic regalia. Mnookin folds her hands on her heart in a gesture of gratitude as she makes an address from a wooden podium that has the word

Having just received a medallion with the UW–Madison Numen Lumen insignia from UW System Board of Regents President Karen Walsh, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin takes a moment to show her appreciation during an investiture ceremony at UW–Madison. Photo by: Bryce Richter

What's the big idea? When Chris Walker — director of the Division of the Arts, professor of dance and founding artistic director of the First Wave program — thinks about what makes being a Badger special, he thinks about how Badgerhood is a gift of learning, given from one generation to another. While speaking at a Wisconsin Ideas event, he said to the audience, “We’re in the business of information, of innovation and of sharing so that others are capable of being innovative.” Photo by: Jeff Miller

A starry night sky is lit by shades of green and purple as the aurora borealis shines down on Lake Mendota. Students taking in the view stand on piers extending out into the lake.

Charged particles from a powerful solar storm collided with the Earth's upper atmosphere on April 23, lighting up the night skies as far south as Virginia. Here in Madison, a crowd gathered along Lake Mendota to watch the northern lights perform. Photo by: Taylor Wolfram

A group of about 20 UW Recreation & Wellbeing staff stand together in a tight group. They're laughing and talking as they look around at the newly-opened Bakke Recreation and Wellbeing Center.

Look up, look down, look all around. Rec Well staff come together to admire the bright, spacious and newly opened Bakke Recreation & Wellbeing Center, which features spaces dedicated to supporting well-being services amid more than 29,000 square feet of fitness space. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

In an art gallery space, visitors to the Reemancipation exhibition take in two statues standing in juxtaposition across the floor from one another. In the first, Abraham Lincoln stands at a podium and reaches down to a crouched enslaved person whom he has just declared emancipated. The second, newer statue shows Fredrick Douglas standing, holding the scales of justice in his left hand as he pulls back a quilt from the head of a seated Abraham Lincoln. The wall of the gallery is covered floor-to-ceiling with a projection of a street-art-style mural showing a Black man with his arms overhead and the words Jump n Funk along the bottom.

Guests view Lifting the Veil, a new sculpture (in background) by artist Sanford Biggers that depicts Frederick Douglass unveiling Abraham Lincoln, during the “re:mancipation” exhibition celebration at the Chazen Museum of Art. Lifting the Veil is Biggers’ response to Thomas Ball’s sculpture Emancipation Group (at left in the foreground), which depicts Abraham Lincoln standing over a kneeling freedman. Photo by: Jeff Miller

A wide-angle photo of Camp Randall Stadium taken during the spring commencement ceremony shows a sea of students wearing academic regalia. They're laughing, jumping and celebrating.

After a year as a University Communications photography intern, Colton Mansavage handed in his last photo of newly minted alumni celebrating commencement with one last "Jump Around." Photo by: Colton Mansavage

In a lodgepole pine forest in Yellowstone National Park, graduate student Arielle Link sits on the ground amidst young saplings that come up to her shoulders. She's looking at a laptop that she's resting on the lip of a black plastic tote. Behind her and a little farther off, Monica Turner stands amid older, burned trees as she takes in the landscape.

World-class fire ecology stretches from UW–Madison all the way to Yellowstone National Park. Here, graduate student Arielle Link downloads sensor data onto her laptop while professor and ecologist Monica Turner stands in the background. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

A group of four teenagers stand in the woods along the bank of a creek while their two instructors look on behind them. One of the teenagers is holding a long pole with a net on the end. She and two of her peers look on as a third student looks in wonder at what's in his hand.

Youth attending The Sky's the Limit STEM day camp spend a whole lot of time looking down — into microscopes, at trail maps and even through the muck of Goose Creek. This camp for teenagers with autism creates an inclusive learning environment where campers can be themselves. Here, Tyler Kraji (at center) reacts to a macro-invertebrate on his hand. At far left stands fellow camper Holden Miller and at far right is camper Mairead Mulrooney. Photo by: Jeff Miller

Bucky Badger leans out of a service window on the side of a vintage dairy truck that's been decorated in red and white for UW's 175th anniversary. He's handing an ice cream cup to a child who's reaching up to accept it.

What a day — ice cream delivery from Bucky Badger! UW kicked off its 175th anniversary celebration with a big birthday bash at the Memorial Union Terrace on July 26, complete with fireworks, music and of course, Babcock Dairy ice cream. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

The Memorial Union Terrace can swelter in the summer, but savvy visitors can find ways to stay cool, even on the hottest days. Photo by: Bryce Richter

A flock of seven wild turkeys walk down the center of a wide path in in a green prairie.

One of the world’s oldest ecologically restored prairies, Curtis Prairie at the UW–Madison Arboretum offers 73 acres of natural beauty and research history set amid Madison’s bustling urban environment. But try telling that to the Arboretum's resident turkeys, if you can even get them to stick around and listen. Photo by: Jeff Miller

At a library table, two incoming first-year students sit at laptop computers while older students look over their shoulders to help them register for classes.

You've got to crawl before you can walk, they say. And you've got to SOAR before you can "Jump Around." Here, academic advisors help incoming students register for fall-term classes during the academic advising component of SOAR (Student Orientation, Advising and Registration) at College Library before the fall semester begins. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

Charles Isbell looks up as he looks out a large, wood-cased window in Bascom Hall. Just behind him, Eden Inoway-Ronnie points out the window toward something out of frame.

Charles Isbell joined UW–Madison this year as provost. Here, his chief of staff, Eden Inoway-Ronnie, shows him the many sides of Bascom Hall. Asked if it is accurate to describe him as someone with many sides, Isbell thought a bit and then said, "Actually, it’s all one side. It’s just who I am. I don’t know how to be an administrator without also being a scholar. I don’t know how to be a scholar without also being someone who thinks about comic books. I don’t know how to separate those things out.” Photo by: Bryce Richter

Amid red and white flags bearing the letter W, football coach Luke Fickell runs onto the football field, followed by football players wearing red and white jerseys.

New Head Coach Luke Fickell brought his intense energy — and a new pass-focused offense — to the Wisconsin football team. He leads the team onto the field for the season-opening game against Buffalo on Sept. 2, which Wisconsin won 38-17. The team finished the season on a high note, winning Paul Bunyan's Axe, its rivalry trophy with Minnesota, and qualifying for the Jan. 1 ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa. Photo by: Jeff Miller

Members of the UW Spirit Squad stand in the doorway of an entrance onto the field at Camp Randall. Bucky Badger sits on the ground in front of them.

Bucky takes a breather while the UW Spirit Squad waits in the wings at Camp Randall. They're about to take the field to hype up thousands of first-year students who've turned out for the W Project, a crash course in the Badger spirit. Photo by: Bryce Richter

In a stadium-style lecture hall, students fill the seats as they look forward listening to a lecture.

On the first day of fall semester, students fill a Sterling lecture hall for their first Math 221 class. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

Three women stand together in a crowd on Bascom Hill. They're smiling for a photo while holding up the flags of Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

Students and staff — including undergraduates Paula Camargo (left) and Danitza Rodriguez Jimenez (right) — kicked off Latinx Heritage Month with a celebratory march up Bascom Hill on Sept. 15. Photo by: Bryce Richter

Lori Reesor and LaVar Charleston ride down State Street during the homecoming parade in a white VW Bug convertible. Reesor is making the W sign with her thumbs and forefingers while Charleston is waving a red and white pom-pom. They're both smiling to the camera while the crowd looks on.

Badgers of all ages flooded State Street with a sea of red and white for the annual Homecoming Parade. Caught up in the moment, Lori Reesor, vice chancellor for student affairs, and LaVar J. Charleston, deputy vice chancellor for diversity & inclusion, show off their UW pride. Photo by: Bryce Richter

A man waring a red and white UW–Madison hat and T-shirt flips burgers on a griddle set up on a tabletop in a parking lot near Camp Randall stadium. In front of him on the table is a photo of himself with his father during a previous year's homecoming tailgate.

The photo on the table features Jack Vincent, who had season tickets to Badger football games for 70 years. Jack Vincent passed away in April 2023, and his family, including his son Steve Vincent (at right), carries on the tradition by cooking up omelets and hash browns the morning of the game. Jack Vincent had been the captain of the tennis team at UW when he was a student and competed in three NCAA Tennis Championships. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

A woman stands on a low branch in an apple tree and hands an apple down to a woman on the ground.

Step right up! Melina Nguyen hands down apples from a tree on the People's Farm, a student organization at the F.H. King garden in Eagle Heights. Students harvested all sorts of fruits and vegetables before hauling their harvest to East Campus Mall, where they gave away their fresh fruits and vegetables to the campus community. Photo by: Bryce Richter

In a blur of motion, a birchbark canoe glides through the water. A stream of water flows off the wooden paddle as the canoer in the back of the craft takes a stroke.

Ten years ago, a birchbark canoe cut through the icy waters of Lake Mendota, paddled by its maker, Wayne Valliere (Mino-giizhig in Ojibwe) of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. This October, Valliere returned the canoe to Lake Mendota as part of a First-Year Interest Group (FIG) class called “Earth Partnership, Indigenous Arts, and Sciences: Restoration Education and Stewardship.” Photo by: Jeff Miller

A close-up photo of ivy growing on the side of a red brick building. The ivy is turning from green to red.

Fall colors wash over campus, with the ivy covering the Red Gym giving onlookers a real-time view on the fade from green to red. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

In a reception room, two women, Angela Byars-Winston and Linda Scott smile and move to embrace each other. Behind them, a screen at the front of the room reads Faculty of Color Reception.

Every fall, faculty and staff have the chance to mix and mingle at the Faculty of Color Reception. The cherished event is also a time to reconnect with old friends. Here, Angela Byars-Winston (left), professor in the Department of Medicine and inaugural chair of the Institute for Diversity Science, and Linda Scott, dean and professor in the School of Nursing, share a hug during the event. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

In a photo taken from above, the UW women's hockey team takes a knee on the ice as they listen to head coach Mark Johnson while he draws on a whiteboard.

It was quite a year for the Wisconsin women's hockey team, which claimed a record-breaking seventh NCAA title in March with a 1-0 win over Ohio State. Here, Head Coach Mark Johnson leads the team in a practice at LaBahn Arena as they look ahead to the 2023-2024 season. Photo by: Jeff Miller

Two groups of people stand on adjoining piers on Lake Mendota. They're lifting crew boats out of the water and overhead to carry them back to the boathouse.

As the school year begins and the temperature drops, some activities come to an end … though not just yet. Members of the men’s and women’s crew teams lift their watercraft from the water and return them to storage in the Porter Boathouse in mid-October with only a few weeks left in the season. Photo by: Jeff Miller

A student's long braid falls out of the back of a hammock hung between two trees on UW's Lakeshore Path. The student has headphones on and is looking at a laptop screen.

A student creates the perfect study spot in a hammock near the lakeshore residence halls. Midterms can't keep Badgers indoors, especially on a warm October afternoon. Photo by: Jeff Miller

Passengers on a trolley-style bus look out the windows as they tour the UW campus. One woman uses her phone to take photos.

When they say “onboarding” at UW–Madison, they literally mean “on board.” Recently hired UW employees — like research associate in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences Ambreen Hamadani (front) — can board a fun-size tour bus for a guided tour of the sprawling, 933-acre campus that is their new workplace. Photo by: Bryce Richter

A woman leans over a work table in a ceramics studio to make an adjustment to a sculpture sitting on the table.

Every fall, visitors get to tour art studios, meet student artists and get a behind-the-scenes look at how art is created during UW–Madison’s annual Open Studio Day. Here, Hannah Schelb, a graduate ceramic and sculpture artist and lecturer, interacts with one of her modular ceramic pieces. Photo By: MK Denton

A view of the front of Bascom Hall through snow-covered branches. The Seed by Seed banner hangs between tall, white columns above the building's main entrance. The banner has been printed with a texture resembling beadwork and contains symbols and colors representing traditions of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Four green rings represent the four lakes of Teejop, the name the Ho-Chunk give the land now occupied by UW–Madison. Inside each ring, square patches in light blue, dark blue yellow and red represent the reflections of light on the water at different times of day. Two large pink triangles on either side of the banner represent flowers, with green stems and triangular leaves leading to the center panel. On the center panel, a large diamond made of small blue triangles frames a blue thunderbird, which is flanked by two red, abstract W's, representing UW–Madison. Below the thunderbird are two green water spirits, which resemble four-legged animals with very long tails. Below the water spirits are six light blue triangles representing water. Above and below the large diamond frame are bursts of yellow beading, representing the sun. Along the bottom border of the banners are stylized animal symbols of the twelve clans of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and beneath each animal is a traditional Ho-Chunk flower motif in blue and green.

In November, artists brought Ho-Chunk beadwork to Bascom Hall on a grand scale. The banners, titled "Seed by Seed," were commissioned in celebration of the university's 175th anniversary. As she stood alongside fellow artists Marianne Fairbanks and Stephen Hilyard, Ho-Chunk tribal member Molli Pauliot remarked, "As you view the banners, I hope we all better understand the history of campus and the Madison area and appreciate how each one of us is now part of that story. It is my hope that this design will be used more than just for these banners, that the university's Indigenous students [will] refer to them for a better understanding of how the Ho-Chunk people are tied to this land and today still have a presence here on campus." Photo by: Jeff Miller

In a photo lit only by the light of a bonfire, a group of seven students dressed in heavy coats and hats gather around the flames and share stories.

On a chilly autumn night, students gather around a bonfire on Picnic Point. Photo by: Bryce Richter

Fans fill the stands at Camp Randall while a team of people hold the edges of a giant U.S. flag on the field.

On Veterans Day, a group of 26 UW–Madison student veterans and military members unfurl a large American flag on the field at Camp Randall Stadium before the start of the football game. Photo by: Jeff Miller

In a dairy manufacturing facility, two men stand on either side of a stainless steel trough filled with curds and whey. One uses a long pole to stir the curds while another uses an instant-read thermometer to monitor the temperature.

Demi-semi-squeak-centennial, anyone? Cheesemaker Joey Jaeggi (left) and Babcock Dairy Plant supervisor Dave Niemiec (right) stir and measure squeaky curds and whey as they create a batch of UW's 175th anniversary Cranniverscherry cheese. Photo by: Bryce Richter

A golden retriever, with eyes closed and a smile on his face, sits in the middle of a circle of students who are reach out to pet him.

Who is a very good doggo? Anny the golden retriever, of course. During a Dogs on Call event organized by the American Medical Student Association, Anny provides students in the midst of finals preparations with a warm, snuggly study break. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

The UW–Madison volleyball team faces off against the University of Texas. One player on the UW side bumps the ball while another moves it to set it. On the court floor are the words, NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship 2023 Tampa.

Wisconsin's Carter Booth (#52) passes the ball as the Badger volleyball team plays Texas in the NCAA Final Four semifinals at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, on Dec. 14. The Badgers lost to Texas. But they enjoyed a season full of triumphs and teamwork, as they went 30-4 and drew large, enthusiastic crowds at the Field House. Photo by: Taylor Wolfram

Wearing academic regalia, Devin Harris stands among a crowd of seated graduates at commencement. He smiles and waves with one hand.

At winter commencement, Devin Harris, former UW men's basketball star turned graduate, stands and waves as Chancellor Mnookin acknowledges him in her remarks. After 20 years playing in the NBA, Harris returned to UW to earn his Bachelor's degree in history. “The fast track isn’t always the best track,” said this winter's commencement speaker, Michael Finley, himself a Badger basketball legend. “You can miss something valuable that way. I learned about patience and humility — that growth doesn’t come when everyone is watching but by how hard you work when nobody is.” Photo by: Jeff Miller

Photo gallery Moments in Time 2023