Chancellor’s Convocation to welcome students, encourage service
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank will mark the beginning of a new academic year with the Chancellor’s Convocation, an annual welcome to incoming freshmen and transfer students.
Category: Employee News
UW center teams up with five states to address asphalt issues
More than 80 percent of major roads in the United States are still surfaced with asphaltic mixtures – and the liquid asphalt, a byproduct of oil refining, remains a bit of a chemical mess, an inconsistent, complex mix of hydrocarbons. So to understand how different kinds of asphalt will hold up under the weight of vehicles and the punishment of the elements, road engineers must use physical methods, from ovens to hydraulic testing devices, to inflict stress and extreme temperatures upon the mixtures.
Regents approve biennial budget proposal
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents today approved the 2015-17 biennial budget proposal at a meeting at UW–Oshkosh.
UW-Madison chosen for federally funded cloud computing research
Cloud computing, which allows users of technology to tap into remote, shared infrastructure and services, is a major facet of today’s world. Whether or not we realize it, countless aspects of our daily lives — from social media to drug discovery — are now enabled by cloud computing. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been chosen to be part of a National Science Foundation-funded project called CloudLab — a joint effort of university and industry teams for the development of cloud infrastructure and fostering the high-level research that it supports.
University spinoff aims to hit the mark precisely with brain-scanning tool
As brain surgeons test new procedures and drugs to treat conditions ranging from psychiatric disorders to brain cancer, accuracy is becoming an ever-greater issue.
Legend in genetics at forefront of book about heroism during 20th century’s darkest hours
Waclaw Szybalski, 92, a genius of genetics who has been repeatedly mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, grew up as an aspiring scientist during World War II in the eastern part of Poland. Many of Szybalski’s most significant wartime roles concerned a decidedly applied type of science: He cooked TNT so the Polish resistance could sabotage rail lines. He participated in smuggling typhus vaccine to Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. And he fed lice and supervised “louse feeders.”
Herbarium director receives award for telling the story of plants
Ken Cameron, director of the Wisconsin State Herbarium, received the Peter Raven Award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists Aug. 5. Cameron, also a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a world expert on the orchid family.
New, innovative School of Nursing building opening for fall semester
Signe Skott Cooper Hall isn’t just a new building. It’s a place where students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Nursing will learn using the latest technology.
After 13 years, Cadwallader steps down from top research post
In 1990, when first appointed as an associate dean in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School, geographer Martin Cadwallader had no idea what was over the horizon. Twenty-four years later, after rising through the leadership ranks and serving for 13 years as dean of the Graduate School and vice chancellor for research, Cadwallader prepares to step down from one of the university’s most critical posts. At the end of August he willreturn to the faculty and a cherished role as teacher and scholar.
Historic first meeting for Classified Staff Congress
History was made Monday as representatives of the first-ever Classified Staff Congress met for the first time in Bascom Hall.
No one-size-fits-all approach in a changing climate, changing land
As climate change alters habitats for birds and bees and everything in between, so too does the way humans decide to use land. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Aarhus University in Denmark have, for the first time, found a way to determine the potential combined impacts of both climate and land-use change on plants, animals and ecosystems across the country.
Grants fund UW technology projects on the road to commercialization
An exercise machine that helps stroke victims walk. An advanced technology for assessing the progress of prostate cancer. A faster process for making neural stem cells to investigate new treatments for injury and disease. A cheaper, more beautiful LED light bulb. A game to teach meditation. These projects, and a dozen more, are beneficiaries of the first round of awards by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Discovery to Product, or D2P, program, which began operating in March.
New analysis links tree height to climate
What limits the height of trees? Is it the fraction of their photosynthetic energy they devote to productive new leaves? Or is it their ability to hoist water hundreds of feet into the air, supplying the green, solar-powered sugar factories in those leaves?
Fall Competition aims to set standard for research excellence
UW–Madison researchers are being encouraged to apply for competitive funding through the Fall Competition sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education (VCRGE).
Two faculty members named Steenbock Professors
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty members Jin-Yi Cai and Robert Hamers have been named Steenbock Professors.
Climate conundrum: Conflicting indicators on what preceded human-driven warming
When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently requested a figure for its annual report, to show global temperature trends over the last 10,000 years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Zhengyu Liu knew that was going to be a problem. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science today, Liu and colleagues describe a consistent global warming trend over the course of the Holocene, our current geological epoch, counter to a study published last year that described a period of global cooling before human influence.
Science in the Northwoods: Trout Lake Station open house
The first of August was a gorgeous day in northern Wisconsin: temperatures were in the mid-70s, the waters of Trout Lake were remarkably calm and clear, and the mosquitoes, for the first time this summer, were nowhere to be found. It was the perfect day for Trout Lake Station’s 4th annual open house.
Water’s reaction with metal oxides opens doors for researchers
A multi-institutional team has resolved a long-unanswered question about how two of the world’s most common substances interact. In a paper published recently in the journal Nature Communications, Manos Mavrikakis, professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his collaborators report fundamental discoveries about how water reacts with metal oxides
McKenna to retire from Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
They say blood is thicker than water. So much so, that even the volume of water in all of Madison’s lakes is still too thin for Thomas McKenna, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL). After seven years in the role, he is officially retiring from the lab and moving to Massachusetts to be closer to his grown daughters.
Fundamental plant chemicals trace back to bacteria
A fundamental chemical pathway that all plants use to create an essential amino acid needed by all animals to make proteins has now been traced to two groups of ancient bacteria. The pathway is also known for making hundreds of chemicals, including a compound that makes wood strong and the pigments that make red wine red.