UW In The News

UW professor appointed Joint Chiefs of Staff historian

When an opening for a historian for the Joint Chiefs of Staff opened a few months ago, applicants needed a unique set of qualifications.

Coming full circle at UW-Madison

Jo Handelsman had numerous options when she changed jobs this past January. Part of that was because of the position she was leaving: advising former President Barack Obama on science. Not many jobs take you into the Oval Office.

World War II veteran from Madison recognized for weather satellite research

Noted: A few years after retiring as an Air Force colonel in 1968, Haig came to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to become executive director of the Space Science and Engineering Center, where he was instrumental in the development of the first global meteorological system.

UW-Madison researchers: Types of smiles send different messages in social situations

A smile, like a picture, is worth a thousand words. Although most commonly associated with happiness, smiles can indicate nervousness, embarrassment and even misery. To add to their mystique and versatility, smiles can express sophisticated messages that influence the behavior of others in social situations.

UW cornerback Derrick Tindal plays role of superhero in mentoring kids at risk

Derrick Tindal loves comic book superheroes.

The original TV chef

Ever since I can remember, food has fascinated me. When I was a young child, my parents frequently took me out to eat—to the kinds of places you didn’t take kids. I collected menus and received a subscription to Gourmet magazine on my 10th birthday. It was inevitable that I would want to learn how to cook. My father instigated it when he gave me a meat thermometer and a dollar and told me to take out the Sunday roast before my mother overcooked it. But what would become a lifelong passion began with Carson Gulley and his TV show.

UW Campus Food Shed Gives Produce To Community For Free

College students notoriously rely on cheap, easy food like ramen noodles. But a new program on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus is trying change that by making fresh produce an easy option for students, too. It’s called the UW Campus Food Shed.

Alumni Park opens this fall

University of Wisconsin–Madison graduates will have a space devoted to them on campus when Alumni Park officially opens on Oct. 6. The 1.3-acre green space, located between Memorial Union and the Red Gym, will contain more than 50 museum-like exhibits throughout the gardens.

Selig, Kohl, Marcus and others at UW fraternity went on to big things

When Bud Selig steps to the podium next Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y., to deliver his acceptance speech during induction ceremonies for the Baseball Hall of Fame, there will be many familiar faces in what is expected to be an enormous crowd.

Big Ideas at UW-Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a big-idea powerhouse.

Energy jolt: UW-Madison to get funding for bioenergy center

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday the University of Wisconsin-Madison will receive a new, five-year round of funding for its energy research center that has produced 160 patents and spawned five start-up companies in its 10-year history.

UW-Madison Scientist Explains Antarctica’s Massive New Iceberg

A chunk of ice the size of Delaware broke off from the Antarctic Peninsula this week. We’ll learn about why this happened and what it means for climate change around the world and close to home in Wisconsin.

The Very Hungry Caterpillars That Turned to Cannibalism

If you’re a hungry caterpillar and you’ve got a choice between eating a plant or another caterpillar, which do you chose?

Tomatoes Can Turn Plant-Eaters Into Cannibals, Study Shows

Plants are often seen as taking a passive role in their environments, just hanging out and soaking up the sunlight. But that impression is wrong—plants have many sophisticated ways of influencing their environment, and other plants and animals in it. And this includes leading herbivores down the garden path to cannibalism.

There’s Plague on the Prairie, but These Dogs May Be Protected

Prairie dogs with a taste for peanut butter, scientists reported recently, can now be vaccinated against plague — the Black Death that killed much of Europe centuries ago.

Summer Reading Books: The Ties That Bind Colleges

At least four schools, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have chosen a best seller written by a young conservative: J. D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which explores issues of social breakdown among working-class whites, such as drug use and child neglect.

The committee that chose “Hillbilly Elegy” had a “vigorous discussion” about it, said Sheila Stoeckel, director for teaching and learning programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison libraries. “We’re picking books there are not easy answers for. If we picked a book that there was an easy answer for, it wouldn’t be as lively of a discussion or exploration.”

Wisconsin Eyeball Lab’s 56,000 Specimens Aid Vision Research

There is a little room at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that is filled with the eyeballs of animals — everything from the duck-billed platypus to the two-toed sloth to the boa constrictor.

New Technology Targeting Fungi Could Speed Up Drug-Discovery Process

New technology developed in part by UW-Madison researchers is speeding up the discovery time for new molecules from fungi.  We’ll find out how it works and why fungi are a potential-rich place to look for new disease-fighting agents.

America’s urban-rural divides

Noted: Kathy Cramer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison followed the same groups of voters in Wisconsin from 2007 to 2012 and wrote about her findings in “The Politics of Resentment”. This is how she describes the atmosphere during a heated recall referendum that was won by Governor Scott Walker: “People stole yard signs from each other. They stopped talking to one another. They spat on each other. They even tried to run each other over, even if they were married to one another. I am not kidding.”

How scientists modeled a deadly tornado with an insanely powerful computer

Supercell thunderstorms are giant tempests with powerful rotating updrafts at their cores—and one out of every four or five spawn tornadoes. Most of these twisters are little, but some can grow fierce. To predict the rare killers, and thus give more targeted warnings, meteorologists need to better understand how tornadoes form. But simulating a supercell thunderstorm and the tornado it produces involves hundreds of terabytes of data—an amount so vast that Leigh Orf, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, had to use a supercomputer to make it happen.

What’s Next For The Democrats?

Following Democratic candidate Jonathan Ossoff’s loss for Georgia’s 6th congressional seat, party members are trying to regain their footings and figure out what’s next for the party. University of Wisconsin’s Barry Burden joins us to talk about what the future could hold for the Democrats.

Lyme Disease: Inside America’s Mysterious Epidemic

Noted: And of course, climate change plays a role. “Any insect-borne disease is very sensitive to climate conditions,” says Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute University of Wisconsin. “Warmer temperatures speed up the development of tick larvae and nymphs, and that can influence transmission dynamics. Modeling studies of climate change effects on Lyme disease show a northward expansion of the disease,” says Patz. “Lyme is already moving north into Canada.”

34 UW faculty named recipients of Vilas professorships

One of the most prominent citizens of Wisconsin’s early history continues to recognize excellence in education today.

By 2100, Deadly Heat May Threaten Majority of Humankind

Noted: Heat kills ten times more people in the U.S. than tornados or other extreme weather events, says Richard Keller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of medical history.

Holy cow! Moo-Day Brunch features feasts, facts

The great American fallout: how small towns came to resent cities

It’s no secret Donald Trump benefited from rural voters. But Democrat or Republican, they usually tell Katherine Cramer – who has spent a decade visiting residents of small-town Wisconsin – the same thing: it’s the cities that get all the breaks, and then have the gall to look down on them, too

Seeking better use for crops grown in research, program provides free produce at UW-Madison

Honoring UW mega-donor John Morgridge

Every summer, about 60 graduate students with diverse backgrounds and interests come together at the UW-Madison School of Business for a week of intensive schooling about what it takes to start a tech-based company.

Perfectly healthy produce grown in UW-Madison labs often gets tossed. One student has an idea to change that.

Every day while working in a university lab, biology student Hannah DePorter sees produce grown for research wasting away in compost piles.

Compound From Chickens Being Used To Improve Growth, Survival At Fish Farms

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are using oil that comes from a gland on chickens’ tails to improve survival at fish farms. The discovery could have global implications for the Atlantic salmon industry.