UW In The News

WARF’s Carl Gulbrandsen to get lifetime achievement award

Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of WARF since 2000, has been named the recipient of In Business magazine’s lifetime achievement award.

Want to Be More Creative? Research Says You Should Procrastinate

Quoted: But one of his former students, Jihae Shin–who is now a professor herself at the University of Wisconsin–challenged him on his “pre-crastination” tendencies. The results of her research are quite promising (you know, if you ever get around to reading it).

Nuclear options

Quoted: The bill provides an “interesting opportunity” for bipartisan action, says Paul Wilson, a UW-Madison professor of nuclear engineering and interim chair of the Nelson Institute’s Energy Analysis and Policy certificate program. “There are a lot of different interests that kind of coalesce around nuclear energy,” he says.

What You Need To Know About The Zika Virus

There’s growing concern here in the United States over the possible spread of an unfamiliar virus called Zika. Dr. Jonathan Temte, chair of the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and Professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health explains what you need to know about the virus.

Donald Trump is right about Putin’s popularity in Russia

“What Trump said is consistent with what we found,” said Scott Gehlbach, a co-author of the study and a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

‘Making A Murderer’ And The True Crime Allure

The Netflix docu-series “Making a Murderer” has become a lightning rod for criticism of the justice system and now of the documentary itself. Interviewed: Keith Findley of the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

Kids’ health a key to economic development

WAUSAU – Children live in families, said Dr. Dipesh Navsaria on Tuesday. It’s not a new revelation, he said, but it’s an important detail to remember as the county tries to tackle the challenges that face kids here.Navsaria spoke Tuesday morning to a full house at the Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County about the release of the 2015-2017 LIFE in Marathon County report.

MLK community dinner in Madison

The spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior was alive and well on the UW-Madison campus Friday night.
The King Coalition hosted its 29th annual free community dinner at the Gordon Dining Center on campus.

Groups work to keep talent in Madison

Quoted: “The reason we formed was we noticed there was an absence of input from Black professionals and we wanted to help groom, recruit and retain Black professionals in this community,” says Dawn B. Crim, [Madison Network of Black Professionals] president for the 2016-18 term and associate dean for external relations in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Crim says Madison can be a transient place. People come here for school, graduate and decide to stay and enter the workforce. But for some African Americans, they become the one Black professional there. “So we thought it made sense to try to build a network across the city so professionals feel supported and connected as well as informed on what’s happening in the community.”

Also: Madison Magnet has partnered with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to join its new graduate student resource fair.

Woman’s eyesight saved after nearly missing check-up

Noted: Once at UW Health, Klett was immediately put into emergency laser surgery to repair the tears.

“We were essentially spot-welding around a tear to create an adhesion,” explained her doctor, UW Health Ophthalmologist (and professor of ophthalmology) Michael Altaweel.

UW researchers find possible treatment for Alzheimer’s

University of Wisconsin researchers say they’ve found a treatment to clean up the plaques that form in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease.

The research published in the journal Brain shows that compounds that inhibit two cellular proteins can help clean up the plaques found in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The proteins work inside the cell to remove toxic material.

Quoted: Luigi Puglielli, of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Campus entrepreneurism moves from fad to fixture for students, faculty

Tom Still column on campus innovation: “UW-Madison remains one of the nation’s research powerhouses and was ahead of the curve in offering pathways for entrepreneurs. But even that campus has experienced a post-2000 explosion in programs for students and faculty who want to convert ideas into businesses or other ventures. Across the rest of the UW System, most four-year campuses have committed to undergraduate research, industry connections and entrepreneurship training and built support systems to match. The same goes for many of Wisconsin’s private colleges and universities, notably many in the Milwaukee region, as well as the state technical college system.”

Mammography remains important for women

Noted: Wendy DeMartini is a professor and chief of breast imaging in the Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

We Asked Experts if Syrian President Bashar Assad Will Ever Be Punished for War Crimes

Quoted: “A lot of people would be very unhappy with this,” says Stanley Payne, who specializes in European political history and fascism at the University of Wisconsin. “But not all of them. Sometimes you have to simply make peace at a certain cost.”

Six things that must happen for Bernie Sanders to beat Hillary Clinton

Noted: Conventional wisdom holds that Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, is too liberal to be electable, said Ken Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Findley: ‘Making a Murderer’ shows that our justice system needs a healthy dose of humility

Guilty or innocent?Viewers addicted to the Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer” are fiercely debating the case of Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey.

Baldwin Pushes For New Standards In Regenerative Medicine Industry

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has introduced new legislation to create industry standards for regenerative medicine.The bill would create a public-private board to set guidelines for regenerative medical products, including those developed from stem cells. Dr. Bill Murphy, co-director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, said the standards used currently aren’t specific to the cells and tissues used in the therapies.

Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate

Noted: I wasn’t convinced. So Jihae, now a professor at the University of Wisconsin, designed some experiments. She asked people to come up with new business ideas. Some were randomly assigned to start right away. Others were given five minutes to first play Minesweeper or Solitaire. Everyone submitted their ideas, and independent raters rated how original they were. The procrastinators’ ideas were 28 percent more creative.

Studies Show Promising Mercury Pollution Results

Separate studies have been released that look at mercury contamination in the environment.

One shows scientists can track the type of mercury pollution that gets into the Great Lakes. The other shows global mercury pollution is declining.

Mathematician talks about odds of winning Powerball jackpot

Laura Albert McLay is an associate professor of engineering and an expert on mathematical modeling and analytics at the University of Wisconsin. She talks about the chances of winning the Powerball jackpot on Live at Four.

What to do if you win the record Powerball Jackpot

Quoted: UW-Madison associate business professor Justin Sydnor says while it’s fun to imagine yourself buying a yacht or a new house, the first thing you should do after winning a lottery of any amount is hire a financial adviser and a lawyer, then pay off any outstanding debts.

Madworks Seed Accelerator accepts applications for start-up training class in Madison

Madworks Seed Accelerator, which operates in the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, has begun taking applications for its sixth start-up training class.

Thanks to satellite data, scientists have finally figured out why Greenland’s ice sheet is melting

Greenland’s vast ice sheet continues to melt, and thanks to two recently-launched satellites we’re beginning to understand why it’s happening so quickly. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison believe increased cloud cover over the ice sheet itself may be to blame for up to a third of the ice melt that is occurring, a new study indicates.

Seeing stars…and more

In the basement of the Villager Shopping Center on Madison’s south side, eight children are hard at work trying to pick up tiny candy insects and other familiar small sweets meant to mimic seeds. They are wielding popsicle sticks banded together like tweezers to simulate bird beaks.

Raised voices

Dr. Seth Dailey knows it’s hard to underestimate the power of  voice. “Think about the number of people you make judgments about based on their voice,” says Dailey, a UW-Madison surgeon who specializes in vocal disorders. “We do it all the time. It’s part of the perceptual package. It affects how people can do their jobs with altered voice production. Vocal issues are more important than ever before in human history.”

Madison365: UW-Madison targets achievement gap with scholarships – WORT 89.9 FM

Students of color attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison find themselves in a setting that is racially homogeneous, despite efforts by the institution to attract and retain more diverse faculty and incoming classes. Madison365 contributor Alexandria Mason reported on several scholarships the university offers to provide support for students from underrepresented groups.

Wisconsin researchers land $5 million grant for study of state epilepsy patients

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Wisconsin-Madison have won a four-year, $5 million federal grant to study the brain networks of epilepsy patients. Their study, called the Epilepsy Connectome Project, will involve state-of-the-art brain imaging of about 200 adult temporal lobe epilepsy patients from across the state.

Future of fetal tissue bill uncertain in Wisconsin Senate

As anti-abortion advocates put pressure on Wisconsin lawmakers to pass a bill banning research on aborted fetal tissue, a top Senate Republican says it’s uncertain whether it will be brought to the Senate floor by the end of the legislative session.

Top artisan butchers hope their best work passes the ultimate test

When persnickety German customs agents kept saying “baloney” to American artisan butchers trying to get their best cured meats to Frankfurt for a prestigious competition, event organizers answered the challenge by creating a satellite event in Madison.

On Campus: Professor says ‘Making a Murderer’ shows justice system flaws beyond Steven Avery case

The UW-Madison law professor who helped free Steven Avery after a wrongful conviction in the 1980s says “Making a Murderer,” the Netflix documentary about his 2007 homicide trial, illustrates problems in the criminal justice system that affect many cases beyond Avery’s.