UW In The News

Many 2025 ‘Genius’ Fellows affiliated with universities

Since the fellowship launched in 1981, fellows have included writers, scientists, artists, social scientists, humanists, teachers and entrepreneurs. While no institutional affiliation is required, the award went to the following 2025 fellows with ties to a college or university:

• Atmospheric scientist Ángel F. Adames Corraliza, an associate professor in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for investigating the mechanisms underlying tropical weather patterns.
• Nuclear security specialist Sébastien Philippe, assistant professor in the Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for exposing past harms and potential future risks from building, testing and storing launch-ready nuclear weapons.

Fishing is impacting fishery populations more than climate change, new study finds

It’s no secret that Wisconsinites love fishing. But who knew the effects of local anglers on our fisheries were outpacing that of climate change?

That’s exactly what a new study from postdoctoral researcher Luoliang Xu and Prof. Olaf Jensen at UW-Madison’s Center for Limnology found. The discovery was published last week in the journal Science Advances.

“Warming and fishing are happening at the same time, and they both can strongly affect the fish populations,” Xu said. “So the intention of our study is to try to tear apart these two factors.”

UW scientists prepare for final IceCube expedition

This fall, as temperatures plummet to -50°C (or -58°F) at the South Pole, a team of UW-Madison scientists and engineers will embark on an adventure to the frozen desert. Their goal: drill seven holes through a mile and a half of Antarctic ice to complete a revolutionary upgrade to the world’s coldest neutrino telescope.

“Whoever had the idea of drilling holes a mile and a half into a glacier was crazy,” says Vivian O’Dell, project manager for the IceCube Upgrade. “Completely nuts. And yet it works.”

Tips for proper lawn care this fall, according to a Wisconsin turfgrass specialist

There’s a sweet spot for lawn chores like seeding, said Doug Soldat, a professor and turfgrass extension specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“If you wait too long, you run the risk of a hard frost coming and killing some of the seeds that you planted,” Soldat said.

Tool developed at UW-Madison helps map health disparities nationwide

Where someone lives can shape their health, just as much as the care they receive. That’s why Dr. Amy Kind of her team at UW-Madison have developed the Area Deprivation Index (ADI).

The tool maps health disparities using the impacts of income, housing, education and employment on health.

Winners announced in Cool Science Image competition

Thirteen winners have been announced in the UW-Madison 2025 Cool Science Image Contest.

Winning snapshots include photos from professors, students, and specialists.

Inside Yosemite on Day One

“When the peaks in Yosemite National Park are ice-free, we will be the first humans to lay eyes on that,” Andy Jones, the study’s lead author and a Ph.D. candidate in geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an interview.

Swap your boiler for a money-saving heat pump

While heat pumps in the US have traditionally been associated with warmer locations, they are starting to become more feasible for colder climes. “You can pretty much buy a heat pump for most climates in the US and it can lower your energy bills,” Allison Mahvi, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tells Popular Science. Some of Mahvi’s research focuses on  how to make more efficient heat pump systems for cold climates.

How three Madison researchers broke ground in the fusion world

Sam Frank, the head of the University of Wisconsin-Madison startup Realta Fusion’s theoretical physics team, Kai Shih, a Realta scientist, and Aaron Tran, a UW-Madison postdoctoral researcher, have spent years designing a model that shook up the order of the fusion world.

Mnookin hopeful UW will meet challenges despite ‘bumps and bruises’

University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin highlighted the arrival of a record 8,500 freshman, even as she warned of looming challenges tied to federal and state funding and free speech scrutiny in a student media roundtable Tuesday.

Trout Lake Station documentary highlights local, global impact of Wisconsin research

For nearly a century, Trout Lake Station in Boulder Junction has been at the center of environmental research in Wisconsin. Now, a new documentary aims to show how the year-round field station’s work extends far beyond lake shorelines.

Operated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology, Trout Lake Station has been supporting research since 1925.

Finding joy and confidence in writing with new ‘Whoopensocker’ collection

PBS Wisconsin Education, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education, recently launched Whoopensocker, a new educational resource collection for upper elementary learners that provides an on-ramp to writing through group games and scaffolded lessons.

Whoopensocker was first developed as a six-week teaching artist residency by Erica Halverson, a professor in the department of curriculum and instruction at the UW-Madison School of Education. Halverson teamed up with PBS Wisconsin Education to make a multimedia version of the program that’s accessible to more educators around the state and in spaces where an artist residency may not be available.

UW researcher pushes for federal funding for nuclear fusion research

“What we study is thinking about new technology that would be a way to start up future fusion devices. And it’s really looking at, how do you reduce the cost and complexity,” said Steffi Diem, an assistant professor at UW-Madison and principal investigator of the Pegasus Three experiment. “And our technology looks at building. It looks kind of like a small lightsaber that injects, you know, the fuel in it, and then we capture it by a magnetic field.”

‘Trailblazers in Motion’ exhibit unveils progressive history of UW-Madison women’s physical education program

When the University of Wisconsin-Madison launched a Women’s Physical Education Department in 1912, Wisconsin women did not have the right to vote. Women, only reluctantly admitted to UW-Madison in the first place, faced scientific misconceptions, double standards and restrictions from administration. But the department itself was always years ahead of its time, alumni said, from its early days to its eventual merger with the men’s program in 1976.

UW-Madison climbs again in national Best Colleges rankings

UW-Madison opens new Morgridge Hall for computer and data sciences

The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened the new Computer, Data and Information Sciences (CDIS) building at the start of the fall semester, bringing together three of the campus’s fastest-growing majors under one roof and establishing a hub for research, education and outreach in technology.

Annual Badger Challenge raises millions for UW Health Carbone Cancer Center

People walked, ran and biked for the tenth annual Badger Challenge fundraiser at UW Health Eastpark Medical Center on Sunday.

The challenge raises money to support cancer research and treatments at the UW Health Carbone Cancer Center.

UW Madison construction robot dog supporting hands-on student learning

A construction robot is getting its footing, using the Kellner Family Athletic Center’s construction site, next to Camp Randall on the UW-Madison campus.

Free speech expert weighs in on ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel

“The First Amendment only prohibits actions by the government,” said Anuj Desai, a Volkman-Bascom Professor of Law and First Amendment expert at UW-Madison’s Law School. “So, generally speaking, if you are employed by a private employer, as Jimmy Kimmel was — or is — it does not regulate the relations between your employer and you.”

Regents OK more money to expand UW-Madison’s cyclotron lab project

UW-Madison seeks additional $13.5M for planned cancer research, treatment facility

A University of Wisconsin Board of Regents committee has signed off on a $13.5 million expansion of a planned cyclotron particle accelerator research facility that will create radioactive isotopes used in cancer research, detection and treatment.

UW-Madison art history department celebrates 100 years

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Art History Department is celebrating its 100th anniversary this month, with an official centennial celebration Sept. 24-26 and further events planned throughout the semester, including lectures and panels with art history professionals.

Insects not spreading disease, despite fear

Potentially fatal, Chagas disease is spread by kissing bugs, a subspecies of assassin bug. But entomologist PJ Liesch returns to explain that Wisconsin’s assassin bugs are not vectors for disease. He also says the recent mosquito outbreak in Milwaukee did not result in the spread of West Nile Virus.

UW-Madison proposes $13.5 million expansion of cancer research, treatment hub

Monarch butterflies thrived in Wisconsin this year, researcher says

Karen Oberhauser is the former director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Arboretum and cofounder of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. She has four decades of experience researching monarch butterflies.

Oberhauser said that at this point in the monarch season, the butterflies are still living and breeding in northern ranges as far north as Canada, but she added that the earliest generation of migrators to Mexico are now about halfway to their destination.

“I just looked at those maps and I see some monarchs are showing up now in roosting sites way down in Kansas and even a little bit further south right now,” she said.

Wisconsin lawmakers weigh adopting controversial definition of antisemitism

While officially adopted by the IHRA in 2016, the definition has been in use for about 20 years, according to Chad Alan Goldberg, a sociologist and professor of Jewish studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He said it’s a response to rising antisemitism in recent decades, with an additional increase since the war between Israel and Hamas after Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

“It’s coming in a context of heightened concerns about antisemitism,” he said. “Proponents … think it would be a good idea because they think it would make it easier to identify and combat anti-Jewish hate speech and hate crimes, anti-Jewish harassment, vandalism and assault.”

Journalism in the age of AI

Within weeks of arriving in Madison, Tomas Dodds has already launched an exciting lab on campus: the Public Tech Media Lab. Dodds, a native of Buenos Aires, was happily working at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he was a research fellow at the AI, Media & Democracy Lab and the Institute for Advanced Study, when he saw a job opening at UW-Madison’s J-school.

According to Dodds, a main goal of the Public Tech Media Lab, which already counts faculty associates from around the globe, will be to teach journalists how to use open source technologies to create their own AI systems that align with their values and needs. The idea is to make newsrooms less dependent on big tech companies that have their own private interests.

This UW-Madison professor wants cows to chill out

Helping teens navigate online racism − study shows which parenting strategy works best

Parents struggle to help teens deal with online racism. Online racism is different from in-person racism because the people behaving that way usually hide behind fake names, making it hard to stop them. Studies found that teens of color see more untargeted racism – memes, jokes, comments – and racism targeting others online than racism targeted directly at them. But vicarious racism hurts, too.

UW-Madison unveils new Morgridge Hall on the first day of classes

Morgridge Hall, the new home of the School of Computer, Data and Information Science, at UW-Madison seen from University Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin, on the first morning of classes, Sept. 3, 2025.