Six faculty receive WARF Romnes Awards

Six UW–Madison professors have received 2000 Romnes Fellowships that recognize great promise early in faculty careers.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation funds the $50,000 fellowships, which are chosen by a committee of the UW–Madison Graduate School. They support faculty who have received tenure within the past four years and have already made a mark on their disciplines.

The awards are named after the late H.I. Romnes, former chair of the board of AT&T and former president of the WARF Board of Trustees. Here are this year’s winners:

Florence Bernault, associate professor of history. Bernault was trained in France, and was appointed associate professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1995. A specialist of contemporary Central Africa, she has published a book on the emergence of a new political culture in this region, “Démocraties ambigües en Afrique centrale” (1996), and edited another on the history of prisons and modern confinement in Africa, “Enfermement, prison et châtiments en Afrique” (1999). Her new project deals with the history of witchcraft and cannibalism in colonial and postcolonial Central Africa.

Jonathan Foley, associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and the Institute for Environmental Studies. Foley studies the dynamics of global environmental systems and their interactions with human societies. He uses computer models to analyze and simulate changes in climate, global ecosystems, and natural resources. His work has contributed to the understanding of global ecosystem processes, the global carbon cycle, and interactions between vegetation and the atmosphere. Foley is director of the Climate People and Environment Program (CPEP) at UW–Madison.

Anthony Ives, professor of zoology and limnology. Ives is a theoretical ecologist studying how the web of interactions among species affects the stability of ecosystems. He also conducts experiments on the biological control of alfalfa pests by predators such as ladybugs. He teaches Introductory Ecology for non-majors and a graduate-level course in theoretical ecology.

Jane Larson, professor of law. Larson studies the diverse fields of legal history, property and land-use regulation, and the legal and institutional control of sexual relationships. Two over-arching themes run through her scholarship: the problem of regulating matters closely linked to human liberty, including land and the body, and the problem of crafting interdisciplinary methods that ask and answer specifically legal questions in more relevant terms than those of conventional legal doctrinal analysis. Larson combines her groundbreaking research with teaching and service to the university community.

Anant Menon, associate professor of biochemistry. Menon is a cell biologist studying the biogenesis of cellular membranes and the transport of lipids between different membrane compartments. He has made contributions to the elucidation of the biosynthesis, translocation, and function of complex glycolipids that anchor a variety of proteins to cell membranes, and his work has revealed new targets for the development of antiparasitic and antifungal agents.

Ronald Radano, associate professor of Afro-American Studies and music. Radano plans to complete a book on African-American music history, co-edit original essays on stereotypes in American ethnomusicology, and develop an interdisciplinary anthology of little-used sources of African-American musical performance and experience history. Previous awards include a Guggenheim, and visiting research and teaching appointments at Chicago, Harvard, Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian. He teaches undergraduate courses in black music history, and graduate seminars in ethno-musicology, and music and racial ideology.