All Initiatives

To physics professor Duncan Carlsmith, a student’s proposal to make a four-rotor helicopter drone was fine fodder for what he calls “garage physics.” But why stop at a quadcopter, he told the undergraduate. Make one that is mind-controlled, so a person with severe movement impairment could think: “Go open the fridge and show me what’s… Read more »

Students shouldn’t just study computers — they should build them. So says UW computer science professor Karu Sankaralingam. The award-winning professor wants his students to not simply be users of technology, but creators. That’s why he employs a hands-on approach to teaching about technology: Sankaralingam has his students build computerized machines and then program them… Read more »

The UW School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) is ranked fifth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. QS World University Rankings puts the school at 24th in the world. And while the SVM’s strong reputation extends across the nation and around the globe, its graduates tend to stay close to home: 70% of… Read more »

The Math Talent Search, sponsored by the Department of Mathematics, was established in 1963 to engage and encourage middle and high school students interested in math. The contest, which awards a $24,000 scholarship to UW–Madison, has identified young Wisconsin students who have gone on to become mathematicians or pursued careers in finance, computer science, and statistics.

Like many kids, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology Professor Phil Townsend grew up wanting to be an astronaut. And even though he’s not walking on the surface of the moon or floating in the International Space Station, his work at UW-Madison is beneficial to NASA’s climate-change operations.

The knowledge, experience, and network the Wisconsin School of Business can offer is invaluable. Your gift will help us maintain our tradition of assisting students who show financial need and academic merit.

As the very first UW-Madison Comparative Health Systems Global Pharmacy Fellow, Laurel Legenza will be participating in a groundbreaking collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy and University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town, South Africa.

An excellent library is an academic and community advantage for a university. You can help continue to make scholarly resources accessible and available to our campus network.

Now a member of the PIH-Engage executive board, Sarah Meiners’s passion for public health is both an extracurricular focus and a career goal.

By seeing what participants are capable of, students learn the importance of not setting limitations and come to exhibit a different philosophy and attitude about what is possible for patients with temporary or permanent physical disabilities.

In essence, the Wisconsin Idea states that the university should improve people’s lives well beyond the classroom. And while many alumni, students, and faculty have taken this principle to heart, Robert Dempsey, professor and chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at UW–Madison, really embodies it. The World Health Organization, in fact, recently named him… Read more »

UW-Madison’s medical physics program is one of the best in the country and has allowed the UWCCC to be at the forefront of combining expanding technology of imaging with innovative therapies for cancer.

The UW-Madison School of Pharmacy is home to a number of outstanding professors, and one of them is Glen Kwon. Dr. Kwon is the Jens T. Carstensen Distinguished Chair in Pharmaceutical Sciences, funded by philanthropists Mahendra and Jayshree Patel. It brings to the UW a brilliant mind for science with strong business leadership. More simply put, he knows… Read more »

One day Richard King, a shareholder and director at Capital Brewery, asked Thomas O’Guinn, professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin School of Business, if his MBA students would be interested in a project on beer.

Tonya Brito wants to know: how much do lawyers matter? The UW Law School professor is particularly interested in how much of a difference lawyers make in resolving child-support cases. Brito is a family-law scholar, and she knows that many fathers — especially those with low incomes and men of color — rely on legal… Read more »

Today’s smartphones and tablets provide consumers unparalleled mobile computing capability. Yet, these and many other technologies are critically dependent on sophisticated new materials that can solve challenges in areas ranging from clean energy and national security to human health and well-being. And currently, a new material’s journey from discovery to commercial product typically takes as… Read more »

For Mark Cook, discovery, like life itself, starts with the egg. “There is so much more to the egg beyond its use as a food,” says Cook, a professor of animal sciences. Cook has explored and developed those other uses throughout a career marked by research prowess and entrepreneurial acumen. His technologies based on egg… Read more »

A study conducted by the UW-Madison Center for Healthy Minds (CHM) to promote social, emotional and academic skills has found that prekindergarten students who learned their mindfulness ABCs—attention, breath and body, and caring practice—earned higher marks in academic performance measures. Known as the Kindness Curriculum, the study was designed to teach children to be more… Read more »

Scientists at UW-Madison have constructed a highly detailed three-dimensional model of the recently discovered rhinovirus C, which shows why there’s no remedy for an all-too-prevalent virus. Called the “missing link” cold virus, rhinovirus C is believed to be responsible for up to half of all childhood colds.

John Hawks is a star in the field of paleoanthropology. The recent discovery of Homo naledi and subsequent publications about the find have raised the profile of this dynamic thinker and researcher. The Homo naledi find brought together scientists for what was one of the most exciting, challenging, and groundbreaking excavations in the history of… Read more »

Due to the overuse of antibiotics in humans and livestock, multi-drug resistant pathogens, or superbugs, are on the rise. Now medical teams are running out of antibiotics that work, and researchers are racing to find new treatments that are both effective and safe for use.

UW-Madison student-athletes continually set the bar high, but their accomplishments off the field are even more of a point of pride for the community. Every year, volunteers spend over 8,000 hours serving the community through the Badgers Give Back program.

“Right off the bat, I wanted to get involved.”

Researchers at UW-Madison are changing the way we look at bioproducts. “We’re trying to make very high-value commodity chemicals from biomass that can be used to make different kinds of plastics and plasticizers,” says George W. Huber, the Harvey D. Spangler Professor in chemical and biological engineering. “So many people have been focusing on fuels,… Read more »

Solar energy is hot right now, even though solar arrays are cumbersome, costly, and—worst of all—not particularly efficient. But in a lab in the Department of Chemistry, Trisha Andrew is developing solar cells made from a surprisingly common, even inexpensive substance: a dye used to make the color blue.

John and Inara Apinis honor the family’s founders with a UW professorship.

Charles Raison is one of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s best and brightest. Officially, he holds the position of Mary Sue and Mike Shannon Chair for Healthy Minds, Children & Families. In practice, he is a master of connecting ideas, research, and practice, leading the way in novel treatments for treating mental conditions. More simply put,… Read more »

Twelve American Indian nations call Wisconsin home. Each has its own customs, its own identity, its own story. A new website, WisconsinAct31.org, is helping educators tell those stories to students from kindergarten through high school. Wisconsin Act 31 is the term for the five state statutes that require schools to teach American Indian Studies throughout… Read more »

Cancers are typically classified based on their tissue of origin, and that determines treatment plans. Although that practice is unlikely to end anytime soon, tumor classifications based on genetics are gaining traction and could lead to more effective, personalized treatments for patients. “In recent years, we have recognized that even within one organ type of… Read more »

At its heart, the Wisconsin Idea is about making the world a better place for all of the people in it, and the belief that this change can stem from what we do here every day. It is a belief that Sippl took to heart as she organized her remedy to the problem she saw. It turns out that she didn’t need to look further than her own past.

In South Africa’s fertile rolling hills, it may be difficult to envision that issues such as hunger and sustainability run rampant. But when students and professors from the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) visited, that is exactly what they found. Researchers at the CALS-based Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS) are working… Read more »

The one-cylinder test engine in a UW-Madison research lab is connected to a life-support system of pipes, tubes, ducts, and cables. You might think the engine resembles a patient in intensive care, but in this case, the patient is not sick. Instead, the elaborate monitoring system shows the engine can convert 59.5 percent of the… Read more »

“I think everyone is excited to be here.”

“The university is only as good as all of us.”

When it comes to creating an understanding of our world, and constructing a framework of knowledge and critical thinking, few things are as valuable as diving into a good book. Dissecting an author’s intent, cultural background and message has long been a window into other cultures and times.

School of Human Ecology professor Christine Whelan, who has taught on everything from gender and marriage to social change, has turned her sights to the pursuit of happiness. What she’s uncovered has become the basis for one of the most talked-about classes on campus, Consuming Happiness. “Spending money to maximize happiness is the basis for… Read more »

Creative thinking. Responsible leadership. Being a global citizen. These are qualities we put into practice every day. Undergraduate students in Design Studies, Retailing, and Consumer Science are thinking outside the textbooks to tackle societal issues on an international level by helping artisans in developing nations build better careers and foster strong communities. As part of… Read more »

Thanks to a $200,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Professor Wu has been able to test and implement pilot systems in Port Washington and Milwaukee in Wisconsin, and in Duluth, Minnesota. Using the systems he has developed, the programs will be able to better protect the swimmers and economies that rely on the Great Lakes.

Well-being can be an elusive thing. It comes naturally to some, and completely evades others. And trying to determine how people build and process well-being on a neurological level can be difficult, but for Dr. Richard Davidson, it’s just another day at the office.

Your gifts, big and small, support current undergraduate and graduate students, recognize top-notch faculty, and advance cutting edge economics research — all of which keeps us consistently ranked among the best economics departments in the country.

They are one of the most influential federal agencies working in the U.S. healthcare industry—and they wanted to know what Dr. Amy Kind’s research had uncovered. So, naturally, she and her colleagues headed to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to present findings and answer questions.

Sara King couldn’t quite believe her eyes when she walked into her discussion section for an intermediate economics course a few semesters back. Of the 40 or so students in the classroom, she was the only woman. Economics has long been a male-dominated field, and UW-Madison reflects that imbalance. Women account for about 28 percent… Read more »

Phoenix Rice-Johnson remembers growing up in Hawaii without some of the everyday amenities many of us take for granted. “My dad raised me on a mechanic’s income,” she says. “I was accustomed to poverty and unemployment in my household, because it existed throughout my community. I began thinking about a career in public service to help overcome these kinds of inequalities.” Rice-Johnson,… Read more »

A team of UW-Madison engineers is creating new, more robust decision-support software that could help prevent a frequent, potentially fatal blood-clotting condition in hospitalized patients. The work is to help prevent and manage venous thromboembolism (VTE). VTE occurs when a blood clot in a vein breaks free and travels in the blood, sometimes making its… Read more »

A celebrated environmental historian, Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies Professor William Cronon is inspiring new generations of conservationists.

As the world’s population grows, genetic engineering plays an increasingly important role in helping meet our need for crops. Since genetically engineered crops have laboratory-inserted defenses against disease and pests, they are a frequently misunderstood segment of food production. And that’s where agronomy professor Joe Lauer steps in to make a difference. For the past… Read more »

As the world’s population grows, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) play an increasingly important role in helping meet our demand for fresh fruits and vegetables. Since they have laboratory manufactured built-in defenses against disease and pests, they are a frequently misunderstood segment of food production.

UW fully funds student veterans during their first year of law school, and also creates opportunities for both veteran and non-veteran students to give back locally by working at the Veteran’s Law Center, a free walk-in legal clinic serving low-income veterans and their families.

With her small-town roots and big-campus dreams, McKenzie Capouch ’17 is not unlike many UW–Madison students. For her, home is Ettrick, Wisconsin: population 1,300. That is roughly a hundred more people than students in Witte Hall, the residence hall where Capouch spent her freshman year. “I moved in on my own, and I was a… Read more »

By decoding cosmic neutrinos and their origins, UW-Madison researchers are seeking to expand our fundamental knowledge of the universe. Their work will spur astrophysics—and science as a whole—forward.

“I just want other people to have that opportunity.”

“Giving is as easy as making a choice.”

“All of those small contributions really add up.”

Growing up, Desire Smith’s closest connection to the land was shopping for produce at Wal-Mart. Born and raised in a food desert in inner city Milwaukee, she became interested in agriculture as a high school student on a visit to the school’s greenhouse and was able to get an after-school job working there.

For almost 60 years, the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) has closely followed the life course of roughly a third of Wisconsin high school graduates from the class of 1957. Subjects of the project known as the “Happy Days Study” — one of the most consistent, comprehensive, and expansive studies of aging and health in America — have… Read more »

Farmers in every nation are already struggling to solve problems of animal health and welfare, drought, high temperatures, and many more issues that put our nation and the world at risk for food scarcity. The Dairyland Initiative and other agricultural practices that have their roots in Wisconsin will play a vital role in how we continue to feed people at home and across the globe.

What’s good medicine for animals often turns out to be good for humans as well. This is something that the UW School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) has been demonstrating for a long time. And right now, SVM faculty and scientists are working on therapies and products that will reshape how we treat a number of… Read more »

A team of researchers from the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, UW–Madison School of Nursing, School of Human Ecology, College of Engineering, and School of Medicine and Public Health are developing a new approach that can turn homes into healthcare environments.

A human ecology perspective can shape the world. When Elizabeth Doyle ’15 was an undergraduate in UW–Madison’s School of Human Ecology (SoHE), she studied community and nonprofit leadership. She showed such a passion for organizing people to improve housing, transportation, and education that she earned a Truman Scholarship — one of the nation’s most prestigious… Read more »

For many kids, the school nurse may be the only healthcare professional they see consistently. And the challenges many school nurses face are familiar to medical professionals everywhere: too little time, too few resources, and not enough opportunities for collaboration with peers.

Many of Helen Louise Allen’s students have a picture in their minds of their teacher sitting at a loom, her skilled hands creating — seemingly out of nothing — extraordinary textiles. But there was a side of the delightfully eccentric woman that few of her students ever saw: the hunter. Allen traveled the earth, scouring… Read more »

In the fall of 2013, Mary Louise Roberts, Lucy Aubrac Professor of History, received an email from a man in France requesting information about Robert Kellett, an American G.I. buried in Épinal military cemetery. The man explained that he was a member of an association that tended to the American graves. Roberts decided that the… Read more »

Brain injuries may be the worst long-term danger that athletes face, but many players don’t report them. Now a multidisciplinary team of University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers is working to change that by studying the most effective ways to teach athletes and young adults about the importance of reporting when they have suffered a concussion. “What… Read more »

Professor Jonathan Gray is one of the most creative thinkers working in higher education today. And when he speaks, the entertainment world listens. Gray’s book Television Entertainment was named Top Academic Title of the Year by Choice Magazine. He was the chair of the Popular Communication Division of the International Communication Association. And, most recently,… Read more »

Badgers are known for their desire to do good: they join the Peace Corps in record numbers, they sign up for Teach For America, and they spend their academic breaks doing service projects. Badgers have good hearts, but do they have good heads — at least when it comes to giving? Thanks to the Philanthropy Lab,… Read more »

When English major Laura Schmitt was a freshman, she got involved with Illumination, an undergraduate literary journal run through the Wisconsin Union Directorate Publications Committee. It was there that she saw how powerful it could be for a young author to be published. This gave Schmitt an idea: What if young writers back in Green… Read more »

Early is the answer. If the question is how to solve Wisconsin’s achievement gap — the difference in poverty rates between its black and white citizens — then the answer is to act early. Wisconsin ranks 49th in the nation in the severity of its achievement gap, and the UW’s School of Human Ecology (SoHE) understands that… Read more »

In the field of manufacturing, very often the brains behind creative new concepts find themselves at odds with the operators of the machines that must produce the finished object. In the 1980s, “design for manufacturability” emerged, a new paradigm in which engineers sought to educate designers about manufacturing processes. However, this new approach had the… Read more »

Scholarships lessen the financial burden on students and their families so that they can take full advantage of educational opportunities, and help the entire campus population by ensuring a diverse student body. As Dawn says, “[scholarships] allow us to ultimately make our communities, our university, and ourselves better. In some cases, they can even change the whole course of a life.”

Graduation is years away for many students, but it’s never too early to think about what comes next. That’s where Career Kickstart — introduced in fall 2015 — comes in. It offers a head start for those thinking beyond the diploma. Available to students who have completed their first year, Ogg Residence Hall will provide… Read more »

“That gift is going to become something special.”

Russia presents a unique opportunity for conservation scientists: the chance to study the impact of land use changes on wildlife populations. Volker Radeloff and Anna Pidgeon, two of UW-Madison’s Forest and Wildlife Ecology professors, are partnering with Russian scientists to explore how wildlife populations are responding to the expansion of forests and wildlands—the opposite of… Read more »

Like a lot of graduate students in the School of Human Ecology’s (SoHE) human development and family studies program, Dave Smallen PhDx’18 wants to find a deeper understanding of how human minds and emotions work. Unlike a lot of grad students, however, he almost didn’t finish his undergraduate studies because in 2006, when he was… Read more »

Sophie Crispin could have gone to any of a number of law schools. The Ohio native looked at several in the Big Ten, but the UW offered her a scholarship. That clinched the deal. Now in her third year, Crispin has benefited from the Stearns-Shaw Scholarship, which was made possible by Denis Stearns JD’92 and… Read more »

When assistant math professor Melanie Matchett Wood was in seventh grade, she was surprised to win a citywide math competition in her native Indianapolis. Then she won a state competition, and in eighth grade placed tenth in the country. As Matchett Wood progressed in mathematics, she often found herself in situations where she was the… Read more »

“If you’ve been thankful… giving becomes a natural.”

“We want to continue that legacy.”

It’s a simple question with a complex answer: How do plants know when to flower? Thanks to biochemistry professor Rick Amasino, we now know a lot more about the genes and environmental variables—for example, changes in temperature or length of day—governing that process, as well as how to control it. Amasino and his team also… Read more »

With its connection to birth defects and seemingly rapid spread, the Zika virus became one of the most terrifying health stories of 2016. Cases appeared across the tropics, and scientists launched into a race to find a vaccine or other means of preventing its devastating effects. The UW’s School of Veterinary Medicine has contributed some… Read more »

UW–Madison students do great things, even when the cards are stack against them. Pablo Montes, a first-generation, working-class student, was dependent on aid when he transferred to UW–Madison. Once here, he was blindsided by the university’s steeper cost of living. Montes became homeless, couch-surfing among friends and unable even to get help from Wisconsin’s FoodShare… Read more »

On August 30, 2015, scholars from across campus as well as across the Atlantic had a hand in “Out of the Shadows: Rediscovering Jewish Music, Literature and Theater,” part of the Performing the Jewish Archive project. The project was part of a larger international research project led by the University of Leeds in England. Campus… Read more »

With support from the New Frontier Science (NFS) group of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., UW-Madison engineers are conducting innovative research that could open new avenues for treating such diseases as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and others. NFS collaborates with external researchers in an effort to advance innovative technologies and integrate them into future medicines. “There are… Read more »

Word of SoHE’s Financial Life Skills (FLS) program has spread across campus, pushing enrollment from 100 students in its first year to 400 students, plus a wait list for year three. What’s driving the surge? In large part it’s the practical instruction in money management that one student described as “valuable information I’ll use the… Read more »

In a highly successful, first-of-its-kind endeavor, a multidisciplinary team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have created a “tumor in a dish” that can accurately anticipate a multiple myeloma patient’s response to a drug. The advance could mean a giant step forward in efforts to tailor medical treatment plans to individual patients. Led by Shigeki Miyamoto,… Read more »

While the journey from seed to plate may be unfamiliar to us, that doesn’t mean that it happens by accident. Behind the scenes, scores of people work tirelessly to make sure that our food makes it safely to our pantries, and to ensure that future generations will always have plenty to eat.

“I have no idea.”

Infectious diseases are as unpredictable as they are terrifying. And in an increasingly interconnected world, the potential for a global outbreak is immense. Researchers at UW-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine are seeking innovative ways to stay a step ahead of the next pandemic.

“I just love telling people that I went to school here.”

Twenty-six years — and plenty of TV series, movies, and scripts — later, Jill Soloway ’87 still remembers the profound influence of her semester in the capstone production course, Comm Arts 659. “It was a revelation to me. It made me want to be an artist. It made me look at film through the lens… Read more »

Having grown up together in the Milwaukee metropolitan area, UW–Madison students Katie Piel and Natalie Hogan were well aware of food-security issues throughout their hometown, but it wasn’t until college that they learned how they could address these problems. Piel, an environmental studies and communication arts double major, was taking notes in a lecture on… Read more »

The Wisconsin School of Business attracts a diverse student body, some with remarkable stories of struggle and accomplishment. Many of these exceptional students come to the business school not only to create a better life for themselves but also to give back. Noe Vital, Jr. BBA’15 was just such a student. He graduated with a… Read more »

What makes a perfect dairy cow? It takes a trained eye to notice bovine features that hold great promise for the milking parlor. A tight udder, yes, but also the more subtle points: lean thighs, a sweeping rear slant to the ribs, a long neck, a fluid stride. And a skilled judge has to back… Read more »

Developing invisible implantable medical sensor arrays, a team of UW-Madison engineers has overcome a major technological hurdle in researchers’ efforts to understand the brain. The team described its technology, which has applications in fields ranging from neuro-science to cardiac care and even contact lenses, in the journal Nature Communications. Neural researchers study, monitor, or stimulate… Read more »

Exonerating the innocent and making right where the justice system has failed: that is what students and faculty in the Wisconsin Innocence Project fight for every day.

Law school confirmed Cory Brewer’s desire to serve others. It may also have saved her life. As a law student, Brewer JDx’17 enrolled in the Center for Patient Partnerships (CPP), where she not only became a health-care advocate for her clients, but for herself as well. CPP is a national resource for building more effective… Read more »

The future will be challenging for the human race. How we deal with the problems we have helped to create will be the ultimate test of our survival. But with Dr. Patz diligently asking and answering the important questions, we have a much better chance at a brighter tomorrow.

There are over 27 million people in the U.S. living with chronic kidney disease, but only about 5,000 nephrologists nationwide, placing limitations on the number of individual medical appointments that can be made.

Richard Sinaiko ’66 calls UW–Madison the love of his life, ranking the university behind only his family. And he has shown that love the way many alumni do — donating time, influence, and resources to his alma mater. Somewhat surprisingly, the generous School of Nursing donor is not a nurse. That was his mother. And… Read more »

Knowing the past is part of any good education, but great education explores the past, illuminates the present, and anticipates tomorrow. By combining all three elements, SoHE prepares graduates for career success in retail, fashion, textiles, and consumer behavior, which means a deep dive into China. As China becomes an increasingly important market for American-made… Read more »

Alan Paberzs ’04, MPA’05’s first significant brush with public service and social justice at UW–Madison was during his sophomore year on an Alternative Spring Break trip in 2001. Ever since that week spent repairing hurricane-damaged homes, he’s really never stopped living his service-minded mission. Ten years removed from his time on campus, Paberzs has built… Read more »

Traditions are incredibly important in Wisconsin, from fish fry on Fridays to deer camp at Thanksgiving, from the cabin up north to the kringle on the breakfast table. While the state motto is “Forward,” Wisconsinites never forget to look back. As their customs change with the times. In, they create something that’s uniquely Wisconsin. This… Read more »

They bear names like “Blissful Bites,” a vanilla yogurt nugget coated with crunchy oats, flax and puffed rice; “Pixie Dust,” freeze-dried, powdered fruit that becomes a smooth, nutritious drink when mixed with milk or water; and “Walking Wok,” a chicken and vegetable stir-fry wrapped in a gluten-free tortilla. But as fun and delicious as these… Read more »

Most economists don’t debate the purpose of money. But Ray B. Zemon Chair in Liquid Assets Professor Randall Wright of the Wisconsin School of Business isn’t like most economists.

The experiment started with a classroom discussion about consumer persuasion. Students in Professor Evan Polman’s marketing course were curious about how business interaction can elicit changes in consumer’s behavior, and Professor Polman wanted to craft a real-world example.

Some of the most important members of Wisconsin’s police departments walk on four legs. Canine — or “K9” — cops perform crowd control, sniff out drugs and bombs, track suspects and missing persons, and help with community outreach. But police animals need all the same care that private-citizen animals do, and that care has to… Read more »

Launching the next successful startup takes more than a good idea and the skills to design a well-built app. That’s why Professor Jignesh Patel of the Department of Computer Sciences organizes the NEST for Emerging Software Technologies competition.

Due to their innovative approach to targeting cancer cells without harming healthy tissue, Dr. Sondel and his team have been asked to join the pediatric oncology “Dream Team” by Stand Up to Cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Representing unique collaborations across multiple disciplines, this alliance of 7 research groups is the only pediatric cancer Dream Team in North America.

Many victims of violent crimes would not be able to feel compassion for the person who hurt them, but Robert D. Enright, the founder of the International Forgiveness Institute, believes that empathy and acceptance have immense power to heal and repair.

Distinguished Professor of Psychology Jenny Saffran works to better understand how children acquire language. In the Infant Learning Lab, Professor Saffran and her team study how language learning typically unfolds, and how to help infants for whom language acquisition is especially challenging.

Theoren Loo ’16 would like a drink of good, clean water — not for himself, but for the residents of KuManzimdaka, a village in rural South Africa. As an undergraduate, Loo took a course through the UW’s Global Health Institute called Health Impact Assessment of Global Environmental Change. In it, he learned that about four… Read more »

Children born with single ventricle heart defects—a condition in which the heart only has one functioning pumping chamber—often need to undergo a series of surgeries in the first years of life. Using a selective laser sintering (SLS) machine the size of a compact car, the team creates intricate, highly detailed models that accurately duplicate patients’ distinct heart defects.

Blind from birth, Yeaji Kim has considered music to be her guiding light since the age of five. Her experiences inspired Kim to pursue a career in music education and travel from South Korea to UW-Madison to earn her doctorate.

Nancy Wong, professor of consumer science in the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology, designed an energy-tracking app to make reducing day-to-day energy usage more accessible. Drawing on parallels between food consumption and energy use, Wong’s team designed “My Earth – Track Your Carbon Savings” with approaches used in food-tracking apps that help users catalog their… Read more »

Getting Us from Here to There The College of Engineering drives improvements in many areas of transportation, including safety, automobile performance, and environmental impact, among many others. Here are a few recent developments. Mapping Wisconsin traffic deaths A new interactive map developed in partnership with the Madison news website Channel3000.com gives Wisconsinites a view of… Read more »

What if a smartphone could help people struggling with addiction stay sober? A team led by David Gustafson, a UW-Madison professor of industrial and systems engineering, has developed the Addiction-Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (A-CHESS), which provides personalized support to people recovering from alcoholism.

In 2013, sixteen UW-Madison students spent a semester delving into the mysteries of a single dusty account book kept by a colonial merchant. The results of their work didn’t emerge for another two years, but when they led to a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution, the wait seemed worthwhile. The students and their professor,… Read more »

They talk. They breathe. They bleed. But they are not alive. They are high-fidelity mannequins used in the Center for Technology-Enhanced Nursing (CTEN), a cutting-edge simulation lab in Signe Skott Cooper Hall. The mannequins garner a lot of attention — and for good reason. These human-like interactive tools come as close as possible to being… Read more »

Even though scientists have studied them extensively, there is still a lot we don’t yet know about bacteria. The biggest issue is how small they are. Individually, their size makes them difficult to observe under a microscope.

Since public engagement can have an immense impact on the scientific community, Scheufele and Brossard are hoping to be able to foster conversation about where science is headed, rather than shutting down discussion entirely.

Chemistry Professor Helen Blackwell studies the interface between chemistry and biology. She heads a lab of researchers who explore the way bacteria communicate among themselves, and is seeking to decode and co-opt these bacterial signals.

In 2016, the University of Wisconsin–Madison was awarded a UNESCO Chair on Gender, Wellbeing, and a Culture of Peace: a first in the state of Wisconsin and a first for the university in any area. It creates a global platform for the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and for the campus wide 4W (Women… Read more »

From one man trying to make a difference to a nationwide model that can feed millions, Professor Jed Colquhoun is proof that UW-Madison is a place where big innovations can lead to gigantic results.  

“Busy as a bee” seems like just another phrase—until you spend time tracking each tiny insect’s flight pattern. UW-Madison graduate student Jeremy Hemberger is doing just that, and he’s hoping his work will help farmers optimize crop production.

Undergrad Laura Schmitt loves two things: creative writing and Green Bay. With help from the Morgridge Center for Public Service, she’s working to bring the two together. Green Bay is Schmitt’s hometown. Madison is where she’s learning to cultivate her writing skills. But she wanted to share her passion for storytelling with her home community,… Read more »

The Madison nonprofit organization Wheels for Winners has been rewarding young people with strong records of community service with rebuilt and repaired bicycles for 23 years. But without volunteers, the organization would have long ago been stopped in its tracks. “Not a lot of charities can persist on our small operating budget,” says Richard Castelnuovo… Read more »

When leading Drawing Jam sessions, award-winning cartoonist and writer Lynda Barry has a simple rule: “All adults must be accompanied by a child!” Barry—who holds what is thought to be the only joint faculty position in interdisciplinary creativity in the country—believes that it’s important for students of all ages to reconnect with the uninhibited way… Read more »