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Sparking Curiosity: Sydney Bradley uses art to make science more accessible
Meet Sydney Bradley, a Marie Kohler fellow and graduate researcher in microbiology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Hosted by Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, the Kohler Fellowships, seek to bridge science and the humanities by pairing UW–Madison graduate students from diverse disciplines to collaborate on innovative research, public engagement, and creative exploration. Bradley is working with R.J. Maupin, a stained-glass artist and PhD candidate researching the history of American glass production and the public performance of glassblowing across industrial and studio contexts. They aim to create art that “sparks conversations surrounding sustainable energy and highlights the many steps, people, and decisions involved in building sustainable energy systems.” Bradley hopes the fellowship will lead to a museum residency where she can actively engage people in discussions about science. “We want anyone, of any age, to be able to experience the wonders of the research taking place,” Bradley said. “I believe that if science is presented in artistic, colorful, or hands-on ways, people feel less limited by their background knowledge and more willing to engage with unfamiliar ideas.”
Saha and Mutlu Named Engineering Moonshot Co-Leaders
Two Wisconsin Institute for Discovery faculty members have been named co-leaders of UW–Madison College of Engineering's Engineering Moonshots, an initiative gathering expertise from across campus to find solutions in areas of personalized medicine, autonomous systems, fusion energy, quantum technologies and sustainable resources.
Kamilov Gives Plenary Talk at ICIP 2026
WID Discovery Fellow Ulugbek "Bek" Kamilov was recently a plenary speaker at the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), held Sept. 13–17 in Tampere, Finland. The conference is one of the largest international gatherings focused on image processing, bringing together about 1,000 researchers and industry professionals. Kamilov, the Leon and Elizabeth Janssen Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UW–Madison, spoke about how advances in generative modeling are changing the way researchers approach computational imaging problems.
Inaugural Microbiome Symposium Showcased Interdisciplinary Work Enabled by Campus Germ-Free Mouse Facility
UW–Madison’s new Gnotobiotic Shared Resource (GSR) is expanding opportunities for researchers to study the microbiome in germ-free and gnotobiotic mouse models. The centralized facility was established with a $1 million gift from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) through the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research’s Microbiome Initiative. The GSR was recently highlighted at the WID-hosted UW–Madison Microbiome Symposium, where this year’s “Gut-Brain Axis” theme reflected the work of many researchers using the facility to study how the gut microbiome may influence neurological function. “The GSR is an amazing gift to the campus,” says Wisconsin Institute for Discovery director and GSR user Jo Handelsman. “Relatively few campuses have gnotobiotic facilities for general use. Usually they are located in one research group which must coordinate their own training, personnel, and maintenance of colonies. The UW–Madison GSR makes possible new avenues of microbiome investigation for our researchers.”
