This prestigious honor recognizes outstanding early-career faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional research accomplishments and show great promise for continued scholarly excellence. The award will enable WID Discovery Fellow, Dr. Hryckowian to continue advancing this critical research, contributing to a deeper understanding of the microbiome and its role in health and disease.

Karen Schoss and colleague Steve Palmer wanted to find out where color preferences come from and discovered that preference is informed by experience. This article appears in Issue 77 of Breathe Magazine.

There's still time to unleash your curiosity! Supported by Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Wisconsin Science Festival runs through 10/26 with venues all over the state! Go to wiscifest.org to find out more.

Audrey Rothermel Bascom Professor of Design Studies Kevin Ponto and a team of fellow researchers have received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to continue developing a new tool that uses augmented reality to help older adults and people with disabilities remain safely in their homes.

We celebrate WID faculty member, Rupa Sridharan as she receives a Romnes Award and Discovery Fellow, Tim Kamp who is named Craig T. January Professor of Medicine, Cell and Regenerative Biology.

Colors convey meaning, influence behavior and make us experience emotions. To explain why this is, Larry Meiller of WPR’s The Larry Meiller Show talks with Karen Schloss, associate professor of cognition in UW-Madison’s Department of Psychology and the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.

WID Discovery Fellow, Kris Sankaran of the Department of Statistics and Jacob Thebault-Spieker of the Information School—have received the 2025 College of Letters & Science (L&S) Distinguished Honors Faculty Award for the significant positive impact they have made on their students’ experiences at UW–Madison.

Election to FRSC status reflects Professor Turng’s sustained excellence, leadership, and impact in the field. A highly productive and respected scholar, he continues to drive the development of innovative processes, high-performance materials, and sustainable products that contribute to the well-being of society.

The discussion, led by Professor Jon Eckhardt (leader of WID's Entrepreneurial Science Hub), special advisor to the chancellor for entrepreneurship, outlined a new vision for how UW–Madison can better support students, faculty, and alumni in launching businesses — and why that shift is critical for Wisconsin’s economy.

Ashton also noted that while the primary goal is to develop a cell culture model to detect whether someone has a genetic predisposition for Spina Bifida, it may also be possible to use this research to screen for potential ways to reduce the risk of SB in the patient’s progeny.