University of the Air: The Science of Life’s Origin
David Baum discusses different theories that have been proposed to explain the origin of life and summarizes ongoing work in his laboratory and elsewhere with WPR’s Norman Gilliland.
WID News
Top headlines, campus news, and announcements featuring the work and opinions of the WID community.
What Will We Reap Without Topsoil?
WID Director, Jo Handelsman speaks to Science Friday’s Ira Flatow about the value of soil and her upcoming book A World Without Soil.
Solís-Lemus Group Featured in PBS Meet the Lab
PBS Wisconsin Education profiles Claudia Solís-Lemus and members of her lab as they implement a computer science tool to help “see” sounds of the forest and count how many animals are there.
The 2021 winners: Cool Science Image Contest Includes Three WIDites
Nisha Iyer, postdoc in the Ashton Lab; Shin-Tsz (Lucy) Kuo, undergraduate in the Schloss Lab; and Rob Nowak, Discovery Fellow are featured winners this year.
WID postdoc awarded AAAS Science & Technology Fellowship in U.S. Department of State
Amanda Hurley will work in the Office of International Health and Biodefense (IHB), which builds global health security through policy advancement.
UW-Madison Grad Student Uses TikTok To Teach Thousands About Astrobiology
Astrobiologist Lena Vincent’s TikTok Reaches More Than 50K Followers
New Kohler Fellows Cohort Begins Interdisciplinary Art-Science Projects
In a competitive application process, two additional art fellows and three additional science fellows were added to the continuing group.
Nanocapsule gene editing system earns new NIH funding
The project, part of NIH’s Somatic Cell Genome Editing Program, is a collaboration among Gong and UW-Madison colleagues Krishanu Saha (associate professor of biomedical engineering and cell and gene therapy impact leader at the Grainger Institute) and other UW colleagues.
WID alumnus awarded first AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship in the U.S. Department of the Treasury
WID and Saha Lab alumnus, and current postdoc at the Morgridge Institute for Research, Amritava Das anticipates that he will put his engineering and bioscience training to use exploring the sometimes knotty connections between science, national security, and finance.
Researchers use virtual reality to demonstrate effectiveness of 3D visualization as a learning tool
Researchers from the Neuroimaging Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and Dr. Karen Schloss from Wisconsin Institute for the Discovery at University Wisconsin-Madison have developed the UW Virtual Brain Project, producing unique, interactive, 3D narrated diagrams to help students learn about the structure and function of perceptual systems in the human brain.
UW researchers join three national artificial intelligence institutes
Institute for Future Edge Networks and Distributed Intelligence (AI-EDGE) led by Robert Nowak, UW–Madison professor of electrical and computer engineering and researchers at Ohio State.
The Tree of Life Is Rooted in Math
Claudia Solís-Lemus reveals a clearer picture of the evolutionary interconnectedness of organisms by modeling data, both big and small
Research aims to give everyone a fair shot at accessing COVID-19 vaccines
WID researcher, Michael Ferris, John P. Morgridge Professor of Computer Sciences and Corey Jackson, assistant professor at the UW–Madison Information School in CDIS, are developing a vaccine fairness recommendation engine that will support equitable decision making about vaccination.
Gong Lands NIH Grant to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance
Gong’s group at WID and biomedical engineering will engineer a biocompatible cationic polymer, paired with already-approved antibiotics using chemical linkers that respond to specific characteristics of the infected tissues, allowing for disease-specific drug release.
Xuehua Zhong Receives Romnes Faculty Fellowship
WID’s Xuehua Zhong is among fourteen UW–Madison faculty recently honored with H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowships, which recognize faculty within their first six years from promotion to a tenured position.
Pride at WID
WID Director Jo Handelsman on WID’s support for Pride month and LGBTQ+ members of our community.
How Dirt Could Help Save the Planet
WID Director Jo Handelsman writes in Scientific American about the threat of soil erosion.
Groundbreaking entrepreneurship science lab fosters student entrepreneurs
A new lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is mobilizing the entrepreneurial ecosystem by working to identify the conditions that foster student entrepreneurship.
NSF Supports Interdisciplinary Pandemic Prevention Workshops
WID’s John Yin is part of a team assembling February workshops on predictive intelligence for pandemic prevention.
Michael Graf pivots from making commercials to writing movie scripts
In early December the International Screenwriters’ Association named Graf, Writer in Residence in WID’s Science to Script program, to its Top 25 Screenwriters To Watch In 2021.
UW Researchers Partner with US Department of Defense to Develop Stem Cell Therapy for Combat-Related Eye Injuries
Using an ingenious microscopic retinal patch, eye researchers at UW‒Madison will develop and test a new way to treat United States military personnel blinded in combat. WID’s Sarah Gong is a collaborator on the project.
Professor Stephen Wright Announced Winner of the Test of Time Award at 2020 NeurIPS Conference
Professor of Computer Sciences at WID Stephen Wright and three colleagues were announced winners of the prestigious Test of Time Award at the 2020 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems.
AP: Michael Graf Named an ISA Top 25 Writer to Watch in 2021
WID’s Science to Script Writer in Residence, Michael Graf, had been named to the International Screenwriters’ Association’s top 25 writers to watch.
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery Celebrates Tenth Anniversary
WID and its home, the Discovery Building, opened in December, 2010. A decade later, the institute is celebrating success and looking to the future.
Researchers Look to Control Organ Function Through New Computational Model
A cross-institutional team including WID’s John Yin is creating a computational model to guide the development of bladder therapeutics.