Fall ‘Crossroads’ Topics Include Trade Policy Models, Climate Change and More
The fall Crossroads of Ideas series kicks off in the Discovery Building on Tuesday, September 24 at 7:00 pm. WID researchers will be featured throughout the fall series.
WID News
Top headlines, campus news, and announcements featuring the work and opinions of the WID community.
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery Hires Derrick L. Smith as Development Director
Smith, who also currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Urban League of Greater Madison and as a member of the Agrace Hospice Foundation Board, is responsible for all aspects of the institute’s development efforts including strategic planning, donor relations and stewardship of major gifts.
New Faculty Bring New Possibilities to WID, UW
Claudia Solís-Lemus and Daniel Pimentel-Alarcón are experts in statistics and machine learning, augmenting WID’s data science expertise.
Electronic Records Pin Broad Set of Health Risks on Genetic Premutation
WID graduate student Arezoo Movaghar was a collaborator in a study that employed machine learning to mine decades of electronic health records of nearly 20,000 individuals.
Cap Times Q&A: Institute for Discovery Director Jo Handelsman Takes Scientific Collaboration to a New Level
“When I came we started thinking about how you generate interdisciplinary work. We took an experimental approach to figuring out whether there are deliberate things that we can do that will encourage truly broad collaborations across disciplines.”
Award-winning Grad Student Research Could Benefit Industry
Three members of Lih-Sheng (Tom) Turng’s research group at WID won top awards for their exceptional research papers in March.
WID Researchers Collaborate on UW2020 Projects
Researchers at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery are co-Principal Investigators and co-Investigators on four UW2020: WARF Discovery Initiative projects.
WID Affiliate Victor Zavala Earns Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
Zavala was nominated for contributions to the computational strategies applied to advanced control of power systems, and for service to the educational community as an enthusiastic professor and mentor. Three other UW researchers also received the award.
Wisconsin School of Business’s Jon Eckhardt Named Discovery Fellow at WID
Eckhardt is also the Executive Director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship and the Robert Pricer Chair in Enterprise Development. His research includes the use of information in entrepreneurship, firm formation, venture finance, and initial public offerings.
Meet Tiny Earth Director Sarah Miller
Sarah Miller was named the executive director of Tiny Earth this spring. We sat down with her to learn about her background and the future of Tiny Earth.
Know Your Madisonian: Illumination is Goal of Discovery Hub Director Ginger Contreras
Ginger Ann Contreras, executive director of the Illuminating Discovery Hub at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at UW-Madison, is working to help create science-themed murals in Madison and promote accurate and diverse portrayals of scientists in entertainment.
WID Director Jo Handelsman Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Her election—alongside 200 other newly-elected members—recognizes her contributions to science.
Seminar on Astrobiology Aims to Inspire a Look into the Bounds of Life
A new group centered at WID hopes to coordinate the dozens of labs that are addressing some aspect of astrobiology and inspire others to join the work. A public lecture series this spring is part of the effort.
WID Biologist Takes Top Prize in Bioethics Cartoon Contest
Rush Dhillon, a comparative biologist working with the John Denu Lab at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, took the top prize in a contest that invites participants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue arising in or from biomedical research.
WID Seeks Machine Learning and “Fluxomics” Hires
WID seeks to add to its roster of excellent faculty with two new hires in emerging cutting-edge fields.
Wisconsin Public Television and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Announce the Timothy William Trout Education Innovation Lab
Gift of $2.1 million from Dr. Monroe and Sandra Trout creates partnership among Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Morgridge Institute for Research, UW-Madison School of Education, and Wisconsin Public Television
Tour WID’s New ‘Hubs’ Designed to Spur Campus Collaborations Dec. 12
The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery will launch a suite of hubs designed to bring together researchers from across campus and provide access to specialized tools and resources.
Randolph Ashton Named SCRMC Associate Director
WID’s Randolph Ashton, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is the new associate director for UW–Madison’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center.
Wisconsin State Journal: At UW-Madison, 500 Scientists Studying Stem Cells 20 Years After Discovery
The Wisconsin State Journal, as part of its feature highlighting stem cell research at UW 20 years after James Thomson’s discovery, highlights WID researchers Randolph Ashton and Kris Saha.
Cap Times Q&A: Kevin Ponto Wants to Use Virtual Reality to Solve Real-world Problems
For WID’s Kevin Ponto, virtual reality is more than a way of playing video games or simulating roller coaster rides. He thinks VR can be a tool for solving real-world problems.
UW–Madison Researchers Developing Methods to Edit Genes in Brain Cells
A second WID-led team joins NIH’s Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium with a grant to study new methods of delivering the CRISPR/Cas9 system to the brain.
Scientists Seek to Improve Quality Control for Genome Editing Therapies in the Eye
UW researchers led by WID’s Kris Saha join the National Institutes of Health’s Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium with a major collaborative award.
WSJ: Weather Forecasts Should Get Over the Rainbow
Professor Karen Schloss of WID’s Visual Reasoning Lab tells the Wall Street Journal about the pitfalls of the rainbow-colored maps used to communicate during storms like the recent Hurricane Florence.
Students Search for New Antibiotics in Initiative that Brings Real Science to Classrooms
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: At a recent training event, teachers from Milwaukee Public Schools were joined by a teacher from New York Public Schools, a middle school teacher from Oak Creek, and even a researcher planning to bring the program back to his home university in India.
Data Science Initiative Supports Faculty Research at UW–Madison
Ten highly innovative projects have been chosen to receive University of Wisconsin–Madison Data Science Initiative funding, including two led by Wisconsin Institute for Discovery investigators.