100 faculty added under hiring program

Ten new interdisciplinary proposals have been selected for the latest round of the university’s strategic hiring program, which is helping chart new territory in teaching and research.

The 10 winning “cluster hire” proposals, announced today, May 1, were chosen from a campuswide application process that attracted more than 70 proposals. With 29 new faculty positions included in this round, the program will now have authorized a total of 100 new interdisciplinary faculty hires across campus.

“This program has helped us revitalize our intellectual talent and organize ourselves around solving problems for Wisconsin and the world,” says Chancellor John Wiley. “It’s been a foundation of the Madison Initiative, our funding partnership with the state. The quality of this new round of proposals illustrates that the program remains innovative, vital and worthy of continuation.”

Whether the hiring program can continue will depend in part on the final outcome of the state biennial budget, which includes funding for the second phase of the Madison Initiative.

Strategic hiring is built around collaboration, by creating faculty teams across many disciplines to bring fresh perspectives to complex issues. Linda Greene, associate vice chancellor and coordinator of the hiring program, says the program has helped UW–Madison build on its historical strengths but also seize new opportunities.

“We have a very good balance of proposals this year,” says Greene.

“The winners include several in the humanities and in the social sciences, and every college on campus is represented. We also have a good mix of basic research areas and work that can be directly applied to helping people and improving the economy of Wisconsin.”

Earlier this year, a 10-member faculty advisory committee selected two dozen proposals as finalists and submitted them, with their recommendations, to the university administration for review. The winners were chosen by Wiley, Greene and Virginia Hinshaw, Graduate School dean and vice chancellor for research, in consultation with the academic deans.

For a complete description of the winning proposals, visit: http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/cluster/

The winning proposals are:

Translational research on neurodegenerative diseases. New faculty will work in groundbreaking new treatment areas, such as gene therapy and stem cell therapy, to help control neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, Down syndrome and stroke.
Agroecology. This group will analyze the current social, economic, environmental and cultural issues affecting agriculture today, including rural poverty, technological change and ecological damage.
Poverty studies. Spearheaded by the Institute for Research on Poverty, this hiring area will bring greater research focus on the underlying causes of poverty, as well as new ways to evaluate proposed solutions.
Living together with microbes. Considered a new frontier in biology research, this hiring area will concentrate on studying how microbes interact with plants, animals, people and other microbes. The work will have value in both agriculture and medicine.
Visual culture studies. This area will explore the concept of visuality as an organizing principle and analytical tool that has great significance in a world that is saturated with visual images, from the arts to material culture.
Middle Eastern studies. The new hires will build on the quality of UW–Madison’s flourishing Arabic language programs and attract further study of Arabic cultures and one of the world’s largest religions, Islam.
Expressive culture and diversity in the upper Midwest. This area will focus on upper Midwestern material culture, ethnic performance, folklore research and education and culture studies and tourism.
Molecular biometry. Faculty in this area will work in a new field that straddles the mathematical and biological sciences, by using quantitative principles to analyze and solve problems in modern biology.
Functional organic materials. This program will bring together scientists and engineers to synthesize new types of materials that can replicate the structure and function of biological systems, which can be used in novel health treatments.
String theory of mathematical physics. This evolving theory is having a profound effect on research in both math and physics, and explores the existence of up to six extra dimensions beyond the three that we regularly perceive.