News in brief
COMMUNITY
 Marsh burns Smoke rises from the 1918 Marsh, a section of University Bay Marsh, as part of ongoing efforts to preserve the ecological health of the area. The burn, conducted by the Grounds Department in cooperation with a workshop in Landscape Architecture taught by professor Evelyn Howell, is an experiment to determine the best way to use fire as a management tool for the marsh. Fire is being used to get rid of undercomposed plant debris and to help a restored prairie on the edge of the marsh get a head start on the growing season. Photo: Stephanie Judge
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Experts pick outstanding children’s books
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center has released “CCBC Choices 2000,” which provides annotated entries on 223 of the best books for children and young adults published in 1999.
Compiled by Kathleen T. Horning, Ginny Moore Kruse and Megan Schliesman, entries describe picture books, novels, biographies, poetry, concept books, books for babies and folklore. Topics range from books about the natural world to contemporary people, historical people and events, and seasons and celebrations. A final section includes recommendations for new editions of old favorites.
“CCBC Choices 2000” also provides observations about book publishing for young people, background material about authors and information about CCBC’s Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in picture books.
UW–Madison faculty, staff and students may obtain a free copy. Stop by 4290 Helen C. White Hall or call 262-9503.
All books listed in CCBC Choices 2000 will be available for examination in the CCBC throughout the spring. The center’s hours are Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
LEADERSHIP
Finalists named for extension chancellor
Four finalists for the position of UW-Extension chancellor have been forwarded to the Board of Regents. The committee is expected to recommend a candidate at the April 7 Board meeting. The finalists are:
- Corrinne A. Caldwell, vice president for distance and continuing education and acting provost, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa.
- D. Merrill Ewert, director and associate dean, Cornell Cooperative Extension Ithaca, N.Y.
- Kevin P. Reilly, provost and vice chancellor, UW-Extension
- Steven P. Schomberg, associate chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The new chancellor will succeed Albert J. Beaver, who has served as UW-Extension’s interim chancellor since 1997. Beaver announced last October that he would retire in July.
MILESTONES
Nelson receives law school award
Former governor and U.S. Sen. Gaylord A. Nelson is the latest recipient of the Law School’s Distinguished Service Award.
Created in 1967, the award is the school’s highest recognition for alumni and faculty. It recognizes outstanding service to the legal profession in private practice, government service or legal education.
Nelson, a 1942 graduate of the law school, received the award March 31 at the annual dinner of the Benchers Society, an organization of law school supporters.
A native of Clear Lake, Nelson served in the U.S. Army during World War II, then returned to practice law in Madison. In 1948 he was elected to the state Senate, where he served until his election as governor in 1958. After two gubernatorial terms, Nelson went on to serve 18 years in the U.S. Senate. He created Earth Day in 1969.
Two receive Sloan Fellowships
Mathematician Eleny-Nicoleta Ionel and economist Yuichi Kitamura have been awarded prestigious Sloan Research Fellowships. The fellowships, which carry unrestricted awards of $40,000 each to support individual recipient’s research, are among 104 awarded to promising young scholars in the United States and Canada by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation of New York.
Ionel, a UW–Madison assistant professor of mathematics, is known for her work in the field of symplectic topology, the geometry of basic objects of importance to mathematicians and physicists. She joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1998.
Kitamura, who joined the UW–Madison department of economics faculty in 1998 as an associate professor, works in the area of econometrics, the branch of economics that involves the study of data and how to use it effectively.
Based in New York City, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, among other activities, works in support of academic scholarship. Sloan Research Fellowships are highly competitive, attracting nominations for North America’s brightest young scholars.
Chang gets top materials science honor
The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society has awarded its top honor for leadership in the field to engineer Y. Austin Chang, the Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Chang was recognized for his contributions to the understanding of metal/compound semiconductor interactions. He has been on the UW–Madison faculty since 1980 and in 1988 was awarded one of the university’s first Wisconsin Distinguished Professorships. The award’s namesake, UW–Madison alumnus John Bardeen, won two Nobel Prizes for his invention of the transistor and work on superconductivity. The award goes to an individual who has made outstanding contributions and is a leader in the field of electronic materials.
UWPD to present awards
The UW Police Department extends an invitation to members of the university community to attend its annual awards ceremony Thursday, April 13, 3:30-5 p.m. in the On Wisconsin Room at the Red Gym. Refreshments will be served following the presentation of the awards.
Each year since 1991, the department has held the event to honor citizens who have assisted police or performed other commendable acts, such as lifesaving. Department personnel have been recognized with commendations for excellent service, valor and meritorious service.
Award nominations may be submitted to the department’s awards committee by department staff and the general public. The committee reviews the nominations and makes a recommendation to the director concerning who should receive awards in a given year.
ON CAMPUS
Experts to debate privacy rights
A panel of national experts on information privacy rights will discuss current issues at the UW Law School’s annual Kastenmeier Colloquium Friday, April 14. “From the Bill of Rights to the Internet: Protecting Privacy Rights and Interests in the New Millennium,” is scheduled at 3 p.m. in the Law School’s Godfrey & Kahn Hall, room 2260. Seating is limited.
Panelists will be led by moderator Robert Gellman, a privacy and information policy consultant in Washington, D.C. Panelists are:
- Martin Abrams, vice president for information policy and privacy for Experian, Inc. He is responsible for Experian’s global privacy process and often speaks on business privacy issues.
- Deirdre Mulligan, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, where she evaluates the impact of technology on individual privacy. She works with other privacy and civil liberties advocates, the communications and computer industries, and public policy makers to strengthen fair information practices.
- Paul Schwartz, professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, who has provided advice and testimony on informational privacy to governments in the U.S. and Europe, and has testified on the protection of privacy in health care reform before a House subcommittee.
Introducing the panel will be Robert Kastenmeier, the former U.S. congressman whose longtime record of public service is honored each year by this colloquium. Information: 263-7416.
Wunk Sheek pow-wow planned
Wunk Sheek, the Native American student association, will hold its spring pow-wow Saturday, April 8, at the Field House, noon-10 p.m. The free event, featuring traditional drummers and dancers, is co-sponsored by the American Indian Studies Program, the Multicultural Center, Associated Students of Madison and the Cross Cultures Committee of the Wisconsin Union. Information: 262-5169.
Bundesbank chief to talk
If U.S. Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan is the most powerful man in business, count Ernst Welteke equally close to the top. Welteke, head of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, will speak Friday, April 14, at 9:30 a.m. in the Fluno Center, 601 University Ave.
His talk, titled “Toward a New European Economy,” will address key economic and political issues, from the performance of the euro – the European Union’s currency – to the quickening pace of European corporate mergers making news internationally. Welteke says reforms underway in European countries point toward a revitalized economy. Information: European Union Center, 265-4778; CIBER, 263-7682.
Cancer genetics researcher
Sir Walter Bodmer, an internationally recognized researcher in cancer genetics and the genetics of human populations, will deliver the James F. Crow lecture Tuesday, April 18, at 3:30 p.m. in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin auditorium. Bodmer’s topic is “The Molecular and Cellular Genetics of Colon Cancer.”
Bodmer serves as principal of Hertford College in Oxford. Among his numerous activities, Bodmer wrote a now-classic text with Luca Cavalli-Sforza, “The Genetics of Human Populations,” first published in 1971. Information: dove@oncology.wisc.edu.
NOTABLE
Chapbook released by Parallel Press
“A Visionary’s Company,” by Madison author Rick Hilles, is the newest chapbook from Parallel Press, an imprint of the campus libraries.
Hilles, a 1999-2000 Halls Poetry Fellow at the Institute for Creative Writing, says many poems were inspired by historic figures and incidents. “Visions of Captivity: Neulengbach, 1912” is written from the point of view of the Austrian painter Egon Schiele. The title poem is written from the point of view of William Blake’s wife and artistic collaborator, Catherine Blake. Hilles’ poems have appeared in Poetry, The Nation, The New Republic and The Paris Review. His poetry has earned him The Missouri Review’s Larry Levis Editors’ Prize, as well as fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center. Hilles was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford University from 1995-1997, and received an M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University.
Each chapbook is $10; an annual subscription for six chapbooks is $50. Titles may be ordered by writing: The Parallel Press, 236 Memorial Library, 728 State St., Madison, WI 53706. Visit: http://parallelpress.library.wisc.edu.
COMING UP
Regents, tech board meet
‘The UW System Board of Regents will hold a joint meeting Thursday, April 6, with the Wisconsin Technical College System Board to discuss new course credit transfer agreements.
The joint meeting between the state’s two higher education governing boards will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Room 325-326 of the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.
Plan 2008: Financial aid aspects of Plan 2008 will be discussed by the board’s Education and Business and Finance committees at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the Pyle Center, followed by a 1 p.m. discussion by the Education Committee of the 1999 Minority and Disadvantaged Student Annual Report.
Searches: The regents Education Committee meets Thursday, April 6, to authorize the search to recruit a new chancellor at UW–Madison to replace David Ward, who is stepping down at the end of the year. Meanwhile, UW System President Katharine Lyall has appointed a 17-member campus/community committee to begin the search for a successor to Chancellor John Kerrigan. Kerrigan announced in February that he plans to step down August 31 after 10 years at UW-Oshkosh.
The Friday meeting of the full board begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Pyle Center.
Educator’s lecture begins sex assault awareness week
Jackson Katz, nationally known educator and trainer, will kick off Sexual Assault Awareness Week in Madison with a free talk entitled “More than a Few Good Men: A Lecture on American Manhood and Violence Against Women.”
The free lecture is scheduled Sunday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. in Great Hall of Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St.
A former all-star football player, Katz has directed a worldwide gender violence prevention program for the U.S. Marine Corps since 1996.
Other activities are planned on the UW–Madison campus and in the community as part of Sexual Assault Awarness Week April 9-15. For a calendar of events, visit: http://www.uhs.wisc.edu/saaw-cal.html
ISSUES
Pediatrician backs gun purge
UW Children’s Hospital pediatrician Murray L. Katcher is a co-author of American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement this week that urges removal of guns from homes and communities as “the most effective measure to prevent firearm-related injuries involving children.”
The policy on firearm-related injuries is one of several released April 4 at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The statements will be published in the April issue of Pediatrics, the scientific journal of the AAP.
The pediatricians also recommend that children not participate in formal swimming lessons until age four.