Milestones

HONORED

The No. 1 ranked Badgers Men’s Cross Country Team won its sixth consecutive Big Ten Conference championship last month by a record 81 points. Wisconsin won with 23 points, the fourth-lowest point total in championship history.

Defending champion Simon Bairu won the 8000-meter race in 23 minutes, 45 seconds. Teammates Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp finished second in 23:55 and third in 23:57. Bairu becomes the first repeat champion since the UW’s Matt Downin won titles in 1998 and 1999. UW senior Josh Spiker finished sixth in 24:18 and all four earned All-Big Ten first-team honors. Junior Bobby Lockhart rounded out the UW scorers in 11th place in 24:34 and earned second-team All-Big Ten honors along with sophomore Tim Nelson, who was 13th in 24:36.

Diana Kerwin, assistant professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, received the 2004 Dr. Judith Stitt Woman Faculty Scholar Award for her work investigating the effects of body weight and other risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease in women. She received the award last month from the Wisconsin’s Women’s Health Foundation. It provides $50,000 salary support over two years.

Vet School Development Council names chair
Kailas J. Rao, a prominent Milwaukee businessman, will helps the School of Veterinary Medicine expand its facilities. Rao, who has a background in the telecommunications and technology industry, will chair the school’s Development Council, the group charged with raising $100 million to build a new large- and small-animal hospital and research center. His wife, Becky, has 10 Appaloosa horses and 10 Brittany dogs. For the past 16 years, they’ve been bringing their dogs to the school’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital for treatment.

GRANTS

A team of UW–Madison researchers was awarded $10,000 from the Dr. Kit Allen Women’s Health Research Grant to support a study on the physical and mental health and well-being of black African immigrant women in Dane County. The project is led by Sherrill Sellers, assistant professor in the School of Social Work. She will be assisted by Gloria Johnson-Powell, associate dean for faculty development and director of the Center for the Study of Cultural Diversity in Healthcare, and Earlise Ward, postdoctoral fellow at the UW Center for Women’s Health Research.

APPOINTMENTS

Richard Dubielzig, pathology professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Pathobiological Sciences, was elected an honorary diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmology during the 35th Annual ACVO Conference held in Washington, D.C., in October. The honor is in recognition of his contributions to the veterinary ophthalmology specialty including an extensive library of eye tissue specimens that are used to compare normal ocular structure and to study specific diseases of the eye.

Daryl D. Buss, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine, has been appointed vice chair of the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues. Buss has been a member of NCVEI’s Board of Directors since the commission was formed in 2000. The board is composed of representatives the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, of which Buss is a representative.