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UW In The News

  • It’s Time We Talked About Our Bambi Problem

    Mother Jones | February 13, 2023

    In the forests of Wisconsin and Michigan, research suggests, expanding whitetail populations are responsible for at least 40 percent of the change observed in forest structure. “It’s rare in ecology to find one factor that accounts for so much change,” says Donald Waller, a retired professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who has studied white-tailed deer for over 20 years.

  • ‘Stakes are monstrous’: Wisconsin judicial race is 2023’s key election

    Guardian | February 13, 2023

    “The stakes are monstrous,” said Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. “There’s a confluence of factors that have come together, intentionally or not to make this a terribly important race for the future of the state.”

  • Childbirth Is Deadlier for Black Families Even When They’re Rich, Expansive Study Finds

    The New York Times | February 13, 2023

    “It’s not race, it’s racism,” said Tiffany L. Green, an economist focused on public health and obstetrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The data are quite clear that this isn’t about biology. This is about the environments where we live, where we work, where we play, where we sleep.”

  • In dire need of more space, UW-Madison Engineering gets System’s top priority

    Wisconsin State Journal | February 13, 2023

    UW-Madison will aggressively seek a new College of Engineering building as its top priority in the upcoming state budget cycle as growth stagnates and faculty compete with one another for coveted and increasingly limited lab space.

  • UW-Madison expands tuition promise for low-income students to cover room, board and other college costs

    Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | February 10, 2023

    The University of Wisconsin-Madison is expanding its tuition promise program to cover not only tuition for some low-income students, but nearly all other college costs that can derail progress toward a degree, such as room and board.

  • FTC cracking down on wellness industry marketing

    Marketplace | February 10, 2023

    “It’s very much tapping into our insecurities that we are not well enough. And it taps into our hope that we could be better,” said Christine Whelan, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  • Why Ben & Jerry’s is chunky, and Häagen-Dazs is smooth : Planet Money

    NPR | February 9, 2023

    SMITH: That economist I met at that big conference, the person who first noticed something amiss in the freezer section, is named Christopher Sullivan. He’s a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

  • How Moore v. Harper at the Supreme Court could become moot

    NPR | February 7, 2023

    And the flip-flopping in state court rulings that could come out of the North Carolina Supreme Court’s rehearing for this case could become more common in other parts of the country, explains Robert Yablon, an associate professor of law who helps lead the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative.

  • Immunocompromised worry they’re getting left behind again

    Axios | February 7, 2023

    “With no mitigating measures in place and now no #Evusheld, immunocompromised patients are at even higher risk. Better meds must arise to make this world safe for all,” tweeted University of Wisconsin-Madison anesthesiology associate professor Bill Hartman.

  • UW-Madison exhibit has ‘something new to say’ about race and art

    Wisconsin State Journal | February 6, 2023

    When incoming museum director Amy Gilman first saw “Emancipation Group” on display at the Chazen Museum of Art in 2017, she reacted like many visitors: She stopped in her tracks.

  • Samsung exec says he wouldn’t give a smartphone to his daughter until she was 11

    CNBC | February 6, 2023

    Deciding whether or not a child is ready to own a smartphone should be based on their own development rather than a specific age, according to Megan Morena, a pediatrics professor at the University of Wisconsin.

  • Northeast U.S. Latest to Experience Polar Vortex Temperatures

    The New York Times | February 6, 2023

    “I wish I had a clear answer,” said Steve Vavrus, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin. With Jennifer Francis, now at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts, Dr. Vavrus wrote a seminal 2012 paper that presented the idea that Arctic warming was affecting the polar vortex. “Unfortunately the state of things is still ambiguous,” he said.

  • Madagascar’s sacred trees face existential threats in a changing world

    National Geographic | February 6, 2023

    “That’s one of the most amazing things about the Malagasy baobabs,” says Nisa Karimi, a botanist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “One species occurs all across continental Africa, and then you get to Madagascar, and you have six.”

  • Why Bad Bunny’s Grammy nominated Un Verano Sin Ti is such a big deal

    Vox | February 6, 2023

    “There was a particular audience consuming this and it was divided along generational lines,” said Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, a Caribbean historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is penning an article for the Bad Bunny Enigma, an academic journal analyzing the star. “It’s really interesting how Bad Bunny became this global superstar while in conversation with things that were happening in the archipelago. He was basically making music for people in the archipelago, referencing things that only Puerto Ricans would understand.”

  • The EPA is updating its most important tool for cracking down on carbon emissions

    NPR | February 6, 2023

    The EPA uses higher dollar amounts for deaths in higher-income countries and lower dollar amounts for deaths in lower-income countries. Or, as Paul Kelleher, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin, puts it…PAUL KELLEHER: The badness of a death from climate change in India is treated as not as bad as exactly the same death if it happened at exactly the same time in the United States.

  • The Blurred Lines Between Goldman C.E.O.’s Day Job and His D.J. Gig

    The New York Times | February 6, 2023

    “There’s a kind of prima facie appearance of: ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours,’” said Yaron Nili, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School who specializes in corporate and securities law.

  • Opinion | Why I’m not worried about my students using ChatGPT

    The Washington Post | February 6, 2023

    Lawrence Shapiro is a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    ChatGPT has many of my university colleagues shaking in their Birkenstocks. This artificial-intelligence tool excels at producing grammatical and even insightful essays — just what we’re hoping to see from our undergraduates.

  • When Americans Lost Faith in the News

    The New Yorker | February 2, 2023

    So why didn’t they report what they knew? McGarr, a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thinks it’s because the people who covered Washington for the wire services and the major dailies had an ideology.

  • How New Year’s resolutions boost the wellness business

    Marketplace | February 1, 2023

    “So literally I could just buy health and wellness,” explained Christine Whalen, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin. “And that sounds very enticing.”

  • Muslim-American opinions on abortion are complex. What does Islam actually say?

    NPR | February 1, 2023

    The current tension between state laws and some Islamic beliefs may be setting the stage for further legal battles over abortion. Asifa Quraishi-Landes, an Islamic and constitutional law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argues that abortion bans tread on Muslims’ First Amendment rights.

  • Race to vaccinate rare wild monkeys gives hope for survival

    ABC News | February 1, 2023

    “There are people who say we shouldn’t touch nature, that we shouldn’t alter anything. But really, there are no pristine natural habitats left,” said Tony Goldberg, a disease ecologist and veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who supports vaccinating wildlife when it’s safe and practical. “People are waking up to the magnitude of the problem and realizing they have to do something.”

  • Spending on services is starting to cool, U.S. data indicates

    Marketplace | January 30, 2023

    That’s not such a bad thing, said Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin. “To the extent that there’s still many job openings relative to people willing to take those jobs, then we do want to see some reduction in demand for labor,” he said.

  • Rural Americans aren’t included in inflation figures – and for them, the cost of living may be rising faster

    The Conversation | January 27, 2023

    When the Federal Reserve convenes at the end of January 2023 to set interest rates, it will be guided by one key bit of data: the U.S. inflation rate. The problem is, that stat ignores a sizable chunk of the country – rural America. -Tessa Conroy, Development Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Germany Says Quiet Part Out Loud About Ukraine War

    Newsweek | January 26, 2023

    Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that Baerbock’s use of the term “war” was likely more figurative than literal, shaped by the emotional atmosphere at the Council of Europe.

  • 100-year floods: The metric behind America’s infrastructure is out of date, and thanks to climate change we’re paying the price.

    Slate | January 25, 2023

    “It’s kind of a mess, even in the absence of climate change,” said Daniel Wright, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin. Wright helped Madison adopt climate-conscious design guidelines and works with the magically named U.S. Office of Water Prediction. “Almost all of [the models] assume that data varies from year to year, but underlying drivers are not changing over time. Those assumptions just don’t hold.”

  • Direct Air Capture Could Help Pull Carbon Dioxide From the Sky

    Business Insider | January 24, 2023

    “The next decade is crucial because the amount of deployment required in the second half of the century will only be feasible if we see substantial new deployment in the next 10 years,” Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a coauthor of the report, said during a press call.

  • There’s a path away from toxic polarization: shared problem-solving

    The Hill | January 23, 2023

    It is within our grasp to solve the problems facing our nation and world. To get there, we must reject the lure of polarization and dogmatic certainty and instead, seek interdependence and collaboration. The world depends on it. –Clif Conrad is a professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author (with Todd Lundberg) of the book “Learning with Others.” Todd Lundberg is an associate director in the Center for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  • Cancer blood test using DNA fragments brings hope for earlier detection, say researchers

    Fox News | January 23, 2023

    A University of Wisconsin­–Madison research team was able to detect cancer in the bloodstream in most of the samples tested, it said. Muhammed Murtaza, professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health based in Madison, Wisconsin, led the study, which was published recently in Science Translational Medicine, a medical journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to the study’s press release.

  • Weird winter weather: Thundersnow, frost quakes and more

    The Washington Post | January 23, 2023

    “Very intense winter storms can trigger the rare phenomenon of thundersnow,” says Michael Notaro, an atmospheric scientist and director of the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “Thundersnow events usually bring infrequent lightning flashes and quieter thunder as the heavy snowfall muffles the sound.”

  • Online racial harassment leads to lower academic confidence for Black and Hispanic students

    The Conversation | January 23, 2023

    Online racial discrimination or harassment has a negative effect on the academic and emotional well-being of students of color. That is the key finding from a study I published recently in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. –Assistant Professor, Phyllis Northway Faculty Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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