While you were away

Were you away this summer, or just on the Terrace a lot? Here’s some of what you might have missed during the past few months at UW–Madison.

CAMPUS NEWS
WARF: $80 million to BioStar
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has pledged $80 million to the BioStar Initiative over the life of the 10-year bioscience building project.

The funding commitment marks the largest single gift in WARF’s 75-year history and puts BioStar on a fast track. BioStar ultimately will help the university modernize research and teaching space in the biosciences and is expected to spark continued growth in the state biotechnology business sector.

The biosciences are one of UW–Madison’s fastest-growing and most research-intensive fields, spanning 2,000 graduate students, 800 faculty and 60 academic departments. A recent survey revealed nearly one in every three new freshmen in 1999-2000 plan to major in a biology-related field of study.
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Project to protect effigy mounds
The university is working with the Ho-Chunk Nation and the State Historical Society to protect an important grouping of effigy mounds in the UW Arboretum.

The project focuses on the Wingra Woods Effigy Mounds, a site that features a grouping of 14 burial and ceremonial mounds. A trail rerouting will provide a larger buffer zone between the mounds and the nearby footpath.

The mounds themselves will be untouched, but the university plans to create a disabled access trail, develop interpretive signs and improve access to nearby Big Spring Overlook.
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LEADERSHIP
Nursing dean named
Katharyn May, a leader of Canada’s academic nursing profession, has been named School of Nursing dean. May, currently a professor and director of the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, will begin the new job in January.

May succeeds Vivian Littlefield, who stepped down as dean at the beginning of this year after 16 years of leadership. Associate Dean Patricia A. Lasky is serving as the school’s interim dean.

Purchasing director starts work
Mike Hardiman, newly appointed purchasing director, began work June 15. He oversees staff and operations responsible for purchasing and distributing goods and services to UW–Madison departments. Hardiman replaces Tom Sailor, who retired in January.

Regents elect officers
Jay L. Smith, Middleton, has been elected president of the UW System Board of Regents, succeeding San Orr Jr., Wausau. Gerard Randall Jr. was elected vice president, succeeding Smith.

Health services names clearinghouse director
Kathryn Wolf has been named director of the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Prevention Resources, a unit of University Health Services. She succeeds Carol Lobes, who recently retired.

RESEARCH
Scientists suggest how a gene can “jump”
Nearly 50 years after a landmark paper proposed the existence of what later came to be called jumping genes, scientists are getting their first clear snapshot of one caught in midair.

The discovery gives researchers a new framework for understanding how transposable elements operate, say Ivan Rayment and Bill Reznikoff. The finding also may accelerate the search for new drugs to inhibit AIDS.

“Transposable elements have the potential to remodel genomes and to facilitate the movement of genetic information, such as antibiotic resistance,” says Reznikoff, a molecular geneticist.
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Researchers offer new theory of skeletal development
Curious children and developmental biologists have long pondered the question: what makes a thumb a thumb and a pinkie a pinkie? The answer Medical School researchers have found may force scientists to revise their theories of how cells of the developing skeleton organize into exquisitely patterned tissue, from fingers to spines.

“We were very surprised to find that developing cartilage, which eventually forms the skeleton, gets the information about what it will ultimately look like from surrounding soft tissue,” says John Fallon, Medical School Harland Winfield Mossman Professor of Anatomy.
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Addiction memory alters brain
Medical School researchers have found that the memory of drug use can alter an area of the brain not traditionally implicated in addiction, a clue that may help explain the powerful cravings underlying relapses into addictive behavior.
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ADVANCES
Space station beckons ice cloud project
Sometime in the year 2003, if all goes well, a university experiment designed to probe the nearly invisible ice clouds of Earth will be hitched by astronauts to the International Space Station.

The project, known as CIRRUS, is one of five projects NASA selected in a preliminary competition to develop some of the first scientific payloads for the orbiting space station.

It is the only project in the competition that will be student-driven from beginning to end, says Steven Ackerman, an atmospheric scientist: “Our proposal is unique because we’ll have students build the instrument.”
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Prairie atlas expands botanical horizons
A new publication, “The Atlas of the Wisconsin Prairie and Savanna Flora,” promises to expand botanical horizons by cataloging, describing and mapping the distribution of Wisconsin’s prairie and savanna plants.

Published by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and authored by Theodore S. Cochrane, a curator at UW–Madison’s Herbarium, and Hugh H. Iltis, former director of the Herbarium and an emeritus professor of botany, the new atlas is free and can be obtained as Technical Bulletin No. 191 through the Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Integrated Science Services Research Center, 1350 Femrite Drive, Madison, WI 53716, or by calling 221-6320.
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COMMUNITY
Students pleased with computing
Nine out of 10 students are satisfied with university computing resources, and many are buying stuff – especially books – online, according to an annual survey.

The Division of Information Technology annual student survey helps to determine student awareness and use of UW computing services and to gauge demand for new and existing services. The survey conducted between February and

May also found that the percentage of students making online purchases increased by almost 50 percent over last year.

Not only did the number of students shopping online increase, but the average number of purchases increased as well.
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Project connects farms, dining halls
With help from the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, dining services at four colleges in Wisconsin, including UW–Madison, are buying directly from Wisconsin farmers and paying premium prices for a wide variety of meats, vegetables and fruit.

Says John Hendrickson, a researcher with the center’s College Food Project. “When colleges buy food locally, the money stays in Wisconsin’s economy and supports Wisconsin family farmers. And the students get fresh, nutritious food.”

Trace technology at Smithsonian
Technology pioneered at the Trace Research and Development Center plays a major role in a national exhibit on the American disability rights movement that opened this summer in Washington, D.C.

The exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History features two web-based kiosks using Trace’s EZ Access Method interactive technology for people with disabilities.

MILESTONES
Editor leaves lasting legacy to language
Memorial services were held June 18 for Frederic Cassidy, 92, editor-in-chief of UW–Madison’s Dictionary of Regional American English. Cassidy died June 14 of complications following a stroke.
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Engineer Guckel had major impact
A memorial service July 22 at the Wisconsin Center for microelectronics pioneer Henry Guckel showcased the engineer’s far-reaching impact on industry and the careers of his students. Guckel died June 5 after a brief illness.
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