“Digest” going online in 2010Beginning in spring, 2010 Digest will be available exclusively online. This means we will be able to send you a greater variety of timely news from the UW-Madison. You also will have the opportunity to comment on stories.

If we already have your e-mail address, Digest will come to you automatically. If we do not have your e-mail address and you wish to continue receiving Digest, please go to www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu/survey and add your e-mail address.

Madison Initiative proposals chosenChancellor Biddy Martin (‘85 PhD) and the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates (MIU) Oversight Committee identified eight proposals from 29 submis-sions to become the first recipients of funding from MIU.

The process included an initial review in the provost’s office and the Offices of the Dean of Students. Then the Oversight Committee, with representatives from the faculty, staff, students and administrators, reviewed all proposals. Simultaneously, a student oversight board reviewed all proposals except those that focused on faculty hiring.

Members of both committees came together to share thoughts and meet with Chancellor Martin and Provost Paul DeLuca to discuss the proposals and make recommendations.

The following were selected to receive funding:

• College of Agricultural and Life Sciences: Campus wide Shared Adviser Notes to capture notes of interac-tions between students and advisers so the information can be used as a resource.

• Division of International Studies: International Internship Program to cultivate international internship experiences for students.

• Offices of the Dean of Students: Online Interactive International Student e-Tutorial to provide basic information about life in Madison and compliance with federal visa rules for international students.

• College of Letters and Science: Expansion of First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs) to increase FIGs to 60 groups across campus.

• College of Letters and Science: Expansion of Chemis-try and Physics Learning Centers to increase staff at the learning centers.

• Wisconsin School of Business: Faculty lines to add faculty in finance.

• College of Agricultural and Life Sciences: Globalizing Undergraduate Education to fund short-term interna-tional experiences and internationalized course content.

• College of Letters and Science: Faculty 2010-11 to addfaculty.

In addition, some MIU funds were spent to open additional sections of bottleneck courses in fall 2009 and spring 2010 and to hire an institutional researcher to support campus-level data analysis and accountability and to report development and dissemination related to MIU. About $3.8 million have been allocated from the $10 million available this year and next.

To view the complete proposals and descriptions, visit madisoninitiative.wisc.edu.

Happy birthday, “On, Wisconsin!”John Philip Sousa called “On, Wisconsin!” the “finest marching song ever written.” At least 18 other colleges have adopted the rousing melody as their own. And this year, “On, Wisconsin” celebrates its 100th birthday.

Written by roommates William T. Purdy (music) and Carl Beck (lyrics), the song was originally intended as an entry in a competition for the University ofMinnesota.

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Beck, who attended the UW in 1908-09, wrote new lyrics and convinced Purdy to send his tune to Madison.

“On, Wisconsin!” made its official debut on November 13, 1909, in Camp Randall when the Badger football team hosted Minnesota.

UW-Madison Libraries has created a Web site on all things “On Wisconsin!” with sections on history, photos, the composers’ biographies, different lyrics and even a 1915 recording. Visit archives.library.wisc.edu/uw-archives/exhibits/onwisconsin/.

At onwisconsin.wisc.edu, alumni and friends can listen to a 1926 UW Glee Club recording, download lyrics, buy the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s anniversary T-shirt and record their own versions of “On, Wisconsin!” T-shirt sales benefit Great People scholarships.

Top ten in study abroadAccording to the Open Doors report released in Novem-ber 2009, by the Institute of International Education, the UW-Madison ranks in the top five for student participa-tion in yearlong and mid-length study abroad programs, placing third and fourth, respectively, among all U.S. research institutions for the 2007-08 academic year.

The University ranks sixth for overall study abroad par-ticipation, up three spots from the previous year, with 2,216 participants. UW-Madison students received credit for study in 74 countries around the world, compared to 60 countries the previous year. Increasingly, students also are choosing to study in non-traditional countries, including China and India. Nationally, the number of Americans studying abroad increased 8.5 percent. At the UW-Madison, 20 percent more students traveled abroad compared to 2006-2007.

Consistent with national trends, European countries dominate the top five most popular destinations for UW-Madison students. However, China is the third choice for Badgers, up two spots from the previous year. China is in fifth place nationally.

UW-Madison also has remained in the top 20 research universities for numbers of international students enrolled, hosting 3,910 students from more than 105 countries in 2007-08.

Campus construction builds prideThe Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR) was named the higher education research project of the year by Midwest Construction magazine. The seven-story facility, part of a three-phase project, opened in 2008.

WIMR’s goal is to break down traditional barriers to collaboration and synergism, speeding the search for treatments and cures for human disease. The first WIMR tower is largely devoted to cancer research and houses the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center.

The Best of 2009 Awards were judged by an independent panel of six industry experts who ranked each project based on criteria teamwork, project management, safety, innovation, construction quality and craftsmanship, and the contribution to the community or industry.

The UW-Madison also was named “Developer of the Year” by Wisconsin Builder magazine. Much of the work that is currently under way was laid out in the 2005 cam-pus master plan for upgrading campus buildings. Some historic structures are being renovated while 1960s-era buildings characterized by poor construction and excessive energy use are being replaced.

“In this year particularly, UW-Madison was noted for keeping many members of the state construction indus-try working at a time when so few projects were going on,” said Caley Clinton, editor of Wisconsin Builder.

Alan Fish (‘01 MS L&S), associate vice chancellor for facilities, noted that funding for these projects does not come from tuition and generally less than one-third of construction costs are supported by taxpayers. “We have benefited by great, forward-looking partnerships with state government and generous donors,” he said.

UW-Madison named military-friendlyThe UW-Madison has been named to the first-ever list of military-friendly schools. Created by G.I. Jobs, a maga-zine produced by veterans, the 2010 list honors the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools in recruitment, retention and services for veteran students. This list also is intended as a resource for veterans pursuing higher education.

vagina and prevented the onset of cancer in mice that had precancerous lesions.

The lab studies, which should take one to two years to complete, could be followed quickly with phase-two or phase-three clinical trials. Early-phase trials would not be necessary because the drugs have already been approved for clinical use.

Paul Lambert (‘85 PhD ALS), professor of oncology, SMPH, McCardle Laboratory for Cancer Research and the UW-Madison Carbone Cancer Center, is the senior author of the study.

Detroit alumni host vehicle rallyA group of eight faculty and students, led by Mechanical Engineering Faculty Associate Glenn Bower, hauled five vehicles to Detroit, Michigan, in October for the first Motor City Badgers’ Road Trip Rally. The goal of the event was to connect students with automotive industry members.

The Detroit chapter of the Wisconsin Alumni Association organized and hosted the event, which also marked the launch of a $10 million endowment campaign to ensure the UW-Madison remains a source of innovative, well-trained engineers into the future.

The University’s vehicle teams have built an impressive record. Most recently, the two snowmobile teams won their respective categories in the 2009 Society of Auto-motive Engineers Clean Snowmobile Challenge. Since 1998, the UW-Madison has won 16 different interna-tional automotive competitions. Hundreds of former vehicle team participants go on to work in the automo-tive industry. Under Bowers’ mentorship over the past 15 years, the teams have produced more than 1,500 gradu-ates with real world, hands-on experience in innovative vehicle design and development.

What Darwin’s contemporaries knewDarwin was not the only scientist making discoveries in the mid-19th century. His contemporaries explored the origins of animals and humans, made advances in electricity and industry, and developed ways to make science more understandable to the public.

Currently, the UW-Madison has more than 600 students with military experience. John Bechtol, assistant dean of students for veterans, works with the Center for the First-year Experience to ensure that student veterans make a smooth transition into campus life. He provides current students with information on benefits, services and employment opportunities. Bechtol also contacts veterans who were denied admission to advise them on what they can do to be accepted. His position was cre-ated in fall 2008, to address the unique needs of veterans.

Engineering students accept UN awardTwo students from the UW-Madison chapter of Engi-neers Without Borders (EWB) accepted a prestigious engineering award in Stuttgart, Germany, from the United Nations for the chapter’s work in rural Haiti. The students constructed a hydroelectric power generator to help supply electricity to a school, library and church.EWB-UW Haiti co-project manager Kyle Ankenbauer, a civil engineering student, and UW-Madison chap-ter president Eyleen Chou, a mechanical engineering student, received $22,400 and a gold medal Mondialogo Engineering Award, a UNESCO (United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and Daimler initiative to recognize engineering achievements aimed at meeting United Nations millennium development goals and fostering intercultural dialogue.

This is the second time the EWB-UW group has won a Mondialogo award. In 2005, the Rwanda project won a bronze award and $7,000.

New drugs for cervical cancerResearchers at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) have eliminated cervical cancer in mice with two FDA-approved drugs currently used to treat breast cancer and osteoporosis.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings offer hope for the 500,000 women around the world who are diagnosed each year with cervical cancer. Half of them will not survive.

The drugs, which keep estrogen from working in cells, also cleared precancerous growths in both the cervix and

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paper that looks at the genetic roots of this type of hear-ing loss, which is not due to noise exposure.

The study has identified a gene that is essential to age-related hearing loss, a condition marked by deaths of sensory hair cells and spiral ganglion neurons in the inner ear. These cells are at the heart of the conversion of vibrations into nerve impulses that the brain can deci-pher; however, they cannot be regenerated.

The study shows that in mice the damage starts with free radicals, the key suspects in many harmful changes of aging. Free radicals trigger a process called apopto-sis, or programmed cell death, by which damaged cells

“commit suicide.” Apoptosis is often beneficial, as it eliminates cells that may become cancerous.

In mice, Prolla and the study’s first author, Shinichi Someya, a postdoctoral researcher, found that the sui-cide program was operating in hair cells and spiral gan-glion neurons, and the suicide program relied on activity in a suicide gene called bak. The strongest evidence for this finding was the fact that a strain of mice lacking the bak gene did not show expected hearing loss.

The new results, obtained with collaboration from the universities of Florida, Washington and Tokyo, hint that oxidative stress and hearing loss may be preventable. Although antioxidants have been used to prevent free-radical damage in aging, the results so far are disap-pointing. Someya and Polla, however, found that two oral antioxidants, alpha lipoic acid and coenzyme Q10, were effective.

Bak may play a role in other age-related conditions, said Polla. “This study focused on hearing loss, but there is evidence that other diseases associated with the loss of neurons, like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, are associated with oxidative stress, and it’s possible that the bak pro-tein plays a role in apoptosis in those diseases as well.” Computer team heads to world finalsA UW-Madison computer team, named “Wrong Answer,” is headed to the world championship programming finals in Harbin, China, in February. The University has sent a team to the world finals for nine years running,

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An exhibit titled “Science Circa 1859: On the Eve of Darwin’s Origin of the Species” opened in Memorial Library’s Department of Special Collections in late November. The exhibit explores the state of science before Darwin’s ground breaking book and is the work of students in Robin Rider’s History of Science 350. Rider is senior academic librarian and senior lecturer, history of science.

Students helped plan and install the exhibit. Each student had a display case to fill, including writing a one-page caption to describe the importance of scientific research and popularizations of the period.

“The course gives students a reason to look through books of the 1850s—assessing the different styles of scientific illustrations, plowing through 19th century prose and thinking about ways to engage visitors to the exhibit,” explained Rider.

For Ben Schneider, a junior majoring in chemistry and chemical engineering, putting together his portion of the exhibit was a lesson in when science intersected with in-dustry. His case includes books on how the dye industry was key to the creation of the modern chemical industry, along with texts that show laboratory experiments used to analyze chemicals during the period.

“It was amazing to see the beginning of chemical engi-neering during this time,” he said. “I had no idea this topic was going to connect to my major as much as I discovered through research.”

The exhibit runs through March 12, 2010, and an online version will be posted in 2010. For more information, visit specialcollections.library.wisc.edu.

Did you hear about this?Becoming hard of hearing is a part of aging. A syndrome called age-related hearing loss affects about 40 percent of people over age 65 in the United States and will affect an estimated 28 million Americans by 2030.

Tomas Prolla, professor of genetics and medical genetics, School of Medicine and Public Health and College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, is senior author of a

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says Dieter van Meklebeek, team coach and associate professor of computer science, College of Letters and Science.

“Wrong Answer” came in first among 201 teams at the North Central North American Regional Programming Contest Finals held at UW-Parkside. The event is orga-nized by the Association of Computing Machinery and sponsored by IBM. The UW-Madison had four teams in the regional competition. Of the approximately 7,000 teams that competed, only 100 teams made it to the finals in China.

Competitive programming involves teams of three mem-bers. Each team gets 10 problems to solve in five hours. They must write their solution into computer code that will crank out the correct answer within an allotted time period. Team members can only work on one computer, so they must work together.

No more starving artists?The UW-Madison is one of the nation’s top 25 campuses for entrepreneurship. Now, a new course is showing students in the arts the range of creative possibilities available and giving them the tools they need to advance their career goals.

The Arts Institute (www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/) has created a course titled Art as Business as Art to build on the success of the Arts Enterprise initiative (www.artsen-terprise.wisc.edu) on campus, which includes a student organization devoted to nurturing enterprising arts stu-dents, a Web site and the New Arts Venture Challenge.

Stephanie Jutt, professor, School of Music, College of Letters and Science, and E. Andrew Taylor (‘94 MA BUS), director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration in the Wisconsin School of Business, are co-teaching the course. Their collaboration is a tailor-made match of skills. Jutt is a celebrated musician and innovative entrepreneur, most notably as co-director of the Bach Dancing and Dyna-mite Society. Taylor is a leading scholar on the business of the arts. Their goal is to help students learn how to make a living while making art.

Jutt and Taylor acknowledge that the class is an experi-ment that explores the productive and creative interplay among artistic intent, business practice and community connections. They want students to clarify their creative and career goals, connect these goals to community opportunities by developing business skills and gain insight into the creative opportunities that are possible.

Students also learn from guest speakers, including alumni working on Broadway and in the film and music industries, who share real-world experiences, both good and bad, in forging a creative career. Students in the class include instrumentalists, vocalists, visual artists, designers, actors and writers.

NPR’s ATC theme composer diesFor listeners to National Public Radio’s popular “All Things Considered” (ATC), the eight notes of the pro-gram’s theme are immediately and reassuringly identifi-able. The composer of the theme, Don Voegeli (‘41 BM, ‘50 MM L and S), emeritus professor of music, College of Letters and Science, died at age 89 on November 21.

Voegeli, a pianist and composer, was teaching music at the UW-Madison when National Public Radio was born in 1970. He was asked to come up with a theme. In a May 2002, interview for ATC’s 31st anniversary, Voegeli explained that he had “no great direction,” so he wrote and performed the original theme on a synthesizer. Voegli also won a Grammy award in 1983.

To hear the 2002 interview, go to www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/11/voegeli_all_things_considered.html.

Chazen, WPT honor Vietnam vetsEyes that have seen humanity at its worst and at its best stared back at visitors to the “Back in the World: Portraits of Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans” exhibit at the Chazen Museum of Art. The exhibit of nearly 30 large-format color portraits of Wisconsin veterans included excerpts of interviews from a three-hour documentary being produced by Wisconsin Public Television (WPT). The exhibit was a partnership between WPT, the Wiscon-sin Veterans Museum and the Chazen Museum.

The documentary is part of WPT’s “Wisconsin Stories”

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project, which has produced award-winning documen-taries about the experiences of Wisconsin veterans in World War II, Korea and now Vietnam. It is scheduled to air in May 2010.

James Gill, WPT staff photographer, took the 30-by-40 inch photos as part of the documentary. The works are mounted on acrylic without frames. “Not having a frame removes some of that distance you can get in a gallery and makes them more intimate and immediate,” said Gill.

On Veteran’s Day, November 11, the Chazen hosted a reception and panel discussion with five veterans featured in the exhibit and documentary. The exhibit will travel to LaCrosse and Superior before heading to Green Bay’s Lambeau Field, May 21-23, as part of LZ Lambeau Weekend, a celebration for the state’s Vietnam veterans.

For more information:WPT documentary—www.wisconsinstories.orgLZ Lambeau weekend—www.lzlambeau.org

History professor pens Wilson bioAfter a meteoric rise to the nation’s highest office, the new president works to make major structural changes to government and the economy, enjoys majorities in Congress but faces vocal opposition. Sound familiar? This is Woodrow Wilson’s America in 1912. In his latest book, John Milton Cooper, Jr., emeritus professor of his-tory, College of Letters and Science, shows how Presi-dent Barack Obama resembles Wilson more than other recent political figures.

“Woodrow Wilson: A Biography,” the first major biogra-phy of the nation’s 28th president in nearly two decades, has received praise as a masterful work about the con-troversial president whose eight years in office ushered in a new era of American foreign policy.

Wilson’s career as a political scientist and president of Princeton University, then two years as New Jersey gov-ernor, left him with little foreign policy preparation for the presidency. Yet, Wilson’s legacy is his decision to intervene on behalf of the Allies in World War I, “and

much of what has happened in the world since then has flowed from that decision,” writes Cooper.

Cooper joined the UW-Madison faculty in 1970. He also is the author of two other books on Woodrow Wilson.

National cycling competition comingThe National Collegiate Cycling Association (NCCA) has tapped the UW-Madison cycling team to host the 2010 and 2011 Collegiate Road National Championship races. The NCCA is a division of USA Cycling, the U.S. branch of the International Cycling Union.

“To see that USA Cycling recognized Madison as the premier collegiate cycling venue in the nation speaks to our bicycle-friendly atmosphere, our immense commu-nity support and our progressive bicycling agenda that is our city, our state and our university,” said Jason Carr, cycling team president.

The national championship, May 7-9, will include a road race, a criterium through downtown Madison and a team time trial. Nearly 300 teams and an estimated 800 athletes will attend.

The UW-Madison cycling team is part of the UW-Mad-ison Division of Recreational Sports and is the Univer-sity’s largest club sport. For more information, visit www.uwcycling.com.

Four Badgers honored in Hall of FameThe Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame now includes four more Badgers. Induction ceremonies were held in Mil-waukee in November. The 2009 class includes Ab Nicho-las (‘52 BS L&S, ‘55 MBA BUS), UW men’s basketball All-American; Barry Alvarez, coach of back-to-back Rose Bowl championships and the UW’s current director of athletics; John Powless, currently top-ranked senior ten-nis player in the world and former UW men’s basketball coach; and Lee Kemp (‘79 BBA, ‘83 MBA BUS), three-time NCAA wrestling champion at the UW-Madison. Induction into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame occurs every two years. Potential inductees are sought

Sports Roundup

from the public for consideration and members must have made a significant contribution or compiled a record of achievement in sport that has benefited or enhanced sports in Wisconsin or elsewhere. The indi-vidual must be or have been a resident of Wisconsin or have substantial ties to Wisconsin and sports in the state. Nominees are presented to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame Committee, which recommends the class to the board of the Wisconsin Sports Development Corpora-tion for approval.

In addition to celebrating Wisconsin’s athletic heritage, the ceremony is a fundraiser for the Wisconsin Sports Foundation, an organization that provides participation scholarships to youth athletes to compete in the Badger State Games.

Football Badgers earn Big Ten honorsWisconsin Badger sophomore running back John Clay was the consensus Big Ten Conference Offensive Player of the Year, as selected by both the media and coaches. Linebacker Chris Borland was the consensus freshman of the year.

Clay is the third Badger to be named the conference’s top offensive player, joining running backs Brent Moss (1993) and Ron Dayne (1999). Despite starting only one of the first six games, Clay led the Big Ten in rushing, averaging 111.3 yards per game, and in touchdowns with 13.

Borland is the sixth player in school history to be named the top freshman. He played on special teams and didn’t become a starter until redshirt freshman Mike Taylor suffered a season-ending knee injury against Iowa in the seventh game. Borland tied for the conference lead with three fumble recoveries and tied for second in the league with five forced fumbles.

Including Clay, the Badgers had five first-team selec-tions: junior guard John Moffitt, junior tackle Gabe Carimi, senior tight end Garrett Graham and senior defensive end O’Brien Schofield. Schofield was the only UW player selected to the first team on defense.

 

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q UW-Madison Great People updateThe Great People Scholarship Campaign is gaining momentum. To date, more than $4.5 million has been raised to support need-based scholarships. The UW Foundation has committed up to $20 million to match unrestricted gifts to Great People Scholarships, which ef-fectively doubles the impact of an unrestricted gift. Gifts restricted to a specific school or college are matched 50 cents to the dollar.

The Great People Scholarship Web site includes informa-tion on the match, a new video, inspirational stories and a gift link. Visit www.uwgreatpeople.org, to learn more.

q School of Nursing building announces major gifts. Two gifts, announced during the Power of Nursing Summit in October, provided a major boost to the School of Nursing’s $20 million building campaign. The new building will give the School its first dedicated home since the Nurses Dormitory was built in 1924.

Gifts from Connie Curran (‘69 NUR) and the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation will help build and equip the 93,000-square-foot nursing science center. The building will be located in the heart of the health science campus, adjacent to the School of Pharmacy and across from the Health Sciences Learning Center and the Wisconsin In-stitutes for Medical Research. The building, scheduled to break ground in 2011, will enable the School to educate more nurses, nursing faculty and nurse researchers.

Curran is a prolific scholar in the field of health care and is editor of Nursing Economic$. She has led national studies on nursing staff recruitment, retention and labor market participation. She has written books on hospital-physician integration, hospital redesign and home care. Most recently, Curran founded “Best on Board,” a na-tional organization focused on education and certifica-tion of health-care trustees.

Former Madison businessman and Wisconsin governor Oscar Rennebohm established the Rennebohm Foun-dation in 1949 to support education, research, health care and recreation in the Madison metropolitan area.

Foundation News

Over the past 60 years, the Rennebohm Foundation has provided several million dollars in grants for people and programs at the University.

q We welcomed Steve Hudson, Controller, Finance; Eric Salisbury, Director of Development, Law School.

q According to statistics compiled by the National Sci-ence Foundation, the UW-Madison is the nation’s third largest research university as measured by dollars spent on research, with expenditures totalling $882 million in 2008 (the most recent figures). Johns Hopkins University and the University of California-San Francisco round out the top three institutions.

Only Johns Hopkins and the UW-Madison have ranked among the top five research universities for each of the past 20 years.

1848 University AvenuePO Box 8860Madison WI 53708-8860

Non-ProfitOrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 810

Madison, Wisconsin

PRESORT

q Continuing its strong tradition of global engage-ment, the University once again ranked in the top 10 of research institutions nationwide in the number of Fulbright Fellowships awarded to students. Seventeen UW-Madison students received Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowships for 2009-10 and 14 accepted.

q UW-Madison is ranked first among public universi-ties in the number of professors who have won pres-tigious awards and grants (Source: The Top American Research Universities)

q Seventeen Nobel Prize-winners and 29 Pulitzer Prize-winners have taught or studied at the UW-Madison.

q Forbes magazine named Dr. James Thomson one of the most powerful people in medicine for his work with stem cells. Thomson is professor of anatomy, UW School of Medicine and Public Health and also director of re-generative biology, Morgridge Institute for Research.

Digest is published by the University of Wisconsin Foundation for alumni and friends of the UW-Madison. Address comments or questions to Merry Anderson, editor, at 608-263-4545 or merry.anderson@uwfoundation.wisc.edu.

You can now easily update your contact information by going to www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu/survey Use the ID number located above your name on the mailing label above to log into the Web site. Thank you!

Points of Pride