For University of Wisconsin-Madison Alumni and Friends

Micro to Macro A tiny fly leads a UW geneticist to fruitful discoveries.

SPRING 2012 WISCONSIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Familiar Territory For David Ward, it’s the same, yet so different. 150 YEARS Fat Fighter Is a healthy diet a human right? Space Dreams Badger alumnae reach sky-high goals. Rune-Nation Seeking the truth behind mysterious markings. The power of many gives power to many.

Join the great people who make Great People possible. uwgreatpeople.org

GP ad Fall 11ad-4_lg.indd 1 8/8/11 4:59 PM SPRING 2012 contents VOLUME 113, NUMBER 1

Features

22 Ward 2.0 By Jenny Price ’96 As he leads the university for a second time and agrees to a second year as interim chancellor, David Ward talks about embracing innovation during difficult times.

24 Lord of the Flies By Jill Sakai PhD’06 It took multiple bus rides for a young Barry Ganetzky to attend college classes each day. That same single- mindedness has nourished the UW researcher’s longtime career, pushing him to study tiny creatures and find ways to treat human disease. 30 Shared Space By Jenny Price ’96 30 Three dreams — and three dreams come true: these Badger alumnae are using their engineering degrees by working for NASA, contributing to America’s exploration 38 of space, and mentoring those who will follow.

38 Leading the War on Obesity By Melba Newsome  Barry Popkin ’67, MS’69 long ago predicted the current obesity epidemic — and the former civil rights activist is now fighting for the right to a healthy diet for all.

42 A Rune with a View By John Allen James Frankki ’85, PhD’07 turned an interest in medieval Germanic languages into a fixation with studying runestones, chasing the chiseled characters across the United States.

Departments 5 Inside Story 8 Letters 10 Scene 12 News & Notes 24 18 Collection 19 Classroom 20 Sports Cover A powerful lens brings into focus 46 Traditions the common fruit fly, a species that 49 Badger Connections takes center stage in painstaking 66 Flashback UW research. Photo by Jeff Miller

SPRING 2012 3 Year of the Wisconsin Idea This academic year, we proudly celebrate the Wisconsin Idea. Through events, information, and reflection, we are observing one of our longest-held traditions: that UW teaching, research, outreach, and public service should improve the lives of people everywhere. Our alumni contribute to the legacy of the Wisconsin Idea every day through their work beyond the boundaries of campus to benefit the state, nation, and world. But we only hear some of these inspiring stories, so we invite you to share yours at www.wisconsinidea.wisc.edu

4 ON WISCONSIN

Wis Idea AD, ON WIS.indd 1 1/31/12 9:14 AM insidestory JEFF MILLER

Had you arrived at On Wisconsin Rose Bowl Stadium SPRING 2012 a few minutes after the winning team collected Publisher the championship trophy Wisconsin Alumni Association on January 2, but couldn’t 650 North Lake Street, Madison, WI 53706 Voice: (608) 262-2551 • Toll-free: see the scoreboard, you (888) WIS-ALUM • Fax: (608) 265-8771 might have thought that E-mail: [email protected] Website: onwisconsin.uwalumni.com the Badgers had won. Long after the clock Co-Editors Niki Denison, Wisconsin Alumni Association ran out — and the Cindy Foss, University Communications Badgers, in fact, hadn’t Senior Editor won — Wisconsin fans John Allen, Wisconsin Alumni Association remained in the stands Senior Writer to take part in the UW Jenny Price ’96, University Communications Marching Band’s Fifth Nobody does it better: win or lose, wherever they go, Badger Art Director Quarter. “Wisconsin fans unite with unwavering pride, energy without end, and Earl J. Madden MFA’82, plenty of red attire. University Communications travels well” is a popular Production Editor phrase when bowl berths and NCAA tournament bids are handed out, but it took my Eileen Fitzgerald ’79, first-ever trip to Pasadena for the 2012 Rose Bowl to help me truly understand its University Communications meaning: fans wear red at all times of the day, every day, even on the plane ride home Editorial Associate after a heartbreaking loss. They come early and stay late on game day. They quickly Paula Apfelbach ’83, Wisconsin Alumni Association; Editorial Intern: Lydia Statz x’12 put losing in perspective, and they celebrate regardless of the outcome. Design, Layout, and Production Yes, I’m biased. I was born in Madison, and I bleed Badger red. But consider Barry Carlsen MFA’83; Toni Good ’76, MA’89; this comment from an Oregon Ducks fan, posted to the UW’s Rose Bowl website Kent Hamele ’78, University Communications following her team’s victory: “I have to say that the Wisconsin team, band, and fans Campus Advisers are absolutely wonderful! I loved all the T-shirts, the overalls, the face paint, and the Paula Bonner MS’78, President and CEO, and Mary DeNiro MBA’11, Executive Vice warm charm you all brought with you. … Thanks for a great game, true sportsman- President and COO, Wisconsin Alumni ship, and a wonderful atmosphere.” Association • Amy E. Toburen ’80, Director, University Communications • Lynne Johnson, During the years I lived outside of Wisconsin, I was a rabid Badger fan, but I Senior Director of Communications, confess that I took it for granted when I moved back home. It’s easy to forget how University of Wisconsin Foundation lucky I am to live in the place that far-flung alumni, such as those I met in Pasadena, Advertising Representative celebrate with such enthusiasm. The more the years and the miles separate people Madison Magazine: (608) 270-3600 from Madison, the more they seem to appreciate what it brought to their lives. Alumni Name, Address, Phone, and E-Mail Changes • Death Notices Yes, it would have been great to win the football game. But what we carry with us, Madison area: (608) 262-9648 and what joins us together, is worth even more. It’s why we will always travel well. Toll-free: (888) 947-2586 Jenny Price ’96 E-mail: [email protected]

Quarterly production of On Wisconsin is supported by financial gifts from alumni and friends. To make a gift to UW-Madison, please visit supportuw.org.

Printed on recycled paper. Please remember to recycle this magazine.

This magazine was printed by Arandell Corporation, a SPRING 2012 5 Wisconsin Green Tier participant. AluUW-Madisonmni Weekend April 27–28, 2012 Featuring Saturday’s Signature Event

WISCONSIN Dig in to everything the weekend has to offer ALUMNI ASSOCIATION by visiting uwalumni.com/alumniweekend. 150 YEARS

PHOTO COMPOSITE: BUCKY ILLUSTRATION: ON WISCONSIN MURAL, RED GYM

6 ON WISCONSIN warf.org

SPRING 2012 7 letters

For University of Wisconsin-Madison Alumni and Friends

BUCKY ILLUSTRATION:BUCKY ON WISCONSIN As a Madison graduate and an American dealing with the uncertainty. I wish her only citizen originally from Hong Kong, I bene- the best of luck. fited well from my student days at Madison, Sam Frazer ’68, MD’72 MURAL, RED GYM RED MURAL, not just academically, but also culturally, as I Verona, Wisconsin Unflagging mingled with the communities there, bonding Potential with some students as we became lifelong They Want to Be Badgers The UW explores academic partnerships with China. friends. The segment about the Fifth Quarter in “If It’s been one high Although much has been said about You Want to Be a Badger” [Winter 2011] trig- note after another! China’s robust economy amidst the western gered a memory for me. The UW Marching world’s financial downturns, China’s stun- Band was a guest at a Packers-49ers game

And thanks to the 38,000 who’ve banded together as members of the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) to support the university and stay connected, our 150th ning growth, fueled by vast consumer demand in November 2009, and gave concerts before anniversary feels even more special. Go ahead, toot your own horn about how proud you are to be a Badger — and massive government investments in infra- the game, at halftime, and following play for a become a WAA member today!

structure to facilitate domestic commerce, half-hour each time. Following the latter, which uwalumni.com/membership created a bulging middle class enamored of included segments of the band moving up into the American culture in general. the stands, nobody at Lambeau Field left their Cover-ing China While statistics show that students from seats. The spectacle captivated the fans, and Just received the Winter 2011 issue of On China comprise the majority of international not even a fly-over by F-16 jets compared in Wisconsin. Did not like the cover at all. The students at Madison, not everyone in China the lump-in-your-throat department. It was content of the story [“Delicate Balance”] is fine, who wants to come to the United States can awesome. and the graphics inside the magazine are fine, afford to come. Despite the emergence of the Gene Schwarze ’61 but the cover glorifies the People’s Republic middle class, an economic gap also exists in Eagle River, Wisconsin in a way that’s just inappropriate. It would’ve China between the haves and have-nots. been more appropriate to use a graphic like By arranging for UW-Madison students The writer of “If You Want to Be a Badger” the one on page 22 as the cover art. to study in China, Dean Bousquet implements missed one of my favorite UW foods. Alan Cobo-Lewis MS’90, PhD’92 a dual winning proposition of not merely Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as well known as Orono, Maine

Really enjoyed the most informative and inter- If I had to choose between Babcock ice cream and fudge-bottom esting article “Delicate Balance” in your Winter pie for my last meal, I’d go for the latter and be in heaven. 2011 issue of On Wisconsin. Very best thanks to Jenny Price. This comparison between two preparing Wisconsin students to be rele- Babcock ice cream — it’s fudge-bottom pie. giants was very informative to read, also from vant and employable, in his words, but also If I had to choose between Babcock ice cream a small country’s point of view. bringing the coveted American ways to their and fudge-bottom pie for my last meal, I’d go Anssi Siukosaari MS’69 less fortunate cohorts in China. for the latter and be in heaven. Espoo, Finland It is true. When you say Wisconsin, you’ve If this pie is no longer on the [Wisconsin] said it all. Union’s menu, I’ll sic the ghost of the late, I just wanted to share my concern and Henry Tse ’75, MA’76, MS’79 longtime Union director Porter Butts on ye! dissatisfaction with finding the flag of China Rosemead, California Karen Tancill ’64 displayed — plastered — on the cover of the Racine, Wisconsin Winter 2011 On Wisconsin. While I understand Keep on Rollin’ the UW’s current plan on striking a relation- Thank you, John Allen, for the wonderful and More Campus Photos, Please ship with a cooperative institution in China, inspiring profile of Shana Martin [“Rules to Roll I am an alum living out of state. Your maga- conferring exclusive cover space — and by By,” Winter 2011]. Shana shows what deter- zine is great. However, I am always telling my extension, respect — to a nation-government mination and hard work can do to help ease teens how great UW was: the lakes/isthmus, that routinely imprisons those who don’t agree the burden of a terrible disease and accom- the student union and waterfront, Bascom with them, especially political critics, just plish great things. Clearly, her father has been Hill, the Arboretum, golf course, creamery, seems a bit much — a bit “not On Wisconsin.” a great mentor and teacher for her from early Capitol, State Street, Langdon Street ... and Geoffrey Daniel Geist MA’91 childhood. recent issues had virtually no campus photos. San Francisco, California Shana’s willingness to share her story As an alum who does not know the people on and its attendant burden of grief, not only for campus anymore, I would really prefer more I applaud Gilles Bousquet, the dean of her mother but also herself, is truly an inspi- landscape shots. That’s a lot of what makes International Studies, for making China the ration for anyone. Her speaking engagements UW-Madison stand out. prime destination for UW-Madison students can only help many more people who face this Grace Caner Offen ’85 studying abroad. dilemma be more informed of one strategy for Newtonville, Massachusetts

8 ON WISCONSIN Tears of Joy Touching. … Very similar story to mine, as As a Madison native now living in the San I was also adopted and never met my father Francisco area, I find reading On Wisconsin and never knew about the disease. Like difficult to do: it’s difficult reading through the Shana, I had a lot of success in my career tears of fond memories. and won numerous prizes. In my late forties, I Thomas Schnurbusch ’67 had strange sensations in the thigh and minor Foster City, California twitches around the eyebrows. It is only when my daughter asked to find my father, and after seeing him that I understood. He had HD, like his mother, many of his siblings, and many of From the Web his daughters. Now my disease is progressing: Thank you for your excellent report with memory, depression, social withdrawal. … pictures on the transformation of basketball I wish I had never found him. to hockey at the Kohl Center [“The Ice Rink Andre Boutin Cometh,” Winter 2012]. The details of how this is completed have perplexed me for years. Thanks for the item on the Pro Arte Quartet Now I can fully appreciate the 120 man-hours [Flashback, Winter 2011]. Although I was required to remove the floor, remove chairs, studying studio art and art history when I and change the elevation of north and south attended the UW, I developed an interest in seating stands. classical music, which I was able to feed by Michael Grasmick ’84 attending many of the recitals and concerts offered through the music department. I vividly Thanks for this story. I always wondered remember Mr. Karp in performance (I think it how that transformation of the Kohl Center was a Haydn cello concerto), and one of the happened. It would make a great time-lapse highlights of my concert-going was hearing video. the Blums perform the Sinfonia Concertante Mike Collins of Mozart with the student orchestra, a piece that I love still. Many warm thanks to all the I was extremely gratified to see this wonderful musicians who made my sojourn at the UW article about Shana Martin in On Wisconsin so tuneful. The sequel: what do you know; I [“Rules to Roll By,” Winter 2011] and immedi- ended up marrying a musicologist. ately put it up on my Facebook page for all of Udayan Sen ’82 my friends and fellow Badgers to see. Shana is a true inspiration. Please Update Your Address Huntington’s disease [HD] runs in my UW-Madison wants to stay in touch with you. family, and I know too well how easily, and To update your contact information, which is thoroughly, it can devastate a family and maintained by the UW Foundation, please visit decimate family resources. The decision www.supportuw.org/update. To log in, use the of whether or not to be tested, and how to ID number above your name on the magazine handle the stress of HD in the family and even label. This information is shared selectively the possibility of having HD, is especially with other campus units and the Wisconsin trying for young people, who all too often keep Alumni Association to ensure that alumni infor- the secret of this disease to themselves. mation is consistent and accurate. Thank you! Shana Martin and On Wisconsin have done a great service to Badgers and the On Wisconsin Magazine welcomes letters public at large by publishing this great story. related to magazine content, but reserves the Every time an article like this gets right to edit them for length and clarity. Email published, it helps to break down the walls of comments to [email protected]; isolation for families at risk, reduces the igno- mail them to On Wisconsin, 650 North Lake rance and fear of others, and helps to speed Street, Madison, WI 53706; or fax them to the day when we will find the urgently needed (608) 265-8771. We regret that we don’t have treatments and a cure. space to publish all the letters we receive, but Jack Murray ’90 we always appreciate hearing from you.

SPRING 2012 9 scene On Point Members of the UW rowing team round the tip of Picnic Point, followed by the team’s coaching launch and kayakers in this photo from last fall. During 2011, the UW’s Lakeshore Nature Preserve began a project at Picnic Point to halt erosion, improve views, and provide a gathering space for groups of up to eighty people. The improvements also include stone steps from the shoreline, so those on Lake Mendota can stop by for a bite, should any picnickers invite them. Photo by Jeff Miller

news ¬es

Weighing the Issues Controversial flu research pauses for sixty days.

Concern about influenza professor of pathobiolog- JEFF MILLER research performed on ferrets at ical sciences in the School of UW-Madison and in Holland led Veterinary Medicine, with funding to an almost unprecedented sixty- from the National Institutes of day pause in research in January, Health. For more than ten years, allowing international scientists to Kawaoka has done ground- weigh benefits versus risks and breaking influenza work; this identify the best path forward. project was intended to iden- The two studies have tify whether genetic changes explored genetic changes that that occur in nature could lead would enable avian flu to spread to viruses capable of transmit- in mammals. Public health officials ting among people. The study and scientists have been closely was performed with full federal watching the influenza virus, approval in a modern biosafety which is capable of rapid genetic laboratory at the UW. change. H5N1 flu has been circu- Publication of both studies lating among birds since 1997; was delayed at the recommen- in the 578 documented human dation of the National Science people, writing, “To fully assess these genetic factors are already cases, of which nearly 60 percent Advisory Board for Biosecurity, the risk of an H5N1 pandemic present in wild viruses in birds. were fatal, most victims were amid concerns that the tech- and support pandemic prepared- He also said that the virus strain infected via direct contact with niques, virus, or genetic data ness, we needed a better derived in his lab responds to birds. Person-to-person transmis- could help terrorists. understanding of the changes in both an anti-viral medicine and sion has not been observed. Kawaoka, in his first public the virus that would enable it to a vaccine, and that — unlike the One of the two studies comments, published in Nature transmit in mammals.” virus developed in Holland — it now on hold was directed by on January 25, warned of influ- He called the research was not deadly to the ferrets. Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a UW enza’s potential to spread among “urgent,” noting that some of David J. Tenenbaum MA’86

quick takes

Senior associate athletic information about inappropriate received the President’s Volunteer will become the UW’s seventh director John Chadima resigned conduct by Mr. Chadima to come Service Award. For twenty years, recipient of the award, which will in early January following an alle- forward.” MEDiC has organized students enable her to study at Oxford gation of sexual misconduct after to provide medical, dental, University. a party held during the Badgers’ The UW is minting more and mental health services to trip to the Rose Bowl. Interim Badgers than ever. The 2010–11 Madison’s uninsured and home- Between July 2010 and June Chancellor David Ward appointed academic year marked the less. The program was featured in 2011, the UW recycled more than a four-person team to review the first time that the university On Wisconsin in Winter 2009. 350 tons of computers, monitors, matter, and the team, led by a has granted more than 10,000 and other electronic equipment. former judge, issued a report of degrees in just twelve months. The Wisconsin Institutes of its findings. As of press time in It conferred 6,579 baccalaure- Discovery became the first lab Botany professor David Baum February, a second allegation had ates, 2,105 master’s degrees, 754 in the state to receive LEED gold is the namesake for a newly been made to university police. doctorates, and 661 professional certification from the U.S. Green discovered species of tree, Ward asked the judge to conduct and clinical degrees. Building Council last November. Iochroma baumii. Stacey Smith another investigation, adding, PhD’06 first described the tree, “We are urging anyone who may The School of Medicine and Senior Alexis Brown x’12 was which is native to Ecuador, and have been a victim or anyone with Public Health’s MEDiC program named a Rhodes Scholar. She named it in Baum’s honor.

12 ON WISCONSIN Stage Two Memorial Union scales back its plan to renovate the theater lobby. COURTESY OF THE MEMORIAL UNION REINVESTMENT PROJECT COURTESY

An architectural drawing of the improvements to Memorial Union’s theater wing reflects changes made following public meetings to discuss the design. The Union withdrew plans for a larger extension of the lobby and replaced them with this smaller version.

Responding to concerns from In 2006, the UW’s student The theater lobby expansion by blocking airflow and views of students and faculty, the body voted to approve an provoked surprise when images the sunset. Wisconsin Union has withdrawn increase in fees to pay for of its design were released in In November, the Memorial a plan for a large expansion of improvements to Memorial 2011. The plan presented to Union Design Committee held the theater lobby and replaced it Union and to demolish and students in 2006 had included public meetings to encourage with a smaller version. rebuild Union South. The latter an expansion of the lobby, but a input and discussion and found, “We’ve made a drastic cut project was completed in spring revised plan released last summer according to Plunkett, that there in size,” says Colin Plunkett semester 2011, but the changes indicated the lobby would was little enthusiasm for the large x’12, the student manager for the to Memorial Union — including stretch fifty-two feet northward lobby. Instead, the Union’s design Memorial Union Reinvestment improvements to the theater wing, toward the lake. A group called committee returned to the theater Project. “The change in the on the west end of the Union SaveTheTerrace.org launched plan that had been developed architecture, both in shape and Terrace, and upgrades to the orig- a campaign to halt the project, originally, which included a more size, better fits with the current inal building — are not scheduled claiming that the new lobby would modest, thirty-foot expansion to building.” to begin until this summer. diminish the value of the Terrace the lobby.

SPRING 2012 13 news ¬es

“We felt it would be best to OF THE MEMORIAL UNION REINVESTMENT PROJECT COURTESY go back to the designs of 2006,” Plunkett says. “These were approved by the university, and they don’t make a major change in the shape of the theater.” The improvements to Memorial Union and the Union Theater coincide with other rede- velopments in the east campus area now called the Lakeshore Gateway. The Wisconsin Alumni Association (which publishes this magazine) is planning a project it calls Alumni Park. It will use private funds to replace a parking lot between the Union and Red Gym with a greenspace that runs from the lake to Langdon and includes an outdoor classroom, a promenade, and an arbor devoted to the Wisconsin Idea. The new plan extends the Union Theater’s lobby 30 feet toward the lake, rather than the previous The state Department of design’s 52 feet, leaving more space for the Terrace. Natural Resources has committed to improving dilapidated areas of the old Boat House, which was The first phase of work on in August and conclude in 2014, the lakeshore in front of the Terrace demolished in 1968. Alumni Park Memorial Union, including the after which work will begin on the this summer, and to remove includes a new pier designed to theater wing and the building’s rest of the Union. the pier that had been built for improve the flow of water. fifth floor, is scheduled to begin John Allen

They Don’t Teach This in Basic Training COURTESY OF THE SCHOOL VETERINARYCOURTESY MEDICINE Staff Sergeant Lindsy Pfenniger and Sergeant Renee Hintz, part of the fifty-eight-member Wisconsin National Guard Agribusiness Development Team, work together to trim a sheep’s hoof inside the UW Stock Pavilion. The soldiers completed forty hours of “Ag 101” training on the UW campus and at Arlington Agriculture Research Station last summer to prepare for their deployment to Afghanistan this spring. The team will work with farmers in Kunar Province, teaching them effective farming and herding techniques in an ongoing effort to fight poverty in the country.

14 ON WISCONSIN Conserve and Protect Vintage Curry murals are given new life in a new space.

The renovated Biochemistry “We cleaned a lot of dirt off of Curry was one member of Eventually, he made his way to Building on Henry Mall is a blend the surface,” says Joan Gorman, an influential triad of American the UW as an artist-in-residence of past and present, with the orig- senior paintings conservator at regionalist painters that included and painted the murals in the inal 1912 exteriors enveloping a the center. “We did that with dry- Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Biochemistry Building from 1941 modern space. As the building cleaning techniques and a very Benton. Born in Dunavant, to 1943. was gutted and rebuilt, the univer- light aqueous cleaning, being Kansas, in 1897, Curry worked Curry died in 1946, but left a sity found a way to preserve an careful not to use too much of our as an illustrator for Boys’ Life rich legacy. artistic treasure within: 1940s cleaning solutions.” and the Saturday Evening Post. Dennis Chaptman ’82 vintage murals by John Steuart JEFF MILLER Curry. Contractors worked gently in adjacent spaces as they removed old walls and building materials, and a special heating-and-venti- lation system was developed to shield and insulate the murals from the elements during the winter. During construction, all water pipes were routed around the murals, avoiding leaks that had damaged them in earlier decades. The floor-to-ceiling paint- ings depicting the societal value of advances in science were given new life as conservators from the Midwest Art Conservation Center, a nonprofit, regional organization based in Minneapolis, meticu- lously stabilized, cleaned, and restored them, square inch by Conservators restored murals by John Steuart Curry that are part of the new Biochemistry Building on square inch. Henry Mall. Contractors worked around the paintings during renovations to prevent additional damage.

Tweet Tweet Smartphone application takes the mystery out of birdcalls.

Even the most experienced Resource Database, was ‘We can use this for birds.’ ’’ tweeting away within earshot. birders have trouble matching inspired a few years ago when For more than a year, “I am amazed at how good more than a handful of songs a graduate student stepped into Berres, an assistant professor it is,” says Berres, who has also with species, but UW-Madison Berres’s office to show off a nifty of animal science, and his used WeBIRD to identify grass- ornithologist Mark Berres may iPhone trick. students have been testing and hopper species by their clicking have answered the prayers of “He recorded a short bit of improving an app that allows calls and frogs by their croaks. bird watchers, researchers, and music coming from the radio anyone with a smartphone and “In fact, not only can WeBIRD even the most casual natu- in my office, tapped an identify a mysterious bird nearby to tell you which species you’re ralist with a new smartphone button, and in a few seconds, record the bird’s call, submit it hearing, it’s good enough to application. it told him the name of the song wirelessly to a server, and (after identify individual birds from WeBIRD, the Wisconsin we [were] listening to,” Berres a few seconds) receive a posi- their song.” Electronic Bird Identification says. “Right away, I thought, tive ID on the species of bird Chris Barncard

SPRING 2012 15 news ¬es

To the Bat Cave! MARVIN MORIARTY/U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE MORIARTY/U.S. MARVIN The curious case of the expiring bats is one step closer to a solution, thanks to work done by UW-Madison researchers. For several years, scientists were baffled by falling bat populations in North America, as the flying mammals died due to a mysterious ailment called white- nose syndrome. But a team led by School of Veterinary Medicine honorary fellow David Blehert has proven that the animals are victims of a fungus called Geomyces destructans. In a controlled study, the group took several dozen little brown bats and divided them into three groups. The first had no contact with G. destructans; the second was infected with the fungus; and the third was not infected directly but was exposed to the bats that had the fungus. By the end of the study, the bats in the first group remained healthy, while nearly all the bats in the other two groups showed signs of white-nose syndrome. But the mystery isn’t completely solved, notes Jeff Lorch ’05, PhDx’12, lead author of the study. G. destructans is widespread in Europe, yet doesn’t seem to be killing bats there. “We can now continue to look at both the fungus and North American bats to try to find out what about the fungus makes it so deadly here,” he says. J.A.

Planting the Seeds of a Healthy World The UW’s Global Health Institute offers seed grants for studies.

To mark the launch of the UW’s campus in a dialogue about how seeking methods to control • Nancy Kendall and Claire new Global Health Institute in to improve global health,” says the spread of brucellosis Wendland, exploring repro- October, that organization gave director Jonathan Patz. “We see among cattle in Ecuador ductive health among young out seed grants to boost the ourselves as a sort of incubator • Jeremy Foltz MA’94, women in rural Malawi work of campus research groups — the seed grants promote cross- PhD’98, studying whether an • Alberto Palloni, examining that are conducting multidisci- school collaboration, because the increase in corn yields can alle- child nutrition in Indonesia plinary studies aimed at tackling greatest discoveries [in the health viate poverty in northern Africa “Each of these projects offers health problems worldwide. fields] come at the intersection of • Lewis Gilbert, hoping to something new and different, not The institute combines two different disciplines.” detect the spread of new just the traditional mandate of previous campus entities, the The seed grants provide diseases by monitoring wild- global health,” Patz says. “They Center for Global Health and $40,000 over two years to eight life populations look beyond health to think about the Global Health Initiative. Its research teams looking into health • Monica Grant, studying economics and veterinary medi- purpose is to foster research that issues in regions around the globe. whether mobile phones might cine and environmental science requires collaboration among Recipients include: help disseminate health infor- and sociology and urban plan- UW departments, schools, and • Leonelo Bautista, studying mation in Malawi and Uganda ning. They get at the root causes colleges. hypertension in Latin America • Gary Green, studying organic of health problems.” “Our goal is to engage the full • Chuck Czuprynski PhD’80, mango production in Haiti John Allen

16 ON WISCONSIN A Word from Our Sponsors Making UW television ads is a labor of love for Badgers.

Who better to tell the story of the Madison-based marketing The production and design directed the full-motion graphics UW-Madison than some of its firm Hiebing, founded by Roman studio behind the UW’s other ad called “Major in Change.” alumni? Hiebing ’65, MA’68. recent ad — which incorporates “It was a labor of love for Two firms behind the univer- There was no shortage of images of iconic campus archi- us, for sure,” Seuser says. “We sity’s most recent institutional ideas for the Hiebing commer- tecture, “Jump Around” at Camp put in that extra work simply advertisements, seen during cial, which features some of the Randall, and the names of prom- because it was something that televised Badger sporting UW’s greatest contributions to inent alumni — has UW ties, too. was important to me personally, events, are headed by UW the world, since the compa- Nick Seuser ’90, a Madison and we just wanted to make it graduates who jumped at the ny’s creative team includes a native, founded 1 / 29 Films, shine for the UW.” chance to work for their dream number of alumni. Hiebing’s ad, which wrote, produced, and Jenny Price ’96 client. the second in a series titled “See “To be able to apply our the Right Thing,” debuted during professional talents and creativity the Rose Bowl and contains a and passion to a brand that we musical hint that Badgers were STUDENT WATCH all love so much is just a fun involved: the closing notes of and unique opportunity,” says the soundtrack are from “On, Whether Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or other religious Dave Florin ’92, president of Wisconsin!” groups, organizations across campus are answering to

COURTESY OF 1/29 FILMS COURTESY the same higher calling: community service. The UW is one of more than 250 American universities participating in the White House-spon- sored Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, which encourages people from varying backgrounds to collaborate on public-service and education projects. The initiative brings together campus organiza- tions — such as the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, the Morgridge Center for Public Service, and the Multicultural Student Center — to host lectures and events educating the public about various traditions. More than a dozen student COURTESY OF HIEBING COURTESY organizations across the religious spectrum are participating as well, baking traditional Jewish bread to raise money for Challah for Hunger, for example, or hosting an interfaith youth camp as part of the Muslim Students Association. All students can take advantage of a newly opened Reflection Room in Memorial Union, designed as a quiet and inviting space for solitude and meditation. Though its long-term location is uncertain as the build- ing is remodeled, it is intended to become a permanent addition to campus. Lydia Statz x’12

SPRING 2012 17 collection

All Dolled Up Forget about celebrity websites. Only paper likenesses would do back in the day.

Cary Grant was the height of movie-star elegance and sophistica- tion, which makes this attempt to promote the actor and his films a bit comical. Grant wasn’t the only Hollywood star to be immortalized in paper- doll form in Screen Life magazine during the forties; the “Star Dolls” series also featured Judy Garland and Ginger Rogers, among others. Grant’s paper likeness now makes its home within the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research’s vast collection, alongside fellow doll Bette Davis. The doll, printed on thicker paper as an insert to the movie maga- zine, presents the star in his skivvies with a choice of costumes from some of his memorable screen roles. Grant’s sartorial options, shown here clockwise from top right, included outfits from the films Only Angels Have Wings, Penny Serenade, The Howards of Virginia, and The Philadelphia Story, released the year before the paper doll first appeared. The dolls were the work of Jacques Kapralik, one of the best-known caricaturists in Hollywood in the forties and fifties, who started out with Paramount and 20th Century Fox before spending twenty years at MGM. It’s hard to imagine Will Smith or Angelina Jolie in this format, but then again, they both have their own action figures. Jenny Price ’96 COURTESY OF THE WISCONSIN CENTER FOR FILM & THEATERCOURTESY RESEARCH

Wish you had a scissors handy? Paper dolls of Cary Grant and other movie stars of the forties, first published by Screen Life magazine, now reside on campus.

18 ON WISCONSIN classroom

Words as Keys Learning Pashto opens doors to understanding another region’s culture.

Repeating after their teacher, BRYCE RICHTER the students on the third floor of Van Hise Hall are learning to pronounce familiar occupations in an unfamiliar tongue — doctor, lawyer, engineer. But tucked in between the usual suspects are a few jobs most Americans never encounter: snake charmer, herdsman, horse-cart driver. The students of the Pashto language program take in a mini cultural lesson between pronunciations. Pashto, spoken by approx- imately 50 million people in Pakistan and Afghanistan, is considered a critical language by the U.S. Department of State due to its importance in that volatile region. Even so, there are only a handful of places in the country to learn this language. Thanks to the efforts of the university’s only Pashto instructor, associate lecturer Sanad Shah, Madison is Sanad Shah writes on a chalkboard during a session of his Pashto course in Van Hise Hall. The UW one of them. instructor develops his own teaching materials for this language, which is spoken in one of the world’s Growing up as a native most volatile regions: Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pashto speaker in Pakistan’s tribal areas, Shah learned English as He’s made it his home since 2009. culty for native English speakers, so many Americans. a required subject in school and The UW began its Pashto with category one (including “Language is not only the eventually went on to teach at program that summer with six Spanish and French) being words,” he says. “In a way, it is the University of Peshawar, near students. Although enrollment easiest. It puts Pashto, which is kind of a comprehensive under- his childhood home. His back- hasn’t grown much since then, written in Arabic script, in cate- standing of the whole culture, and ground then led him to a position having this rare skill is proving gory four, along with Arabic, the language, the people, their at a government college in the valuable. Shah says his students Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. behaviors, everything.” unstable regions near the Afghan are sought out regularly for jobs Teaching it is even harder. Their pronunciation may be border, and he commuted several in government and nonprofit Little material exists for Pashto shaky and the strange syllables hours a day to bring sorely organizations, even in a faltering classroom instruction, so Shah may still trip them up, but by the needed education to the area. economy. personally develops every- end of the class, Shah’s students As U.S. interest in the region “This is the time [to learn thing he uses. Soon he hopes are deep in a discussion about increased, so did opportuni- Pashto],” Shah says. “It’s not only to publish the material as one of the differences between the ties for those who understood the jobs, but what’s happening in the first comprehensive Pashto genders in Pashto culture and the the native languages and culture. that part of the world. [It’s a good textbooks. traditional roles a woman takes Shah was brought to Philadelphia thing] to be a part of history and Although Shah’s foremost task on — baker, teacher, caregiver. on a Fulbright scholarship to help those moments.” is teaching students to read, write, The four students leave the develop Pashto instruction at But learning Pashto is no and speak, he knows that he also classroom with a little bit more the University of Pennsylvania, cakewalk. The Department of serves as a cultural ambassador understanding, one vocabulary but soon after found himself in Defense ranks languages from of sorts, providing a pathway to word at a time. Madison on a similar mission. one to four, based on their diffi- understanding a region that baffles Lydia Statz x’12

SPRING 2012 19 sports

TEAM PLAYER Jessie Gerry In a sport known for its child prodigies, Jessie Gerry x’12 stands out for a different reason. She never set foot on a golf green until high school, and even then, golfing was never meant to become her destiny. “I always played a ton of different sports. I played soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and I [thought], ‘What am I going to do in the spring?’ ’’ she says. Options at the private school she attended in Madison “There’s just something about the were limited, so she joined the boys’ golf team with no expectations beyond learning a new sport. “It was either golf or track and field,” she recalls, “and game. It’s mentally challenging, I’m not a huge fan of running.” it’s physically tough.” Apparently, she’s a quick study. She distinguished herself as a top UW golfer only four years later, winning the 2008 Badger Invitational as a freshman. That’s an impressive feat in itself, as many golfers never record an individual win during their careers. But Gerry takes low scores to another level: during the last four years, she has set school records for 9, 18, 36, and 54 holes, three of which still stand. The discipline that brings success on the golf course also helps balance Gerry’s academic life. Despite traveling frequently to tour- naments for up to five days at a time, in 2011 she earned Academic All-Big Ten honors, awarded to student athletes with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Currently studying physical education in the kinesiology program, Gerry plans to pursue playing in the Ladies Professional Golf Association after graduating in December. Regardless of what the future brings, she says she plans to never stop playing the sport she loves. “There’s just something about the game,” she says, “something about stepping on the first tee every day and knowing that, ‘Hey, I could go out and shoot the lowest round I’ve ever shot today.’ It’s mentally challenging, it’s physically tough … and those are all aspects that I really enjoy.” Lydia Statz x’12 BRYCE RICHTER

20 ON WISCONSIN UW ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS

Time Out with Coach Kelsey The Badger women’s basketball coach has a game plan for building a contender.

Sitting on a bookshelf inside appearances and the 1992 Bobbie Kelsey’s Kohl Center national championship. office are two watches encased As a first-time head coach, in finely polished wood. One is Kelsey’s biggest challenge so engraved with the words 2008 far has been implementing a Final Four; the other says 2009 completely new style of play for Final Four. They are mementos the Badgers. Her predecessor, from her past and symbols of Lisa Stone, had preached a where she’s looking to take the methodical approach, slowing Badger women’s basketball team down the pace of the game and in the future. walking the ball up the court. As the new UW head coach “We want to play a faster — the sixth overall in the school’s tempo,” Kelsey says. Bobbie Kelsey brings a new style of play and a championship history — Kelsey has work to do That may not translate to attitude to her role as head UW women’s basketball coach. before she starts clearing space for quick success, however, because another watch. But she’s confident even though the current crop teams are in vogue now, Kelsey losses as of press time. But she in her ability to build a national of players has embraced the believes that “scoring’s where it’s says that she expects improve- contender. “All I know is success,” coaching change, they hadn’t at. … You need playmakers and ment next season, after she’s had she said when she was hired. previously been conditioned to people who can create their own a full year to drill into her players In her four seasons as play such an aggressive style — shot and shots for others.” what she expects of them. an assistant at Stanford, the one in which they’re asked to So, what type of player is “We can’t work out with the Cardinal compiled a record of 137 score and be an offensive threat. Kelsey looking for when her assis- kids during the summer, but we’ll wins and 14 losses (a winning “This is an aggressive tants are out on the recruiting be able to adjust their workouts percentage of .907). The team person’s game,” Kelsey empha- trail? “You’ve got to have skill. beforehand so they’ll be better won 69 of 72 Pac-10 confer- sizes. “If you’re going to make That’s the X factor. I’d take size prepared when they come back in ence games and advanced to the a mistake, do it because you’re second. [Even] if you’re slow … the fall.” NCAA tournament’s Final Four being aggressive. I can live with but big and skilled, you’re going And once everything’s in each year. Prior to coaching, that. When you’re passive and to get the job done.” place, Kelsey hopes to make one Kelsey played at Stanford from timid, and then you make a In her first year, Kelsey’s more adjustment: to get a larger 1992 to 1996, and she helped mistake, I can’t play you.” squad has struggled, with a bookshelf. the Cardinal to three Final Four And while defensive-minded record of eight wins and fifteen Brian Klatt

BADGER SPORTS TICKER GQ magazine named former Badger benefit minority student-athletes. Finley from Camp Randall Stadium to Winona, football player Jake Wood ’05 a recip- played for the Badgers from 1991 to 1995, Minnesota, carrying a football. There they ient of one of its Better Men Better World then had a fifteen-year career in the NBA. hand off to Minnesota Fijis, who carry the awards in October. Wood, a former marine Now retired from basketball, he heads the ball to TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and philanthropic Michael Finley Foundation. Last year, the run raised $11,000. was decorated for valor, is president of Team Rubicon. That organization delivers The UW’s athletic rivalry with Basketball coach Bo Ryan picked up disaster relief to hard-hit areas around the Minnesota has a new facet, thanks to the a raise this season. In 2010–11, his total world, including Haiti after the 2010 earth- members of the two schools’ chapters compensation package was worth about quake and, recently, Turkey. of Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) fraternity. The $1.7 million; his new annual compensation Badger and Gopher Fijis have created the package is over $2.1 million, about three- Former UW basketball player Michael Rivalry Run, a fundraiser for the Red Cross. quarters of which comes from the UW Finley has endowed a UW scholarship to As part of the event, UW Fijis run 156 miles Foundation’s private gift funds.

SPRING 2012 21 Ward 2.0 In his second term at the helm, Interim Chancellor David Ward isn’t sitting idly by. JEFF MILLER By Jenny Price ’96

David Ward is not a seat filler. Since returning to UW-Madison in the role of interim chancellor last summer, Ward MS’62, PhD’63 has confronted complex questions and issues central to the university’s future in the wake of a bruising budget battle that leveled deep cuts and left some scars. He has also proposed some ideas that, he admits, some may not like, but that he believes are key to moving forward with the UW’s goals and mission. “Either you decide [as interim chan- cellor] you’re a caretaker, or you decide to try to make a difference,” Ward says. “I have a passionate commitment to both Interim Chancellor David Ward says UW-Madison can lead the way in finding innovative the institution and to the survival of solutions during difficult times. higher education.” Ward served as chancellor from 1993 to 2000, then led tional innovation if we are to retain our competitive edge the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C., over the next decade.” for seven years. Last October, Kevin Reilly, president of the In a conversation with On Wisconsin in his Bascom Hall UW System, extended Ward’s interim appointment until June office, Ward discussed some of his priorities. Alumni, he 2013 at the urging of faculty, staff, and students. The search notes, are “our best friends and advocates” in raising aware- for a new chancellor will now begin in September 2012. ness that the overarching dilemma is sustaining innovation “How many people get a chance to return to a job that with limited resources. meets both a love of institution and a love of higher educa- tion?” Ward asks. “With a two-year term, it would be a waste The State of UW-Madison for me not to at least put on the table an agenda that commits “We are no different from any other major public institu- to major changes. We need to be at the forefront of educa- tion,” Ward says, as the university absorbs $47 million in state

22 ON WISCONSIN budget cuts and faces an additional one-time cut of $24.6 Ward would also like to see the UW combine increased million during the next two years to balance out sluggish state access through online instruction with enhancements to tax collections. Every top research institution in the country traditional face-to-face learning. The concept — called is financially stressed and, Ward estimates, only about two blended learning — would, for example, allow more students to dozen private universities — with large endowments — are enroll in high-demand courses online, avoiding the capacity well positioned to withstand fiscal challenges. The universi- limits of physical classrooms; introduce course content earlier ties that cope most effectively now with declining public and let students learn at their own pace; and “create a higher support and tuition rates tied to budget and tax policy will be priority on discussion and understanding, because content is the most competitive long term, he says. being handled more online,” he says. “What we need to be doing is leading the way in inno- vating our way out of this,” Ward says. “While we will be A Renewed Partnership aggressive in making the case for increased public funding, Another top priority, Ward says, is repairing and rein- the current fiscal and economic environment makes [an forcing the relationship with UW System following a increase] unlikely in the short run.” failed proposal to establish a public authority to govern UW-Madison. Ward says UW System “provides a vehicle “I have a passionate of enriching our connection with the state,” particularly through students who transfer to UW-Madison from other commitment to both the campuses or enroll in graduate school. Maintaining access is critical, and helping low-income students with need-based institution and to the survival of financial aid is another priority, Ward says. higher education.” In turn, he hopes to improve relationships with UW System by stressing the unique mission and “sheer scale” of the Madison campus, noting that both work to the First up is using the flexibilities granted in the most advantage of the other UW campuses. recent state budget to design a personnel system to address UW-Madison’s unique needs. Another key aspect of the budget challenge, Ward says, is funding large-scale, inter- Change from Within departmental research, as longtime sources for individual Ward says that although his interim appointment frees him grants are vulnerable to federal budget cuts. to propose more radical ideas, he does not intend top-down changes. “I’m happy to take some opposition for putting Educational Innovation things on the table that rightly require a lot of discourse,” he How can the UW move forward without a significant infu- says. “I’m really trying to provoke a dialogue about change. sion of new public money? One way is by looking beyond the I can only go so far in implementation, because I strongly four-year, residential-degree model, says Ward, who is spear- believe in a circulation of ideas that allows a true dialogue heading a new initiative on educational innovation. about the future of the institution.” “Can we, in fact, think of some different models by which Will changes be made? Ward thinks so. “The tipping individuals can receive their degree under somewhat different point for change in institutions is actually not that high,” circumstances?” he asks. These models could mean part-time he says, “and so, as long as you get faculty, staff, and student degree programs for those who have to work, for example, leadership in contributing and committing ourselves to or year-round classes, or three-year degree programs for change, I think it’s possible to do so.” n students who enroll with significant advanced-placement credits and are ready to declare majors. Jenny Price ’96 is senior writer for On Wisconsin.

SPRING 2012 23 24 ON WISCONSIN JEFF MILLER

Lord of the f lies With remarkable patience and persistence, a UW geneticist explores the behavior of fruit flies — and contributes significantly to the understanding of human disease.

By Jill Sakai PhD’06

BARRY GANETZKY perches at an old microscope, a delicate feather- tipped probe in his hand. He firmly raps an upended glass vial of fruit flies to shake its anesthetized occupants onto a plate and peers at them through the eyepieces. It’s clear he has done this thousands of Ganetzky’s aims simply to gain knowledge times. With a few quick flicks, the feather of the world and how it works, including the deftly flips and sorts tiny fly bodies into biology of the creatures living in it. neat piles, then sweeps them into newly It is also the type of research so often tagged tubes. Then he’s on to the next vial lampooned by politicians as an example of from the packed rack: flip, sort, screen, and wasteful government spending — who cares tag — picking out differences invisible to an why a sleeping fly’s legs twitch? But the untrained eye. answer to that question has helped to explain Their size belies the magnitude of their how numerous drugs hurt the patients they influence: with these flies, Ganetzky, a geneti- were supposed to help and has permanently cist and Steenbock Professor of Biological affected the pharmaceutical development Sciences at UW-Madison, has improved the process. understanding of human conditions ranging Ganetzky’s unassuming laboratory Barry Ganetzky, Steenbock from cardiac failures in young athletes to is modest compared to the rooms full of Professor of Biological aging brains. gleaming equipment just steps away in the Sciences, sits on a chair — labeled with a bit of humor And yet, he did not set out with these Genetics Biotechnology Center on the UW — in his unassuming lab, goals in mind. Unlike clinical or transla- campus. But don’t let appearances fool you. which is lined with shelves and trays that house fruit tional research, where the direct intent is to Like the flies they work on, Ganetzky and his flies in glass vials. improve health care, basic research such as lab team are giants in the world of science.

SPRING 2012 25 Broken Hearts And that’s something flies are able stress, and then it collapses. When the to do, provided that scientists are there temperature is raised, if there’s a weak It all started with a dancing fly. to listen. Many biological processes are link, the process fails.” In the late 1960s, a geneticist named shared by all living organisms, from They began to find flies whose William Kaplan noticed a curious bacteria to humans. Fruit flies offer an nerves failed under stress. These behavior in a set of fruit flies that had accessible system to probe those basic “temperature-sensitive paralytic been anesthetized with ether. While most questions. mutants” acted normal under regular fell completely still, in one batch, the flies “It’s not surprising that simple find- lab conditions, but became paralyzed twitched their legs in response to the ings [in fruit flies] can have a profound when warmed from room temperature to anesthetic, beating the air in a frenzied effect in eventually understanding human about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. manner that reminded the researcher disease,” Wu says. By comparing the types of defects in of the dancers at a nearby nightclub. The fly studies are not unlike human neural activity, the researchers realized The rhythmic movements led to the medical genetics, Ganetzky says, where they were looking at mutations in ion name ether-à-go-go but little else, and the mutant flies were shelved in favor of other pursuits. About a decade later, Ganetzky was Many biological processes are shared by all living working as a new postdoctoral fellow at organisms, from bacteria to humans. Fruit flies offer the California Institute of Technology in the lab of renowned physicist-turned- an accessible system to probe those basic questions. biologist Seymour Benzer, considered by many to be the founder of the field of neurogenetics. Ganetzky quickly banded together with another new postdoc, patients come in with symptoms — channels, the gated pores that selectively Chun-Fang Wu, hoping to use genetics cardiac arrhythmias, seizures, tumors control the inward and outward flow of as a tool to dissect the workings of the — and it’s up to the doctor to identify the potassium, sodium, and calcium ions nervous system. the genes involved. “That’s exactly what that carry electrical current in nerves. The goal was characteristic of Ganetz- I do, except I’m looking at flies,” he says. Other scientists in the Benzer lab ky’s approach to science, Wu recalls, “The difference between humans and had been busy isolating the first known saying, “He doesn’t want to join the flies is that we have to generate our own ion channel, a potassium channel called crowd. He likes to explore new things.” patients.” shaker. Here was evidence that ion chan- Wu’s skills in physiology and elec- That’s achieved through a process nels were much more numerous and tronics complemented Ganetzky’s called mutagenesis, which uses diverse than previously thought. in genetics, and together they began DNA-targeting chemicals to create measuring the electrical signals that genetic mutations randomly dispersed are the currency of the nervous system, throughout the genome. Most have Trust the Flies looking for flies with mutations in no discernible effect, but some disrupt They moved on — Ganetzky to important genes. They realized they important genes and lead to visible Wisconsin, Wu to Iowa — but continued could use the fly’s behavior — locomo- changes, such as leg twitches under anes- to work with their model. Then Ganetzky tion, for example — as a readout for thesia. The trick is then finding a way to began having trouble with one of underlying biological problems that identify the mutant genes. his projects: following an interesting they could then trace back to their Ganetzky and Wu chose heat behavior had led him further away from genetic roots. as their screening tool. In all its the mutation he thought he was studying. “I don’t want to guess which genes complexity, Ganetzky explains, the The flies were trying to tell him some- I think are important for one thing or nervous system of a mutant fly is “like thing different. another. I want the fly to tell me the a house built with defective bricks. The Trusting the flies, he followed the answer,” Ganetzky says. house stands — until it is put under behavior. Finally he realized what he was

26 ON WISCONSIN COURTESY OF BARRYCOURTESY GANETZKY looking at: he had rediscovered ether-à- go-go, the dancing fly, and the mutated gene was a new ion channel. From that gene, he and his lab members quickly identified a whole family of related genes in both flies and mammals, including one in humans they named HERG for human ether-à-go-go-related gene. Shortly afterward, Ganetzky described his new channels at a confer- ence also attended by Mark Keating, a cardiologist studying a type of cardiac arrhythmia called long QT syndrome, which can lead to ventricular fibrillation and sudden death. An inherited form pointed to the same chromosome as HERG. Knowing that finely tuned ion channels also drive heart rhythms, the connection seemed clear. With help from Ganetzky’s tools, the group confirmed that HERG mutations are responsible for Early in their careers, Barry Ganetzky, left, and his colleague Chun-Fang Wu worked together to explore the genetics of the nervous system by looking at a fly’s behavior. It was a form of the disease. the start of an approach Ganetzky continues to follow today, saying, “I want the fly to tell Though congenital long QT me the answer.” syndrome is relatively rare, an “acquired” form was appearing as an alarmingly the anti-arrhythmic drugs,” says January, “There’s something about the HERG common side effect of a wide range of a professor of medicine and co-director channel that makes it uniquely sensitive drugs, including antihistamines, anti- of the Inherited Arrhythmias Clinic at to drug block. … This became a huge depressants, antibiotics, sedatives, and UW Hospital. issue in the drug-development world,” cancer drugs. Drug-induced long QT Many of these drugs were subse- January says, estimating that several syndrome caused symptoms ranging from quently pulled from the market due dozen to hundreds of pharmaceutical mild heart palpitations to seizures and to their HERG-mediated cardiac side compounds in various stages of clinical even death. effects, most recently the painkillers development, and tens of thousands Back in Wisconsin, Gail Robertson, Darvon and Darvocet in late 2010. One at preclinical stages, have failed due to one of Ganetzky’s postdocs and now a of the most well known, the antihistamine HERG-blocking properties and drug- UW-Madison neuroscience professor, Seldane, was very familiar to Ganetzky induced long QT syndrome. went to talk to a relatively new UW because his daughter was taking it. While HERG was busy making faculty member who specialized in long Since 2005, the FDA has recom- headlines and shaking up the pharmaceu- QT syndrome, cardiologist Craig January. mended screening all new drugs for tical industry, Ganetzky was back in his He was intrigued, suggesting that she HERG interactions. Routine screening of lab. HERG and its related channels had look at an experimental drug known to potential drug compounds has grown into confirmed the power of his approach to cause cardiac arrhythmias. Sure enough, it a multi-million-dollar global industry, uncover very fundamental, very relevant blocked the new HERG channel. January says, including until recently biological processes. “We started looking at non-cardio- at Cellular Dynamics International, a It was time to look at more flies. He vascular drugs and found they were all Madison start-up founded by UW stem wasn’t quite sure where they would lead HERG blockers. And frequently they cell pioneer Jamie Thomson with January him, but he was never one to pass up a were more potent HERG blockers than and UW cardiologist Timothy Kamp. challenge.

SPRING 2012 27 Forging a Path Ganetzky declared biology as his interpretations before so much as lifting a major, and the ten-week study quickly pipette. Ganetzky excelled at the intellec- Ganetzky grew up in Chicago, raised grew into a two-year labor of love. tual exercises, which helped him find the by a homemaker mother and an immi- Inspired by his first academic role model, best — and often the simplest — ways to grant father who supported the family he applied to graduate school and, that answer questions. by working as a candy salesman. The fall, he crossed the Mississippi River for “The basic principles of genetics are young Ganetzky was intensely curious the first time in his life en route to the pretty simple. Take the right male and and was constantly asking questions, but University of Washington in Seattle. the right female, put them together, and was rarely satisfied with the responses. Even as a child, he was drawn to biology and the natural world, because “Over the years in science, I’ve come to he could start testing things to find his own answers. realize that so much of it is salesmanship — grant Ganetzky’s parents were strong applications, giving seminars, writing papers, advocates for education, and he became a first-generation college student at his presenting your work. And I’ve come to realize hometown school, the University of that I probably got something even more valuable Illinois at Chicago. It was a commuter campus then, and he had to ride three from my father.” buses to get to school each day. He studied chemistry, he recalls, “not because I had any particular love of Knowing that many scientists were collect the offspring,” he says. The art, he chemistry, but I liked science, and chem- beginning to think that fly genetics had adds, is in choosing Mr. and Mrs. Right istry seemed marketable. I didn’t think passed its prime as a discipline, Ganetzky and deciding how to set up the crosses. biologists were employable.” arrived on the West Coast eager to change He’s being modest, of course. In He initially turned down a spot in directions and delve into the burgeoning reality, the path from finding an inter- an honors program, thinking that it just field of molecular biology — the study of esting behavior to identifying the gene sounded like a lot of extra work. But after DNA and other nuts and bolts of biolog- responsible for that behavior can be a couple years of scrabbling for classes ical systems. Fruit flies were no good for rocky, convoluted, and very, very long. that fit around his onerous commute, he that sort of thing, he thought. They are too It typically involves breeding flies that reconsidered when he learned that honors complex, too unwieldy. have a trait of interest with lab flies students got priority registration. The But a last required course during engineered to carry particular markers in about-face was a momentous decision. summer term in Illinois put him in their DNA. Geneticists rely on a process To fulfill his honors requirement, he Seattle later than his new classmates, called recombination, in which chunks of approached a young genetics professor, and the research positions he thought he DNA swap, or recombine, between pairs Michael Cummings, and started a wanted were already taken. Somewhat of chromosomes, mixing up the DNA ten-week research project on early disappointed, he checked out a couple of from mom and dad. By crossing the right development of fruit flies. the remaining labs, including a fruit fly flies, they can create offspring that carry It was a revelation. Here, the qualities genetics lab run by Larry Sandler. both a traceable landmark and the muta- that had caused friction in his youth — “It was a fluke that I ended up there, tion of interest. questioning authority, challenging others’ but from the moment I set foot in that And there are other complications. answers — were encouraged in the lab, I knew this was special,” Ganetzky Recombination happens somewhat at pursuit of new knowledge. “For the first says. Sandler liked to challenge his random in the genome, so researchers time, here was a suit of clothes that fit,” students to conduct elaborate thought have to cross and screen a lot of flies to he says, the relief still evident in his voice experiments, working through a dizzying find the few with the desired genetic even decades later. array of research designs, outcomes, and combination.

28 ON WISCONSIN And Ganetzky has. and numerous other human diseases. At — because we can manipulate the flies — He joined the UW-Madison faculty first glance, one of the most interesting to [study it].” in 1979. Working just a few hundred was a mutant fly they named wasted While Ganetzky is excited about the miles from his urban, blue-collar home- away after its Swiss-cheese brain and clinical relevance of the new findings, town, Ganetzky has established himself as early death. But when then-graduate he firmly believes that studies that don’t a leading and highly lauded geneticist. In student Joshua Gnerer PhD’08 isolated appear to have a direct path to human 2006, he was inducted into the National the gene that was responsible, they were medicine lay a crucial groundwork for Academy of Sciences, a select group of disappointed. making, recognizing, and understanding the country’s top scientists hand-picked The common metabolic enzyme the discoveries that follow. by their peers. He’s come a long way from triosephosphate isomerase, or TPI, was “This all began with such basic the young graduate student who was well known to biochemists for its role in things,” he says. “If it weren’t for step awed by the “genetic endowment” of his breaking down sugars to produce energy, one, I wouldn’t have gotten to two; and peers (one classmate was the daughter of but it was certainly “not one that anyone if it weren’t for step two, I wouldn’t have a Nobel Laureate) and worried that he would have picked out to study with gotten to three; and so on. All these couldn’t compete. respect to neurodegeneration,” Ganetzky things, tracing back … someone could “Over the years in science, I’ve come says. It made no sense, since defects in have said, ‘Well, this seems rather esoteric to realize that so much of it is sales- other steps in the same process did not and doesn’t relate to human disease.’ And manship — grant applications, giving cause the same neural degradation. But they would have been right.” seminars, writing papers, presenting the sick flies were clearly telling them that It’s critical to cast a wide net, your work,” he muses. “And I’ve come this enzyme was important, that somehow Ganetzky adds, because you never know to realize that I probably got something it was different. which ideas will turn out to be the big even more valuable from my father.” Delving deep into the scientific ones. Only a fraction may lead to a big literature, Gnerer found an intriguing payoff, but in his experience, sometimes link: human TPI deficiency causes severe the most unexpected are ultimately Old Flies, neurodegeneration and childhood death. the most interesting. Narrow your net Back in the lab, the researchers homed prematurely, and you risk missing what New Tricks in on TPI’s activity and discovered that you’re really looking for, he cautions. Thirty years in, Ganetzky is still listening it prevents the buildup of a highly toxic Looking back, he marvels at the path to his flies and still discovering basic — metabolic byproduct, a molecule called he has traveled and how far he has come. and unexpected — biological answers. methyl-glyoxyl that disrupts proteins “The best things that have happened to Though many senior professors tran- and gloms them into sticky clumps that me in my career were things that weren’t sition into primarily administrative roles kill cells. deliberately planned or were planned for in their labs, Ganetzky still spends time TPI deficiency in humans is very some other reason than how they turned at the bench and maintains his own fly rare, and this discovery will only have out,” he reflects. “If it hadn’t been for stocks, a practice that led to his newest limited direct impact on human medi- those three bus rides, some of this may interest. Tending to some flies behind cine, Ganetzky says. But it presents a not have turned out the way it did.” schedule one day, he noticed a few that, novel paradigm that is likely the tip of But this much is planned: he intends despite being perfectly healthy just a week a new iceberg; what was dismissed as a to keep letting the flies guide him toward or two earlier, looked a bit off: sluggish, ho-hum metabolic enzyme also has a important answers. He’ll continue to flip, uncoordinated, less responsive, old. neuroprotective role, and it probably sort, and tag, looking for the next right It made him think about aging isn’t the only one. male and right female who have more to and dementia. Sure enough, when he It’s especially intriguing because teach us about ourselves. n and his lab staff started looking more these protein clumps have been linked carefully, they found flies with signs to every other common neurodegenera- Jill Sakai PhD’06, a science writer for University Communications, values fruit fly of neural degeneration, the process tive disorder, as well as inflammation and contributions in the laboratory, but is less underlying Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, he says, “and we’re in a position enamored of them in her kitchen.

SPRING 2012 29 NASA

30 ON WISCONSIN NASA

SharedWhen three UW alumnae get to work each day, it’s all about astronauts and space suits and an evolving partnership Spacewith Russia to explore the universe. How cool is that?

By Jenny Price ’96 Photos by Bryce Richter

Karina Eversley ’96 took seven semesters of Russian at UW–Madison, in part because she was intrigued by how the language and its alphabet differed from English. But she had another, particularly compelling reason for cramming these courses into her schedule as she pursued an engineering mechanics degree. For as long as Eversley could remember, NASA was the only place she’d ever wanted to work. She reached her goal before she graduated, thanks to a program that gives engi- neering students the chance to live that dream for a summer or a semester. That opportunity led Eversley, today a spacewalk flight controller and instructor, and a number of other alumni to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where seeking the next giant leap for mankind is resolutely regarded as just part of the job. And today, as the space program changes and charts a new course, Badgers are playing key roles in NASA’s future.

SPRING 2012 31 The Cold War was over when Eversley graduated from the UW, and international cooperation was replacing the space race with the Soviets, some- thing she’d bet on when she studied Russian. Eversley had her inaugural experi- ence in Mission Control during the first International Space Station (ISS) assembly flight in 1998. It was an intense time. After all the procedures were written and the finest of details worked out, Eversley recalls, “It was halfway through the flight before I sat there in Mission Control and thought, ‘Whoa, this is real … It’s actually happening.’ ” She then put her language training into daily practice, living in Russia for months at a time for more than two years while she trained and prepared the station’s early crews.

Catching the Space Bug Eversley set her sights on the space program after watching The Right Stuff in middle school. “I saw that movie, and I [thought], ‘Oh my god, I want to work for NASA,’ ” she recalls. When Eversley arrived at the UW from Middleton, Wisconsin, to earn a degree, she learned about “co-op programs” in the College of Engineering — cooperative education opportuni- ties that make it possible for students to gain real-world engineering experience while completing their degrees. As soon as she was eligible, she applied for all the programs offered at NASA’s space centers, hoping she’d get a job at one of them someday. Johnson Space Center’s co-op Karina Eversley first dreamed of working for NASA while in middle school, then made it students typically came from Purdue happen by competing successfully in a program that places engineering college students at space centers. She also learned Russian, knowing that the United States and Russia were and nearby Texas A&M, but Eversley evolving from rivals to partners in space exploration.

32 ON WISCONSIN wanted to change that, getting her Lenius grew up watching Star Trek She’s dressed in a white suit designed Badger foot in the door at the home of with her dad and sitting on the back to provide ventilation and cooling via the manned space program. She was porch of her home in Omro, Wisconsin, water pumped through tubes near her active in the UW’s Society of Women searching the night sky for constellations skin. It takes a small team to help her Engineers (SWE), and when a guest pictured in her astronomy guide. into the next layer — a space suit, along speaker turned out to be a former NASA “For as long as I can remember, I with weights strapped around her legs engineer who had worked in Houston, wanted to be an astronaut — [I] wanted and chest to keep her at the bottom of she cornered him and asked, “Okay, how do you get in?” Armed with his advice, “It was halfway through the flight she succeeded in winning a slot. “[During] my entire co-op, I was the before I sat there in Mission Control only Badger,” Eversley says. While a student, she also completed and thought, ‘Whoa, this is real. two co-op tours at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. During one, It’s actually happening.’ ” she watched on NASA closed-circuit TV as the heads of the U.S. and Russian to work for NASA,” she says. “I’ve always the forty-foot-deep pool. That’s where space programs signed an agreement to loved space.” a mock-up of the International Space fly the Space Shuttle to the Russian Mir Stargazing materialized into a career Station rests, looking a bit like a ghost of space station — making it possible for path during her sophomore year at the the real thing. American astronauts to live on Mir. UW, when NASA conducted on-campus NASA astronauts spend up to seven “Of course, I was pretty psyched,” interviews for its co-op program. Lenius, hours underwater in this Neutral Buoy- she says. now a lead systems engineer in Houston, ancy Laboratory for every hour that It wouldn’t be long before another says advice and guidance from Eversley they’ll spend on a space walk. Badger came on board. Nikki Williams made the difference. “I emailed her,” The first space suits were based on ’00 heard Eversley speak about her Lenius says, “asking, ‘What do I need to the high-altitude suits worn by military experiences in Houston during another do? What do I need to know?’ ” test pilots, but they weren’t designed to SWE meeting and decided, “Oh, that’s Eversley says she can’t take credit be worn outside a space capsule. The it. That’s what I want to do.” for every UW graduate who works at current model, which has been used With Eversley’s help, Williams Johnson Space Center “because it’s been for three decades, looks like a squishy landed a summer position at the a domino effect. But I feel like I opened marshmallow, yet weighs about three Marshall Space Flight Center in Hunts- the door.” hundred pounds. Add in the astro- ville, Alabama, and then spent the fall naut’s weight and the tools needed for semester working at Johnson Space Twisting a Balloon a typical walk, and the suit now weighs Center, where she returned for four approximately seven hundred and fifty more tours while in college. During her Space walks depicted in movies or on pounds. Its built-in joints and bends, senior year, she joined the College of television give the impression that astro- including customized gloves, make it Engineering’s zero-gravity team, flying nauts can just float around and enjoy the easier to get around, but any movement an experiment on NASA’s “vomit comet,” view. But preparing for space walks is a still feels like trying to twist a blown-up a fixed-wing aircraft that briefly creates lengthy and highly choreographed effort. balloon. Wearing it and working in it the sensation of weightlessness by During one such training session, take practice. following an elliptic flight path. an astronaut is standing on the deck While astronauts are in the water, A few years later, Angie Lenius ’06 of a larger-than-Olympic-size pool Eversley’s job is to talk them through the joined NASA. filled with 6 million gallons of water. difficult dance of a space walk, helping

SPRING 2012 33 them to learn and master the tasks they at a very low level — 4 pounds per square “The difference is that medical oxygen must accomplish in space. At other times, inch — so astronauts can move around to only needs to be something like 93 to 95 she works with a different crew on Earth complete their assignments. Being inside percent [pure]. For space, we need it to be to test out a spacewalk, and then sends the suit is similar to the conditions when 99.5 or more pure.” instructions to astronauts in the space climbing Mt. Everest; to avoid decompres- And it must all fit “here,” says Lenius, station when they need to make repairs. sion sickness (also known as the bends), pointing overhead to the ceiling of the After being lowered into the water, crew members need very pure oxygen to airlock. “That’s exactly the problem that aided by a pair of scuba divers, the keep nitrogen from building up in their we’re getting into right now.” At that astronaut maneuvers at the bottom of the pool as another trainer walks her through the task at hand. Via a headset “The students were just so excited and in the helmet, the trainer suggests a new maneuver to try — such as using a hook wanted to know everything. It’s just fun or a tether — if the astronaut can’t reach being able to inspire people the way that or see something. Eversley says the sessions help I have been inspired by others.” trainers develop the best way to approach tasks during future space walks. “It’s a two-way street,” she says. “We have to get blood. The night before a space walk, moment, the pieces of the system are a lot of information back from the crew.” astronauts sleep in the space station’s spread out on a large rectangular table, Although Eversley is not an astronaut airlock module, where the oxygen has been called a breadboard, inside a concept- herself, she has worn the suit, taken some cranked up to high levels and the atmo- development laboratory run by two of the same classes as the crews she trains, spheric pressure is decreased to lower the contractors just down the road from and strapped on scuba gear to dive into amount of nitrogen in their blood. People Johnson Space Center. the training pool to get a closer look. “It’s get the bends when nitrogen bubbles form As a systems engineer for NASA, kind of more of an art than science,” she in the bloodstream from a rapid drop in Lenius serves as the go-between for the says. “Three different crews could do pressure. ISS program and contractors Lockheed three different space walks, but achieve Before the shuttle program ended, Martin and Wyle, making sure the device the same result.” NASA topped off the ISS’s high-purity does what it is supposed to do and meets Building the ISS, which has more oxygen tanks, but that supply will eventu- all requirements for readiness. square footage than a five-bedroom ally be used up. Lenius is part of a team “We do have a leak on both sides. house, took 155 space walks. U.S. astro- now working on an alternative solution, We need to fix that,” a team member tells nauts and their counterparts from other a pressure-swing absorption system Lenius, who is standing near a maze of countries have continuously manned the that pulls oxygen from the atmosphere, wires, tubes, and circuits — and a pair station since November 2000. pressurizes it, and stores it in large of fuzzy white dice hanging overhead. Eversley will lead a space walk sched- tanks outside the station. The idea was The system is hooked up to old flight uled for later this year during which — conceived by John Graf ’85, MS’87, a instruments to gauge oxygen levels. “It’s as a barter system of sorts — U.S. astro- UW engineering graduate who works in a multistage system, and, so far, only [the] nauts will run power cables from their part Lenius’s group at NASA. first stage is operational,” she explains. of the station to a new Russian module. The process, Lenius says, is the same And scale matters. Ultimately, the used for portable oxygen for emphy- entire system must fit inside three box- Under Pressure sema patients. “It takes oxygen out of size units that measure twelve cubic feet the ambient atmosphere and purifies it and will be mounted on the airlock’s The atmospheric pressure on Earth is for them to breathe,” she explains, while ceiling. about 14.7 pounds per square inch. In standing inside a full-size mock-up of the “This is the size it has to be,” Lenius space, it’s zero. Space suits are pressurized space station’s airlock chamber. says.

34 ON WISCONSIN Angie Lenius loved searching the night sky for constellations as a child. As a UW sophomore, she reached out to fellow Badger Karina Eversley for advice about getting her foot in the door at NASA. Today she is a lead systems engineer at Johnson Space Center.

Better than or send it down a garbage chute, those “I got a very good technical founda- destinations don’t exist in space — and tion at UW-Madison,” Williams says. Chicken Soup something must be done to control the “I was well-prepared to learn how to do Lack of gravity and oxygen are just smell, too. Unlike the shuttle, NASA’s whatever it was I need to do — build my two of the challenges in space. Living new spacecraft in development, Orion, thermal models, or work on my tests.” and working up there involve a lot of doesn’t have a venting system to control To measure how effectively a trash practical and personal matters that trash smells. bag already certified for flight would those of us back on Earth take for “It’s a gross problem, but it’s a very keep odors from taking over the entire granted. Williams is a member of the real problem,” Williams says. vehicle, Williams and her team filled the flight crew equipment team, the group Everything that goes into space must bag with diapers, food trash, and vomit that tackles everything astronauts be certified for flight to ensure that it’s bags filled with simulated vomit. “In the need in space, from toothbrushes to not flammable or toxic. Although NASA past when we’ve certified vomit bags, rehydrated food. can buy things off the shelf, items must we’ve used things like chicken soup,” she And then there’s trash. While the be vigorously tested before they are says. “I said, ‘Oh, we can do better than rest of us can take it out to the garage cleared for liftoff. chicken soup.’ ”

SPRING 2012 35 As a member of the flight crew equipment team, Nikki Williams worked on what astronauts need, from toothbrushes to meals to trash that isn’t too stinky. These days, she’s part of the team that is building the next-generation space suit. “A space suit is its own little vehicle,” she explains.

The group mixed up a batch of fake chamber, and the panel “sampled” the gas teams, making sure they have the tools, vomit using a recipe found in some four times during a two-week period to training, and equipment they need. medical literature to generate the right see how well the bag contained the odor. “A space suit is its own little vehicle,” odor and texture: apple juice, cottage “It smelled — I’m not going to say it she says. cheese, frozen vegetables, soy sauce, didn’t smell — but it was not hazardous,” Early in her career, Williams, who tomato soup, and a few drops of some Williams says. hails from Ashland, Wisconsin, was on potent chemicals. “I was a very nauseous her first-ever overseas trip, attending a pregnant woman during that project, so The Next meeting in Japan related to her thermal- I consider myself very knowledgeable on Generation analysis work. “I remember walking into the topic,” she says with a laugh. the hotel we were staying at in Tokyo and The other experts were an odor panel Since May, Williams has been working on realizing, ‘This hotel holds more people of volunteers at Johnson Space Center’s building the next-generation space suit, than my hometown,’ ” she recalls. White Sands Test Facility in New along with others assigned to a space- That sense of wonder truly takes Mexico. The filled trash bag was placed in suit-and-crew-survival branch. She is hold during a visit to Johnson Space a temperature- and humidity-controlled responsible for three of the branch’s five Center, where history fills every corner.

36 ON WISCONSIN Hallways are lined with portraits of The same emotion prevailed on a people the way that I have been inspired astronauts, confidently smiling as they day in Madison last spring, when an by others.” pose in flight gear, and displays of space auditorium of middle school and high The space shuttle took its final suits from every era bear the names of school students listened intently to flight last year, and American astronauts brave men who are forever etched in Eversley, Lenius, and Williams, who must now hitch a ride on Russia’s Soyuz the collective American memory. Then were visiting campus for Engineering spacecraft to and from the space station. there’s the original Mission Control, Innovation Days. The women spoke But there is a glimpse of the future now a historic landmark, where engi- about their jobs, the history of space inside Johnson Space Center’s Building 9, a massive facility with high ceil- “I got a very good technical foundation at ings where astronauts first trained for walking on the moon. Alongside realistic UW–Madison. I was well-prepared to learn mock-ups of the shuttle and sections of the space station is one of Orion, the how to do whatever it was I need to do.” new deep-space capsule. NASA aims to launch it for an unmanned test flight in neers in shirtsleeves and horn-rimmed travel, and NASA’s role in bringing 2014 and send astronauts to explore an glasses armed with slide rules guided innovations to the public. At the end asteroid by 2025. missions to the moon. Turn a corner, of the presentation, several girls in the “We’re not going to be able to live on and you’ll encounter a living, breathing audience rushed to the front to get a Earth forever,” Lenius told the students astronaut, Shannon Lucid, who lived in closer look at a space suit display. during her visit to Madison. “The next space for six months on board the Mir “They were just so excited and new world is somewhere out there.” n space station. wanted to know everything … [asking] It’s heady stuff that leaves visitors are they doing the right thing? What do Jenny Price ’96, senior writer for On Wiscon- sin, admits that getting dizzy at IMAX movies slack-jawed and struggling for words they need to do for this or that?” Lenius does not bode well for becoming an astronaut beyond cool and neat. recalls. “It’s just fun being able to inspire someday.

Exploration = Risk Karina Eversley was working at the Johnson Space Center on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. All seven crew members were killed, including Laurel Clark ’83, MD’87. The university and its School of Medicine and Public Health have established scholarships in Clark’s name to support science and medical students, and a room at the Health Sciences Learning Center is dedicated to her memory as a physician, researcher, and astronaut. The Columbia tragedy “felt like 9/11 to us,” Eversley says. “Not just the crew, but that vehicle is alive to us … and, of course, you wonder what the crew went through, and you feel awful for their families.” In the weeks and months that followed, Eversley and others worked overtime to develop tools and methods to repair damage to heat-shield tiles and train astronauts to use them. “People here are so devoted. … That was our way of showing that it mattered to us, and that we’re not going to let this happen again, and [showed] the future crews that, ‘Hey, we’ve got your back,’ ” she says. Risk will always be a part of space travel. That reality was reinforced when Clark’s husband, Jonathan, spoke on behalf of the Columbia crew’s families during a 2003 ceremony at the Space Mirror Memorial, a monument at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that lists the names of those who have died on U.S. space missions. “We must decide whether we are a space-fearing or space-faring [nation] as we step into the next phase of returning to flight and beyond,” he said. “This memorial has many blank spots, and they will not go unfilled, because the destiny of mankind will come at some cost. And therefore, do not ask for whom the mirror shines — it shines for you.” J.P.

SPRING 2012 37 THEISPOT/JOHN CRAIG

38 ON WISCONSIN Leading the War on Obesity Barry Popkin sees the struggle against food policies and marketing practices that promote excess weight as nothing less than a battle for human rights.

By Melba Newsome mandate to force other food makers to Nagging food manufacturers about follow its lead. “If Wal-Mart says, ‘We the amount of saturated fat and added want you to do it,’ it will happen,” he told sugar in a bag of chips or a soft drink may hen Wal-Mart National Public Radio. seem like a comedown from the heady announced its This is classic Popkin — taking days of freedom-riding and shutting five-year, healthy what many would consider a victory and down the campus to protest the Vietnam food initiative pushing for more, a tactic that hearkens War, but not to Popkin. He sees the Win January 2011, First Lady Michelle back nearly fifty years to his rabble- food wars as the human rights battle of Obama heaped praise on the corporation rousing days at the UW in the early the twenty-first century, citing similari- for joining her campaign against child- 1960s, when UW students were among ties such as going up against powerful, hood obesity, saying it could potentially those leading the charge in the civil entrenched interests and trying to get transform the entire food marketplace. rights movement. them to do the right thing. Wal-Mart aims to reduce sugar by Now a professor of nutrition at the “I’m an activist in a different sort of 10 percent, cut sodium by 25 percent, and University of North Carolina, he credits way now,” he says. “I work within the eliminate industrially produced trans fats his university experience and his several system and with governments to make in its line by 2015. That’s quite a commit- years of civil rights organizing after he changes.” ment by the world’s largest retailer. left the UW for making him the activist These days, Popkin is on a cordial, However, Barry Popkin ’67, MS’69, and advocate he is today. Long before first-name basis with many people in one of the most respected and prolific Jamie Oliver and Michael Pollan put our the very industry that he blames for the voices about obesity and America’s food food supply and dietary habits on trial — world’s obesity problem. But it would supply, challenged Wal-Mart to go even when much of the nutrition focus was still be a mistake to think that the one-time further. He believes that the retail giant’s on hunger — Popkin was warning of the radical has been co-opted. In his most market share gives it the muscle and the coming obesity epidemic. recent book, The World is Fat: The Fads,

SPRING 2012 39 COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA OF UNIVERSITY NORTH COURTESY Trends, Policies, and Products That Are lose many battles, but you can’t see the Fattening the Human Race, Popkin makes problems we face — millions of diabetics, the case that our lifestyle and food kids, and adults who are so overweight system are at odds with millions of years and they can’t walk — and not do some- of evolution and are guaranteed to make thing about it,” he says. “My economics us even fatter. According to the World and activist background has given me Health Organization, we’re in a situa- a special perspective on nutrition, and tion that would have been unimaginable being shot at and beat up [as a civil rights fifty years ago: the world’s population is organizer] has prepared me for dealing rife with diabetes and hypertension, and with controversy that comes with going overweight people outnumber under- up against the food industry.” nourished people by more than two Born and raised in Superior, Wis- to one. consin, Popkin arrived in Madison in Popkin doesn’t believe this is simply 1962, when five hundred students pick- the result of individual overindulgence, eted the Woolworth’s store on the Capitol but rather the outcome of recent trends Square in solidarity with Southern blacks. in technology, globalization, government Wisconsin students marched on Wash- policy, and food industry marketing prac- ington with Martin Luther King, Jr., in tices. He sees a direct link between the Barry Popkin first became interested in 1963, protested nuclear testing, and were global health issues as a Wisconsin student ubiquity of fast, cheap, processed foods when he spent his senior year abroad. among the first students to protest the and the growing obesity problem. He says Vietnam War in 1964. that while the prices of meat, dairy, and In the past three decades, caloric intake “I was a small-town kid with that sugar are about 20 percent of what they has increased on average by 150 to 300 perspective of the world,” Popkin recalls. were in real terms in 1950, the cost of per day, with approximately half coming “When I got to [the] UW, I experienced beans, fruits, and vegetables has gone up. from sweetened beverages. The proposal different influences and perspectives for The food crusader calls claims of to tax sodas, other sugary beverages, and the first time, and it completely changed “heart healthy” products by food manu- junk food is popular with scientists and my world view.” facturers false advertising, and declares health advocates, but goes over like a lead Popkin joined the Students for a excessive red meat bad for global climate balloon with the beverage industry. Democratic Society and Student Nonvio- control and also for human health. He In 2010, then-New York Governor lent Coordinating Committee. He spent once claimed that soft drinks are linked David Patterson proposed a penny-per- his senior year as a UW student in India, to diabetes and obesity in the way that ounce tax on soda and other sweet drinks living and working in the densely popu- tobacco is to lung cancer. Such inflam- (assisted not only by Popkin, but also by lated shantytowns of Old Delhi among matory statements have landed him in his former students) as one way to close horrendous sanitation and raging poverty. pitched — but respectful — battles with the state’s mounting budget gap. Months That experience became the genesis of his many in the food industry. later, the initiative vanished, killed by interest in health and welfare and the spark “Barry very much believes in a multimillion-dollar ad campaign for his senior thesis on the economics of improving public health, but we don’t launched by a group called New Yorkers nutrition. He worked as a full-time activist necessarily see eye to eye,” says Rona Against Unfair Taxes. The campaign, for several years, believing that true social Applebaum, Coca Cola’s chief regulatory funded by the beverage industry, labeled change could only be achieved by grass- officer. “We all want a healthy public and the plan as a regressive tax and a dubious roots organizing. community, but Barry and I disagree on health policy. In 1973, Popkin enrolled at Cornell how to get there.” Having watched the same scenario to pursue a doctorate in agricultural One way to get there, says Popkin, is play out all across the country, Popkin economics, and he received his PhD with what is commonly known as a fat tax. was disappointed, but not surprised. “I in 1974. He spent the next three years

40 ON WISCONSIN studying nursing mothers in the Philip- interviews, been quoted in dozens of to make those foods more healthy and pines as an economist at the School of consumer publications, and racked up a ultimately reduce the number of calories Economics there and also as a consultant slew of honors and research fellowships. we consume. to the USAID Regional Development He noticed that, even in poor coun- In recent years, he has taken a less Office. Returning to the States in 1977, tries, people were growing fat. And as confrontational approach to dealing with the food and beverage industries by focusing on areas of agreement. In “I lose many battles, but you can’t see the prob- 2005, he assembled leading nutrition lems we face — millions of diabetics, kids, and scientists to provide consumer guid- ance on the nutritional benefits and adults who are so overweight and they can’t walk — risks of a variety of beverages. In 2007, and not do something about it. ... Being shot at and he started an annual Global Obesity Business Forum with senior executives beat up as a civil rights organizer has prepared me from food, beverage, and infant formula companies to find a solution to the for dealing with controversy that comes with going obesity epidemic. up against the food industry.” Working with those in the food industry has not made him more trusting of their motives or hopeful about a good he joined the University of North Caro- the people got bigger, they also got sick. outcome, however. “This is like tobacco lina faculty and built his life in Chapel Problems such as diabetes and heart all over again,” he says. “There is nothing Hill, the town that the late senator Jesse disease began escalating among the poor that happened with tobacco — hiring Helms famously labeled a zoo because of — the very people who can least afford lobbyists, funding their own studies to its liberalism. medical care or medicines. confuse the public — that’s not happening “I had been involved in civil rights “For five or ten years, nobody with the soda industry.” stuff [in Chapel Hill] and really loved it for believed me,” he says. “It was like when In June 2010, Popkin was appointed that reason,” Popkin says, adding that the we first started talking about the dangers independent evaluator for the Healthy city is a liberal oasis “in the middle of an of tobacco in the 1950s and ’60s.” Weight Commitment Foundation, a enormous hunk of reality in the South.” This gave rise to Popkin’s concept of consortium of companies that have set More than thirty years later, Popkin’s nutrition transition — increased consump- goals for making their products more appearance — tall, slender, bearded — tion of unhealthy foods compounded by an health conscious. As watchdog, he will be and hobbies — biking and yoga — check increased prevalence of overweight people looking over the shoulders of food giants many of the “aging hippie” boxes. His in middle- to low-income countries. The such as Kellogg, General Mills, Kraft, passion for causes has not waned or phenomenon has serious implications and Coca-Cola, checking to see if they’ve drifted far from his leftist roots, although for public health outcomes, risk factors, done what they said they would do in he points out that he is not a Marxist or economic growth, and international nutri- two, four, and six years. a Communist. tion policy. For instance, Popkin says, “Everything we do will be public Popkin, who created the UNC twenty years ago, the Chinese had virtually and widely disseminated with press Nutrition Transition Research Program, no weight problems compared to today, conferences, publications, [and] public has traveled the globe to study the effects when a third of Chinese adults are obese documents on the web,” he says. “I will of dietary and physical activity patterns and more Chinese kids than American kids be tracking them.” n on health. He has published nearly four are diabetic. hundred peer-reviewed journal articles, Popkin concedes that the human Melba Newsome is an award-winning free- is one of the three most cited nutrition palate now desires sweet, fatty foods and lance journalist based in Charlotte, North scholars, has given hundreds of media drinks, but believes there is a way Carolina.

SPRING 2012 41 A Rune With a View James Frankki scours stones for evidence that proves America’s Viking past — or maybe not.

By John Allen

Ultimately, it was the mysterious symbols that gave it all away. Of course, all the symbols were myste- rious, as was the stone they were carved on. James Frankki ’85, PhD’07 was looking at a purported runestone, after all, one found in a forest outside Kansas City, Missouri. A runestone is a rock carved with runes — letters used by ancient Germanic The Kensington Runestone, unearthed in Minnesota more than a hundred years ago, continues to spark curiosity and controversy. Is it evidence of Viking exploration of the and Scandinavian peoples. The bulk of the Midwest? Or is it just a hoax? markings on this particular stone were in a script known as the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, “If the writing isn’t all in the same least of which was how it came to an alphabet used by the early English [alphabet], it raises questions,” Frankki be there. between the fifth and eleventh centuries. says. “Why would someone write in two When the stone was rediscovered But then there were other symbols — a different alphabets?” in January 2011, its finders wondered if vertical line and three pairs of diamonds, The question of the symbols ulti- it was proof that early English mariners also arranged vertically. These were not mately unspooled all the other questions had somehow traveled all the way to runes. So what were they? that the Kansas City runestone raised, not Missouri more than a millennium ago.

42 ON WISCONSIN Was Columbus, sailing the ocean blue, BARRY ROAL CARLSEN a late-comer in fourteen hundred and ninety-two? Were Leif Ericson and his Fehu (f) Hagalaz (h) Teiwaz (t) Viking companions covering someone else’s tracks when they touched on the Uruz (u) Nauthiz (n) Berkana (b) coast of North America? Was this stone going to rewrite America’s history books? Thurisaz (th) Isa (i) Ehwaz (e) These are just the sort of puzzles that Frankki enjoys. In November 2011, Ansuz (a) Jera (j,y) Mannaz (m) he joined a team of archaeologists, rune enthusiasts, engineers, and university Raido (r) Eihwaz (e) Laguz (l) students to look at the Kansas City runestone, read its meaning, and Kenaz (k) Perthro (p) Inguz (ng) assess its authenticity. A German professor at Sam Houston Gebo (g) Algiz (z) Othila (o) State University in Texas, Frankki hopes to see runology — the study of rune-based Wunjo (w,v) Sowulo (s) Dagaz (d) languages and artifacts — established in the United States. The Elder Futhark (shown here with transliteration) was used in Scandinavia from the “There aren’t any specialists in second to the eighth centuries. The Younger Futhark and Anglo-Saxon Futhorc are similar. runology in this country,” he says. “We Each alphabet takes its name from the sounds indicated by the first six letters. have a few of these runestones, and nobody’s studying them properly. It’s a lot in the Scandinavian-American heartland, was more interested in philosophy than of amateurs that are doing this stuff.” and in the vicinity of one of America’s philology. most famous, and most controversial, “I was very interested in the Frankki emphatically does not runic artifacts: the Kensington Runestone, nineteenth- and twentieth-century philos- count himself among the amateurs, which was unearthed in Douglas County ophers, people like Nietzsche and Kant though he’s not a runologist or archaeolo- in central Minnesota. and Schopenhauer and Hegel,” he says. gist. He has a doctorate in German and Its fame grows in part from its loca- “I wanted to read them in the original — is trained in medieval literature, Scan- tion, amid the Midwest’s large population that’s how I ended up learning German.” dinavian studies, and philology (that is, of Scandinavian immigrants, and its After earning his bachelor’s, Frankki historical linguistics). But then, there are supporters believe it gives evidence that served a two-year hitch in the army and no American runologists, and so Frankki Vikings traveled there more than 800 was stationed with the Third Infantry has become prominent in the efforts to years ago. The stone’s controversy is the Division in Kitzingen, Germany, where examine North American runestones. result of its uniqueness — there are few he had the opportunity to put his “I’m a member of the Association supporting objects to suggest that Vikings language study to a more rigorous — for the Advancement of Runic Studies,” traveled so deep into North America. if less academic — test. he says. “My title is ‘trusted adviser.’ I do But it wasn’t the Kensington Rune- “This was during the Cold War,” he research for them, and they support me in stone that inspired Frankki’s fascination says, “and there was no chance then of a some of my projects.” with runes. He’d never heard of it — not war breaking out. It was kind of a Euro- With his large, bushy beard and until after he completed his PhD, moved pean vacation, a chance to live in and two Ks in his last name (of Scandinavian away from Wisconsin, and was working experience European culture — though origin, naturally), Frankki looks much like as a visiting professor at Oklahoma State being in an infantry unit wasn’t all that the popular image of the ancient Germans University. much fun. But we had time off, and on a he studies. A Wisconsin native who grew When Frankki first enrolled at month’s leave, I rode the trains all over up in Medford, Frankki spent his youth UW-Madison as an undergraduate, he [western] Europe.”

SPRING 2012 43 After his enlistment was up, Frankki OF JAMES FRANKKI COURTESY returned to Madison and eventually enrolled in the UW’s doctoral program in German, writing his dissertation on the thirteenth-century poet Ulrich von Liechtenstein. A move toward medieval literature required him to gain famil- iarity with a variety of dead languages, including Latin, Old French, Old High German, Old Saxon, and Old Norse. “Once I decided to do medieval studies,” he says, “I had to learn all those languages.” For Frankki, that desire to study his topic more deeply combined with an interest in words and puzzles — he’s a tournament Scrabble player, and ranked fortieth at 2010’s national championship. In the years after he completed the coursework for his PhD, Frankki taught German at a variety of locations — at The runestone that first caught James Frankki’s attention was the one near Heavener, Oklahoma. Supposedly carved by Vikings, the stone has just eight characters. “But how did UWC-Waukesha, UWC-Marathon they get to Oklahoma?” he asks. “That’s the question I’ve been dealing with ever since.” County, Oklahoma State in Stillwater, and then Sam Houston State University Stillwater and landed in Huntsville. There Runes are letters developed for in Huntsville, Texas. he learned that one of the most-published writing out early Germanic languages. It was at OSU — or rather while authors on American runestones, Richard The three best-known runic alphabets taking a day off from OSU — that he first Nielsen, lived nearby in Houston. The are the Elder Futhark, the Younger fell under the sway of runes. two struck up a friendship that developed Futhark, and the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc On a weekend trip with his then-wife, into a collaboration on runic projects. — the term Futhark (or Futhorc) refers Lisa, Frankki passed a billboard for Okla- Like Frankki, Nielsen is not a profes- to the sounds indicated by the first six homa’s Heavener State Park, advertising sional runologist — he has a doctorate letters in each alphabet. Each script that the area offered a runestone. Lisa in engineering. But he’s studied with was used in a different region and at a wanted to stop and visit, but Frankki Swedish runologist Henrik Williams different time. initially resisted. — “one of the premier runologists in The Elder Futhark, the oldest, was “Later,” he says, “I thought hey, I’m Sweden,” according to Frankki. common in Germany and Scandinavia a German professor. I’m supposed to be Nielsen told Frankki about the from the second to the eighth centuries. interested in this kind of stuff. And so we Kensington Runestone and stoked his The Anglo-Saxon Futhorc was used in went and looked at it, and it’s got these enthusiasm. Today, Frankki is the academic England and along the North Sea coast runes, this stone in the middle of Okla- adviser to a Viking Club among the of Germany and the Netherlands from homa. I couldn’t read the runes at that students at Sam Houston State. Together, the fifth to the eleventh centuries. And time — I didn’t know the alphabet then they travel and look at America’s possible the Younger Futhark was found chiefly in — but it was supposedly carved by Vikings runic evidence, exploring the notion that Scandinavia from the ninth century into in the eighth century, seven hundred years Vikings left their mark on the Midwest. the fifteenth century. before Columbus.” “But how did [Vikings] get to Okla- Rune use expanded during what’s The mystery of the Heavener Rune- homa?” he asks. “That’s the question I’ve called the Viking Age, from the late 700s stone ate at Frankki, even after he left been dealing with ever since.” until 1066, when Scandinavians pushed out

44 ON WISCONSIN from their homeland, trading and raiding, and colonizing Iceland and Greenland. The Viking Effect at the UW But how could the scripts have reached the middle of North America? “If you want to get people into a class, all you have to do is put the “We know from records that about word Viking in the title,” says Susan Brantly, a professor in the UW’s 30 percent of the ships that headed to Scandinavian Studies department. “They’ll come.” Iceland never made it,” Frankki says. UW-Madison has been aware of the grip that Vikings and their descen- “So you can assume that they drowned dants hold over the Midwestern imagination for more than a century. The in the Atlantic. But some of them could UW’s Scandinavian Studies department is the oldest in North America, have been blown off course and hit the established in 1875 by Rasmus Anderson and developed into prominence coast of North America. The Vikings by legendary professors such as Julius Olson 1884 and Einar Haugen. had these terrific boats that they could “Due to the demographics of Wisconsin, there’s always been a strong portage almost anywhere. We know that interest in Scandinavia here,” Brantly says. “It’s part of the state’s heritage.” they went up and down rivers all over Today, Kirsten Wolf, a medievalist who teaches Old Norse language Europe.” and literature and Scandinavian linguistics, chairs the department. With the technology that Vikings Though it has only five faculty, Scandinavian Studies serves forty under- possessed, Frankki believes that they might have been capable of making the graduate majors and offers three graduate degree tracks — literature, journey to the American interior. Perhaps philology, and area studies. In all, nearly 1,300 students took one or more they pushed up the St. Lawrence River courses from the department in the last academic year. That includes into the Great Lakes. Or perhaps they courses featuring perennial favorites such as Hans Christian Andersen or traveled overland from the coast. Or even the latest Nordic sensation, Stieg Larsson. Among the most popular perhaps they sailed south around Florida, topics, Wolf says, are those that touch on the Viking age. and up the Mississippi. “People like Old Norse language and literature,” she says. “That “They could have gotten there. I literature is very rich and entertaining.” tend to think it’s most likely that they J.A. came through the Gulf of Mexico,” he says. “Even though,” he adds, “it’s [all] probably unlikely.” North America, nor the most famous. The trouble is this: although we That honor belongs to the Kensington know that medieval Vikings came to The Heavener Runestone that Runestone, which has 222 characters North America nearly five hundred years first inspired Frankki contains just and tells a brief story: some thirty before Columbus, the solid evidence of eight symbols, all in the Elder Futhark, Scandinavians were on a journey when their travels is limited to just a couple of and it reads either GNOMEDAL or they stopped to do some fishing; upon sources: the Vinland Sagas and an archae- GLOMEDAL. returning to their camp, they discovered ological site in Newfoundland. “It’s a bit unclear as to whether the ten bloodied corpses. “Ave Maria, save us The Vinland Sagas are epic poems second rune [stands for] an N or an L,” from evil,” the stone ends, giving the date that tell of Erik the Red, an exiled Norwe- Frankki says. “The problem is that some- 1362. A Swedish immigrant named Olaf gian who founded a colony in Greenland, times runes could be written retrograde Ohman discovered the stone in 1898 — and his son, Leif Ericson, who captained — in reverse, mirror image. But basi- it had been lodged in the roots of a tree an expedition west to North America cally it seems to be a name: GNOME or he was digging up. (which he called Vinland, after the grape GLOME of the valley — DAL means Or maybe not — the Kensington vines he found there). But the sagas were valley.” Runestone, as well as the one at Heav- written down about two hundred years The Heavener stone is hardly the ener and others in North America, is not after the events they describe. most extensive runestone claimed in widely accepted as genuine. Continued on page 62

SPRING 2012 45 traditions

With unabated enthusiasm, fraternities and sororities produce this annual show as a mash-up of pop culture, familiar music, and commitment to a good cause. JEFF MILLER Humorology When a young woman dressed as reality TV fixture Kim Kardashian says she’s never worked harder in her life, she’s not kidding. By the time opening night arrives for Humorology each April, UW–Madison students from campus Greek organiza- tions have racked up more than one hundred and fifty hours rehearsing for the musical-comedy show. Now in its sixty-sixth year, Humorology is the largest student-run, nonprofit philan- thropic organization in Wisconsin. It raised $20,000 for local and national charities last year. Pop culture icons and characters from childhood stories and games frequently populate the stage during a half-dozen mini-musicals tied to a central, broad theme. Students write, direct, and choreograph the productions, in addition to building sets and making costumes. Fun fact: Humorology is where Steven Levitan ’84, co-creator of the award-winning TV series Modern Family, got his start in comedy. If the songs sound familiar, it’s because the students borrow melodies from pop singers, such as Katy Perry, and classic Broadway shows, such as A Chorus Line, to accompany original lyrics. While many of the performers are not necessarily trained in acting, dancing, or singing, they compensate with raw enthu- siasm. The “let’s put on a show” attitude is infectious, and even if a few jokes fall flat, the energy level on stage never lets up. The performers are matched beat for beat by the audience, which is filled with hollering fraternity brothers and sorority sisters rooting for their houses with homemade signs and T-shirts bearing Greek letters. That rowdy atmosphere is fueled by Humorology also being a competition, which begins when groups audition during the fall semester for a spot on the final bill. A slew of awards are handed out on Humorology’s third and final night, with honors for the best and funniest shows and standout performers, including best villain. Most of the students on stage are freshmen and soph- omores, drawn by the desire to meet new people on a big campus. When the last bows have been taken, the actors, dancers, and singers emerge with strong friendships and an experience in the spotlight they’ll not soon forget. Jenny Price ’96

What’s your favorite UW tradition? Tell On Wisconsin about it at [email protected], and we’ll find out if it’s just a fond memory — or if it’s still part of campus life today.

46 ON WISCONSIN SPRING 2012 47 BACKGROUND IMAGE: JEFF MILLER, COMMUNICATIONS UNIVERSITY

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48 ON WISCONSIN Badger connections JEFF MILLER

50 Alumni Association Can Spring Be Far Behind? News Abby Bernhagen x’12 and Nick Baniel x’12 chatted near the end of Picnic Point as the first trees began to 52 Class Notes bud last May. Almost a mile long, Picnic Point is one of the most popular hikes on campus, with panoramic views of the lakeshore and half a dozen Native 58 Calendar American burial mounds.

59 Bookshelf

61 Sifting & Winnowing

SPRING 2012 49 alumni association news JEFF MILLER

On New Year’s Eve 2011, Jamie Benn x’13 (left) and Rebecca Nau were jumping for joy at the Badgers’ trip to the Rose Bowl. They made this leap near the Santa Monica [California] Pier during a UW pep rally.

Rolling with the Badgers WAA tours helped alumni and fans follow the UW to Indianapolis and Pasadena.

The Badger football season held in Indianapolis on December out to Pasadena, and more than The Rose Bowl ended in a might not have achieved every 3, 2011, until its victory over Penn 1,300 alumni and friends took 45-38 loss to the Oregon Ducks. element of a happy ending in State on November 26. advantage of the WAA tour. The two post-season tours 2011–12, but fans turned out Though it had just a week to “It’s always terrific to travel meant that WAA Travel led five in the thousands to share the prepare, WAA organized a three- with Badgers,” says WAA pres- football trips in the 2011 season. ride, particularly as the season day bus trip from Madison to ident and CEO Paula Bonner There were bus trips to the approached its culmination in the Indianapolis. Some 285 alumni MS’78. “No matter the outcome Minnesota and Michigan State inaugural Big Ten Championship and friends joined all or part of of the game, our alumni are games, as well as one to Chicago and then in the Rose Bowl. WAA the tour. excited, friendly, and supportive. to see the Badgers play Northern helped those Badger fans cheer After the Badgers rallied for I heard nothing but compliments Illinois at Soldier Field. their team on, organizing tours a late victory over Michigan State about our fans from people in For more on WAA travel, to the two big games, in spite of to win the conference title, they Pasadena and from folks from visit uwalumni.com/athletics or short notice. earned a spot in the Rose Bowl, the University of Oregon.” (For uwalumni.com/travel. The UW wasn’t guaranteed a played on January 2, 2012. WAA more on traveling Badger fans, spot in the Big Ten Championship, chartered four jets to fly UW fans see Inside Story on page 5.) John Allen

50 ON WISCONSIN Alumni Weekend Gets a New Recipe Annual event takes the focus off class reunions and puts it on learning and food.

Badgers who return for Alumni OF UW-MADISON ARCHIVES #S07626 COURTESY Weekend this year will have the chance to meet up with friends they haven’t seen since their student days: guerrilla cookies. In a reboot of its annual all- alumni event on campus, WAA is re-creating the classic confec- tion as it takes the emphasis off of class reunions and instead promotes learning events and campus experiences for all grads and friends of the university. “We want Alumni Weekend to be more inclusive and acces- sible to all alumni, no matter what year they graduated,” says Sarah An ancestor to the food carts? The Quick Lunch Café appears to have served the State Street crowd Schutt, WAA’s director of alumni nearly a century ago. lifelong learning and coordinator of the alumni weekend program. But the signature event Main Course will offer the chance disappeared from the Madison “We’re trying to recognize the is a Saturday night food-and- to sample campus-area favorites scene, including guerrilla cookies various points of connection that beverage tasting called Madison’s — burgers, brats, pizza, and more (popular in the 1970s) and recipes alumni feel for the UW so that Main Course: Quintessential from the restaurants that surround from Rennebohm’s drugstores, they can celebrate and remember Cuisine Past and Present. Inspired the UW. which disappeared in the 1980s. their student experience.” by the suggestions from WAA As part of the event, Alumni To learn more, visit uwalumni. Previously, the weekend’s members for foods that represent Weekend organizers will resur- com/alumniweekend. main event was the reunion for the student experience, Madison’s rect several foods that have J.A. those Badgers who had gradu- ated a half-century earlier. But as the UW’s classes grew larger through the 1950s and beyond, alumni appeared to feel less What’s the Big Idea? connection with members of their Founders’ Day celebrates the Year of the Wisconsin Idea. graduating classes. Attendance at the events showed a steady The Wisconsin Idea may be one of until the beneficent influence of the out awards, and raising funds for decline over the last decade. the UW’s legacies to higher educa- University reaches every family in scholarships. Each event generally To replace the class reunion, tion, but when alumni hear those the state.” The UW now defines includes a speaker from the UW, this year’s series of events will words, their reaction is often a the idea as proclaiming that the talking about research or a vital highlight campus achievements blank stare. To spread the word boundaries of the university are area of interest for the university. and Madison and Wisconsin about what it means, UW-Madison the boundaries of the state and This year’s speakers will touch on culture. declared 2011–12 to be the Year beyond — that the UW’s purpose the Wisconsin Idea in some facet. These include UW Showcase, of the Wisconsin Idea. WAA is is to share knowledge and discov- Campus held Founders’ Day a learning event that Schutt helping raise awareness by making eries with people around the world. on February 6, and WAA gave says will feature faculty whose the idea the theme of this year’s Founders’ Day honors the birthday cake to students and research “shows the breadth Founders’ Day celebrations. anniversary of the UW’s first class, invited the community to hear of exciting work occurring on The idea’s basic principle is held February 5, 1849. Alumni Gwen Drury PhDx’13 deliver a campus,” a Friday night fish fry, credited to former UW President chapters around the country host talk on the history of the Wisconsin and a member breakfast prior to Charles Van Hise 1879, 1880, events to mark the occasion — Idea titled “The Wisconsin Spirit: the athletic department’s annual MS1882, PhD1892, who said for many, it’s their signature event What Makes the UW Special.” Crazylegs run. in 1906, “I shall never be content for honoring the university, giving J.A.

SPRING 2012 51 classnotes

early years Catalina Zobel ’44 is still in which Reiss was selected Have News? Bring It On grateful to a “kindly dean of for embodying four key dimen- Happy one-hundredth birthday women” at the UW who arranged sions of brain health. He’s been We’d be so glad to receive the to Bernice Schaus Larson ’33 a state-resident’s tuition rate a lecturer and educator, and (brief, please) details of your latest of Madison, who says that it’s a (because Zobel’s husband was always a lover of words. Fifty achievements, transitions, major combination of genes and perse- stationed at Truax Field), loans, years ago, Reiss and Futureshock life happenings, and SAT scores verance that gets you to that and jobs that allowed her to author Alvin Toffler co-founded by email to papfelbach@ centenarian milestone: “You just graduate debt free. She taught — and Reiss still edits — Arts waastaff.com; by mail to Class take one birthday after another,” preschool post-war, returned to Management, a periodical Notes, Wisconsin Alumni she explains, “and there you college at fifty-seven to become co-published by the UW’s Bolz Association, 650 North Lake are.” Larson used her journalism a certified occupational therapy Center for Arts Administration. Street, Madison, WI 53706-1476; degree to work for the company assistant, and at seventy-five, Among the Badgers on a or by fax to (608) 265-8771. We that printed the Daily Cardinal. she kicked her volunteering work task force that’s considering a receive many more submissions On a spring evening in 1938, into high gear. Zobel, of Media, possible restructuring plan for the than we can include in the Minette Barlow ’38 and Robert Pennsylvania, was honored University of Wisconsin System magazine, but please don’t be ’41 Goldsmith spent a blind last year with the Occupational are businessperson and former shy about sharing your news date scurrying about campus anyway. And we were kidding on a sorority “treasure hunt.” “You just take one birthday after another, about the SAT scores. The date worked out so well that they were married in 1941. and there you are.” Please email death notices In November, the Goldsmiths and all address, name, tele- — Bernice Schaus Larson ’33 celebrated their seventieth anni- phone, and email updates to versary with ten family members [email protected]; Therapy Association’s national UW regent Fred Mohs, Jr. ’59, on a week’s cruise from their Los mail them to Alumni Changes, Community Volunteerism Award. LLB’64 of Madison; current UW Angeles home to Cabo San Lucas Wisconsin Alumni Association, Jean Durgin Harlan ’45 has regent and small-business owner and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 650 North Lake Street, Madison, finished the tenth revised edition Tim Higgins ’77 of Appleton; WI 53706-1476; fax them to of her pioneering college text- and Renee Huehns Ramirez (608) 262-3332; or call them in 40s–50s book Science Experiences for the ’83 of Waukesha, the immediate to (608) 262-9648 or toll free to Early Childhood Years (Pearson), past president of WAA’s board The Speakers Assembly of (888) 947-2586. which debuted in 1976. She’s also and the executive director of the Southwest Florida, a five- published Science As It Happens! Waukesha County Community Most obituary listings of WAA hundred-member group that’s (Henry Holt) and Kindergarten Dental Clinic. members and friends appear in been hosting an array of distin- Science (Scott Foresman) and guished speakers since 1996, has the Badger Insider, the Wisconsin has served as a science consul- 60s Alumni Association’s triannual honored Jack (John) Blake ’43 tant for Sesame Street. Harlan’s publication for its members. of Naples as its founding presi- career later shifted from teaching Max Amichai Heppner MS’60 dent. His wife, Lynn Angevine at Ohio University to maintaining of Baltimore shared news of a x-planation: An x preceding a Blake ’45, is very active in the a psychology practice. She’s now moving, one-man play that was degree year indicates that the community, and they both “follow retired in Columbus, Ohio. based on his memoir, I Live in individual did not complete, the Badgers with enthusiasm.” “Still [have] happy memories a Chickenhouse. Told from the or has not yet completed, that Roland ’44, MD’48 and of being 1946 junior prom king viewpoint of his former nine- degree at UW-Madison. Martha ’87 Liebenow led the and 1947 president of the student year-old self, both chronicle the proverbial seventy-six trombones union,” writes Jerry Wulk ’46, three years he spent hiding from The Wisconsin Alumni Association as honorary parade marshals ’47, a “long-retired” administrator the Nazis during the Holocaust (WAA) encourages diversity, when their hometown of Lake at the University of Southern by living in a poultry building. inclusivity, nondiscrimination, and Mills, Wisconsin, celebrated the California. He’s very active in the Heppner and his wife traveled participation by all alumni, students, and friends of the UW in its activities. 175th anniversary of its founding arts in his home community of in Europe for two months with a in September. Roland began his Long Beach, California. German-language version of the medical practice in Lake Mills in New Yorker Alvin “Skip” play to hold dialogue sessions 1950, and has documented the Reiss ’52, MA’53 has a with audiences. “We expect town’s history in his retirement. “beautiful mind,” according to that the play will open up more Martha trained as a nurse and America’s Brain Health Index. The hearts and minds,” Heppner later returned to college to further state-by-state ranking is part of writes, “as it did for the actor, her expertise in painting. a national education campaign past audiences, and ourselves.”

52 ON WISCONSIN Len Afremow MS’61 of line, manufactured by Gilson. PhD’70, who’s lauded for a consulting capacity since 1988. Wheeling, Illinois, earned the What you may not know is that embodying the “spirit and deter- The Washington, D.C.-based National Paint and Coatings there are Badgers behind this mination of the Western pioneer.” National Council on Aging has Association’s Industry Statesman Middleton, Wisconsin-based A Wyoming native, Cheney wrote welcomed Brian Hofland ’73 as Award and helped to priva- company: Robert Gilson ’68, about growing up in the West in its new director of strategic collab- tize companies in Romania and MD’73 and his late father, her book Blue Skies, No Fences, oration. He previously served as Bulgaria through the International Warren Gilson ’38, MD’40, and is now penning a biography director of economic justice at the Executive Service Corps. His invented the Pipetman adjust- of President James Madison. She AARP Foundation and as director most recent accomplishment, able-volume pipette in 1972. lives in McLean, Virginia. of international aging programs at however, is Mission of Mercy, PR Newswire said that Congratulations to Liberia’s the Atlantic Philanthropies. a book that relates his “solo, Richard Antoine ’69 is “viewed minister of agriculture, Florence David Marcou ’73 of four-month charitable adven- as one of the most respected Chenoweth MS’70, PhD’86, La Crosse, Wisconsin, recently ture” motoring through Mexico human-resources executives on earning the 2011 Africa Prize published the photo books and Central America to distribute among the Fortune 500” when from the global nonprofit Hunger American Eyes, The Tenacity clothing, books, toys, and school it announced this fall that he’s Project. With the support of of Pleasant Surprises, Shine supplies. Three dollars from each joined the global talent-manage- Liberian President Ellen Johnson and Rise, Fame among the book sale goes to the orphanages ment firm Korn/Ferry International Sirleaf, who attended the now- People, and Found Life with his he visited (leonardafremow.com). as a senior adviser on executive defunct Madison [Wisconsin] son Matthew. His photos also Heading the UW System succession planning. Antoine was Business College, Chenoweth has appeared in a recent-acquisitions board of regents are Michael most recently president of AO implemented the Back to the Soil exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Spector ’62 of Shorewood, its Consulting, serves as president of campaign to empower rural women National American History new president, and Brent Smith the National Academy of Human to increase food production. She Museum this winter. Marcou has ’75, JD’78, its new vice pres- Resources, and is the retired earned a WAA Distinguished a featured photo gallery on the ident. Spector was a longtime global head of human resources Alumni Award in 2005. Wisconsin Historical Society’s attorney with Quarles & Brady in for Procter & Gamble. He lives on We wish a happy retirement website; his journalism commen- Milwaukee, retiring in 2002, and Longboat Key, Florida. — and time to pursue his inter- tary was nominated for a Pulitzer he’s also served as a U.S. asso- No one could ever accuse ests in history — to the Reverend Prize in 2011; and his Irish play, ciate deputy attorney general. Linda Derrickson ’69 of not Canon Ralph Stanwise MA’71. Song of Joy, or the Old Reliables, Smith, a past president of the sampling from life’s vocational He recently stepped down as will be produced in April. Wisconsin Technical College smorgasbord. She’s taught the canon pastor of St. Paul’s Hawaii Governor Neil Board, is an attorney with Johns home economics, volunteered Episcopal Cathedral in Peoria, Abercrombie has appointed & Flaherty in La Crosse. for the Peace Corps, and oper- Illinois, where he also served for Lei (E. Leinaala) Kihoi MS’74 Joanne Vanish Creighton ated a restaurant, grocery, and more than three decades as the of Kailua-Kona to the state’s ’64 has made a move: Mount B&B. These days, though, she’s ecumenical officer for dioceses five-member Native Hawaiian Holyoke College’s president for nurturing the Hillspring Eco-Farm in Wisconsin and Illinois. Roll Commission, charged with the last fourteen years is now the Community near Blanchardville, Guten Tag! from Steinbach, securing federal recognition interim president of Haverford Wisconsin, where she’s an Germany, where Peter Benwitz of Native Hawaiians. A long- [Pennsylvania] College. organic sheep farmer and sells ’72 is “enjoying his new life time attorney and advocate for When Frank Andrews wool products. phase”: his 2010 retirement after the Native Hawaiian commu- MS’68 of Cross Lanes, West a thirty-nine-year career in civil nity, Kihoi is also a counselor Virginia, received the Correctional 70s and general engineering. He’s in ho’oponopono (an ancient Education Association’s Lifetime busy with many activities, but Hawaiian practice of reconcilia- Achievement Award — its highest For the past six years, Michael the most serene among them tion and forgiveness), mediation, honor — it was hardly his first Behrman MS’70 of Fort must surely be time spent in his and facilitation. accolade. He also holds the Lauderdale, Florida, has been “mountain forest garden.” When Mahendra Patel National Child Labor Committee’s doing two-month rotations to Nevada Governor Brian MS’74, PhD’78 and his wife, Lewis-Hine Award for his excep- provide counseling services Sandoval has named Robert Jayshree, made a $1 million tional service to youth. Currently a to U.S. military personnel and Halstead MA’72 as executive gift to the UW to establish the consultant, Andrews was a long- their families who are stationed director of the Agency for Nuclear Jens T. Carstensen Chair in time administrator at the West in Europe. He also maintains a Projects, the office responsible Pharmaceutical Sciences, Patel Virginia Department of Education. private counseling practice. for the proposed — but stalled — noted that earning his doctorate If you use pipettes in the The National Western Stock Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste under UW professor emeritus course of your workday, you may Show’s 2012 Citizen of the West repository. He’s served as trans- Jens Carstensen was a blend know of the Pipetman product is Lynne Vincent Cheney portation adviser to the agency in of engineering and pharmacy.

SPRING 2012 53 classnotes

Patel, of Milltown, New Jersey, is benches: in Manitowoc County, from 1991 until 2003, has stepped from her Speakeasy Science blog the founder and CEO of Navinta, Gary Bendix JD’76 is a new up to the deanship of the North was chosen for inclusion in The which formulates and produces circuit court judge, while Jeffrey Carolina State University College Best American Science Writing generic medicines. Carstensen is Froehlich JD’97 is the new of Veterinary Medicine in Raleigh; 2011 (Ecco). also an accomplished artist. (and only) circuit court judge in and Oklahoma State University When Debra Karl Cherney The board of Operation Calumet County. He’s the son of in Stillwater has welcomed Jean ’83 and her staff at Cherney Migration, based in Perry, Ontario, former Outagamie County Judge Sander DVM’87 as its new dean Microbiological Services test is stronger for the addition of Harold Froehlich ’59, LLB’62, of Veterinary Health Sciences. food (and also non-food) items, David Sakrison ’74. Each year, who retired last year. Gregory And a fourth individual who fits they’re detectives of sorts: they the organization’s squad of ultra- Gill, Jr. ’98 has succeeded him. the theme — Daryl Buss MS’74, perform well over two hundred light pilots “teach” captive-reared Steve Bennett ’76 is PhD’75, dean of UW-Madison’s thousand tests each year to whooping crane chicks how to fly the new chair of the board own School of Veterinary Medicine sleuth out which bacterium might from Wisconsin to Florida as part at Symantec Corporation in — is retiring in June. He’s only the be contaminating their clients’ of international efforts to save the Mountain View, California. second person to fill the post since samples. Cherney founded, birds from extinction. Sakrison, He’s also the former president the school’s inception in 1983. owns, and operates the Green of Ripon, Wisconsin, is a writer, and CEO of the software and When the National Education Bay, Wisconsin-based company editor, and corporate trainer computer-services firm Intuit. Finance Conference convened — the state’s only science- whose book, Chasing the Ghost Well-deserved kudos to to bestow its 2011 Distinguished based, woman-owned business Birds, documents three avian William Gahl MD’76, PhD’81, Research & Practice Fellow to achieve ISO certification from conservation projects. who’s the winner of a Sammie Awards, Deborah Verstegen the American Association of The Senegambia News — a Service to America Medal. MS’81, PhD’83 was among the Laboratory Accreditation. published a fascinating inter- The honor, awarded by the recipients. She’s a professor of “We were fortunate to be view in October with Abdou Sara nonprofit Partnership for Public education finance, policy, and nominated by the Television Janha MA’75. He served the Service, pays tribute to the leadership at the University of Academy in eight Emmy cate- Gambian government from 1962 most committed, innovative, Nevada-Reno and the co-author gories, and honored to have until 1994, when a coup prema- and impactful among America’s of Financing Education in a won in four of those, including turely ended his career — at that federal work force. Gahl, the Climate of Change (Pearson). Outstanding Nonfiction Special,” point, as secretary general and clinical director of the National Madison parents, teachers, is how Mark Herzog ’84 head of the country’s Civil Service. Human Genome Research and schoolchildren say, “Thanks summed up the Emmy success Here’s a promise: any Badger Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, a million” to Martha Vukelich- that he and his North Hollywood who’s a fire-eating monk will was the subject of the Fall 2011 Austin ’81, who’s stepped firm, Herzog & Company, automatically make it into Class On Wisconsin story “Genotopia.” down from her five-year post achieved with the documen- Notes, and Brother Paul-Vincent After more than three as president of the Foundation tary Gettysburg, which aired on Niebauer ’75 is one such indi- decades heading the Wisconsin for Madison’s Public Schools, a the History Channel this past vidual. He’s the vocation director Realtors Association, Bill group that helps to raise private summer. Mark Samels ’78 for St. John’s Abbey, a monastery Malkasian ’76 has taken a funds for education. She also of Medfield, Massachusetts, in Collegeville, Minnesota, but he post with the Chicago-based serves on WAA’s board of direc- also took home an Emmy for also has a circus past. For fifteen National Association of Realtors. tors and co-chaired the October Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction years post college, Niebauer lived He’ll remain in Madison, however, Red Tie Gala as part of its sesqui- Filmmaking for the PBS program an exhausting, but wonderful life serving as a VP for political centennial celebration. Freedom Riders. of eating fire, handling snakes strategic planning. Deborah Blum MA’82’s Maxcess has a new and tigers, clowning, juggling, and work has been selected for two chief operating officer: Doug headlining as a circus ringmaster. 80s annual book compilations of last Knudtson, Jr. ’84 has stepped FUQI International, a designer year’s best science writing. The up from his post as VP of global and producer of precious-metal The work of three ’80s grads UW professor of journalism’s operations. Maxcess, headquar- jewelry in Shenzhen, China, clusters around the theme of piece “The Chemist’s War” was an tered in Oklahoma City, is the has placed Kim Kai-Tien Pan veterinary leadership: Patrick offshoot of research for her book parent firm of three companies in MS’75 at the helm as its new Green ’80, PhD’88 is the new The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder the web-handling industry, which president and CEO. He was associate dean for research and and the Birth of Forensic Medicine deals with industrial manufac- most recently the president and graduate studies at Ohio State’s in Jazz Age New York (Penguin) turing processes. a board member of Continental College of Veterinary Medicine in and appears in The Best American Mark Schmitz x’85 leads Carbon Company. Columbus; D. (David) Paul Lunn Science and Nature Writing a group of really cool folks at a Three Badgers have taken MS’87, who was a professor and (Mariner Books). As well, an entry really cool environment-design their seats on Wisconsin judicial associate dean at UW-Madison titled “The Trouble with Scientists” firm in Madison called Zebradog.

54 ON WISCONSIN They’ve left their innovative mark Sarah Wu ’99: Exposing School Lunches on the UW’s new Union South, many elements of Wisconsin LLOYD DEGRANE A hotdog encased in soggy bagel athletics, the Wisconsin Institutes dough with a side of Tater Tots and for Discovery, Lambeau Field, a skimpy fruit cup might not seem and many more striking facili- like much to write home about, ties across the nation. Among the but when Sarah Burns Wu ’99 Badger Zebradogs (what must did just that, she embarked on an that animal look like?!) are Kris influential blogging and publishing Leahy Marconnet ’88; Melanie career. Kranz ’95; Amanda Berg ’99, Wu is a speech pathologist for MAcc’00; Loren Zemlicka the Chicago Public Schools. One x’00; Caroline Carncross day in 2009, she forgot her lunch Altfeather ’01, MS’04; and and ventured into a wasteland of Eric Dorgan ’02. school-cafeteria cuisine. “It was the Guess who has “strategic bagel dog that pushed me over the oversight of the communications edge,” Wu remembers. “To think and media-relations strategy for that’s what the kids were eating the entire NBC Sports Group’s that day!” portfolio of broadcast, cable, Wu made a New Year’s regional and digital assets”? That resolution to do something about man is Greg Hughes ’86, the what she’d seen. “I had my little Sarah Wu ate the cafeteria lunches at the school where she works for a year and blogged anonymously about them at entity’s new senior VP of commu- blog that my mom and sister read. fedupwithlunch.com. She was approached by publishers to turn nications. He also spent nineteen I decided to blog about school her blog into a book and is in demand as a speaker. “I didn’t years at Turner Broadcasting. lunches. I bought the lunch every realize what a huge topic this is when I started,” she says. The next time you’re toasting day, took a picture, and every night with a product of the Middleton, I would upload it,” she says. “I told my husband it would take only five minutes a day, but blogging takes Wisconsin-based Capital over your whole life. I set it up so my blog posts go on Twitter, and that launched it. Brewery, make an additional toast “I didn’t realize what a huge topic this is when I started,” Wu continues. “What we eat touches so many to the company’s new general aspects of our lives. This is an environmental issue, too. My school serves one thousand breakfasts and manager, Thomas Stitgen ’86, lunches a day. The numbers are staggering.” MAcc’91. He was most recently Fedupwithlunch.com started receiving significant traffic immediately. After a month, Wu had already a principal at the Bremser Group. received one thousand hits. Now she receives that many each day and has seven thousand subscribers. The first recipient of the About halfway through her year of school lunches, Wu was approached by two literary agents from different $10,000 Schneider Award for firms who told her they could see a successful book growing out of her blog. Outstanding Climate Science Working with one of them, she wrote Fed Up with Lunch: How One Anonymous Teacher Revealed the Communication is Richard Truth about School Lunches — And How We Can Change Them! (Chronicle Books). The work includes a Alley PhD’87: a Penn State resource guide for parents, teachers, kids, and even chefs and nutritionists who would like to help change professor of geosciences, host the food environment at schools so that health and wellness are a focus. of the PBS documentary Earth: Wu posted her blog under the pseudonym Mrs. Q because she was worried that she might be fired The Operators’ Manual, and the for criticizing her school’s lunch program so publicly. But when her book was published, she revealed her author of its accompanying book. identity on Good Morning America. Instead of firing her, the Chicago Public Schools’ nutrition-program staff The prize is given by Climate invited her to discuss the lunch program with them. One, the sustainability initia- “The book is selling well,” says Wu. “It appeals to a lot of parents who are concerned about what their tive of the nonprofit public forum kids are eating, and to people who think about the politics of food.” Commonwealth Club of California. Wu is still working for the school system and continues to blog. “Now I share what I’m feeding my son Kenneth Munson JD’87 is for lunch,” she says. “I’m getting tired of sharing lunch photos. I would really prefer not to, but my readers helping states to implement the get upset. They say, ‘Come on, we’re still interested.’ Affordable Care Act in his new job “I hope what I’m doing will have an impact,” Wu concludes. “There have been some really nice as the Region V director for the things happening in Chicago. The tide seems to be turning. It’s inspirational for me, and I hope I had U.S. Department of Health and a hand in that.” Human Services. He derives his Denise Thornton ’82, MA’08 expertise from posts as president and CEO of the Children’s Service

SPRING 2012 55 classnotes

Society of Wisconsin, and as deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Michael Wenninger DVM’04: Exotic Animal Vet Department of Health Services.

The National Committee on A typical day for veterinarian Michael ANDY MANIS United States-China Relations Wenninger DVM’04 brings to mind some- has appointed (Deirdre) Sabina thing that you’d see on Animal Planet. Knight ’88, MA’94, PhD’98 as Yes, he cares for traditional pets such a fellow in its Public Intellectuals as dogs and cats, but Wenninger’s patients Program. An associate professor at Spartan Animal Hospital in McFarland, of comparative literature and Wisconsin, also include rare birds, venomous Chinese at Smith College in snakes, lizards, and even alligators. In early Northampton, Massachusetts, her November, CNN covered his treatment of latest book is Chinese Literature: two American gators that had been flown to A Very Short Introduction (Oxford Wisconsin after they were injured during a University Press). break-in at a Pennsylvania home. Good show, J.S. (Jeffrey) Until Wenninger arrived in summer 2011, Murer ’88! He’s among the first Spartan had not treated exotic animals. Yet sixty-eight people to be admitted in one ten-day period after Thanksgiving, to the new Young Academy of he treated a hedgehog, several geckos and the Royal Society of Edinburgh pythons, a ferret, a tarantula, and a pair of — the national academy of arts birds — as well as the alligators earlier in the and science for Scotland. He was month. also the principal investigator In his career, he’s treated bears, big cats, of the European Study of Youth kangaroos, a pair of Komodo dragons, a Mobilisation, an examination of bison, and — what he considers his strangest young people’s involvement in animal — a sloth with a gastric condition. He’s Veterinarian Michael Wenninger made national radical politics in Europe. Murer also amputated the leg of a tarantula. news when he treated two injured alligators that were flown in from Pennsylvania. He specializes in notes that his relationships with “My interest in these kinds of animals exotic pets and has treated creatures ranging from a central Europe can be traced started when I was a little kid, and I always dyspeptic sloth to a tarantula needing a leg amputa- to his 1987 UW study-abroad had snakes and [other] reptiles at home,” tion. Wenninger himself owns 12 pythons. program in Budapest. says Wenninger, who grew up in Kewaskum, The president of the Retail Wisconsin. “My parents made the mistake of saying that if I caught a snake, I could keep it. So I did.” Energy Supply Association is From the age of four, Wenninger knew he wanted to be a vet. After one year at UWC-Washington none other than David Fein County and another on the Madison campus, he had earned enough credits to qualify for the university’s ’89, VP of energy policy and four-year veterinary medicine school. director of retail energy policy at “[Madison] was very exciting, with a ton of things to do,” he recalls. “Everyone was very friendly and Constellation Energy in Chicago. outgoing. What I miss most about college is the time with friends. I enjoyed the learning, but once you get Skincare company Beiersdorf, out of [vet] med school, you realize the learning is just beginning.” headquartered in Hamburg, During school, Wenninger gained experience at zoos in Toronto and Denver. He also spent time in the Germany, has promoted William Florida Keys at a practice that specializes in reptile medicine. Graham III ’89 to president and After graduation, he worked for two different practices in Pennsylvania. However, once he and his wife general manager of its U.S. affil- had a baby boy, “We knew we wanted him to grow up in Wisconsin,” he says. iate. The Chappaqua, New York, These days, Wenninger’s collection of home “pets” includes three dogs, a cat, a blue-and-gold macaw, resident has also held senior posts and twelve pythons, the longest of which is nineteen feet. He explains that his professional and personal at Novartis Consumer Healthcare, experience with exotic pets has given him a different perspective on people who own such animals. Bristol Myers-Squibb, and Unilever. “Everyone thinks that exotic-pet owners are these weird, drug-addict people,” he says. “Most of the Congratulations are in order owners I know are professional, well-educated people who take care of their pets. Yes, some of the owners for Deb Piper ’89 of Stoughton, shouldn’t [have] these pets, but I know exotic-pet owners who treat their pets better than a lot of people Wisconsin Public Television’s treat their kids. And there are people with dogs and cats who do a terrible job of [caring for] them. (WPT) senior manager for remote “I knew a guy who had a mountain lion as a house pet. The cat was raised from the time he was a production. She’s received a kitten. That owner would do anything for that cat, regardless of costs or medical procedures.” 2011 Award for Excellence from Richard Rothschild the University of Wisconsin Colleges and UW-Extension for

56 ON WISCONSIN her work to develop WPT’s new, in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, Preston Austin ’97 and co-created — but even better? high-definition television-produc- is one of four educators repre- Matthew Younkle ’97 have He married Emma Nesper tion truck, as well as methods for senting the state in the National a big vision for Murfie, their ’04 in September, with dozens its remote operation. Teacher of the Year contest. And Madison-based, online, digital- of Badgers attending. Nesper Mark Saxenmeyer ’89 Zachary Weiss ’98 has been music marketplace: to make it the parlayed her study-abroad expe- has accepted a reporting posi- recognized for the tremendous world’s largest and most ecolog- rience in Senegal into a position tion in Minneapolis/St. Paul with impact he’s had on his middle- ical store for new and used CDs as communications manager for KSTP-TV — the station that school algebra students as the — and thanks to Murfie’s novel the nonprofit VSI, which focuses inspired him to pursue a career Los Angeles Unified School business model, they just may do on women’s health in Africa. The in television news. He was previ- District’s Teacher of the Year. it. Austin’s background is in inno- couple lives in Los Angeles. ously a special-projects reporter, Christopher Zahm ’93, vative online technologies, while Chicagoan Alan Paberzs producer, and editor at Chicago’s a research associate at the Younkle is the inventor of the ’04, MPA’05 wasn’t kidding WFLD-TV, and he’s launched University of Texas-Austin, TurboTap beer-tap retrofit. when he said he had an update: The Reporters, a not-for-profit recently advised a team of grad he’s been promoted to director documentary and programming- students who won $20,000 for 2000s of development for the Bluhm production company. Saxenmeyer their chapter of the American Legal Clinic at Northwestern is a national Emmy and Edward Association of Petroleum Finding a cure for the deadly Ebola University’s School of Law and R. Murrow Award winner, and was Geologists in the Imperial Barrel virus may have been aided signifi- honored as the law school’s John named Best Reporter for 2010 Award geoscience competi- cantly due to a breakthrough made F. Chetlain Employee of the Year. by the Illinois Associated Press tion. It’s “a pretty big deal in the by Kartik Chandran PhD’01, an He’s also taken on the presidency Broadcasters Association. geology community,” says chef assistant professor at the Albert of WAA’s Chicago alumni chapter. (and little brother) Luke Zahm Einstein College of Medicine in The Ugyen Wangchuck 90s ’03 of La Farge, Wisconsin. He New York. The August 24 issue Institute for Conservation and Environment has released a DVD Lisa Nelson ’90, MA’92, “I came home for a reason.” of calls made by 396 types of JD’96, PhD’99 has taken her birds across Bhutan in honor of a place among the twenty experts — Maurice Thomas ’08 royal wedding there. Ornithologist from industry and academia Sherub MS’04, the chief of who make up the Department adds that Chris “bleeds UW red of Nature covered the progress research and operations at the of Homeland Security’s Data in a sea of burnt orange!” that he and other researchers institute, recorded the songs over Privacy and Integrity Advisory Wisconsin Governor Scott have made to crack the virus’s eleven years and digitalized the Committee. The associate Walker’s former deputy chief code: they’ve discovered a human collection, called Bird Songs of professor in the University of of staff, Eric Schutt ’94, has protein that’s required for Ebola to Bhutan: For Birds Have Sung, Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of stepped up to become his chief infect cells, which provides a new Why Not Listen. (See News & Public and International Affairs of staff. He succeeds Keith treatment strategy. Notes for more on birdcalls.) was also a co-principal inves- Gilkes ’99, who’s returned to With fewer than ten The National Institutes of tigator on a National Science his private-sector business, the profoundly deaf Catholic priests Health has bestowed its Director’s Foundation grant that studied Champion Group. Kimberly living in America, we’re proud New Innovator Award on Erin society’s perceptions of biometric Liedl ’00, MA’02 has been that one is a Badger: he’s Father Carlson PhD’05, an assis- technology. named the administration’s policy Christopher Klusman ’02. tant professor of chemistry at Preston Rudie ’91 is director, having previously served As part of his work as the asso- Indiana University in Bloomington. building an impressive resume. as Walker’s health care and ciate pastor of St. Roman Parish The award is intended to spur The television reporter at WTSP education-policy adviser. in Milwaukee, he’s developing a giant leaps in novel biomedical in Tampa/St. Petersburg has won After New York Governor new ministry to serve the hard-of- research, and Carlson will use four Edward R. Murrow awards Mario Cuomo named David hearing, and grateful worshipers the prize of $1.5 million over five and seventeen Emmys in TV Wakelyn MPA’95, PhD’06 are responding enthusiastically years to support her research news, and was named a finalist of Brooklyn as his new deputy to the masses he celebrates in to improve treatments for drug- for the national TV Reporter of the education secretary, one observer American Sign Language. “I want resistant infections. Year award by the National Press noted that “the future of New York to be a bridge,” Klusman notes, Kelly Ryan ’05 and Kathy Photographer’s Association. students already looks brighter.” “to bring deaf people and hearing Oker ’00 worked with the Two ’90s grads have taken Wakelyn is a former teacher, people together.” Progressive Education Network to top-teacher honors: Bradley education analyst, and most Anders Holm ’03 writes for plan a national education confer- Markhardt ’92, a high school recently, program director for the and acts in the Comedy Central ence that featured UW-Madison agriculture-education teacher National Governors Association. series Workaholics, which he education professor Gloria

SPRING 2012 57 classnotes

Ladson-Billings this fall as a obituaries keynote speaker. Ryan is a first- Calendar grade teacher in Winnetka, Illinois, Arthur Nielsen, Jr. ’41, and Oker teaches young teens at who served as both president Madison’s Wingra School. and chair of the A.C. Nielsen Founders’ Days President Obama has Company, died in October in Have you always wondered what the term The Wisconsin named Samuel Zelinka ’05, Winnetka, Illinois. The well-known Idea refers to? Come to a Founders Day event in your area MS’06, PhD’09 a recipient of a TV-ratings firm was the creation this spring to find out. You can also celebrate the beginning Presidential Early Career Award of his father, the late Arthur of the university, hear a great presentation by one of the UW’s for Scientists and Engineers. Nielsen, Sr. ’18, who founded it acclaimed faculty members, and revel in being a Badger. Zelinka is a research materials in 1923. Nielsen, Jr. was known • uwalumni.com/foundersday engineer at the U.S. Forest for institutionalizing his entre- Service’s Forest Products Lab in preneurial father’s innovations, Madison. guiding the company’s trans- March Don’t miss these three formation into an international Through April 1 Compendium 2012: alumnae thespians: American market-research firm, and moving Art Department Faculty Exhibition Players Theatre veteran Carrie it into new arenas and pioneering About every four years, the Chazen Musuem of Art — a newly Coon MFA’06 has wowed technologies as he went. expanded jewel on the UW campus — hosts an exhibit of current audiences in Who’s Afraid of H. (Hugh) Edwin Young work by the university’s art department faculty, staff, affiliates, Virginia Woolf? at Chicago’s PhD’50, UW-Madison’s chan- and emeriti faculty. This show, comprising the work of thirty-four individuals, represents the breadth, vitality, talent, and diversity Steppenwolf Theatre, and she’s cellor during the tumultuous of contemporary art today. • chazen.wisc.edu now taken her portrayal of the Vietnam War era, died in January character Honey to Broadway. in Madison. He was also an New Yorker Liz Holtan ’07 economics professor, depart- April has appeared alongside come- ment chair, and L&S dean before 18–22 Wisconsin Film Festival dian Louis C.K. in the FX cable becoming president of his under- Bask in some two hundred films in eight Madison-area theaters channel’s Louie, and she’s been grad alma mater, the University of during five days — a wide range of cinema that showcases the landing parts in commercials, Maine. In 1968, Young returned work of Wisconsin, American, and international independent movies, theater, and TV. And to the UW and was named the filmmakers. • wifilmfest.org fourth chancellor in eighteen in October, New York actress, 19–21 UW Varsity Band Spring Concerts months. Beyond the anti-war puppeteer, and comedienne Professor Michael Leckrone created something in 1975 that’s Emily Tucker ’07 took the protests, he faced the challenges grown to be gargantuan: a three-night extravaganza at the Kohl stage “invisibly” at Madison’s of the Sterling Hall bombing in Center complete with professional staging, lighting, sound, pyro- Overture Center as a cast 1970 and the creation of the UW technics, and nationally known guest artists that’s performed for member in the glow-in-the-dark System, of which he was later twenty-five thousand Badger-band lovers each year. No other puppet musical ImaginOcean. president, in 1971. college band puts on such a production, and you can be there to Statistics were stacked World-renowned geneticist experience it. • badgerband.com against Maurice Thomas ’08 James Crow passed away in 26–28 Daily Cardinal 120th Anniversary when he was born to a single, January in Madison. The brilliant The Daily Cardinal Alumni Association is hosting an exhibition seventeen-year-old mother in a and beloved professor emer- of the student newspaper’s photography, panel discussions troubled, low-income Milwaukee itus of genetics spent most of his featuring prize-winning Cardinalistas, an open house at the home. But Thomas, his mother, seventy-year career at the UW as Cardinal office, and a gala reception at Madison’s Orpheum and his teachers were dedicated a researcher, prolific writer, mentor, Theater. • dailycardinal.net administrator, man of service, and to his success, and today, after 27–28 Alumni Weekend even accomplished violist. Crow’s working with Teach for America Return to where memories were — and are — made. Alumni in Atlanta, he’s the new executive pioneering research in population Weekend is the time to reunite with the things you love most director of its Milwaukee opera- genetics earned him international about the UW, from the educational to the entertaining. This tion. “I came home for a reason,” accolades, and the 1970 text he year, look forward to its signature event, “Madison’s Main Course: he says: to help kids with back- co-authored, An Introduction to Quintessential Cuisine Past and Present.” • uwalumni.com/ grounds like his. Population Genetics Theory, is alumniweekend and this issue’s Alumni Association News section still a classic. The James F. Crow Compiler Paula Wagner Apfelbach Institute for the Study of Evolution For more details on these events, call (888) WIS-ALUM ’83 reminds you to be your own was formed in 2009 to unite evolu- or visit uwalumni.com. dog. tion researchers across campus.

58 ON WISCONSIN bookshelf

jump shooting at the UW’s Red Gym in 1963 Press). Niedecker grew up on Blackhawk through “synthesizing aesthetic and bio- Island near Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, but her mechanical functions into a unified whole.” “literary lifeline” to distant ideas and people was her complicated, long-time friendship ■■ Grinnell [Iowa] College assistant professor with the modernist poet Louis Zukofsky. of English Dean (Constantine) Bakopoulos MFA’04 has published his second novel, ■■ The wit of New Yorker My American Unhappiness (Houghton Sally Platkin Koslow Mifflin Harcourt), in which the narrator ’70 shone through in her researches the many ways in which Americans message that Target has ■■ People of the Big Voice: are unhappy. Bakopoulos is a former director selected the paperback Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families of the Wisconsin Humanities Council and the version of her latest by Charles Van Schaick, 1879–1942 Wisconsin Book Festival. novel, With Friends (Wisconsin Historical Society Press) allows Like These (Ballantine readers to learn more about tribal history by ■■ Losing It (Yale Books), to be featured in looking through the camera lens of Black River University Press) is the “emerging writers” Falls, Wisconsin, photographer Charles Van William Ian Miller section: “Nice to emerge Schaick. Among the work’s authors are Tom ’69’s “nice combination after all these years,” she says wryly. Koslow Jones II ’88, a UW assistant professor of of acerbic wit and held top posts at women’s magazines — most photography and an enrolled member of the erudition,” according to recently as the editor-in-chief of McCall’s Ho-Chunk Nation whose work appears in the Kirkus Reviews. In it, he and Lifetime — for more than thirty years National Museum of the American Indian; and consults the wisdom of and teaches at the Writing Institute of Sarah Matthew Daniel Mason MA’03, an archivist the ages — and sages Lawrence College. at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript — to consider what it Library at Yale University in New Haven, means to grow old gracefully and how we’ll ■■ Funny, poignant, Connecticut. People of the Big Voice recently know if we’ve lingered too long. While we’re witty, heart-warming earned a USA “Best Books 2011” Award from on the road to the inevitable, Miller offers — all describe the USABookNews.com. plenty of darkly intelligent humor to entertain well-told stories and enlighten. The author, a professor of law surrounding the ■■ To research his sixth at Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, has also phenomenon of raising historical novel, 1776: written The Anatomy of Disgust. backyard chickens Washington’s First that make up Cluck: Victory (Rosedog ■■ One reviewer of From Jungle Fowl Books), E.H. (Ed) European Local- to City Chicks (Itchy Haines ’57 of Fort Color Literature: Cat Press). Susan Troller (Cosgrove) ’74 Myers, Florida, visited National Tales, of New Glarus, Wisconsin, is the main author, all of the pertinent Dorfgeschichten, while S.V. (Sue) Medaris MA’10, MFA’11 sites. His work tells the Romans Champêtres  of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, created the truly- story of how George (Continuum) concludes suitable-for-framing artwork. Washington and Henry Knox managed to that it “provocatively move artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston suggests that the ■■ Soul Searching: Black-Themed and force the British fleet to withdraw from the challenges of nineteenth- Cinema from the March on Washington harbor and the city. century Europe are today’s challenges” to the Rise of Blaxploitation (Wesleyan — something interesting to ponder, given University Press) examines the ’60s: a period ■■ The “meticulous the angst of modern times in Europe and that was vitally important for both African- dissection” of the elsewhere. The book is the work of Josephine American civil-rights activism and the U.S. film steps that will allow Donovan MA’67, PhD’71, a University of industry. It’s the work of Christopher Sieving basketball players to Maine professor emerita of English who lives in MA’96, PhD’04, an assistant professor in the shoot more accurately Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the and consistently in their University of Georgia in Athens. jump shots are outlined ■■ Biographer Margot McCullough Peters in Ralph Karst MS’59, ’61, MA’65, PhD’69 of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, ■■ Seeking to turn his job losses into PhD’79’s Developing has penned the first full chronicle of a poet inspiration and to provide a springboard for the Perfect Jump whose life and work were largely unknown reprioritization, former Badger basketball Shot (Coaches Choice). Karst began to until after her death in Lorine Niedecker: player Andrew Kilbride ’98 made sure that formulate his theory of an aiming zone for A Poet’s Life (University of Wisconsin his latest termination, in 2009, was his last:

SPRING 2012 59 he rediscovered his passion; founded an Ann who’s also written Still Life with Husband, senior-class president now teaches journalism Arbor, Michigan-based consulting firm called and whose work has appeared in the New and media law as an assistant professor at Foster Bridge Partners; and wrote A Man’s York Times, Marie Claire, Seventeen, Glamour, California State University-Fullerton. Guide to Getting Fired (CreateSpace). and Salon. ■■ Pornography: an agent of female ■■ Dire sums up ■■ How many times oppression, or an essential element of what’s coming for do you wonder about sexual liberation? Carolyn Bronstein the global economy, some aspect of science PhD’01 explores this division of opinion predict brothers (John) and think, “I really ought within the women’s movement in Battling David MS’78, PhD’89 to know that … but I Pornography: The American Feminist and Robert MS’88 don’t”? Well, help has Anti-Pornography Movement, 1976– Wiedemer, but they’re arrived in the form of 1986 (Cambridge University Press). She’s planning ahead rather Ask Your Science an associate professor of communication at than sitting idly by. You Teacher: Answers to Chicago’s DePaul University. can read their advice in Everyday Questions  ■■ As Badger State Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit (CreateSpace), by Larry Scheckel MS’92, residents left farms in the Next Global Financial Meltdown, who says that his 409-page book is “an and moved to towns Second Edition (John Wiley & Sons). David insightful look at the world we live in.” Trust and cities, their is chief economist for Absolute Investment him: he’s a highly decorated educator, writer, interests shifted from Management in Bethesda, Maryland, while and presenter who taught science for thirty- agriculture as a way Robert is its managing director. nine years at Tomah (Wisconsin) High School. of life to gardening ■■ (Laura) Stacy Alaimo MA’86’s book, ■■ Martin Woodside ’95 of Philadelphia as leisure and as Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, writes that as a former English major, he’s a source of civic and the Material Self (Indiana University “putting that humanities degree to good work”: pride. Vintage Wisconsin Gardens: A Press), has earned the Book Award for Calypso Editions has recently published his History of Home Gardening (Wisconsin Ecocriticism in 2011 from the Association anthology of Romanian poetry in translation, Historical Society Press) by (Elisabeth) Lee for the Study of Literature and Environment. Of Gentle Wolves. He spent 2009–10 on Somerville MA’08 introduces readers to Alaimo is a professor of English at the a Fulbright scholarship in Romania and is the gardeners and gardens of the nineteenth University of Texas-Arlington. currently pursuing a PhD in childhood studies and early twentieth centuries, and serves as a at Rutgers-Camden (New Jersey). primer for those who want to recreate them. ■■ Having “been there, The Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, author is a experienced that,” the ■■ UW-Stevens Point landscape historian and master gardener. balancing act between professor emeritus of career and parenthood wildlife Neil Payne ’61 ■■ School Food Politics: The Complex became the center of has documented the Ecology of Hunger and Feeding in Wendy Shavell Levitt successes, frustrations, Schools around the World (Peter Lang ’90’s new work, At the dangers, and humor of Publishing) comprises the work of five UW Corner of Wall and early wildlife researchers grads and is co-edited by Sarah Robert Sesame (CreateSpace). and managers in his fifth PhD’08, an assistant professor at the “It is my hope,” writes the book about wild things, University of Buffalo (New York). From obesity author, “that [the book] will Wildlife Delights worries and junk-food debates to food crises prompt discussions that will lead to a paradigm and Dilemmas: Newfoundland and and global hunger, Robert looks at the issues shift in the way major corporations look at work/ Labrador (DRC Publishing). He was the related to where food originates, what kids eat, life balance. Our future generations need strong province’s first furbearer biologist. Payne and why these practices are the way they are. parenting, and our corporations need strong has residences in Plover, Wisconsin, and ■■ “Your publication is the main way that leaders; the current structure compromises Davenport, Florida. our toddler knows Bucky [Badger] by sight,” both.” Levitt, of Woodbury, New York, also ■■ Experiences with confidential sources from writes William Murphy MS’88, PhD’95 notes that “it’s no coincidence that the baby in his reporting days at Madison’s Capital Times from “the hinterlands of Saskatoon,” where [the book] is named Madison.” and Isthmus newspapers created a basis he’s an associate professor of marketing at ■■ Friends Like Us: A Novel (Alfred A. for Jason Shepard ’99, MA’06, PhD’09’s the University of Saskatchewan. He’s also the Knopf) is smart, funny, and honest — a look new book, Privileging the Press: author of Doing Good Work Matters! at the way that best friends love each other Confidential Sources, Journalism A 21st Century Guide for Getting More and sometimes break each other’s hearts. Ethics, and the First Amendment  out of Your Job and More out of Your The author is Milwaukeean Lauren Fox ’91, (LFB Scholarly Publishers). The former UW Life (Tate Publishing).

60 ON WISCONSIN sifting &winnowing

Bubbler: A Secret Code

By Barbara Belzer Adams ’79 BARRY ROAL CARLSEN

I was applying for a passport at my suburban Houston post office when the postal agent reviewing my paperwork leaned over the counter, squinted conspiratorially, and asked, just above a whisper, “Do you know what a bubbler is?” I realize that national security has tightened, but this seemed like an odd question nonethe- less. Perhaps the State Department had instituted some obscure appraisal of intellect. If so, ask me something more challenging, such as what spheno- palatine ganglioneuralgia means. Then he smiled. “I see you were born in Wisconsin. I’m from Waupun myself,” he explained. Better than a secret handshake, more reliable than SSL encryption, for those of us no longer living in the state, knowledge of the word bubbler seems to be a secret code for, “Yes, I’m from Wisconsin.” I didn’t even know there was another word for bubbler — A drinking fountain? Really? — until I went to the UW and I prodded: have you lived in Wisconsin all of your life? Are your met a bunch of Minnesotans who could never seem to tell me where parents from Wisconsin? H’mm. Is it possible that the term only the bubbler was, because they didn’t know what the bubbler was. I exists in eastern Wisconsin, and I have a lot of apologizing to do to mean, what is your problem? You live right next door to Wisconsin; those circa late-1970s Minnesotans? What’s next: Milwaukee being hasn’t the word ever leaked across the border? pronounced as if it has three syllables? A quick read of the source for all that is true and trustworthy Worse than being a factor of geography, it seems that Bubbler today — Wikipedia — tells me that a bubbler is actually a Bubbler, awareness is related to age. A website I found by clicking around one a trademarked name for a product invented in 1888 by what is now night said that it’s an “old school” term used by aging Badgers. (I can’t Kohler Company. Apparently, the original Bubbler shot water one inch recall the source, but I certainly remember the slur.) straight into the air, creating the bubbling phenomenon that gave the I’ve lived in Texas for twenty-five years, and I suppose that’s long product its name. After several years, it was redesigned to cause the enough to have stopped calling the drinking fountain a Bubbler. But if water to arc, which made drinking from it easier. There’s an original Badgers by nature are cantankerous — I mean fierce — time isn’t likely Kohler Bubbler in front of the Wisconsin state capitol — well, at least to make us more mellow, is it? So now, I absolutely refuse to refer to there is according to Wikipedia, which shows two photos, one of the the Bubbler as anything else (which may result in my being thirsty in Bubbler alone and a second showing it in use. unfamiliar public places, but that’s a small sacrifice for principle). I I remember as a child lining up for the Bubbler each day after trained my native Texan children early in their lives to call it a Bubbler recess. The promise of a cool, refreshing drink was often dashed, as well, at least when they’re with me. If they can say y’all instead of however, by the reality of a tepid sip, with the teacher warning us not you guys, put things up instead of away, and have a test over rather to put our mouths on the nozzle, the apparent ground zero for pesti- than about a subject, they can accede to this. lence in Appleton. Like the Rio Grande to Texans or the Mississippi to those who Like other displaced Badgers, I usually ask people who say live along its banks, the Bubbler is not just a drinking fountain — it’s a they’re from Wisconsin if they know what a Bubbler is. Until recently, watery symbol of my Wisconsin heritage. It says who I am and, I now the positive response rate was 100 percent. Then I met two women know, my approximate age. from Eau Claire at a conference. They appeared to be in their thirties, If only I could find the Bubbler of Youth. and they seemed normal in every way, except, much to my surprise, they didn’t know what a Bubbler was. Barbara Belzer Adams resides in Houston, Texas.

SPRING 2012 61 A Rune with a View are currently known have been removed verge of declaring it authentic if he could Continued from page 45 from their original location or damaged have found the dots. But it turns out he in some way, so conducting an archaeo- didn’t find the dots.” More convincing to modern archaeol- logical dig is difficult. Instead, Frankki ogists are the ruins of a Viking settlement says, those who study the stones must rely The Kensington Runestone’s at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. on linguistic and historical analysis. Discovered by Norwegian explorer Helge authenticity may still be a topic of debate, “The first really important rune Ingstad and his wife, archaeologist Anne but the stone in Kansas City isn’t. It was studies came out in the 1860s,” Frankki Stine Ingstad, in 1960, the artifacts and the mysterious symbols, the line and says, including in particular the four- diamonds, that put a date on the carvings remains they found were consistent with volume Old-Northern Runic Monuments there. The non-runic marks provided Norse settlements in Iceland and Green- of Scandinavia and England by George clear, definitive proof that the stone was land circa A.D. 1000. To date, this is the Stephens, published beginning in 1866. carved not in the middle ages but in the only confirmed physical evidence of the Any stone discovered since then, Frankki nineteenth century. medieval Scandinavians west of Greenland. admits, faces “a possibility that someone When, last November, Frankki and The North American runestones — could have copied it” from Stephens’s or others traveled to the Kansas City area to at Kensington in Minnesota, Heavener in later texts. see the runestone, they went with open Oklahoma, Spirit Pond in Maine, as well None of the North American stones minds. The team measured and photo- as others — may provide further physical can claim a provenance that runs longer graphed the artifact and sketched the site. evidence, or they may be frauds and than the late nineteenth century. “There’s Frankki took pictures and made a sketch hoaxes, created to capitalize on enthu- oral tradition on the Heavener stone that of the stone itself, copying out the thirty- siasm for a mysterious, medieval past. goes back to the 1830s,” Frankki says, seven runes and symbols to examine in “but oral tradition is not enough to estab- greater detail. The Upper Midwest is chock lish authenticity.” And eventually the nature of the full of the descendants of rune-users. But even without the required prov- symbols became clear — they were Some 13.5 percent of the people in enance, linguists can examine the runes numbers: 1888, the year in which, Wisconsin — more than 700,000 — claim used to see if they belong to a known Frankki believes, the stone was carved. Scandinavian descent. Another 1.5 million alphabet and if they use language appro- The inscription appears to be the names Scandinavian-Americans live across the priate to the time when the alphabet was of English immigrants who arrived in border in Minnesota. In addition, more in use. After that, one may examine the America that year. than 42 percent of Wisconsinites and stone’s history and authorship. “The next And so the stone may be a genuine nearly 38 percent of Minnesotans claim step is to [try to find out] who carved runic monument, but it’s a thousand years German ancestry. It’s little surprise, then, [the stone] and when did they carve it,” younger than its discoverers hoped. Still, that the Upper Midwest has sustained a Frankki says. Frankki believes it’s important to study fascination with the Kensington Rune- In 2011, he traveled to several North American runestones with scien- stone, in spite of its early rejection by the different sites with Swedish runologist tific objectivity, as one may yet turn out to academic community. Henrik Williams, who had come from be authentic. “When the so-called experts looked Uppsala University to examine the stones “The idea is, it’s possible,” he says. at the stone initially, they just brushed it and give an opinion as to the possibility Medieval Scandinavians “had the tech- off,” Frankki says. “They didn’t study it that they’re genuine. nology. They sailed all over Europe. They properly. But they were in a position of “At Kensington,” Frankki says, “the even circled the entire Mediterranean, authority, and people just believed them, debate is whether it was carved in the and then they explored the Atlantic all the and they just wrote it off as a hoax.” nineteenth century or the fourteenth way across. So we don’t have the proof, Frankki hopes to give these North century. When Dr. Williams was up there, but we have the possibility.” n American runestones a more proper he was looking to see if certain runes that John Allen (John Allen) to rune enthus- test for authenticity, but the task is far have dots in them actually existed on the iasts) is senior editor of On Wisconsin from simple. Many of the stones that Kensington Runestone. He was on the (On Wisconsin) Magazine.

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SPRING 2012 65 flashback PHOTO BY JOHN KREISSLER, COURTESY OF UW–MADISON ARCHIVES

Torrid Madison An image of frolicking on Picnic Point (as these young women are doing second-latest initial freeze. (The record for the latest freeze was in a photo dated August 1960) may seem inappropriate to share in January 30, set in the winter of 1931–32.) wintertime, but then very little about Madison’s winter has been appro- The UW has been keeping track of Lake Mendota’s ice since priate this year. The UW’s hometown had an unusually warm season, 1853, giving a good indication of how harsh or mild Madison’s defying expectations of severe cold and heavy snow. winters have been during the last century and a half. Check the How unusual was the warmth? Madison’s December averaged record out at the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences’ nearly eight degrees above normal, and its January averaged six www.aos.wisc.edu/~sco/lakes/Mendota-ice.html. The department degrees above normal. The ice on Lake Mendota didn’t close up until does not, alas, list statistics on the number of sundresses seen at January 14, tying (with the winters of 1889–90 and 1999–2000) for Picnic Point. (Get a bird’s-eye view of the Point in Scene, page 10.) John Allen

66 ON WISCONSIN In 2010, the first 69 Great People Scholars received need-based scholar- ships to pursue their educations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2011, nearly 500 qualified students received Great People Scholarships. Thanks to the collaborative generosity of all the alumni and friends whose gifts support the Great People Schol- arship Campaign, in just one year, the number of Great People Scholars has in- creased by nearly 600 percent. Great People is a great investment in our students. Today, they are becoming the leaders and decision-makers, teachers and healers, en- trepreneurs and engineers, artists and The power of many gives power to many. scientists, parents, neighbors and loyal Badgers we will count on tomorrow. The power to shape the future is in your hands. Join the great people who make Great People possible. . uwgreatpeople.org

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