Fall 2008 Involume 109, Number 3 WISCONSIN

Fall 2008 INVolume 109, Number 3 WISCONSIN

Heart of the Matter 18 Underground in Europe, thousands of scientists — using the largest accelerator ever built — are conducting a thrilling hunt. They’re looking for tiny particles that are the source of all matter’s mass, hoping to solve some of the biggest mysteries in physics. And UW-Madison researchers are right at the center of the action. By Jill Sakai PhD’06

Hollywood Badgers 18 26 Breaking into the entertainment industry is a roller coaster, but two UW alumni are close by, helping newcomers to buckle up for the ride. By Jenny Price ‘96

Walking the Walk 28 John Francis went for twenty-two years without riding in a car and seventeen years without speaking to protest the world’s reliance on oil. Along the way, he earned three degrees and walked across two continents — and his advocacy work continues today. By Dashka Slater 28 Cold Digger 32 Now seventy-eight, professor Charlie Bentley has one goal in mind as he reflects on his first visit to Antarctica: returning — as he has multiple times during the past fifty years — to a continent that has offered him both an abundance of frigid adventures and a wealth of INSIDE new knowledge. LETTERS 4 By Jenny Price ‘96 SIFTING & WINNOWING 9 DISPATCHES 10 WARF’s New Wrinkle CLASSROOM 16 39 Decades ago, UW-Madison missed the boat on patenting a SCENE 44 process essential to making Botox, the phenomenally successful medical SPORTS 46 and cosmetic use of botulinum toxin. Now, with new developments in WAA NEWS 48 the production of botulin, UW researchers hope to correct that oversight. UPFRONT 49 32 ALUMNI NEWS 50 By John Allen PHILANTHROPY 58 MAIN EVENTS 65 FLASHBACK 66

Cover: In a flash of bright colors, a graphic represents what happens when protons — the particles found in atoms — smash together in a massive accelerator and shatter almost instantly into a shower of smaller specks. Photo © CERN LETTERS

On Wisconsin Magazine welcomes letters Famous Faces, Favorite Memories What a great trip through happy memo- related to magazine content, but reserves Jenny Price’s article featuring the photo ries! I refer to your splendid article the right to edit them for length and of Mickie’s [“Famous Faces, Favorite “Famous Faces, Favorite Places.” How- clarity. You may e-mail your comments Places,” Summer 2008] brought back a ever, I was disappointed that a big favorite to [email protected]; mail them to flood of memories. To me, and to many from the early 1950s wasn’t included. I On Wisconsin, 650 North Lake Street, other students, Mickie’s was more than refer to Picnic Point. Madison, WI 53706; or fax them to (608) a good meal at a good price. It was the While in graduate school, I married 265-8771. We regret that we don’t have people who worked there and what they a girl from Whitewater, and we soon had space to publish all the letters we receive, did for us with true friendliness, com- a family addition. That meant spending but we appreciate hearing from you. passion, and many times, love. money became extremely tight for us, as it As a freshman in the fall of ’57, I was also for many young families attending Saving Sudan roomed in a home on Lathrop Street, and the UW on the GI Bill. As a consequence, Kudos to John Allen and On Wisconsin Mickie’s became my source of meals for late afternoon and evening picnic outings to for the courageous and inspiring cover the next four years. Norm and Hank (co- Picnic Point were a favorite diversion. And story on Kou Solomon in the Summer owners then) and Rosie (head waitress) best of all, in contrast to the bars, lounges, 2008 issue [“Song of Solomon”]. It was quickly reached out to me as “one of the and eating places, it was affordable! so moving to read about the way he was boys” — as they did with many others. I can’t begin to count all the memories able to get an education, and then devote They had an almost parental instinct my wife and I share — even after fifty- himself to helping his homeland to heal. I to pick out those students who were on six years — of the wonderful times we went to the [Save Yar] Web site and made a very tight budget. When Rosie would enjoyed at that beautiful place! I’m certain a contribution to help him and his Ameri- see we had finished our seventy-five- that many other readers from that period can friends who are raising funds to help cent roast beef special and we were still had similar experiences. the children of Sudan. I urge others to hungry, she always gave us more bread Edward Feldmann MS’54, PhD’55 join me in this small way to help save that and butter to fill the void. If Norm or Venice, Florida unhappy and desperate country. Hank would sense we weren’t eating Eileen Martinson Lavine ’45 well (due to lack of funds), they always The Benefits of Forest Fires Bethesda, Maryland had an apple or a banana to give us — I enjoyed reading “Rising From the Ashes” Norm said he had “bought too many by Jill Sakai about Yellowstone National The Summer 2008 On Wisconsin was a that day” and he needed to get rid of Park’s recovery from the 1988 fires [Sum- marvelous edition — especially the cover them. In my heart, I knew he was help- mer 2008]. I worked in Yellowstone from story of Kou Solomon, which has broken ing us eat well. Hank did the same. 1985 to 1993, so I had the privilege of my heart by grief and mercy. We, the If Norm sensed we were low on experiencing the park before, during, and people at the far corner of the globe, have money, he would pull out his IOU box, after the “summer of fire.” had a chance to learn the truth about the write the amount owed on a small piece On September 7, as the fires human rights violations in Sudan. It’s of paper, and say with a smile, “Don’t approached Old Faithful, I started the day really weird to think that people would not worry about it; pay me when you can,” by knocking on Old Faithful Inn guest even know about their age due to being and then give us a free apple. room doors to evacuate the hotel. As we abducted as infants. Kou was really brave I remember one year I came to pay waited for our own evacuation, I stood on and lucky to be there in the United States my $10 IOUs, and Norm said he didn’t top of the inn with friends, in awe as the for his schooling. [Erin] Heitkamp, while have time to sort out my debt, “so just fire roared through the trees a quarter- at Bell Multicultural School, provided vital forget about it.” mile away. Thank goodness nobody there support to Kou. I (we all) should thank These caring, wonderful people was hurt and the iconic inn was spared, her and her family. So, Kou, your decision were the legacy of Mickie’s; they were but it closed for the season that day, and to return to Sudan is fully meaningful and Mickie’s, and I hope to express these our jobs were over. necessary. You can save your country and heartfelt feelings for many other stu- Many of us who worked in the park its children by your advocacy and help dents for the Norms, Hanks, and Rosies knew about the benefits of fire to a forest’s bring back the nation from the Stone Age. who helped us through some hard- ecosystem, although it was tough to sell I wish you all the best in your mission. working years at UW. that idea to most of the tourists. Articles I am very proud of you, knowing about For those years spent at Mickie’s, I say like this are important to inform the public your heartfelt historical life struggle. a resounding thank-you to their memories. and policy makers about the natural pro- Thank you to On Wisconsin and its entire Jim Kukuk ’62 cesses that affect our wild lands. team. Janesville, Wisconsin Claire Peters ’83, MS’01 Surya Nath Adhikari (Short course ’02) Madison Kandaghari, Katmandu, Nepal

4 ON WISCONSIN LETTERS

Thanks from Japan Thanks (arigato), On Wisconsin! I am much too far away to visit my former university campus, but not too far away to personally thank the staff for their excellent magazine that ends up in my mailbox in Japan. Your Summer 2008 On Wisconsin once again reminded me of home. Your design, pictures, and articles have me reading it from cover to cover, and it is wonderful to be reminded from time to time that I graduated from such a fine university. John Wells ’74 Yokohama, Japan

Will the Real Var Bar Please Stand Up? I believe your Flashback article in the Sum- mer 2008 issue contains some incorrect information. The article states that the Var- sity Bar opened in 1962. However, I recall many pleasant hours spent drinking beer at the Varsity Bar during the years 1950–54. Thomas Drought ’54, LLB’59 Bayside, Wisconsin

(Editor’s Note: There have been at least two Var- sity Bars on State Street. The Var Bar we showed was in the 500 block. It opened in 1962 and closed in 1968, and the space is now Gino’s. Judging by city directories of the era, the Varsity Bar you refer to was located at 625 State, a block closer to campus and across the street from the one shown in the photo. This Varsity Bar seems to have closed around 1960, becoming next the Fireside Pancake restaurant, and today the Mediterranean Cafe.)

Update Your Address UW-Madison wants to stay in touch with you. To update your contact information, which is maintained by the UW Founda- tion, please visit www.uwfoundation. wisc.edu/survey. To log in, use the ID number above your name on the magazine label. This information is shared selectively with other campus units and the Wisconsin Alumni Association to ensure that alumni information is consis- tent and accurate. Thank you!

Correction In the Summer 2008 story, “Famous Faces, Favorite Places,” we misspelled the name of Mickie’s Dairy Bar. On PHOTOS BYPHOTOS MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART Wisconsin regrets the error.

FALL 2008 5 LETTERS

6 ON WISCONSIN

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FALL 2008 7 Some people believe that a University of Wisconsin-Madison education is not affordable, so it is not possible. MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART Some people are wrong.

These five students are smart, committed and people” will help these students and their families. hard-working. Of course. They’re Badgers. Chances The UW Foundation has allocated $20 million to are, three of them receive financial aid. Today, more match unrestricted gifts to the “Great people” than 60 percent of all UW-Madison undergraduates need-based scholarship initiative. Your “Great receive financial aid and the trend is climbing. people” gift can open doors. There are other students just as talented who could As a public university—one of the best in the be, should be and would be Badgers, but they believe world—we want the most promising students to the doors of the University are closed to them. “Great believe that a UW-Madison education is possible. Thank you for working with us to make it happen.

For further information, please call 608-263-4545, e-mail [email protected] or go to www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu to make a gift on line.

University of Wisconsin Foundation l 1848 University Avenue l P.O. Box 8860 l Madison, Wisconsin 53708-8860 l 608-263-4545 l [email protected] l www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu

8 ON WISCONSIN SIFTING & WINNOWING

From Pigskins to ON Fall 2008 the Mysteries of Physics

WISCONSIN As someone who is fortunate enough to work on one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country, I’ve always loved fall. Publisher Autumn is a time of year that never fails to bring a sense of antici- Wisconsin Alumni Association pation, but this year, that spirit is especially strong. 650 North Lake Street, Madison, WI 53706 6Vi\ÊÈän®ÊÓÈÓÓxx£ÊUÊ/vÀii\ There’s always the electric anticipation of a new football nnn®Ê7-1 ÊUÊ>Ý\ÊÈän®ÊÓÈxnÇÇ£ season, and the feeling that this year, our talented team could E-mail: [email protected] catapult Wisconsin into the spotlight once again. Web site: uwalumni.com/onwisconsin

And then, there’s the anticipation of the incoming fresh- C&N PHOTOGRAPHY Co-Editors man class. Every year, our students get brighter and more Niki Denison, Wisconsin Alumni Association accomplished. I look forward to how they continue to amaze Cindy Foss, University Communications me, both with their creative achievements as students, and Senior Editor with their inspiring work once they move on and begin to live John Allen, Wisconsin Alumni Association out the Wisconsin Idea as alumni. Writer But what makes this fall especially intriguing is the addi- Jenny Price ’96, University Communications tion of several other special moments in time. It’s an election year, with all the changes that new leadership will entail. Editorial Associates Paula Apfelbach ’83 and Ben Wischnewski ’05, And here on campus, of course, we are welcoming our new Wisconsin Alumni Association chancellor. The WAA executive committee met recently with Carolyn “Biddy” Martin PhD’85, and I’m excited about the Art Director Earl J. Madden MFA’82, new vision she brings as she builds on the already impressive University Communications successes of former Chancellor John Wiley MS’65, PhD’68. Chancellor Martin has a definite sense of UW-Madison’s role I was especially Production Editor happy to hear that Eileen Fitzgerald ’79, as a global leader — not just in higher education, but also in meet- University Communications ing the major challenges now facing our nation and our planet, [Chancellor Martin] from the economy to the environment. She plans to emphasize the plans to focus on Design, Layout, and Production Barry Carlsen MFA’83, Toni Good ’76, importance of our world-class research, as well as the value of the the positive and MA’89, Kent Hamele ’78, Christine Knorr ’99, search for truth and beauty through the arts and the humanities. celebrate our great Nancy Rinehart, University Communications And I was especially happy to hear that she plans to focus on the university — Campus Advisers positive and celebrate our great university — because we have a because we have a Paula Bonner MS’78, President and CEO, lot to celebrate. lot to celebrate. and Mary DeNiro, Vice President of One example that comes to mind is UW-Madison’s involvement Marketing and Communications, Wisconsin in the CERN supercollider, which you’ll read about on page 18 ÕÊÃÃV>ÌÊUÊLiÀÌÊÀi`>]Ê Associate Director, and Amy E. Toburen (“Heart of the Matter”). In what may be the biggest experiment of ½nä]Ê ÀiVÌÀ]Ê1ÛiÀÃÌÞÊ ÕV>ÌÃÊUÊ all time, scientists hope to flip the switch this fall and send atoms Lynne Johnson, Senior Director of External racing around a seventeen-mile ring deep beneath the ground on Relations, University of Wisconsin Foundation the border of France and Switzerland. Their hope is to detect the Higgs particle, also known as the God Particle for its potential to Advertising Representative Madison Magazine: (608) 270-3600 unlock a mystery of physics that has puzzled scientists for decades — what gives objects mass. The excitement around this unprec- Alumni Name, Address, Phone, and E-Mail edented international experiment is palpable as the scientific >}iÃÊUÊ i>Ì Ê ÌViÃ Madison area: (608) 262-9648 community prepares to rewrite the textbooks. Toll-free: (888) 947-2586 As the Carly Simon song goes, “We can never know about the E-mail: [email protected] days to come, but we think about them anyway.” I know you’ll join The Wisconsin Alumni Association® (WAA) me in anticipating — and hoping for — the best possible outcomes encourages diversity, inclusivity, non- for Wisconsin and for our world. discrimination, and participation by all alumni, students, and friends of the UW Paula Bonner MS’78 in its activities. President and CEO Production of On Wisconsin Magazine is Wisconsin Alumni Association supported by a UW Foundation grant. © 2008 Wisconsin Alumni Association

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FALL 2008 9 DISPATCHES

A Homecoming for Martin New chancellor calls the campus ‘a place I know and love.’

I think of UW-Madison as one of going on at the university, and the JEFF MILLER the best research universities in excellent work our students, fac- the country, indeed, in the world. ulty, and staff are doing and the It means a lot to me to be able to potential they have to make a dif- assume a leadership position at a ference. A chancellor has to be a place I know and love. Wisconsin is translator of the aspirations of the a great educational and research university to a wider public and institution with a strong commit- seek their support for what higher ment to public service, affordabil- education can do for individuals — ity, and economic diversity. Those and for the world. things matter to me and are worth all of the effort and intelligence What are your priorities as you we can bring to bear. begin this job? In the short term, I want to get to What were some of your know the people and renew my favorite places as a student? familiarity with the place. I will The university’s alumni are Football, in an unexpected way, I learned to cross-country ski find as many opportunities as I can “among our best and most helped chart a career trajectory while I was at Madison, so I spent to interact with students, faculty, important ambassadors,” says a lot of time at the Arboretum staff, and alumni. I want to make Carolyn “Biddy” Martin, shown that led Carolyn “Biddy” Martin in the winters. I also took sailing it a point to get to know the lead- above talking during a cam- PhD’85 to become UW-Madison’s pus visit this spring. She was new chancellor. lessons on Lake Mendota and I ership of the city and the state, appointed UW-Madison’s new “I come from a family of foot- loved the lake. And one of my building collaborative relationships chancellor by the UW System ball coaches, and I’ve always liked favorite places, not surprisingly, for the hard work ahead. Board of Regents in June. teams and teamwork,” she says. is the Union Terrace. I also loved The most important long-term “The idea of being a team leader Wisconsin Avenue, where I lived goal is to enhance the already out- or head coach attaches me to a for a while. It offered a view of standing quality of the research, part of my personality that takes the Capitol and a short walk to the teaching, and outreach missions of me back to my roots.” lake. I loved the Farmers’ Market the university. Some very immedi- During the past eight years and Concerts on the Square. ate challenges that require atten- as provost at Cornell University tion involve faculty recruitment in Ithaca, New York, and for four How do you view the role of and retention in a very competitive years as senior associate dean alumni? environment, affordability and of Cornell’s College of Arts and They are the outcomes of a uni- student access, and diversity. Sciences before that, Martin dis- versity education. They are among One of my top priorities will covered new skills. Those talents our best and most important be fundraising for financial aid and transcended her scholarly work as ambassadors, and among the faculty support, which is key to a professor of German literature university’s biggest supporters. The dealing with affordability, recruit- and women’s studies. fact that there are over 340,000 ment, and retention issues. I’m also “I loved getting to know living alumni whose successes looking forward to working with what was going on in a full range owe at least something to their the people who have responsibility of fields across the university,” education at UW-Madison says for various diversity initiatives to says Martin, who earned her UW the university has an extraordinary see what kinds of things we might doctorate in German literature, an impact, all the more so when you do, or do differently, or what we interest that began during study take the multiplier effects of their can add and how I can be a cham- abroad as an undergraduate at many contributions into account. pion for those initiatives. the College of William and Mary. They also help us conserve much In the case of undergradu- “I like helping to integrate various of what is important about the his- ate education, I’m interested in directions and programs and facili- tory of the university, while push- the students’ overall experience, tating other peoples’ success.” ing us at times to move forward. doing what we can to enhance Martin, who began her new education inside and outside the position in September, talked with What’s your approach to fund- classroom, how the advances in writer Dennis Chaptman ’80 for raising — another important research get translated into the On Wisconsin. aspect of your new job? undergraduate curriculum, and Fundraising is a joy. It entails ensuring that students benefit What led you to seek the chan- helping people understand the from the extraordinary discoveries cellorship at UW-Madison? extraordinary things that are made on the campus every day.

10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

Election Reality Check Wisconsin Advertising Project pulls curtain back on campaigns.

Presidential candidates John ing somewhat by accident. In spend on advertising and get- McCain and Barack Obama 1996, as he was finishing up ting a certain message out have declared their intentions his studies at the University of there, and what impact that to be competitive in states their Michigan, he missed a flight has in a practical sense on how respective parties haven’t won and was stuck at a Washington, people view that candidate.” in years — but if they don’t D.C., airport for several hours. And Ben Tabielson ’06, really mean it, the Wisconsin While he waited, Goldstein read now in his second year at Yale Advertising Project can call an article about a new company Law School, says working on their bluff. that was tracking political ads the project with Goldstein “had “Advertising is reality,” and decided to track down its a huge impact on my capacity says political science Professor founder, Evan Tracey. for and inclination toward Ken Goldstein, the project’s “It was one of those things rigorous analytical thinking.” director. “If [the candidates where — before I knew it — I Goldstein’s work is used are] not advertising, they’re not had turned over everything I for teaching, for what he calls serious.” The project produces a had to him, and the Wisconsin “geeky research,” and for help- comprehensive database detail- Advertising Project was born,” ing both reporters and the ing the content, timing, vol- Tracey says. TNS Media Intel- public to better understand ume, and targeting of political ligence/CMAG, Tracey’s com- the political process. On days ads, which it releases during the pany, provides the project with when the project releases its course of the election season to detailed, real-time tracking latest poll or study, he works reporters who are hungry for information about ads. from home, clearing voicemail information about the inner Every political ad has a on one phone and making calls workings of campaigns. unique digital fingerprint, and on another to keep up with the “I don’t have to be in the its profile is coded after one air- volume of media inquiries. Obama strategy room or the ing, making it possible to detect Tracey says that intense McCain strategy room to know the ad and track it when it airs interest demonstrates that which states they’re targeting. again. The advertising project Goldstein’s work is both insight- I’ll know when I see the [adver- — funded by a grant from the ful and useful. “He’s really done tising] buys,” Goldstein says. Chicago-based Joyce Founda- a very good job of detecting “I don’t need to sit in on their tion — then analyzes the data strategic decisions — both good focus groups to know what to build a database that shows and bad — and putting them issues are working for them. who is airing the ads, the con- I can tell that from the ads tent and tone of the ads, the SPENCER WALTS they’re running.” issues covered, and where the This year, Goldstein and his ads are being aired. research team, working out of Goldstein and his team a small office in campus’s North of about ten undergraduate Hall, are immersed in what will researchers — he calls them be an unprecedented presiden- the project’s “engine” — have tial election when it comes to coded virtually every significant the amount of political advertis- political advertisement broad- ing that airs, as well as its reach. cast in the top seventy-five “In 2004 … 95 percent of media markets in 2000 and in the advertisements were in the top one hundred markets forty-four media markets — from 2001 to 2004. 25 percent of the country,” he Stephanie Nielsen x’09, says. “This is going to be a year a political science major who where we see advertising in is working on Capitol Hill and out there places where we have not seen considering law school, became in a format and in advertising before in presiden- involved with the advertising a forum that goes beyond tial elections.” project in fall 2006, after taking just a bunch of academic review Goldstein, a self-proclaimed Goldstein’s introductory politi- types and really gets out there political junkie who made the cal science course. Nielsen says into the mainstream press and jump to graduate school after it’s “interesting to see in a very the mainstream media,” Tracey working as a researcher for CBS hands-on way the link between says. News, started studying advertis- how much these campaigns — Jenny Price ’96

FALL 2008 11 DISPATCHES

Change Agents A surprising approach to substance abuse gets powerful results.

As any Wisconsinite knows, our But a program at the School involves family and friends love of beer and other booze of Medicine and Public Health is confronting the user, SBIRT uses often gets the better of us — taking a new approach to tack- “motivational interviewing,” with some extremely sobering ling these challenges. Called the a nonjudgmental way to help consequences. The state regu- Wisconsin Initiative to Promote a patient identify reasons for a larly tops national rankings in Healthy Lifestyles (WIPHL), the problem and reinforce a readi- high-risk and heavy drinking; federally funded initiative uses ness to change. binge drinking among young SBIRT — which stands for screen- “When people discover that people is widespread and rising, brief intervention, and refer- a behavior conflicts with their ing; and diseases and accidents ral to treatment. The method is own goals, they find motivation related to alcohol and drug now being used at twenty-four to change,” says Brown. “Self- abuse are Wisconsin’s fourth primary health clinics around the motivated people are more likely leading cause of death and state, and will be expanded to to succeed at the difficult task of fourth among reasons for hos- others in coming years. changing behaviors than those pitalizations. The economic toll Among alcohol and drug who agree to change for other is estimated at some $5 billion a abuse programs, SBIRT is a people’s reasons.” year paid by health care, criminal revolution. “Whereas traditional The program’s staff has seen justice, and social service systems. treatment focuses largely on it work countless times. Chris- alcoholic and addicted individu- tina Lightbourn ’96, a health als, [this] focuses on the whole educator at UW Health North- range of risky and problem east Family Medical Center in substance use,” says Richard Madison, recalls a patient who Brown, the initiative’s clinical drank as many as forty-eight director and an associate profes- beers during a weekend — yet sor of family medicine. “Since didn’t acknowledge a problem non-alcoholic and non-addicted and said she was tired of being risky and problem substance lectured to stop by her mother. users by far outnumber alcoholics Lightbourn didn’t lecture, and addicts ... they, as a group, instead offering information cause greater harm to families about potential health risks. She and communities.” wasn’t sure the fifteen-minute COURTESY OF THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY The idea is to catch problem session had had much impact — users before they do harm or until the following month, when COOL TOOL their conditions get worse. Four the patient told her physician Where in the World Is Rabies? key questions about alcohol and that she had reduced her con- In June, Walton County, Florida, issued a rabies warning after drug use, and additional ques- sumption to three or four beers several raccoons there turned up with the disease. Three days tions about other health behav- on three occasions. The patient, later, Hall County, Georgia, suffered its twenty-fourth rabies case iors, help identify drinking and who said she was concerned this year. Later that month, rabies showed up in bats in Anderson drug problems at an early stage. about her health, has stuck with County, South Carolina. If researchers want to keep track of the The screening is done with the changes for nearly a year. spread of rabies, they could subscribe to a dozen small-town all adult patients as a routine “Motivational interview- newspapers, and still get just a fraction of the reports. Or they part of their health care visits. ing works because it allows the could check out the Global Wildlife Diseases News Map, which Patients identified with problems practitioner to meet the patient puts all the animal health news in one place. talk with health educators one where they are in the change Created by the UW’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies to three times and agree upon process. … It can help them and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the map provides an online changes. For many patients, move forward and empower resource about the health issues facing animals around the world. these steps are enough to signifi- them to make changes,” says Pushpin-like icons connect to news reports of different health con- cantly reduce the patients’ alco- Lightbourn. ditions, from rabies and anthrax to pesticide and lead poisoning. hol and drug use. If the health A study has found that According to USGS librarian Cris Marsh ’89, MA’04, the tool has educator and patient agree that Wisconsin saves nearly $1,000 in garnered interest in a wide variety of places. “We get public health more intensive care is needed, health care and criminal justice officials, the U.S. [Department of Agriculture], wildlife biologists, as the patient may be referred for costs for each patient who goes well as people in the university and wildlife rehabilitation realms,” further treatment, and costs may through SBIRT — savings the she says. be covered by WIPHL. federal government can embrace See the map at wildlifedisease.nbii.gov/wdinNewsDigestMap.jsp. While the mainstream in an era of belt-tightening. — John Allen notion of an intervention — Joan Fischer MA’95

12 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

Body of Work Do these media messages make me look fat? Absolutely, women say.

It’s a question that seems of ultra-thin actresses and A group of UW-Madison to come up time and SPENCER WALTS models significantly increased researchers is working to rein- again: do media images women’s concerns about their vent the wheel on behalf of the of stick-thin supermodels looks, including how dissatisfied Department of Defense. Work- truly cause women to they felt, and their likelihood ing with Wausau, Wisconsin- dislike their own bodies of engaging in excessive diet- based Resilient Technologies, more? After poring over ing and other unhealthy eating Professor Tim Osswald and two seventy-seven studies on behaviors. What’s more, studies graduate students are develop- the topic involving more conducted in the 2000s showed, ing an airless tire for military than fifteen thousand on average, a larger impact from vehicles. The idea for the tire research subjects, UW the media than did those from grew out of reports from Iraq, psychology researchers the 1990s. where army convoys have been Shelly Grabe and Janet “This suggests that despite stopped by attackers shooting Hyde say the answer is all our efforts to teach women out the tires of humvees. An air- definitely “yes.” and girls to be savvy about the less tire would enable the vehi- “We’ve demonstrated media and have healthy body cles to withstand such attacks. that it doesn’t matter what practices, the media’s effect on the exposure is, whether how much they internalize the In its quest to translate research it’s general TV watching in thin ideal is getting stronger,” into economic impact, UW- the evening, or magazines, says Grabe. With body dissat- Madison’s University Research or ads showing on a com- isfaction now established as a Park is preparing to open a puter,” says Grabe, now an major risk factor for low self- second campus, this time on assistant professor of psy- esteem, depression, and eating Madison’s east side. The URP’s chology at UC-Santa Cruz. disorders, it’s a troubling result. first campus is on the city’s far “If the image is appear- Grabe hopes that wider west side, and the organization ance focused and sends a jects to unusually racy photos. recognition of the media’s influ- hopes a downtown facility will clear message about a woman’s To avoid these criticisms ence will encourage people to attract young entrepreneurs in body as an object, then it’s going and settle the question once see poor body image as a soci- the fields of information tech- to affect women.” and for all, Grabe and Hyde etal issue, rather than a problem nology, engineering, computer While this may seem obvi- pooled and analyzed data from of individual women — or, sciences, and medical devices. ous, Grabe believes that many every well-designed study they worse, a matter of vanity — as Located in the Marquip Building people still resist the idea that could find. These included con- it’s often viewed now. on East Washington Avenue, the societal influences, such as the trolled experiments, in which “I want to stress that it’s new space is being renovated media, can have a real impact on researchers tested the effects totally normal for women to to create ten “incubator suites” how women view themselves. of media images directly, and want to be attractive,” she says. and two conference rooms. When individual studies have investigations that correlated “But what’s happening in our made this connection in the past, body concerns with women’s society is that many women are Four UW-Madison engineering she explains, critics have often self-reported consumption of striving toward something that’s grads are winning praise for dismissed them for focusing on TV, movies, and magazines. not very realistic or obtainable. designing a pile of junk. Dan groups of especially body-con- The examination revealed And that leads to a lot of health Zignego ’07, Jake Varnes ’08, Bill scious women, such as college that regardless of study design consequences.” Schmitz ’08, and Nick Bobinski students, or exposing test sub- or specifics, exposure to images — Madeline Fisher PhD’98 ’08 are the brains behind Wing 2 of the Rubble Pile, a heap of wreckage meant to simulate a disaster scene. Located at Keeping Social Workers on the Job Wisconsin’s Camp Douglas, the The job is high stress and comes with a low salary, so dents each year, and about three-fourths of Rubble Pile is a mass of steel, it’s no wonder that child welfare workers are most its graduates still work in children’s protective concrete, smashed vehicles, and likely to leave the field within the first two years. services, foster care, or special-needs adoption mannequins, and it’s used for Since 2000, however, the UW School of Social in twenty-seven counties and the Ho-Chunk and training firefighters from around work has been bucking that trend with help from Oneida nations. Susan Michaud, the program’s the state. Wing 2, the result of a a federally funded training program that pays for director, attributes that stability to a focus on spe- senior design project in Civil and social-worker students to get a master’s degree in cialized coursework and internships that prepare Environmental Engineering 587, exchange for a one- or two-year commitment to students for what they will experience, giving opened to the silent screams of working in Wisconsin’s public child welfare system. them the tools they need to succeed on the job. its victims in June. The program admits twelve to fifteen stu- — Jenny Price ’96

FALL 2008 13 DISPATCHES

Book Hospital The book conservation lab works to repair damaged tomes.

The conservation lab is part of the time necessary for such ERIC FERGUSON of the libraries’ preservation careful work, the lab’s backlog department, which aims to keep runs to some 1,200 volumes. UW data accessible. It includes To some, the conservation not only the conservation lab, lab may seem anachronistic. for delicate work, but also an The UW Libraries are currently assessment section, to designate involved in an effort called the the appropriate options for a Google Project, which aims, ulti- damaged book; a bindery, to mately, to transfer many of the prepare books for commercial libraries’ collections into a digi- binding; and a microfilm lab, to tal format so that the books can transfer bulky paper pages into be searched and downloaded tiny photographed images. over the Internet. So why spend The preservation lab is so much time repairing paper? essentially the libraries’ hospital, Some books, says preserva- taking in damaged books and tion librarian Andrea Rolich finding a way to heal them. MA’69, MA’70, PhD’81, When a damaged book arrives MA’89, couldn’t — or shouldn’t in the lab, Gomez and her team — be replaced. “Not only do of student workers and volun- some books have intrinsic value teers do their best to diagnose beyond the words they con- A student worker makes repairs in the Book Conservation Lab. its problems and give it the tain,” she says, “but users still surgery it needs. Typical repairs prefer to read many materials in include replacing covers, repair- paper format. Even some of our Very few people are as pas- ing broken spines, and reat- younger, tech-savvy students sionate about paper as Marta taching torn or removed pages. have complained that they must Gomez. She will rhapsodize Simple repairs can take less than go to the Internet for too many about the quality and color half an hour; more complicated materials these days.” of the many varieties that fill jobs can run half a day. Because — John Allen drawers in the Book Conserva- tion Laboratory in the basement of Memorial Library. “This is Japanese paper,” UW Draws Tech Giants to Madison she says, holding up a stiff, UW-Madison is a world leader in computer research, and now that translucent sheet. “People call expertise has attracted not one, but two technology giants to the city. 35 it rice paper, but I don’t know Internet firm Google opened a research and development office The weight of Bucky’s head why. It’s actually made from downtown this fall, with twenty “Googlers” focused on hardware and in pounds. The mass of the mulberry. It has very long fibers, software systems design. The company was drawn by the strength of mascot’s noggin was revealed in which makes it very strong. the College of Engineering’s computer architecture group, including Being Bucky, a documentary And when we use it, we make the efforts of emeritus professor Jim Smith to reduce the power by John Fromstein ’78 and sure we tear it rather than cut- consumption of computers. Scott Smith that explores ting it so that the fibers remain Software giant Microsoft is opening a development laboratory the lives of the students who intact.” near campus, led by emeritus computer science Professor David portray Buckingham U. Her pulp attraction is only DeWitt, who has done groundbreaking work in hooking together natural. Gomez is the director thousands of computers to perform data-intensive tasks. “More and of the lab, which is responsible more, the world is about data,” he says. for keeping the UW’s paper- DeWitt says the lab has a half-dozen graduate students who get to based information available for “come in and work inside the Microsoft firewall and do projects that those students, researchers, and they just couldn’t do” in a university setting, collaborating with three faculty who need it. The con- other faculty members and six full-time employees. Large grants for servation lab’s job is to repair core computer science research at universities have dried up, making it the damage that time — or the harder to do the type of work the department did twenty years ago. libraries’ patrons — do to the “If we’re successful or Google is successful, and one of us grows, millions of books the university that will just benefit everybody else in town,” DeWitt says. “And hope- owns. It’s a job that keeps her fully, if we’re successful, there will be startups.” and her staff busy year-round. — Jenny Price ’96

14 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WISCONSINVIEW

It may not be a stellar job, but at least it’s interplanetary — nuclear engineering professor Gerald Kulcinski has been tapped by NASA to chair the agency’s human capital advisory committee.

The work of climatologist Eric DeWeaver was highlighted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in that organization’s decision to add polar bears to the list of threatened species. DeWeaver surveyed different climate models to estimate the anticipated loss of polar bear habitat.

University Housing has added two more options to its menu of learning communities. Stu- dents living in Adams Hall may now join an Arabic language community, and Sellery Hall offers a community for those interested in entrepreneurship.

The seminal book on Wisconsin’s fish species and the environmental challenges they face will now be available online. George Becker ’39, MA’39, MS’51, PhD’62’s 1983 tome Fishes of Wisconsin may now be found in the libraries’ digital collection.

When people form opinions about stem cell research or nanotechnology, their understanding of the science behind Summer, fall, winter, spring — satellites capture all of the state’s colors for WisconsinView. These images the work plays a negligible role. were taken during a particularly intense year and show the record snowfall that hit Madison in the winter In a study of national public of 2007–08. The snow was at its worst in February 2008 (lower left) and lingering into March (lower right). attitudes, UW communications researchers learned that other The State of the State factors — such as religious values or a tendency to defer to Let there be no mistake: Wisconsin has four dis- and beyond. Among them are utility companies, scientists and their findings — tinct seasons. These views of summer, fall, winter, which use the information to determine where are more influential than the and spring are from the archives of Wisconsin- to put power lines or water mains, and dairy science itself. Those who say View, a federally funded program that offers free farmers, who use the program’s data to pick religion plays a big role in their and easy Web access to a variety of statewide good pastures for grazing. lives, for example, say that images and data at www.wisconsinview.org that The program also helped out Wisconsin scientific knowledge doesn’t would otherwise be difficult or expensive to get. Emergency Management by using satellite imag- really affect how they feel The program, led by UW-Madison and part ery to map severe flooding that hit the state about stem cell research. of a nationwide effort called AmericaView, has in June. five thousand registered users from Wisconsin — Staff

FALL 2008 15 CLASSROOM

Stunted Growth Ecology classes hope to weed out a predator at the UW Arboretum.

Arboretum research director Joy BRYCE RICHTER (2) Zedler MS’66, PhD’68 and her graduate students, the plan was backed by plenty of brainpower. But the committee also needed manpower, and that’s where the students came in. Last September, some sixty General Ecology class members surveyed plant diversity and abundance in experimental and control plots, sowed native seeds, and then later crunched the data they’d collected. The work continues this fall with a new cohort of students, and the plan is to enlist classes to help for three more years to come. “At a time when resources are stretched, we could never, as Arboretum staff, have pulled this experiment off on our own,” says Arboretum ecologist Brad Herrick, who is helping What makes a grassland a prairie? The right species of plants. Alicia Rachow and Amy Hong work with Brad oversee the work. “So incorpo- Herrick to catalog flora at the Arboretum’s Greene Prairie site as part of General Ecology 460. The students rating the students is a perfect are studying ways to manage highly invasive reed canary grass. way to do this. It’s an education for them, first and foremost. But Greene Prairie at the UW created this prairie out of aban- at the same time, we’re advanc- Arboretum is one of the finest doned farmland in the 1940s. ing restoration ecology research restored landscapes in the world, Nevertheless, in recent years the and addressing land-manage- a grassland so meticulously plant has muscled in and spread, ment questions.” crafted that even experts mis- thanks mostly to urban storm- Finding ways to restore take it for pristine nature. Sadly, water runoff that courses across lands overrun by reed canary though, it’s hardly the jewel of the site with every rain. Today, grass couldn’t be more urgent. ecological restoration it once nearly ten acres of big bluestem, The Wisconsin Department of was — a fact that became all compass plant, and other prai- Natural Resources estimates too clear to students in last fall’s rie species have been replaced that the plant now dominates General Ecology 460 course. by the shoulder-high, invasive more than half a million acres “It’s so thick,” said Amy grass. And though its march has — or almost 10 percent — of Hong ’10 about the choking slowed of late, scientists don’t Wisconsin’s wetlands, and has expanse of reed canary grass know how much more land reed invaded many, many more. Once that blankets the prairie’s south- canary grass might consume — established, it spreads quickly via ern end. “When you look at it, or exactly how to stop it. seeds and underground stems, you can just tell — it’s the only Still, there is hope, and snuffing out native plants at an thing out there.” some of it rests with these stu- alarming rate and eliminating “It’s startling [to see] how dents. A couple of years ago, an habitat for wildlife. much it has changed the appear- Arboretum restoration planning By showing students an ance,” added her classmate committee began devising a example of the problem in Daniel Underbakke ’10. “You large-scale experiment in which the university’s own backyard, walk out on that prairie and a mix of burning, applying Susan Will-Wolf, the course’s think, ‘Wow, something’s not herbicide treatments, and seed- laboratory instructor, hopes right here.’ ” ing of native plants would be they’ll recognize that nature Reed canary grass was tested for its ability to subdue doesn’t necessarily reside away indeed never in the plans when the weed. Based on a decade’s from people. Instead, humans botanist Henry Greene first worth of scientific studies by are an integral part of the land-

16 ON WISCONSIN CLASSROOM

scape and shape it every day — might actually be to get rid of, native plants with such charm- whether they intend to or not. or why someone would spend so ing names as Joe-Pye weed, por- “I want the students to real- much effort and money in trying cupine sedge, and yellow avens. ize that the natural world spans to do so.” The hypothesis is that suppress- a continuum from urban natural Because last fall’s students ing reed canary grass with burn- areas to wilderness, and that were working during the experi- ing and spraying will allow these we need to care for all of it,” ment’s first year, they didn’t species to gain a roothold, and she says. record much change in the prai- then grow up and shade out the Caring for the land isn’t rie as a result of the herbicide sun-loving invader. necessarily easy, though, as the treatments and burning. None- For Kretsch, the day’s final students quickly learned last theless, Underbakke appreciated activity came as a delightful September. The sun was hot, the chance to collect some real surprise. the air was muggy, and the data and analyze them back in “What am I doing with experimental plots were unex- the lab. this?” she recalls asking when pectedly tough to find. Then “We saw while being out someone suddenly handed her a came the plant identification. in the prairie that, yes, there’s bucket of seeds. “And they said, Reed canary grass was easy to a heck of a lot of reed canary ‘Oh, we’re restoring the prairie.’ spot, of course, once students grass out there, but then [the And I said, ‘I’m restoring the knew what to look for. But they analysis] showed the same thing prairie?’ It was cool.” also had to learn four dozen or statistically,” he says. “It’s very — Madeline Fisher PhD’98 so native species and then care- powerful to see how what you fully estimate the amount of perceived visually is reflected in ground they covered — all while the statistics.” swatting at a cloud of voracious The data collected last fall Class Note mosquitoes. also provide a critical baseline Six Wars, One Course Meanwhile, Arboretum staff against which subsequent classes History 319: The Vietnam Wars and course instructors scurried can compare their findings and, about, answering questions, they hope, begin to document a At first glance, there seems to be a glaring misprint on the syllabus showing students the tricks recovery in the prairie. But even for this course. America had one conflict in Vietnam, hence one to sampling, and reviewing if the experiment falls short of war. Right? Not so fast. the data they’d collected. The controlling the weed, it’s sure “We’re not just doing one war,” says professor Alfred McCoy, amount of effort and coordina- to offer scientific insights that “which I think is a fundamental mistake many courses make — to tion made a strong impression Arboretum staff and researchers see this as an exercise unique to the United States. There was in fact on Carrie Kretsch ’07. can incorporate into future res- a multiplicity of Vietnam wars.” “I remember my mom toration attempts, says Herrick. History 319 focuses on the American war in Vietnam as one of always griping about the dande- In the meantime, a small six interrelated regional conflicts spanning more than a century, lions in our backyard,” she says. payoff came at the end of each beginning in 1850 with the French colonial conquest and ending “But I’d never really thought afternoon’s toil last September: in 1979 with Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia. Offered every fall to about how difficult [a plant] getting to sow the seeds of 150 undergraduates, the class has become one of the most popular at the UW since McCoy arrived on campus in 1989. The course material focuses less on memorization and more on forcing students into critical engagement, with McCoy stressing the importance of multiple interpretations in studying history. Vet- erans are invited into the course’s discussion sections to talk about the war, creating an important cross-generational dialogue, which is best exemplified by Danielle Trussoni ’96’s national award- winning book, Falling through the Earth, which began as her term paper for the course. History 319 culminates with a twelve-page research paper that draws from more than a dozen primary and secondary sources. Crafting a well researched, educated argument, McCoy notes, is one of the most important abilities for a historian. “I often tell my students that after all the details, names, dates, and places have long been forgotten,” he says, “what I really want [them] to take away from the class is how to make an argument.” — Ben Wischnewski ’05

FALL 2008 17 Paradox of size: It will take the biggest and most powerful accelerator ever built to catch a glimpse of the tiniest atomic particles that form all matter. The accelerator, called the Large Hadron Collider or LHC, will slam particles together up to 600 million times per second at nearly the speed of light, smashing them open inside two main particle detectors, called ATLAS, shown here, and CMS. UW-Madison faculty members are playing key roles in the immense experiment, which involves dozens of countries and thousands of scientists and engineers.

18 ON WISCONSIN © CERN

Heart of the Matter

Three hundred feet below the French- Swiss border, UW scientists are playing central roles in a massive experiment to solve the biggest mysteries in physics. What will it take to succeed?

BY JILL SAKAI PHD’06

Nestled among the picturesque fields between France’s Jura Mountains and Switzerland’s Lake Geneva lies a cluster of boxy buildings interlaced with streets bearing the names of famed physicists of the past. This crowded campus of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, usually called CERN, is home to the largest scientific instrument ever built: a particle smasher so powerful it will condense enough energy to move a Boeing 767 at two hundred miles per hour into a proton beam thinner than a human hair. It’s not a place you would expect to spot Bucky Badger.

FALL 2008 19 Yet, here he is, in a hallway of Europe’s preeminent physics research institution, more than four thousand Build Your Physics Vocabulary miles from home. Bucky’s likeness adorns the office door of physics professor Sau ATLAS — A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS (ATLAS), one of the two main particle detectors Lan Wu, a Vilas Professor and one of at the LHC, was constructed in an underground cavern by lowering and joining one piece dozens of UW-Madison professors, staff, at a time over several years. and students working at CERN on the CERN — A historical acronym based on the French name for the European Organization biggest particle physics experiment ever for Nuclear Research. This particle physics laboratory, founded in 1954, straddles the undertaken. French-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. The energy and tension on the CERN campus are almost tangible as thousands CMS — The Compact Muon Solenoid, the other main particle detector at the LHC, of scientists and engineers work against is named for its giant solenoid magnet, which UW physics professor Wesley Smith the clock to put the finishing touches compares to an MRI machine strong enough to scan an entire hospital. on the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, Detector — A large machine filled with sensitive electronics that track and record the which after nearly twenty years of plan- showers of particles produced by a proton collision. ning is expected to begin operating this fall. When up and running, this massive Higgs particle — Also called the Higgs boson, this particle is thought to give matter its machine will slam particles together at mass, via a mechanism like the attraction that gathers a retinue around a pop star in a nearly the speed of light, bursting them crowded room. Finding this missing link in the Standard Model is one of the main goals of open and providing an unprecedented the LHC. look at the atom’s innards — exotic subatomic building blocks with Seussian LHC — The Large Hadron Collider accelerates two proton beams at nearly the speed of monikers such as lepton, meson, muon, light in opposite directions around a seventeen-mile ring built three hundred feet under- and gluon. ground. In huge barrel-shaped detectors spaced around the ring, the particles will smash UW-Madison is among a handful together and recreate conditions in the earliest moments of the universe. of institutions with large groups working Particles — The characteristics of these tiny atomic building blocks determine the on both major particle detectors at the properties of all matter. LHC, called ATLAS and CMS. Wu’s group was the first American research Proton — A positively charged subatomic particle located in an atom’s nucleus. team invited to work on the ATLAS The beams used in the LHC are composed of protons from hydrogen atoms. experiment, and physics professor Standard Model — A set of theories that forms the best current understanding of Wesley Smith heads a team that has particle physics, though it does not explain why matter has mass nor some recently built more of the fourteen-thousand-ton observed phenomena, including dark matter. CMS detector than any other university group. Together, Smith says, the UW teams top the list of American universities with leadership roles on the project. ing magnets are even the coldest spot in specks. Physicists use such ephemeral par- Simply put, as the LHC gears up to the universe, aside from a few small lab ticles to probe the nature of the universe, start running, UW scientists are poised to experiments. At -456oF, the magnets hoping to improve our understanding of make one — if not more — of the biggest are a mere three degrees above absolute the physical principles underlying every discoveries of modern science. zero, the theoretical deep freeze where all aspect of the world we live in. A modern atomic motion stops — well, cold. Even age of discovery is alive and well in high- outer space averages nearly five degrees energy physics, and this is its frontier; The Frontier of Physics above absolute zero. only by creating higher and higher energy It’s hard to describe the LHC without As big as the LHC is, the ideas behind particle collisions can physicists unlock the superlatives. It will be the world’s biggest it and its experiments are even bigger. atom’s remaining secrets. and most powerful particle accelerator, The incredibly high energies achieved The best explanation of the physics flinging protons around its seventeen- in the collider aim to mimic the conditions of the very small is called the Standard mile, underground ring eleven thousand that existed a millionth of a billionth of a Model of particle physics. Not so long times per second until they barrel head- billionth of a second after the Big Bang. ago, the atom was believed to be the small- long into one another in the most ener- The energetic particles created in such an est unit of matter. During the twentieth getic particle collisions ever recorded. atmosphere are highly unstable, shattering century, however, physicists cracked The accelerator’s massive superconduct- almost instantly into a shower of smaller the atom’s central nucleus, and now the

20 ON WISCONSIN JEFF MILLER

Sau Lan Wu, a UW- Madison physics professor, leads a group that was the first American research team invited to work on ATLAS, one of two main particle detectors built underground at the French-Swiss border. Her team specializes in studying simulations of particle collisions, preparing for the data that in time will be produced by the LHC. “We do not know where a discovery will come from,” she says, “so we try to cover as many areas as possible.” model is well populated with different sorts the most interesting patterns from With a process of this scale, there particles that are responsible for nearly a sea of data. It’s a critical job, given the aren’t enough computing resources in all of matter’s fundamental properties. staggering scale of the LHC’s particle the world to store such a huge amount Yet, the Standard Model has one collisions: up to 600 million each second. of data, much less analyze it. But fortu- glaring hole: the Higgs particle, sometimes As protons collide and splinter almost nately, Smith says, that’s not necessary. referred to as the God particle. Thought instantly into smaller particles, physicists Most collisions produce particles and to be the source of all matter’s mass, the physical interactions that are already Higgs was first postulated in 1964 by Brit- well understood. Against this back- ish physicist Peter Higgs. People have been As protons collide and ground, the trick is to find those few searching for it ever since, rewarded only splinter almost instantly that reveal interesting new phenomena. by tantalizing but unconfirmed glimpses. Pauline Gagnon, an Indiana University Does it really exist? The LHC should into smaller particles, physicist on the ATLAS team, describes finally settle the question. the process as “looking for a needle in a physicists take the result- barn full of haystacks.” ing debris of particle tracks, Says Smith, ”I’m throwing away A Needle in a 99.999 percent of all the data produced Barn Full of Haystacks momentum, and energy to at the Large Hadron Collider in this Whether in his Chamberlin Hall office reconstruct the “whodunit” detector. And if I make a mistake, that on the UW-Madison campus or its coun- data is lost. Forever.” terpart at CERN, Wesley Smith looks of the whole collision. remarkably relaxed for a man whose job leaves no room for error. take the resulting debris of particle tracks, The Road to Discovery As part of the senior management momentum, and energy to reconstruct the Success at this numbers game comes with of the CMS project, Smith has been “whodunit” of the whole collision. a twist: as the scientists search for some- entrusted with the daunting task of “You identify all the particles coming thing no one has ever seen, how do they selecting data for the entire two thousand- out, you identify all their energies, then know what to look for? And how will member team. He is in charge of design- add everything back up, and you have they know when they find it? ing, building, and running the CMS the complete picture of what happened in “If they exist, each of these new parti- “trigger system,” a sophisticated filter that the collision,” says Smith. cles has a distinctive signature, due to the

FALL 2008 21 way they are produced and the way they decay,” explains Sau Lan Wu. “We have some expectations from theories, telling An Incredible Opportunity us about exceptionally rare and telltale Like students everywhere, the five UW physics doctoral candidates working on the CMS events that will indicate a discovery.” experiment have needed cheap housing — but in this case, finding it required crossing Wu has been hooked on discovery the border from Switzerland to France. And they’ve solved the transportation challenge by since early in her career. As a young sharing one car. scientist in the early 1970s, she was on These compromises are small tradeoffs for the chance to work at the cutting edge of one of the teams that discovered the their field, say the students who are working on their dissertations at CERN and playing “J particle,” which confirmed the exis- an integral part in the LHC effort. tence of a subatomic bit known as the “It’s an incredible opportunity,” says Jessica Leonard, a fifth-year doctoral student. charmed quark. Her team leader, Samuel While a single university is unlikely to have more than a handful of people interested Ting, shared the 1976 Nobel Prize in in a given topic, the students at CERN are surrounded by many of the top minds in their physics for the discovery. A few years fields. “When I was in Wisconsin, I spent maybe a week working on a problem. Here, I later, as a newly appointed assistant pro- can go down the hall and knock on someone’s door, and they can give me the answer to fessor at UW-Madison, she developed whatever the problem is right there,” says fourth-year student Marc Weinberg. the approach that led to the discovery of The project’s buzz and energy are powerful, the students say. “It sucks you in. It defi- the gluon, a particle that “glues” together nitely gives you good reason to want to spend all your time working on it,” says Bill Quayle the pieces of an atom’s nucleus. PhD’08, who just completed his graduate work on the ATLAS project. “It’s very easy to — J.S. Today, she is driven by the goal of [think], ‘Another week has gone by? It’s five o’clock in the morning again?’ ” adding a third finding to her name. “Our focus is on physics discovery,” she says. “We have positioned ourselves to be ready when the data come in. … We do not know where a discovery will come from, UW assistant professor Bruce Mellado, A Higgs discovery would fill in the so we try to cover as many areas as who works closely with Wu. “The Higgs last gap in the Standard Model, virtually possible.” is the jewel of the collaboration,” he says. confirming the theory. No Higgs, on the Each research group within the “And once you understand the Higgs, other hand, would mean the Standard ATLAS and CMS collaborations helps you are prepared for everything else.” Model is fundamentally flawed. “If we prepare for data analysis, as well as don’t find it, we’ll know it’s not there, designing and building the detector. and we have to go back to the drawing Wu’s group specializes in studying par- “Whether we see it or not, board,” Smith adds. “This will be a text- ticle collision simulations that mimic the it will be a big discovery. … book rewriting experience.” data that will be produced by the LHC. Aside from the Higgs, many physi- Simulated collisions and the resulting We have very good theories cists are in search of what they call “new decay patterns are generated based on physics” — particles, interactions, or current theories about how particles that tell us what we think is phenomena beyond the reach of the Stan- behave and interact, and they help the dard Model. Some hope to find evidence scientists learn what to expect and how going to happen, but if it’s of alternate or extra dimensions, such as to interpret what they might see once the something else, it’ll be even those proposed by string theory, which machine is operating — for example, a holds that everything in the universe is mismatch between a simulation and more exciting.” made of tiny vibrating strings of energy. an experimental outcome may signify Other scientists have postulated that some something previously unexplained. proton collisions may create microscopic “By running these simulations, we Rewriting the Textbooks black holes. A lawsuit filed this spring gain a lot of understanding,” Wu says. Though the Higgs particle has garnered against CERN and several U.S. agencies “We learn how to identify and reject much of the limelight as the LHC nears attracted attention — and some concern from our data the very common events, completion, it is not the only goal, nor — related to this idea, though physicists to expose the few rare and golden events will its absence signify a failure. say any black holes created would be hidden in the data that could reveal “Whether we see it or not, it will be a far too weak to cause trouble and would new physics that lies beyond our level big discovery. … We have very good the- evaporate almost immediately. The U.S. of current understanding.” ories that tell us what we think is going to government filed a motion in June to dis- After years of exhaustive testing, the happen, but if it’s something else, it’ll be miss the lawsuit; as of press time, a ruling group is ready for the unexpected, says even more exciting,” says Smith. had not yet been issued.

22 ON WISCONSIN JEFF MILLER

UW physics professor Wesley Smith heads a team that has built more of the CMS — one of the two main particle detectors — than any other university group. Shown here with a computer graphic depict- ing how scientists are filtering the massive amount of information recorded in the experiment, Smith explains just how important it is to identify and save the key data. “I’m throwing away 99.999 percent of all the data produced … in this detector,” he says. “And if I make a mistake, that data is lost. Forever.”

In addition to the Higgs, Wu’s group Competitive Collaboration different analysis methods, but both have is searching for other exotic hypothetical After decades of work, the LHC and its their sights set on the Higgs particle and particles and evidence of supersymmetry, detectors are nearly ready for their debut. supersymmetry, exotic particles, and dark a theory that could help explain interac- As the time approaches, the atmosphere matter. And when the data start coming tions among many of the fundamental on the CERN campus is thick with in, all eyes will be watching to see which forces of nature, or even the mysterious excitement and tense anticipation. While experiment reports a discovery first. dark matter and dark energy that make everyone is eager to start collecting data, “You never want to rely on one up the vast majority of our universe, says the scientists continue to test and re-test experiment. You could make mistakes in UW associate professor Yibin Pan, a components, connections, and computer one,” explains Smith. “You want to have member of Wu’s team. systems up to the last moment — ensur- two independent experiments, produce Scientists also look for new physics ing, if possible, that everything will work two independent analyses ... and if they by focusing on what’s not there. As the as planned. With somewhere around agree, you really know that you’ve got it.” high-energy products of proton collisions twenty-five hundred miles of cabling in The development phase for ATLAS decay into showers of smaller particles, ATLAS alone, even a task as straightfor- and CMS has been marked by coopera- the scientists add up the energies of all ward as checking wiring connections is tion and frequent communication — even the detected particles and compare them no small feat. joint meetings. It just makes sense, Smith to the starting protons. If the two values And everything has to be just right. says, to seek feedback from others who don’t match, something unseen must The level of precision demanded by are intimately familiar with the problems account for the difference. the project is mind-boggling; one slight you’re facing. “For example, if you see a jet of par- miscalculation could doom the entire “No other external review, either pro- ticles going off in one direction but you endeavor. Says Dick Loveless, a UW- vided by the lab or other experts, could don’t see anything going off in the opposite Madison scientist in Smith’s research check our work as well as we could check direction, you know the momentum has group, “If the beam gets loose, the beam each other,” he says. And, in the end, he to be balanced,” explains CERN theoreti- would destroy the detector — it would acknowledges, each experiment needs the cal physicist John Ellis. “It’s what I once drill a hole right through it.” other to provide independent confirma- called a Zen event. You know the little Adding to the tension is the fact that tion of any finding — and to convince the saying, ‘What is the sound of one hand ATLAS and CMS will be looking for world about what they have found. clapping?’ Well, what is the sound of one the same things. The two detectors are As the teams prepare to shift to data jet of particles? It could be dark matter.” designed differently and will use slightly collection and analysis mode, however,

FALL 2008 23 the friendly rivalry may escalate. “There’s a lot of competition between the [CMS and ATLAS] experiments, and it’s going People Who Need People to heat up even more,” laughs Smith. During meal times at CERN, the cafeteria hums with an expectant energy, fueled by an intense scientific drive and ubiquitous strong Swiss coffee. With the international scope of the project and its participants, you might overhear Number Crunching groups chatting in French, English, German, or Chinese — but no matter the tongue, all are While the data are expected to start speaking the language of physics. The art of working together has become a hallmark of the pouring out of the LHC sometime this Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Officials at the United Nations headquarters, only a few miles fall, don’t expect breakthrough discover- away in downtown Geneva, might do well to take a few notes at CERN. ies just yet. The scientists will have a lot of “It’s a big social experiment. It involves a lot of negotiations, a lot of compromises, a lot number crunching to do before they can of collaboration,” says UW physicist Yibin Pan about the project, which encompasses some extract the physics from the raw data. The six thousand people representing nearly two hundred institutions. complexity of the analysis, combined with “Physics is ahead of the curve in international relations,” jokes UW-Madison researcher the volume of data produced, adds up to a Dick Loveless. tremendous demand for computing power. The scientists agree, however, that such a large project couldn’t happen any other way. Fortunately for the groups led by Wu and “It is extraordinarily difficult, but somehow we’ve managed — with all these funding agen- Smith, UW-Madison is ready to deliver. cies and forty different countries — to pull it together,” says UW physics professor Wesley “Wisconsin is unique in that we have Smith. “This machine is completely a global effort.” the largest regional computing facilities Fellow UW physicist Sau Lan Wu views the LHC as a model for the future of particle for both ATLAS and CMS,” says Smith. physics. “A big thing about this kind of collaboration is to learn the culture of working Much of the UW’s computing advan- together, to learn how to share, and how to build things together,” she says. tage is thanks to computer science profes- As the accelerator nears completion, the first stage of the sociological experiment sor Miron Livny, a pioneer in the field of looks like a resounding success. But how to handle scientific success will offer its own set distributed computing, which pools the of challenges. “None of us has ever worked on such a big collaboration,” says Pan. “People computing power of hundreds or even are still trying to work out a way to distribute credit in case of discovery.” thousands of individual processors to effi- — J.S. ciently crunch through large data sets. Combining Livny’s computing tools and expertise with Smith and Wu’s data has proven to be a boon for both dis- DICK LOVELESS ciplines. “It’s a wonderful example for interdisciplinary work, where we work together in a way that advances both of our sciences — me as a computer scientist and them as physicists,” Livny says. Livny’s computing prowess benefits the broader LHC community. As the principal investigator on a national initiative known as the Open Science Grid, Livny has provided distributed computing resources to the larger CMS and ATLAS collaborations, which they will use to help divide their data among many universities and institutions for local processing. “We are really sitting on several key aspects — we have a very strong scientific activity, we have a very strong software involvement, and we have a significant infrastructure involvement at UW scientist Armando Lanaro (left) and Dan Wenman (right), an engineer at the UW Physical Sciences Laboratory, install one of the specialized particle-detecting chambers on the CMS — the national level,” Livny says. “It’s a very one of the two main particle detectors — in 2003. The UW built a large portion of the detector, powerful convergence for UW.” with many of the pieces designed in Wisconsin, then shipped to CERN and assembled on site.

24 ON WISCONSIN JEFF MILLER

Miron Livny, a UW computer science professor, specializes in distributed computing, which pools the computing power of thousands of processors to conduct number crunching at a huge scale. Livny leads a national initiative that uses this ability to collect and divide data from the LHC among many universities and institutions — including the UW — for processing. Scientists estimate that the data recorded for the project will be enough to fill the equiv- alent of about 100,000 DVDs every year.

Wu says the speed of physics success “It is very important to have cross- Legions of scientists around the world are may come down to computing power. checking,” says UW physicist Yibin Pan. eagerly awaiting what the LHC may find. “Several years ago, what we are doing “We are talking about the discovery of At the moment, it is largely a cerebral now would have been impossible without potentially new particles. We don’t want pursuit, with few if any planned practi- all these computing technologies. Science, to have a false alarm.” cal applications. The LHC itself will in a way, is driven by the technology,” not cure diseases, nor solve the growing she says. Compared to other institutions, world food and energy crises. But, as she adds, “We have a lot more computing Exploring the Energy Frontier many scientists are quick to point out, resources. … [I hope] we can detect a What drives these scientists to pursue human ingenuity will undoubtedly step discovery faster.” a task that requires decades of work, in. Countless technologies — x-rays, Even so, any discovery will require presents major challenges, and offers transistors, lasers, and magnetic imaging, time. “It may take us two or three years unrelenting stress — with no guaran- to name a few — can trace their roots to to make sense out of what we’re seeing, tee of success? Ultimately, it may come obscure intellectual endeavors that, at the because scientific discoveries do not come down to basic human curiosity. People time, had no foreseeable practical use. along and announce themselves as discov- have always felt the urge to explore and CERN is well known as the birth- eries,” Smith says. “You don’t sit there and expand their frontiers, and these scien- place of the World Wide Web, devised see it flash, ‘Higgs! Higgs! Higgs!’ First tists are no different. in 1989 by scientist Tim Berners-Lee as a is the realization that you have something “The potential to discover the unex- way to improve data handling. His origi- that you can’t explain, and that’s called a pected is really one of the best parts nal manuscript, modestly titled “Informa- discovery. But defining what discovery of being an experimental physicist,” tion Management: A Proposal,” is still on you have is often more difficult.” says Wu. display in the CERN campus museum, The scientists must carefully check Much like Columbus gazing at the complete with a handwritten comment and re-check their work, challenging western horizon of the Atlantic or Gali- from his boss: “Vague, but exciting.” and gradually excluding every possible leo peering through his telescope at the explanation until left with only one. stars, the LHC offers a window into a Even then they must verify the explana- new world, a previously inaccessible While most Geneva tourists enjoy the lake, city, and mountains, University Communications science tion with further testing, always tending realm full of high-energy particles beyond writer Jill Sakai PhD’06 spent her visit three hundred toward caution in their interpretations. what physicists call the “energy frontier.” feet underground in the CERN tunnels.

FALL 2008 25 HOLLYWOODBADGERS Wisconsin alumni work together to open doors in show biz.

By Jenny Price ’96

ollywood can be a tough town for a Badger, or for Today, three years after the first Hollywood Badgers meet- any creature, really. William Faulkner called it “a ing, the group has more than one hundred and thirty members place where a man can get stabbed in the back while — 90 percent of them under age thirty-five — and some serious climbing a ladder.” word-of-mouth buzz. H But Lesley Feinstein ’03 and Mary Rohlich ’03 turned that “It just spread like wildfire, and we had no idea that there concept inside out in 2005 when they launched Hollywood were so many people a) who wanted to help and b) who were Badgers, a group aimed at helping UW-Madison students and out here,” says Rohlich, who receives e-mails every week from alumni break into the entertainment business. At the time, students who are preparing to make the move to Los Angeles. Feinstein was working for a talent agency and Rohlich for a With a student chapter in Madison and a new Web site, movie studio, where she was flooded with resumes from UCLA HollywoodBadgers.com, the group encourages students and and USC students seeking internships. new graduates to join, upload resumes for consideration As Rohlich sorted through the stacks, she kept returning to for internships and jobs, find roommates, and make connec- one thought: “I want to hire a Badger.” tions — all before even setting foot in Hollywood. The pair, who both graduated with degrees in communica- The group gives new arrivals to town the skinny: it helps tion arts, decided Wisconsin alumni living and working in Holly- to know someone to get a job; even with a college degree, you wood needed some camaraderie — in the form of monthly happy might have to start in the mailroom; you’ve got to be willing to hours — and some honest-to-goodness help navigating a notori- work for little or nothing; and, most important, to live in Los ously tough industry. Angeles, you must own a car.

26 ON WISCONSIN “It’s kind of like a little The group also creates a DON MILICI safety blanket out here,” says little piece of home for UW Feinstein, who now works graduates, as Rohlich found as coordinator of integrated when a college friend who marketing for MTV. had been struggling to meet Feinstein and Rohlich don’t people and find work because just preach the group’s mis- of the writer’s strike attended sion — they live it. Rohlich, one of their football-watching who now works as an assistant parties. to Seth Gordon, director of the “She was just glowing upcoming movie Four Christ- and felt like she was at home. mases, hired five interns from … It was just a totally dif- the UW when she was working ferent energy, and she was at Columbia Pictures. just so happy, and it was like “A lot of us who started she’d found her place here,” [Hollywood Badgers] have Rohlich says. “It definitely gotten to a place where we can still feels like you’re in Madi- help in different ways now,” son when you’re around these she says. “It’s not like you come people.” out here and send your resume UW alumni did not have and expect to get a job. You much of a profile or formal Rohlich (left) and Feinstein founded Hollywood Badgers in 2005. have to know somebody who network in Hollywood when can put your resume in front of Richie Schwartz ’97 moved to somebody to get you in for the interview.” “I’ll always remember Los Angeles ten years ago to work as an Katie Weigand ’07 didn’t even make it assistant to movie director David Lynch. all the way to California before the power- that this was how He recalls driving to a sports bar one ful talent agency International Creative I was able to land morning, hoping it would be open so he Management (ICM) first called her for a could watch a Wisconsin football game. A job interview. Weigand, who earned her on my two feet group of Michigan alumni was there with degree in art history, had been working for the same idea, and Schwartz thought, a talent and modeling agency in Madison out here.” “This can’t be possible. Where are all the when she met Feinstein at a Hollywood Badgers?” Badgers panel on campus. The two women kept in touch, and Hollywood Badgers was “sorely needed” and has Weigand sent Feinstein her resume after graduation. ICM strengthened the UW alumni presence, says Schwartz, who tracked Weigand down as she was making the long drive from now works as manager of creative affairs for late-night host the Midwest because Feinstein had forwarded her resume to an Conan O’Brien’s NBC-Universal-based TV production com- ICM agent she knew. Weigand interviewed the day after arriv- pany. He also has used his industry connections to link other ing in Los Angeles and started work the following week in the UW alumni with job prospects. mailroom — right alongside people with advanced degrees from “Wisconsin meant nothing to a lot of people. It was just a Ivy League schools. name,” he says. “Having the cachet of a group is almost a brand “I’ll always remember that this was how I was able to land on in a way.” my two feet out here,” Weigand says. As it turns out, her stint in It was clear the group had made an impression after Fein- the mailroom lasted just three weeks; she now works as the assis- stein got promoted at the talent agency where she once worked tant to an agent in ICM’s international and alternative media as an assistant to a film agent. “He said to me, ‘I only want to department, which buys and sells reality TV programming, hire someone from the Hollywood Badgers, because everyone including Dancing with the Stars. I meet from that group is just so smart and motivated,’ ” Fein- Colleen Kerns ’06 turned to the group’s Web site to find a stein says. roommate before relocating to Hollywood. One woman who Kerns, who served as the same agent’s assistant before leav- responded to her post had cats — a deal breaker for Kerns’s ing to work for movie director Brandon Camp, heard the identi- allergies — but the cat owner’s boyfriend ended up helping cal directive in searching for her replacement. “He really wanted Kerns land her first job at a small TV production company. me to get someone from Wisconsin,” she says. “It was kind of a Now that Kerns is working as a director’s assistant, she says rush — we had to settle for someone from Texas.” she’s “hoping to definitely return the luck,” a mindset Hollywood

Badgers has instilled in its members. Jenny Price is a writer for On Wisconsin.

FALL 2008 27 Walking theWalk After witnessing the damage from an oil spill, John Francis gave up driving and talking for years on end — all to raise awareness about the need to protect the environment. BY DASHKA SLATER

NE FRIDAY MORNING PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN FRANCIS in February, a group of students at the University of California at Berkeley Osettled onto the blue upholstery of a north campus lecture hall and readied themselves for a guest speaker. The students — undergraduates in a class called Intro- duction to Culture and Natural Resource Management in the U.S. — had been told that John Francis PhD’91was a man of unusual commitment to the environmental cause; he had gone for twenty- two years without riding in a motorized vehicle, and seventeen years without speaking. They prepared themselves for someone noble and ascetic — someone who would exhort them to be uncomfort- able — and more than one of them felt slightly irritated at the prospect. But Francis was not exactly what they had expected. For one thing, he was playing a banjo. The banjo is a happy instrument by nature, but in Francis’s hands it became positively exuberant. He danced a little as he played, shutting his eyes, swaying, smiling, and tapping out a rhythm on the banjo’s silver body. Some of the students Francis took this self-portrait in 1974, two years after he made the decision to give up using motorized vehicles. clapped along. When the song was over, Facing page: Today, he lives in Point Reyes Station, California, Francis held out his arms. where he oversees Planetwalk, a nonprofit he founded to “Thank you for being here,” he said. raise environmental awareness. “And I say, ‘Thank you for being here’ because after seventeen years of not speaking, those were the first words out of my mouth.” Francis’s journey began in 1971 when two oil tankers collided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, spilling 840,000 gallons of crude into San Francisco Bay.

28 ON WISCONSIN ART ROGERS

Determined to end his participation in twenty miles from his former home in manager at UW-Madison’s Gaylord Nel- the oil economy, Francis walked across Inverness, California, to the town of San son Institute for Environmental Studies. the United States and South America. Anselmo in homage to a friend who had “But he doesn’t pressure people to accept Along the way, he earned a bachelor’s died in a boating accident. He even acted him or buy into his lifestyle.” degree at Southern Oregon State College, out the chip he had on his shoulder, a master’s degree at the University of the chip that said, “I’m walking for the HEN I FIRST MET Montana-Missoula, and a PhD at UW- environment. What are you doing?” Francis, twenty-eight Madison. Eventually, he got a job at the By the time his lecture was over, the years ago, he was living U.S. Coast Guard writing oil spill regula- students — part of a generation that is in Ashland, Oregon, and tions, was named a Goodwill Ambassa- not particularly attracted to the notion heW was undoubtedly a local personal- dor for the United Nations, and wrote a of personal sacrifice — were completely ity. I was a sixteen-year-old high school book about his experiences that has been captivated. “I thought it was going to be student, and Francis was then in his mid- optioned to be made into a movie. Now really serious,” one student remarked to thirties, but we were both mentored by the man who became famous for walk- another afterward. “But it was so chill.” the same teacher, the poet Lawson Inada, ing and not talking spends his time flying It’s a common response to an encoun- who taught at Southern Oregon State around the world giving speeches. ter with Francis. His story makes people College, and we had friends in common. But Francis doesn’t just talk. He acts expect him to raise a haughty eyebrow I remember Francis as a gentle, humor- out any story he tells with a precise and at their profligate lifestyles. Instead, they ous presence who communicated with comic pantomime vocabulary developed find a merry-eyed man who is far more whistles and gestures and sometimes by during the years he was mute. Standing interested in listening than in lecturing. writing on a pad of paper. in the UC-Berkeley lecture hall, he acted “He has a tune in his head that he We had been out of touch for decades out driving to see the oil spill with his marches to, and he definitely does what when I met him at his office in Point girlfriend, Jean, his arm slung over her he thinks is right for him,” says Barbara Reyes Station, California, last winter. invisible shoulder. He acted out walking Borns, former student services program Housed in the upstairs floor of an Old

FALL 2008 29 West saloon, his office was small and number of related projects. It’s a diverse year on his birthday, Francis would sparse, with a desk, a filing cabinet, a and wide-ranging resume, which Francis evaluate whether he wanted to continue bookshelf, and a window framed by sums up in the broadest of terms. his silence. stained white curtains. On the walls were “I’m a planetwalker,” he says. “A pla- When Francis stopped talking, he photographs of family and friends, a cou- netwalker is someone who realizes that discovered he could no longer lie, at least ple of his watercolors, and an immense we are on the planet with everybody else, not without putting a great deal of effort map of the Yukon River watershed, and they’re just kind of walking around. into it. And he realized that he had been where he had recently traveled. It’s a metaphor for a lot of the problems lying quite a bit, compensating for the At sixty-two, Francis was no longer we seem to be facing. They’re so huge, low self-esteem that can be the legacy the willowy beanpole that I remembered and we cannot imagine taking them on. of growing up black in America. Being from my teen years, and his dreadlocks But if we do it one step at a time, with a silent meant that not only could he no and beard are going gray. He drives now vision, I believe we can solve most of the longer lie, but he had to allow himself (a hybrid Toyota Prius), and he talks. problems that are facing us.” to become something like a clown. He But the basic spirit was the one I remem- writes in the book about becoming a bered — affable and inquisitive. His RANCIS FIRST HAD THE “colorful local character” — the black laugh is an infectious, sputtering guffaw idea of ending his collabora- man with the banjo who neither drives that seems to seize his entire body. tion with the oil economy after nor talks. “I decided to embrace my con- Still, much has changed. He is mar- witnessing the oil spill on San dition, to grab the tail of the tiger and ried now, with two sons, aged one and FranciscoF Bay in 1971, but he didn’t act use the notoriety to further the cause of seven. (He also has a nine-year-old on it for several months. When he did, environmental protection,” he writes. “I daughter who lives with her mother in he found it immensely difficult. Travel- decided to use my life for change.” Bolivia.) His book, Planetwalker: How ing at three miles per hour while the rest And so Francis set out walking, to Change Your World One Step at a Time, of the world went sixty meant missing carrying with him newspaper clippings which he self-published in 2005, was out on everything from impromptu vol- that explained why he was silent and recently reissued by National Geo- leyball games (by the time he got there, on foot. He walked to Ashland, Oregon, graphic Books. His Prius was a gift the games were over) to his job as a vol- a distance of five hundred miles. He from producer/director Tom Shadyac unteer firefighter (he couldn’t ride in the got a college degree there, went north (Evan Almighty, Liar Liar, Ace Ventura: Pet fire truck). And he made people angry. to Washington, and then set out for Detective), who wants to turn the book His choice not to drive seemed an implicit Montana, sometimes walking twenty- into a movie. In the course of catching criticism of their car dependence. People eight miles in a day. Reading about up, Francis mentioned canoeing one wanted to argue with him about the his journey, you keep thinking he’ll be arrested or beaten up; after all, he’s a black man who doesn’t talk, and he’s “I’d bring my banjo out, and it was like everything walking across middle America and changed. Instead of looking at me with suspicion, camping out by railroad tracks and roadsides. It’s hard to imagine a more they would play an air banjo and smile and wave.” vulnerable position. “Yeah,” he replied when I made this thousand miles down the Yukon River futility of his action, and being a twenty- observation. “My parents were really with Native Alaskans to highlight envi- seven-year-old man with passionate frightened. At the same time, I have to ronmental and social concerns, speaking convictions, he found himself more than say that we are all vulnerable. We travel at an outdoor retailers convention, par- willing to oblige. along at sixty miles per hour in automo- ticipating in a walk with the American “I got to the place where I was argu- biles, pass each other by inches, and we Indian Movement’s Dennis Banks, and ing so much with people about it, that I don’t think we’re vulnerable. I think forty giving the closing address at the presti- came upon my birthday, and I decided I thousand people per year [the number gious TED (Technology, Entertainment, was just not going to speak for one day,” of Americans who die in car accidents] Design) conference, right after Al Gore. he recalls. “And that really changed my would beg to differ.” He’s also been an ethics adviser for life. The first thing I learned was that I Once, early in his journey, he was Strong Angel, a national disaster relief was not listening to anyone. I already walking on a country road in northern initiative. And overseeing Planetwalk, a knew what I thought was the answer.” California when two white men in a pick- nonprofit organization that he founded Intrigued by what keeping silent was up truck pulled up. “Boy, are you lost or to raise environmental awareness, keeps teaching him, he kept silent for another something?” one asked, and then placed him busy developing environmental cur- day, and then another, and then at last the barrel of a .44 against Francis’s head ricula for schools, as well as handling a decided to remain silent for a year. Each and pulled the trigger.

30 ON WISCONSIN WASHINGTON

MONTANA NORTH DAKOTA OREGON IDAHO

WISCONSIN

SOUTH DAKOTA MINNESOTA WYOMING

IOWA PENNSYLVANIA CALIFORNIA OHIO ILLINOIS INDIANA

Nothing happened. There was no Francis walked across the United States, stopping long enough to earn three degrees bullet in the chamber, and Francis along the way, and then traversed South found himself making the okay sign to America over the space of several different his would-be murderers and continuing trips. Along the way, he encountered challenges ranging from racists pointing a gun down the road. at his head, to thirst in the Idaho desert, But mostly, Francis seemed to grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park, and encounter kindness rather than animos- malaria in Bolivia. But more often than not, he experienced the kindness of strangers who ity. People offered him food, money, and offered him food, water, money, or shelter. shelter, or tracked him down just so they could tell him their problems. Newspa- She found a willing partner in geology pers wrote about him. Children followed professor John Steinhart, who argued, him on their bicycles. The banjo helped “If you can’t do it at Madison, you can’t — somehow people reacted differently do it anywhere.” to the sight of a stranger walking while And so Francis was admitted to playing the banjo than they did to the Madison — on probation, so they could sight of a stranger walking in silence. see whether or not he was up to the task “I’d bring my banjo out, and it was of getting a PhD. “I knew to expect a like everything changed,” Francis recalls. guy with a banjo and kind of wild hair,” “Instead of looking at me with suspicion, studies program in Missoula, his fel- Borns recalls. “My whole staff was kind they would play an air banjo and smile lowship required him to be a teaching of uptight — ‘How are we going to com- and wave.” assistant. It was probably the first time municate with him? How are we going Francis’s ability to disarm people anyone had taught a university class to know what he wants?’ — but it only who might be hostile or suspicious of him there without talking, and there were takes about five minutes of being with was crucial during his many years on the complaints from parents who felt their John to be comfortable.” Francis’s non- road. He knew that his choices would tuition payments entitled their children to verbal communication methods slowed anger some people, but he no longer a teacher who spoke. But the university things down, but Borns says that the pace minded. “I just took that as the price of backed him up, and it turned out that the had its benefits, explaining, “It gave you a admission for what I was doing,” he says misunderstandings that sometimes grew different level of communication.” now. “There was a point when I wanted out of Francis’s pantomime engendered Francis proved his academic chops everyone to do what I did, and then early some of the most interesting discussions. in his first semester. But there were on, especially after I stopped talking, I In the end, he won a teaching award. times when he doubted he would get his realized that this was a journey I was on When Francis applied to Madison, degree. He remembers a point two years — I had to do it.” the Nelson Institute’s Barbara Borns into his program when he was struggling Surprisingly, people were willing to remembers thinking, “Oh boy, this is with earth sciences and thought that join him on that journey, even if it meant kind of a strange fellow.” Borns, who perhaps he would just move on. “And changing the way they did things. While is now a board member of Planetwalk, then I realized, this is a PhD program, getting his master’s at the University of called around to see if she could find and you are a fellow here,“ he recalls. Montana’s graduate environmental someone to run interference for him. Continued on page 57

FALL 2008 31 Fifty years ago, UW scientist Charlie Bentley made Cold his maiden voyage to a frigid, faraway land – and he’s been returning ever since.

BY JENNY PRICE ’96

Charlie Bentley’s adventure of a lifetime has lasted more than fifty years. It started in 1957, when he first set foot in Antarctica as a young researcher. Bentley’s own photographs — some reproduced on these pages — document his two-year stay, including exploration of uncharted territory and some remarkable discoveries. “I never looked back. I never looked around. I never considered doing something else,” says Bentley, shown at right in December 1958. Today an emeritus UW professor of geophys- ics, he has returned fifteen times and is considered a leading expert on Antarctica. Yet, his work is not done. Now seventy- eight, Bentley serves as principal investigator for the UW’s Ice Coring and Drilling Service and most recently traveled to the continent in January 2008. But it was his first trip into the unknown that got him hooked.

32 ON WISCONSIN FALL 2008 33 Bentley, far left, defended his PhD thesis at Columbia University and left the next day for the first leg of his journey. He boarded a ship bound for Antarctica from New Zealand with other team members (left to right): Ned Ostenso ’52, MS’55, PhD’62, the team’s assistant geophysicist and a UW assistant professor in the early 1960s; Tony Morency MS’66, PhD’68, the team’s mechanic; and Vern Ander- son, the team’s chief glaciologist. Mario Giovinetto, not pictured, was the assistant glaciologist. Bentley, the team’s chief seismolo- gist, marked his twenty-seventh birthday — December 23, 1956 — “in the raw sea, he recalls.”

Penguins and seals populated the unbroken sea ice where Bentley and his team disembarked from their ship during the journey south. “There were no rules or regulations about how close to the animal life you could get, so you could walk right up,” Ice measures three to six feet thick in the Antarctic sea, the reason Bentley’s ship he explains. Today, the Antarctic Treaty needed Navy icebreaker USS Atka to lead the way through the expanse of large pieces System dictates that only researchers with of floating ice that were packed together. A helicopter that took off from the icebreaker special permission can get this close. Bent- would search for openings, called leads, to help find an easier route. ley says the penguins and seals in Antarc- tica have no natural enemies outside of the water, “so once they’re up on the ice, they have no reason to be afraid of anything.”

34 ON WISCONSIN PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHARLIE BENTLEY (5)

Mukluks made from caribou skin offered some relief when the temperature hit 65 degrees below zero. Bentley’s colleague Ned Ostenso, at left, is sporting heavy leather mitts known as “bear paws” or “nose wipers,” because of the fur on the back. “They still have them; I got some last January,” Bentley says. But the rest of modern Antarctic gear replaces animal skins with down clothing and thermal boots. The new stuff is lightweight compared with the heavy, army-issue clothing that kept Bentley and his team members warm on their traverses, but, he says, “I don’t think it works any better.”

Byrd Station was still a work-in- progress when Bentley and his team arrived. Living quarters and research labs, made up of four-by-eight-foot prefab panels clipped together, were still under construction. They traveled from Little America Station in Feb- ruary 1957 by Sno-Cats — tracked vehicles built for driving on snow and terrain — a nearly month-long trip along a marked trail. “It seemed like it was always sunny and nice weather,” Bentley says. “We did have storms, but they don’t linger very long in my memory.”

FALL 2008 35 Layers of previously accumu- lated snow record individual storms and big changes in temperature each season. Researchers were able to get a closer look using this snow pit, dug 100 feet deep. Bentley says he climbed down on occasion to help with the work, but it was the chief responsibility of the team’s glaciologists, Vern Ander- son and Mario Giovinetto. The person pictured here is not identified.

Improvisation was key when it came to testing geophysical equipment in the lab at Byrd Station. Bentley used a simple stick to flip the on/off switch for amplifiers that were connected to twenty-four detectors out on the snow surface. Meanwhile, his other arm had to remain inside a developing box, where sensors recorded the signal reflected from the bottom of the ice sheet after charges were set off to determine ice depth. Bentley taught himself how to do seismic work on a research visit to Green- land while completing his PhD. “It worked beautifully; the records are just as good as anything they get nowadays … but the ease of getting them is rather different,” he says.

36 ON WISCONSIN PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHARLIE BENTLEY (5)

Snow buried buildings at winter’s end, along with the Sno-Cats that Bentley and his team would take on their summertime traverse across the continent. It took several days to dig out the vehicles before the journey could begin — six months after they first arrived at Byrd Station.

Ordinary life events crept in during the winter months that put much of Byrd Station underneath snowfall, including these puppies born midwinter, the offspring of a pair of huskies that joined the station as pets. Bentley took advantage of the minimal entertainment available during his Water for Byrd Station came directly from the Antarctic second winter at Byrd Station: Ping-Pong and movies. “I snow, which the navy man pictured above is shoveling into the saw Mogambo seven times,” he says of the 1953 film starring station’s melter. Bentley says there was no need for the resulting Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly. water to be treated, because it was “nice clean snow,” though, he admits, “sometimes it got a little diesel fuel in it” from the genera- tor that provided the heat.

FALL 2008 37 PHOTOS COURTEST OF CHARLIE BENTLEY (2)

5,000. Bentley covered that many miles on five traverses of Antarctica during the 1950s and 1960s. On the first traverse, his team discovered the lowest point on earth not covered by water — later designated as the Bentley Subglacial Trench — at 8,383 feet below sea level. The team made the discovery by drilling holes in the ice, setting off explosives, and measuring how long it took for the seismic signal to return. Antarctica’s Sentinel Range of mountains also has peaks named for Wisconsin researchers, including Bentley.

Back to the Future Charlie Bentley plans to go back to Antarctica in 2011. That’s when the Deep Ice Sheet Coring Drill is expected to reach the bed of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where he did his early exploration of the continent. The powerful drill, developed at UW’s Space Science and Engineering Center, is boring through a distance greater than two miles. Bentley serves as principal investigator for the drill project, which produces ice cores containing a record of the last 80,000 years of the earth’s climate. Scientists use that information to determine the connection between previous increases in greenhouse gases and climate change. “The best way to figure out how to predict climate in the future is to understand what climate has done in the past,” Bentley says. “And the best record of what climate has done in the past comes Bentley and his team decided to name this extinct volcano from ice cores.” —J.P. Mount Takahe after the group’s first re-supply plane — a Navy R4D that happened to share the name of a New Zealand flight- less bird. Shown here in December 1957, with Bentley reclining at the front, the group did its own navigation during its three- On Wisconsin writer Jenny Price ’96 is in the market for a Sno-Cat she can month journey across previously unexplored territory. “We drive to work during Madison’s brutal winter months. were so far from where anybody had ever been before,” he says.

38 ON WISCONSIN WOLFGANG HOFFMANN

Botulin production circa 1994: Eric Johnson (left) and Ed Schantz examine a test tube containing 300 million therapeutic doses of botulinum toxin.

Missing out on WARF’s Botox helped change the way the UW evaluates the commercial new possibilities of research.

By John Allen Eric Johnson wants a second bite of the poisoned apple. The first was bittersweet. It gave the bacteriology professor the foundation for his career, and provided the material for dozens of publications, but it could have been so much more. To clarify: the apple here is just a metaphor. The poison is literal.

FALL 2008 39 COURTESY OF ERIC JOHNSON

Johnson’s lab at the Food Research Institute cultured C. botulinum bacteria (like the fellow — not actual size — at far right on facing page) in large glass jugs. For years the lab earned part of its funding by selling purified toxin to academic and commercial researchers around the country. UW grads Michael Goodnough and Carl Malizio turned that work into a spinoff company, Metabiologics.

Johnson is an expert in botulin — Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), And that, notes Johnson with regret, that is, botulinum toxin — one of the which acquires and manages patents on was unfortunate. “Of the 150 milligrams most poisonous substances on the planet. behalf of UW-Madison researchers, and of botulinum toxin in that original batch, Two decades ago, when he was a young asked WARF to patent 79-11. we kept back 50 for research. The rest addition to the faculty of the College of But WARF was not enthusiastic — not treated some twenty thousand patients.” Agricultural and Life Sciences, Johnson about 79-11, or about botulin in general. In 1988, Scott sold his interest in took that first nibble under the guidance “I don’t want to get anyone there in Oculinum to Allergan, a pharmaceutical of Edward Schantz ’31, PhD’39, an emeri- trouble,” says Johnson, “but they kind of company then known chiefly for produc- tus professor at CALS’s Food Research thought we were crazy. They didn’t think ing eye drops. The next year, the U.S. Institute. Schantz was perhaps the world’s anyone would ever want to use [botulin] Food and Drug Administration approved leading expert in the production of botu- as a medicine.” botulin batch 79-11 for the treatment of lin, and he’d been providing the toxin And, at the time, they had a point. strabismus (crossed eyes) and blepharo- — particularly a batch he’d developed “In the 1980s, the world market for spasm (uncontrolled blinking). Allergan in November 1979, called 79-11 — to a botulinum toxin was zero,” says Paul renamed the drug Botox and soon discov- San Francisco ophthalmologist named Pucci ’02, MBA’05, a licensing associ- ered that it was useful for treating a wide Alan Scott. It was the key ingredient in ate at WARF. Oculinum was then still variety of ailments, including pediatric an eye medicine Scott was developing being tested, and the notion of injecting a cerebral palsy, hemifacial spasm, and called Oculinum, and Schantz and John- deadly substance into the muscles around cervical dystonia or “wry neck.” And, son thought that Oculinum might prove a patient’s eyeball could not have seemed more profitably, it made an effective successful. They went to the Wisconsin appealing. WARF declined the request. wrinkle remover, turning the drug into

40 ON WISCONSIN a household name and cultural icon. and fellow researchers; Karl Paul Link’s much more aggressive.” While in the past According to Allergan’s 2007 annual development of the blood-thinner dic- WARF tried to limit its patenting efforts to report, Botox sales amounted to $1.2 bil- umerol (and — under the name Warfarin ideas that had obvious commercial poten- lion last year, not one dime of which goes — rat poison); Dale Wurster’s pharma- tial, botulin showed that big opportunities to Johnson, WARF, or UW-Madison. ceutical tablet coating; and Folkert Belzer can be far from obvious. “That was a mistake,” says Pucci. and James Southard’s organ transplant “When Ed Schantz and Eric Johnson “But we try to learn from our mistakes solution. came to WARF with botulinum toxin, and make better decisions going forward.” “This is a home-run industry,” says there was no way of knowing what a WARF, like Johnson, is now hop- Hardiman, meaning that it’s the big hits huge market would develop,” he says. ing for a second, more profitable bite of that pay the bills. “But then that’s how revolutionary mar- the apple. In 1996, Johnson and other WARF decides whether to try to kets are — sometimes they don’t develop researchers developed a new, purer batch acquire a patent based on the answers to until the product is there.” of botulin, which WARF did patent. In four questions: Is the invention actually Currently, WARF seeks around 2004, the foundation licensed it to a com- new and original? Is it useful? Is it some- two hundred new patents each year, not pany called Mentor Corporation, which thing people would pay money for? And including foreign patent equivalents, and hopes to turn it into a Botox competitor is it enforceable? If the answer to all four it negotiates as many as a hundred new under the name PurTox. is yes, then WARF is likely to go after a licensing agreements annually. This more According to Pucci, Botox helped patent. aggressive posture reflects what Brad change the way WARF judges patent But this is risky, as the patenting Barham sees as a growing desire among opportunities, opening the foundation to process costs far more than the few hun- universities to turn research into commer- ideas that don’t seem immediately prof- dred dollars that the U.S. Patent and cial success. Barham, chair of the UW’s itable. It also made Johnson far more Trademark Office requires as its filing department of agricultural economics, savvy about how to find commercial fee. WARF must conduct what’s called and associate professor Jeremy Foltz opportunities in his research — and eager a “prior art” search — in other words, conducted a survey of more than a to recover the public renown that he and it must make sure that the invention the thousand life scientists nationwide to ask Schantz missed out on. UW scientist came up with hasn’t already them about their commercial endeavors. been invented by someone else and isn’t The results, published in 2007, Long Balls and Lotto obvious to someone schooled in the art. indicate that relatively few university And it must answer any questions or researchers are getting patents, but a very To see the House that Patents Built, go concerns that the patent office has. The small number are scoring big. Some 53 to 614 Walnut Street. It’s hard to miss: a process can take years and typically costs percent of the scientists surveyed held 181-foot tower that dominates the skyline between $10,000 and $50,000. After that, no patents at all, and another 39 percent of western campus. This is the headquarters of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and it’s one of the most obvi- “This is a home-run industry,” says John ous material legacies of the commercial success of UW research. Hardiman. When it comes to patents, it’s the Founded in 1925, WARF has acquired patents on more than 1,800 big hits that pay the bills. UW-Madison scientists’ inventions and discoveries, and — with some 856 patents pending — the number is growing licensing managers and associates — had just rapidly. WARF has also entered into such as Hardiman and Paul Pucci, who one. Only more than 1,500 licensing agreements to handle the work on UW-Madison’s puri- 8 percent bring those inventions to market, and has fied botulin — have to negotiate a licens- were receiv- returned more than $900 million to the ing agreement with a company, hoping to ing patent university through grants to researchers. bring the invention to commercial success revenue, but one But most of that money, says licens- within twenty years, the lifespan of a researcher reported ing manager John Hardiman, has come typical patent. receiving $24 million, and from just a dozen or so patent groupings, Extending Hardiman’s baseball meta- two others $1 million each. The such as Harry Steenbock’s method for phor, WARF used to aim for home runs median gain was only $5,000. irradiating milk to activate vitamin D, by being very selective about the pitches it “When your lab’s budget is $200,000 and further vitamin D-related inventions swung at. But since missing out on Botox, a year, that’s not a lot of money,” Bar- from Hector DeLuca MS’53, PhD’55 he acknowledges, WARF has “become ham says. Patenting, he discovered, “is

FALL 2008 41 really sort of like a lottery. Most people “Ed was a wonderful, gentle, helpful against it — means that it can slip past a aren’t seeing much of any payoff. But man,” says Johnson, “who also thought body’s defenses. These elements all made the ones who are get huge returns.” that poisons were really interesting.” it intriguing to doctors in search of new As a UW graduate student, Schantz medications, including Alan Scott, Passion for Poison had studied milk production, but during creator of Oculinum. the Second World War, he joined the “Although the paralyzing action of Eric Johnson hopes to be one of the army and was put to work in the biologi- botulinum toxin had been known and winners of that lottery. Since coming to cal weapons program at Maryland’s Fort studied by several physiologists for many the UW in 1985, he’s been named as an Detrick. There, between 1944 and 1971, years, it was never visualized at the time as inventor on some twenty-six patents, but he became an expert in the purification a means of treatment for control over ner- the one with current home-run potential and production of botulin, chiefly with the vous diseases causing involuntary muscle is U.S. Patent #5,512,547: “Pharmaceuti- aim of investigating its military potential. activity in the human body,” Schantz cal composition of botulinum neurotoxin Considered the most toxic protein on wrote. “The use of botulinum toxin in and method of preparation,” which he Earth, botulin is the product of the bac- medicine for the treatment of human and his former student Michael Good- terium Clostridium botulinum, which gets disease was an entirely new concept.” nough ’86, MS’91, PhD’94 acquired in its name from the Latin word for sausage: The intriguing possibility of medicinal 1996. That formulation of botulin is the botulus. It was initially discovered on botulin stuck with Schantz, even after basis for PurTox. tainted meat, and before Botox, botulin the United States joined the Biological To him, a second bite of the apple was chiefly known as the cause of botu- and Toxic Weapons Convention and shut would mean more than money — it would lism, a particularly nasty form of food down Fort Detrick’s botulin operation. be a chance to restore credit for botulin poisoning. A neurotoxin, botulin does its Schantz returned to his alma mater, tak- development to those who deserve it. deadly work by impeding communica- ing along his poisons and his contacts. Johnson is the guardian of the tion between nerve and muscle cells, thus From his lab at the UW’s Food Research UW’s role in the story of botulin. His paralyzing its victims. The median lethal Institute, he continued to culture C. botu- office is literally crammed with his- dose (that is, the amount that, if given to linum in glass jugs, purifying batches of tory. Pointing to the floor-to-ceiling a hundred subjects, would result in death the poison and shipping samples to “any stacks of boxes, he shrugs and says, for at least fifty of them) is one billionth reputable laboratory,” he wrote. “There are some important papers in of a gram per kilogram of the victim’s “Ed was very generous,” says John- there, originals from Ed Schantz’s years body mass. This means that, theoreti- son. “He shared his botulinum toxin openly, and at little profit to himself. I don’t think there was a piece of botuli- The median lethal dose of botulin is one billionth num research done anywhere that Ed didn’t have a hand in.” of a gram per kilogram of the victim’s body mass. When Johnson joined the faculty in This means that, theoretically, one kilogram of pure 1985, Schantz brought him into the botulin-producing business, enticing him with botulin would contain enough poison to kill every the poison’s possibilities. “It’s fascinating to me that something so poisonous can man, woman, and child on the planet. be used as a medication,” says Johnson. He took over the production business as Schantz withdrew into retirement, and at [the bio- cally, one kilogram of pure botulin would when the older scientist passed away in logical war- contain enough poison to kill every man, 2005, Johnson eulogized him in univer- fare research woman, and child on the planet. sity publications. program at] Fort Still, Schantz determined that the He also defends Schantz’s role from Detrick. They could poison would make a poor weapon — the what he feels are slights from the Botox have real historical toxin is unstable and easily destroyed, crowd. “Allergan likes to imply that they value. I couldn’t just and there are vaccines against it. But bot- developed botulinum toxin all on their throw them away.” ulin did show several intriguing charac- own,” he says. “Well, they can’t get away The UW had botulin teristics: it’s specific, meaning that it can with saying that kind of thing when I’m studies long before Schantz be targeted to particular nerve groups; in the room.” came to Madison in 1972, but his its effects last for a long time; and its high Although Schantz and Johnson arrival added a titan of toxins to the toxicity — the lethal dose is lower than didn’t land a patent on 79-11, the two university’s faculty. the amount necessary to raise antibodies scientists continued to work on botulin.

42 ON WISCONSIN Johnson’s lab produced toxin —and Mentor’s investment in Madison antibodies specific to it — and sold the JEFF MILLER shows that the company has high hopes material to researchers and commercial for PurTox, but there are also consider- entities, with the profits going to support able risks. Not only does Botox dominate the lab. the botulin market, but there are other “It was a nice little business,” John- competitors as well. Under the names son says. “It helped fund our lab, and it Dysport and Reloxin, the French phar- meant that we weren’t as dependent on maceutical company Ipsen produces grants as other researchers are.” It also botulin, and the U.S. firm Solstice became a training ground for Schantz’s Neurosciences produces a variety of the academic heirs — Johnson and the toxin under the name Myobloc. students who came through his lab. Although PurTox may not turn out Eventually, the university required to be a home run, Hardiman says that that the botulin business move off cam- Mentor’s willingness to gamble on botu- pus. It wasn’t considered research, and lin — and to open a facility in Madison so the university felt it shouldn’t take up — illustrates one important way that the lab space or time, and further, increasing toxin is already offering a return to the security concerns were making it impossi- university. The arrival of Mentor supports ble for Johnson to use students in his lab. not only Johnson, by providing him with “I’d have to get FBI clearance for them,” a commercial outlet for his research, but Johnson says, “and that just takes too it also aids Metabiologics, as it will draw long.” And so Johnson’s former students on that firm’s techniques and expertise. Michael Goodnough and Carl Malizio ’88 Eric Johnson has spent decades trying to find Goodnough, like Johnson, is party to the spun the poison-making enterprise off as ways to turn the world’s deadliest protein PurTox patent, and he, Johnson, and into a highly versatile medication. WARF a new company, Metabiologics. Located hopes that PurTox will earn the UW a signifi- Malizio are acting as consultants for Men- at the UW’s research park, it continues cant return on that research. tor Biologics. The business may give Met- to produce botulin for government and abiologics the capital and the workload to university labs and has seen growth of sweepstakes, the firm was best known for expand beyond its current two-employee between 20 and 30 percent a year since manufacturing breast implants. PurTox base, as well as attract a wide variety of 2004, according to Goodnough. marks a completely new line of business bioscience jobs to the Madison area. But for Johnson, also a Metabiolog- for Mentor, which is why the company “We think we can build a critical ics board member, commercial ambition built its botulin factory in Madison. mass in town around biotech research,” is just a sideline. “I don’t know business,” “Mentor Biologics has just one prod- Goodnough says. “The more companies he says. “I know toxin.” And what he uct,” says vice president AnnaMarie that we can locate here near campus, the wants is to see botulin’s role as a medica- Daniels, “and that’s PurTox. We want to more opportunities we can create here for tion grow. be in Madison to be close to Eric John- scientists and researchers. And the more son and his expertise.” opportunities there are, the more of them The UW-created, newer variety of The Second Bite will want to be part of the university.” botulin, Mentor believes, is better than But Johnson hopes to guard To see Madison’s Houses that Botulin the stuff that’s in Botox. “It’s a highly Schantz’s botulin legacy, so Madison’s Built, travel to the University Research purified, extremely well characterized economy is a secondary concern. His goal Park on the city’s southwest side. There, form of the toxin,” Daniels says. She is to secure a little of the public renown two buildings bear the name Mentor Bio- believes that purity gives PurTox a that he feels his mentor missed out on. logics. One manufactures the poison; the superior composition, and she hopes that “Ed had the foresight back in the for- other will freeze-dry it for transport. But this, as well as the cachet of a connection ties to see that this could be something,” none of the drug is currently being sold, to Ed Schantz’s intellectual heirs, will Johnson says. “Botulinum toxin has as PurTox awaits approval by the FDA. enable Mentor to expand its role beyond been really valuable and fundamental in The drug is in its third and final phase of cosmetic medicine and break into thera- expanding our understanding of biology clinical trials for cosmetic uses, and the peutic treatments. and disease. It’s led to some fundamental first phase for therapeutic uses. “When Americans hear botulinum discoveries in basic biology.” Mentor Biologics is owned by Men- toxin, they immediately think of wrin- tor Corporation, a company based in kles,” she says. “But worldwide, at least John Allen is senior editor of On Wisconsin — Santa Barbara, California. Before tak- half the market is therapeutic, for the although the botulin treatments make him look ing on PurTox and entering the botulin treatment of neuromuscular disorders.” more like a junior editor.

FALL 2008 43 SCENE

CREEPY CRAWLIES Students at C.H. Bird Elementary in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, try to make peace with the bug world during a visit from the UW entomology department’s Insect Ambassadors program. The ambassadors are undergraduate and graduate students who take the critters to visit skit- tish kids at local schools, clubs, and organizations. “Kids love playing with the live insects,” says ambassador (and grad student) Mike Hill- strom ’03. “And it gets [them] to open their minds about insects — that every insect isn’t scary and gross.” Well, maybe not every insect. Photo by Jeff Miller SPORTS

Badger Jake Via words sent from here and abroad, one soldier’s story speaks to many.

People from all over the coun- Wisconsin sports and his antici- sure there is a humvee in the Team Player try are rooting for Jake Wood pation of the next big game — Marine Corps that has four Rachel Ruetz ‘05 these days, but it’s not his gear in Afghanistan includes working doors. The U.S. can put because of anything he did on a Motion W camouflage hat. a man on the moon but they Five things you should know the football field. He shares his fear of large can’t give me a simple door about dance team co-captain Wood, a backup on the camel spiders found in Iraq, that will unlatch and swing Rachel Ruetz x’10: Badger offensive line for four the thrill of learning wilder- open.” UÊ Ê,ÕiÌâÊÃÊiÊvÊ years, started a blog called ness survival techniques that Sometimes Wood rumi- three captains Jake’s Life to keep in touch he describes as “Castaway nates on the pleasures and on this year’s with friends and fam- meets Robinson Crusoe,” and comforts of home that are squad. ily after he joined the his struggle for the right words familiar to his readers. “I filled The other United States Marine to say to the mother of a an entire six-hour block of post two, Katie Corps following gradu- fallen comrade. Wood has lost talking with Cartwright about Brown ation. Since then, he has friends, and he has friends who how good a Qdoba burrito x’10 and completed a tour of duty have lost arms, legs, and fingers would be right now. Chicken, Alyssa John- in Iraq and is now serving a in the line of duty. He is telling rice, cheese (no beans), hot son x’10, are seven-month stint in Afghani- just one soldier’s story, but it salsa ... that conversation also her roommates. “We stan, expecting to return home resonates with readers looking included Miller Lites.” all work together on cho- in November. for a real account of the war When Wood’s blog took off reography,” Ruetz says. “It was my way of letting they can’t find on the nightly in readership — fueled in part UÊ Ê- iÊÜ>ÃÊLÀÊÌÊV iiÀÊvÀÊ people know where I was,” news. by being featured in an article the Badgers. Her father, Wood wrote in March. “When “Today was vehicle break- by New York Daily News sports Howard Ruetz ’91, was I got to Iraq, it became a way down,” Wood wrote from Iraq columnist Mike Lupica — Wood a member of the football for me to vent about what was in April 2007. “Apparently the initially didn’t know how to team, and her mother, going on around me.” humvee I was in decided it respond. “I decided that, after Julie Ziehm Ruetz ’81, Wood’s blog posts are didn’t want to make righthand reading e-mails I was getting was on the pompon candid, funny, poignant, and turns anymore. I don’t know from random people around squad — forerunner to harrowing as he details his life for sure, but I think that’s kind the country, my writings were today’s dance team. during training, combat, and of mission essential. … Hum- helping people connect to the UÊ Ê,ÕiÌâÊ >ÃÊÃÌÕ`i`Ê`>ViÊ everything in between. Always vees like to break a lot. Simple war,” Wood wrote. for ten years, covering present is his intense love for things too. Like doors. I’m not Readers have posted com- ballet, jazz, tap, and hip- ments describing his blog hop. Of the team’s rou- as a “must-read,” and their tines, jazz is her favorite. COURTESY OF JAKE WOOD (4) feedback has become an unex- UÊ Ê,ÕiÌâÊÜ>ÃÊ>VVi«Ìi`ÊÌÊ pected network of support for the School of Education, Wood and his family. “Thank where she’ll major in ele- you for doing what you do, mentary education, and and Jake, come back safely to she hopes to draw on her your Mom,” wrote one anony- dance experience in her mous reader whose sentiment career. “I’d love to coach,” is echoed by dozens she says. “It’s probably one of the main reasons I got into teaching.” UÊ Ê >ViÊ>ÞÊÌÊLiÊ>ÊÛ>À sity sport, but it’s certainly competitive. Ruetz and her co-captains will lead a young team, with no seniors, through the spirit squad tournaments. These include the Universal Dance Association camp During the seven months Jake Wood served in Iraq during 2007, he found creative ways to in Milwaukee in August show Badger spirit. He saw a spike in blog read- and nationals in Orlando ership when links to his postings about military in January. life popped up on some Wisconsin fan forums.

46 ON WISCONSIN SPORTS

of other comments posted to an MBA when Lee Kemp ’79, MBA’73 received the blog. he leaves the delayed fulfillment of his Olym- Wood’s mother, Chris, marines in pic dreams this summer. The for- who lives in Bettendorf, Iowa, October 2009. mer Badger wrestler had qualified marvels at how strangers from Barry Alvarez, Wood’s to join the U.S. team for the 1980 coast to coast follow her son’s former football coach, recalls summer games in Moscow when life so closely. Some, including the moment when the former President Jimmy Carter ordered a a group of women from a Mad- offensive lineman came to dis- boycott in protest over the Soviet ison assisted-living community, cuss his plans to enlist. “I think Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. have even mailed Wood and his he’s a guy that really — when Some 28 years later, Kemp finally unit items that they need, such he believes in something — Wood (top, at far right) with made the Olympics — as a coach as protein powder packets, really puts his heart and soul some of his Badger teammates for the U.S. wrestling squad. gum, books, and magazines. into it,” Alvarez says. in November 2004, and (above, third from left) in Iraq in July “I think he has thousands As he prepared to leave UW basketball coach Bo Ryan has 2007 with fellow marines from upon thousands of followers on for Afghanistan in April of this Golf Company. a new honor to add to his resume. his blog, and they are so anx- year, Wood reflected on how He’s been inducted into the Penn- ious to read every update,” she hard it was to say good-bye sylvania Sports Hall of Fame, says. “They are just looking for once again. “It’s difficult in honestly put any name on the Delaware County Chapter. A the next chapter in his life, and those awkward moments with gut feeling I have sitting in my native of Chester, Pennsylvania, a now that he doesn’t get to post your family when they are stomach. The fact is that I’m Philadelphia suburb, Ryan played as often, I think there’s anxiety, asking you if you are scared going back and that’s why I basketball, football, and baseball because they’re wondering, or nervous or any one of the signed up in the first place, so in high school and had his first ‘What’s Jake doing now?’ ” other million emotions you there aren’t any complaints on head-coaching job at Sun Valley Because of a new role in could be feeling on the verge my end.” High in nearby Aston. Afghanistan as a scout sniper, of heading back,” Wood wrote. — Jenny Price ’96 Wood decided he could not “To be truthful, it’s a cocktail To read Jake’s Life, see http:// It may be disorienting, but now safely write about operations of everything. I could quite badgerjake.blogspot.com/. every direction on the Kohl there — as he did when in Iraq Center’s floor is North. Two- — without putting himself and time U.S. Open golf champ (and his unit at risk. But, he prom- Monona, Wisconsin, native) Andy ised readers, he will continue to IN SEASON North and his wife, Sue, donated write about “my personal life SPORTS INFORMATION (2) Women’s Cross $100,000 to replace the arena’s and antics as I always have. Country basketball floor. “That being said,” he added in a blog post, “I expect Circle the dates: On November 2, Looking for an insider’s view on the number of readers I have to the Big Ten Championships will gridiron action? Check out the drop by about ninety-nine per- take place in Ann Arbor, Michi- Badger football yearbook, cent. If you are in the other one gan. The NCAA Regionals will which is now posted online. Print percent … well … God bless follow in West Lafayette, Indi- copies of the forty-page program you …” ana, on November 15. sell for $15, but PDF files are now After he returned home downloadable for free at www. Keep an eye on: Hanna Gri- from Iraq, Wood wrote that the uwbadgers.com/sport_news/fb/ naker x’10. This junior from seven months he spent there media_guide/?sportid=111. Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, is were “a lesson in psychology, already a two-time All-Big Ten in culture, a firsthand look at UW rowing celebrated twin vic- and All-American honoree. With the best and worst qualities tories this spring, as the Badgers a personal best time of 20:11.8 that can be found in society. won two national champion- in the 6000 meters, she is look- Iraq aged me by decades while ships. The men’s varsity eight ing to win her first Big Ten title simultaneously revealing my won the Intercollegiate Rowing this fall. youth and insignificance to the Association National Champion- grand ‘scheme.’ ” Think about this: Under fourth- ships for the first time since 1990. Wood, a former Academic year head coach Jim Stintze ’81, The women’s light crew also won, All-Big Ten player, who gradu- the Badgers have made three its fourth championship in five ated with degrees in political consecutive trips to the NCAA years. Both races were held on science and real estate/urban Championships, with a fourth- the Cooper River in Camden, land economics, plans to pursue place finish in 2006. New Jersey.

FALL 2008 47 WAA NEWS

Hall to the Chief Reed Hall assumes the top spot on WAA’s executive committee.

Culminating his second stint on respect all those voices, while WAA’s volunteer board of direc- keeping us focused on the stra- tors, Reed Hall ’70 became the tegic goals that are important board’s chair on July 1. Hall, to the organization as a whole.” who spent five years on the In addition to forging a good board from July 1997 to June relationship with Chancellor Mar- 2002, will have a one-year term tin, Hall says those goals include as the association’s top adviser, aiding the university in its 2009 Nominate a and says that his primary goal reaccreditation process and plan- Wisconsin is to forge a good relationship ning for the association’s 150th Original with UW-Madison’s incoming anniversary, which will take place chancellor, Carolyn “Biddy” in 2011. “I think we can offer a WAA is seeking nomina- Martin PhD’85. lasting gift to the university and tions for the 2009 Distin- “It’s important to have the state,” he says. guished Alumni Awards. a very, very solid working Reed Hall Hall succeeds Doug If you know of a UW- relationship with the chancel- Griese ’75, WAA’s chair from Madison graduate who lor’s office,” Hall says, noting field, Wisconsin, is the executive July 2007 to June 2008. Along exemplifies the best of the that WAA’s president and director of the Marshfield Clinic, with Hall, several new mem- university’s influence, we CEO, Paula Bonner MS’78, one of the nation’s largest bers will join the WAA board want to hear about him had strong and successful private, multispecialty medi- of directors in 2008, including or her. Find nomination ties with outgoing chancellor cal practices. Bonner says that Farrah Flanagan ’98, an edi- materials at uwalumni. John Wiley MS’65, PhD’68, his experience in working with tor and producer with CNN in com/awards. WAA will enabling WAA to expand its such a large organization will Atlanta, Georgia; Curt Fuszard accept nominations until programming for both alumni serve the alumni association ’76, president and CEO of September 30, 2008. and students. “Paula and John well. “With more than 300,000 Associated Investment Services and the rest of the board graduates around the world, of Green Bay, Wisconsin; Jean worked together very well, we’ve got to serve a huge popu- Towell Gebhard ’79, assistant and I hope we can continue to lation with different goals and director of media relations at improve that,” he says. desires,” she says. “Reed has Northwestern Mutual in Mil- Hall, who lives in Marsh- the skill set to help us hear and waukee; Diana Haugen ’05, a public relations specialist from Santa Monica, California; Pete I Scream, You Scream … Kappelman ’85, co-owner of Meadow Brook Dairy Farms

BOB RASHID in Manitowoc, Wisconsin; and Stephanie Swartz ’74, chief nursing officer of Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. — John Allen

Chapters to the Rescue In conjunction with this year’s Homecoming theme, Bucky to the Rescue, WAA and its chapters around the country are launching a food drive. Each week that the Badgers play a With the glee of a mad scientist, Bryce Hefty, age twelve, mixes flavors into ice cream during Grandparents University in July. This Big Ten opponent, chapters are summer featured three sessions of the WAA-sponsored event, up encouraged to collect food from from two in previous years. The expansion allowed some nine hun- fans who attend game-watching dred grandchild-grandparent pairs to attend the event. Grandparents parties. WAA will offer prizes University offers families a chance to bond on campus while studying for participating chapters. For one of ten “majors.” The scene above came from the food science major, held in Babcock Hall. details, see uwalumni.com.

48 ON WISCONSIN UPFRONT

You Just Never Know By Jan Hasselman Bosman ’60

When I graduated from the egg or take a nap. It’s just UÊ ÊDon’t mortgage the UW, I had everything I needed: so much simpler. Sometimes farm. I know there are peo- a diploma, a diamond ring, I’m afraid that someone ple who are willing to live and a signed teaching contract. will tell me that my idea is out of their cars in order I’d been trained by the best, dumb, though no one has. to follow their dreams. I’m Russell Hosler, to teach typing. Sometimes I’m afraid to not one of them, so I’m pro- I thought I would teach and succeed (because then I’ll moting creative thinking. retire, while managing a family really have to do something You might have to get up along the way. I didn’t know — write an article or make earlier and go to bed later. much about the power of possi- a speech or deliver a book). You might have to get a bility or letting life create itself. Fear hasn’t conquered me, part-time job while relying But about forty-five years but I haven’t completely on your spouse’s income. into my scripted life, I had a new conquered it, either. I was lucky. I inherited a vision, and I worked with a firm UÊ ÊDon’t set your purse in small amount of money to create and market a product the sink. Once, before I at my mother’s death and — a scrapbook for saving old talked to a group of gene- chose to invest it in my handwritten recipes and the sto- alogists in Elgin, Illinois, I dream. I could have put ries behind them. I’ve learned a set my purse in the bowl of the money in the bank and lot in the last two years. an automated sink while I let the dream die. Make a freshened up. What I discov- good choice, but it’s really UÊI Ê had a lot to learn, mostly ered in seconds was not only cramped sleeping behind a about myself. I said many a purse full of water, but steering wheel. times that I was glad I chose also a great opening for my teaching rather than sales, speech a few minutes later. What I’ve learned is that you for I didn’t think I could take UÊ ÊBloomington can work. never know what’s in your What I’ve learned is that the pitching of a product Another time, I was asked to heart, waiting to bloom. You or the rejection of losing a speak to a group of women never know when you will see you never know what’s sale. It didn’t occur to me in Bloomington, Illinois, 150 life’s patterns in a fresh way. in your heart, waiting to that teaching is all about miles from my house. There You never know who will buy bloom. You never know pitching and selling (the five- was no way I could justify fourteen books and who will when you will see life’s paragraph essay, algebraic the cost until I coupled the buy none. The life I envisioned equations, or the mechanics speech with a trip to the when I graduated forty-eight patterns in a fresh way. of digestion), and if a teacher Abraham Lincoln Museum years ago is so different from doesn’t do it well, the stu- in Springfield, accompanied the life I live. I’m seeing better dents won’t buy. by my sister. That way, I now than I did then … despite UÊSelf-promotion Ê takes a got more for the gig than the glasses and developing cat- lot of time. You are the the money the group could aracts. So keep your eyes open. best person to promote your afford to pay. You just never know. project. You believe in it; UÊ ÊDon’t undervalue your- you breathe it. But, for every self. We all get to ask for Jan Hasselman Bosman ’60 taught minute you’re making calls or what we need. I no longer high-school English and business speeches, you’re abandoning tiptoe up to the “Do you for thirty-two years. She lives in something or someone else: have a budget?” question. Woodstock, Illinois, and sells Memories of Family, Friends, and family and friends, writing, I know that the work I do Food at www.bosmanmemories.com. reading, exercising. Some- has value, and I can ask for a times you have to ask, “What fee. Negotiation also works. do I have to give up today to UÊ ÊPeople will help you. Not If you’re a UW-Madison follow my passion?” everyone will profit from alumna or alumnus and UÊ ÊFear is real in all its your project, but some will you’d like the editors to forms. Sometimes, rather help you anyway. You might consider an essay for use in than making a pitch, I just want to walk alone, but On Wisconsin, please send it eat a Reese’s peanut butter help is not overrated. to [email protected].

FALL 2008 49 ALUMNI NEWS

Compiled by Paula Wagner When Wilmington [Ohio] of Excellence in Research from Apfelbach ’83 College held its commencement the Association for Communica- in May, emeritus professor of tion Excellence in Agriculture, Tell us your news. history Larry Gara PhD’53 Natural Resources, Life and early years received an honorary doctorate Human Sciences. Please share your recent for his four decades of teach- The Heart Moves in a Best wishes go out to Millicent ing. But Gara is more than an Circular Direction: A Story of accomplishments, transitions, Coombs Freed ’30, ’33 of educator: he’s also a peace Healing (iUniverse) is a new and other significant life Madison. Her one-hundredth activist and social-justice cham- work by Madisonian Ingeborg Gillman Casey ’59, MS’61, happenings by e-mailing birthday falls on October 5. pion who’s never been afraid A new elementary school to act on his convictions. PhD’67 that blends experiences the (brief, please) details to on Madison’s far west side will A leading award for animal with her schizophrenic mother [email protected]; bear the name of the late Paul conservation, the Indianapolis with wisdom gained through Olson ’31, MS’52, a beloved Prize, has gone this year to her career as a psychologist. mailing them to Alumni News, science teacher, principal, field biologist George Schaller “As a story about struggle and Wisconsin Alumni Association, environmentalist, and out- MS’57, PhD’62. His relent- perseverance, facing fears, and doorsperson. He was instru- less work since 1952 to save taking risks,” Casey writes, “the 650 North Lake Street, mental in purchasing and endangered species was hon- book offers insights to people Madison, WI 53706-1476; developing the Madison School ored at a September gala with facing various challenges of or faxing them to Forest, not far from the new the Lilly Medal and $100,000, their own.” school, which opened this fall. which he’ll use to fund grants (608) 265-8771. It’s one of the state’s first LEED- for young biologists. He’s vice While we can’t publish every certified (“green”) elementary president of science and explo- 60s schools. Olson died in 1993. ration for the Wildlife Conser- item that we receive, we do After sixty-two years of vation Society, whose CEO said, Chalk up seven for Susan appreciate hearing from you. arbitration and mediation “George Schaller has literally Schuckit Naimon Wine- work, Arthur Jacobs ’34, defined the endeavor of wild- brenner ’60 of San Marcos, Please e-mail death notices and MA’35 of Rye, New York, has life biology in the service of California: she’s just published all address, name, telephone, retired at age ninety-six. The conservation.” her seventh book, The Cluster occasion brought many acco- Joseph Brenner PhD’58 Grouping Handbook: How to and e-mail updates to lades, including being named earned his doctorate in organic Challenge Gifted Students and [email protected]; the National Academy of Arbi- chemistry; spent most of Improve Achievement for All trators’ 2008 honoree. Jacobs’ his career with Du Pont de (Free Spirit Publishing). mail them to Alumni Changes, spouse, Marcia Fox Jacobs Nemours International in The Duncan, Oklahoma, Wisconsin Alumni Association, ’38, retired in 1982 as the head Geneva, Switzerland, working home of Patrick Homrig ’61 650 North Lake Street, of social services for New York primarily in the Middle East, is a local landmark that’s made state’s largest retirement home. Africa, and eastern Europe; it into P.J. Lassek’s Oklahoma Madison, WI 53706-1476; and now has written his first Curiosities: Quirky Characters, fax them to (608) 262-3332; or book — but not about chem- Roadside Oddities, and Other 40s–50s istry. It’s an “interdisciplinary Offbeat Stuff (Globe Pequot call them in to (608) 262-9648 extension of logic to real Press). Homrig’s 1906 home or toll free to (888) 947-2586. Gene Hallstrand ’40 sent phenomena” called Logic in contains fine arts, antiquities, a photo taken at his ninetieth- Reality (Springer Dordrecht). and collections from his world Most obituary listings of birthday open house in Decem- “My memories of the travels, and his yard holds stat- WAA members and friends ber. He was a ski jumper and courses I began on September uary, wrought iron, and seven instructor, served in the navy 22 fifty years ago … remain hundred plant species. He’s also appear in the Badger Insider, during World War II, and made fresh today with me here in an art teacher, cat lover, and WAA’s quarterly publication a career in sales. Hallstrand Sydney, Australia,” writes appraiser and art expert. lives in Sequim, Washington. John Brien MS’59 in his essay Phillip Baker MS’62, for its members. Don Smithana ’50 of “Fifty-Year Madison Memories PhD’65 of Kensington, Mary- San Diego, California, is an … from 15,000 Miles Away.” land has retired after forty- x-planation: An x preceding engineering graduate, but he’s It chronicles his arrival from three years with the National a degree year indicates that the been drawn to languages as Australia in 1958 to study Institutes of Health. He’s best individual did not complete, well. He’s written one book in agricultural journalism, as known for his research on regu- Japanese and two in English: well as his career in academia, latory T cells and their influ- or has not yet completed, the Decoding America’s Ancient consultancies, research, and ence on antibody responses to degree at UW-Madison. Indian Languages and America eventually international com- bacterial pathogens. … Land of the Rising Sun: Was munication. In additional to The ACLU of Wisconsin the Culture of Japan “Made in two doctoral degrees, Brien has Foundation gave state U.S.A.”? (Anasazi Publishing). earned the 2008 Award representative Frederick

50 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

his collaboration with Virginia Seventy Days of Solitude in Denali Tech colleague James Thorp on Learning to perceive in 360 reducing and recovering from

degrees, becoming part of PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLIE KARIDIS power-grid blackouts. the landscape and wildlife as After forty-five years of senses are heightened, trust- pioneering work in investment ing one’s instincts and ability management and twenty- to adapt as never before, and two years of appearances on beginning to thrive — not just the PBS television program survive — in the wilderness: Wall $treet Week with Louis these are some of the lessons Rukeyser, Louis Holland ’65 that Willie Karidis ’81 gained has certainly made a name for from seventy days alone in himself. The Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Alaska’s Denali National Park. resident retired this spring Karidis is the executive as CEO of Holland Capital director of the Denali Educa- Management and as president tion Center (denali.org) at of the Lou Holland Trust. Denali National Park, and This spring the UC-Davis his odyssey, called Wilderness Willie Karidis replicated the work of pioneering naturalist Charles Prize for Undergraduate Teach- of Denali 100, began on Sheldon by camping alone in Denali National Park. He says that ing and Scholarly Achievement January 21. there were a couple of feet of snow, but in the draws and rivers, went to comparative literature the wind blew so hard that the landscape appeared almost lunar. It was an expedition to professor Brenda Deen retrace the steps of pioneering are yielding valuable insights wise judgment and sure steps. Schildgen ’65 — a scholar of naturalist Charles Sheldon, as they’re compared to Shel- [This] helped me to see the medieval European literature who spent the same days in don’s observations from the simplicity, the basic core of and Biblical studies who works January through March of same locations. balanced life. … Wilderness with writings in six languages 1908 in the heart of the Alaska Reaping much more than is where we all come from.” and is an expert on Dante, Range. During his stay, he data, though, Karidis was Karidis has created a blog Chaucer, and the gospel of envisioned a national park that bombarded with new stimuli, (wildernessofdenali100. Mark. The $40,000 prize is would preserve the ecosystem and notes that “it was as if blogspot.com) about his trip, believed to be the largest of of the area, and it was through I had walked into a living, is making a short film, and is its kind in the nation. his efforts — and those of his breathing computer, where I also writing a book called Faith The commitment to good friend Teddy Roosevelt was a tiny speck of insignifi- in a Moment. He explains the occupational health and and others — that Mount cance surrounded by new and title this way: “My Sheldon safety that Madisonian Terry McKinley National Park was exciting possibilities. … At the quest, planned for twenty-two Likover Moen ’66, MS’77, established in 1917. same time, I felt exposed, as if years, has taught me that hav- JD’96 has shown over twenty- A century later, Karidis all the eyes of the woods were ing a dream comes down to seven years has earned her a traveled fifty miles into the watching me.” Still, he says, “I the moment when it is fulfilled. Lifetime Achievement Award park to camp in the exact area could not have been happier.” The greatest lesson is that from the Wisconsin Safety where Sheldon had camped. Karidis adds that “negative we share ‘faith in a moment’ Council. She supervises the He took daily temperature emotions … have no home [that’s specific to each per- occupational health portion of readings, shot still photos and here. Patience, compassion, son], but whatever your faith WisCon — the Wisconsin State videos, and kept a journal of tolerance, happiness, and love is, we share the hope that the Laboratory of Hygiene’s onsite his experiences, all of which all fit naturally and encourage moment will come.” — P.A. safety- and health-consultation program for businesses. (Doris) Sorrel Hays MMusic’68 Kessler ’62, LLB’66 (D-Mil- recently honored Robert thirty-five years on the Penn had a thrill in waukee) its Edgar Lifetime Kotler x’64 of Beverly Hills, State economics faculty, but May: the New York City Opera Achievement Award in Febru- California, for thirty years of he’s hardly been resting. Nel- performed Our Giraffe — for ary. On his twenty-first birth- voluntary teaching in its head son has maintained an active which she composed the day, he became the youngest and neck surgery division. He’s research program that included music — during its VOX 2008: person, up to that time, to join also founded Ernest Mitchell presentations at five interna- Showcasing American Com- the state legislature, and his Publishers — named after the tional conferences last year. posers series. Hays’s “eclectic, career has included service as a “iconic cook at the Pi Lambda The Franklin Institute has hybrid musical writing” has county and circuit court judge, Phi house in the early sixties” given Virginia Tech electrical also earned her eight com- labor arbitrator, redistricting — to produce his two books on engineering professor emeri- missions from the German consultant, and community cosmetic surgery. tus Arun Phadke PhD’64 its public-broadcasting institution supporter. Jon Nelson ’64, MS’67, 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal Westdeutscher Rundfunk. She The UCLA Medical School PhD’70 retired in 2004 after in Electrical Engineering for lives in Buchanan, Georgia. The note from Leon

FALL 2008 51 ALUMNI NEWS

Jacoby ’68, MS’71 of Cedar writing as Gary Braver, has solid interactions in ceramics. primarily in southern California. Grove, Wisconsin, was brief, written his seventh novel: a Three graduates have been Is winning a Pulitzer Prize but impressive: he’s “marked psychological medical thriller named distinguished professors getting to be old hat for UW thirty-five years with plumbing- centering on cosmetic surgery at their universities: Maureen alumni? Nah, keep ’em coming. ware giant Kohler Company.” called Skin Deep (Forge). In it, Carr PhD’73 is a professor of Walt Bogdanich ’75 of the a homicide detective must find music at Penn State who also New York Times has earned his out who is killing the beauties received a UW School of Music third Pulitzer for his investiga- 70s of Boston by strangling them Distinguished Alumna award in tive reporting on toxic ingre- with black stockings. Goshgar- 1998. Jerrold Brandell MS’77 dients in medicine and other Longtime WAA Chicago ian teaches English at Boston’s is a practicing psychoanalyst products imported from China, chapter leader and die-hard Northeastern University. and social worker psychothera- while the Milwaukee Journal Badger fan Denny Schackter Indiana University’s Center pist at Wayne State University Sentinel’s David Umhoefer ’70 has made tennis his avo- on Philanthropy honored in Detroit. And Carl Lund ’83 earned his Pulitzer for local cation and his vocation: this Harriet Ivey ’72 with a Spirit PhD’81 is a professor of chemi- reporting — an investigation spring, he received the Chicago of Philanthropy award in April cal engineering at the Univer- into pension deals for Milwau- Tennis Patrons’ 2007 Billie Jean for her work since 1998 as sity of Buffalo [New York]. kee County workers that King Award — its honor for the founding president and Noting that many UW violated county and IRS rules. lifetime achievement — and CEO of the Indianapolis- and grads in medical, therapeutic, At New York University’s retired from a sales career with Phoenix-based Nina Mason and psychological fields have Institute for the Study of the Wilson Racquet Sports. Pulliam Charitable Trust. It sup- trained at Madison’s Mendota Ancient World, Charles Jones All Souls (Harcourt) is a ports more than 150 nonprofits Mental Health Institute, local ’76 is the new head of the recent fiction work by New annually, and has enabled doz- author Tom Doherty MS’73 library — a position that fol- Yorker Christine Costigan ens of nontraditional students suspects that some have lows three years leading the Schutt ’71, MA’72 that gives to obtain college educations. wondered about its history. He Blegen Library at the American readers a look at the “small Okay, who remembers brings much of it to life in The School of Classical Studies in cosmos” of an elite Upper East “Loose Bruce” — Bruce Kerr Best Specimen of a Tyrant: The Athens, Greece. Side girls’ school. Her other JD’72 — performing in the Ambitious Dr. Abraham Van Patient Listening: A Doc- books include the National Rathskeller? Well, after earning Norstrand and the Wisconsin tor’s Guide (University of Iowa Book Award finalist Florida, as his law degree, Kerr (loose Insane Hospital (Spenser-Hoyt), Press) is a new book by Loreen well as two collections of short brucekerr.libsyn.com) “took the story of one of Mendota’s Herwaldt MD’77 that uses stories: Nightwork and A Day, twenty years off to write and early superintendents. the illness narratives of two A Night, Another Day, Summer. perform songs, then returned We can add three names dozen writer-patients to teach The late Paul Brandt to law.” Now he has news to the list of Badgers who are listening skills to health care MS’72 spent his career pro- about both fields: he’s been leading institutions of higher professionals. The author holds tecting the lower Wisconsin promoted to assistant general learning: Robert Holub appointments in the depart- River, so it’s fitting that the counsel at Sun Microsystems in MA’73, MA’76, PhD’79 is ments of internal medicine and state’s Department of Natural Santa Clara, California, and syn- the new chancellor of the epidemiology at the University Resources (DNR) dedicated dicated radio host Dr. Demento University of Massachusetts’ of Iowa’s medical school. part of the Lower Wisconsin is including Kerr’s song parody flagship campus in Amherst. We’d lost track of John State Riverway in his honor in “The Day the Data Died” on his He was most recently provost Myles PhD’77, but he brought May. Brandt, a lifelong DNR latest compilation CD. and vice chancellor for aca- us up-to-date: he’s been teach- employee, surprised the con- The new executive director demic affairs at the University ing sociology at the University servation community when he of Milwaukee’s Charles Allis of Tennessee. In March, John of Toronto since 2001, chairs left more than $600,000 to the Art Museum and Villa Terrace Schwenn MS’73, PhD’76 the political sociology section Lower Wisconsin Riverway Fund Decorative Arts Museum is Elly became president of Dalton of the American Sociology upon his death in 2006. (Ellen) Pick ’72. She was most [Georgia] State College, while Association, and was elected Is the modern-day work- recently the director of devel- Nick Zeppos ’76, JD’79 was to the Royal Society of Canada place a complex place? You opment and marketing for the being named the eighth chan- in 2004. bet, says Marjorie Sunde Museum of Wisconsin Art in cellor of Vanderbilt University “The spring of 2008 marks DeVault ’72, MS’76. She’s West Bend. in Nashville, Tennessee. He’s its a thirty-year anniversary,” edited People at Work: Life, The Materials Research first chancellor in seventy years writes Pattie Hunn Skannes Power, and Social Inclusion in Society has lauded William to be promoted from within. ’77, who moved to an Alaskan the New Economy (New York Weber MS’72, PhD’77 as its Oregon State University in island thirty years ago and University Press), in which each inaugural fellow for his contri- Corvallis has welcomed Frank- began her career as a salmon essay is a case study of a dif- butions to the fields of glasses lin Sherkow ’74 as its new biologist. She now helps to ferent aspect of the working and ceramics. A laboratory director of civil-engineering manage the commercial troll world. DeVault is a professor fellow at Pacific Northwest outreach, and he’ll also teach salmon fishery for the state’s of sociology at Syracuse [New National Laboratory in Rich- three senior courses. Sherkow Department of Fish and Game. York] University. land, Washington, he leads has spent the last thirty years Retired U.S. Army General Gary Goshgarian PhD’72, research on defects and ion- in the practice of engineering, Montgomery Meigs MA’78,

52 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

PhD’82 has joined the board of John Hawley ’79, JD’82 now recently been named the Foltz trustees of MITRE — a not-for- has a library and a scholarship Professor of Law at California Bookmark profit firm that provides systems named after him. The scholar- Western School of Law in San engineering, R&D, and IT sup- ship benefits local students Diego. An expert on gender port to the federal government. who attend UW-Madison. issues, she served on the 1980s Currently a visiting professor of Madison Equal Opportunities strategy and military operations Commission that drafted one at Georgetown University’s 80s of the country’s earliest domes- Walsh School of Foreign Service, tic-partnership ordinances. Meigs has had a highly deco- Cool Things Happen When Cox’s work was honored in rated, thirty-five-year military You Speak a Foreign Language April by the San Diego Lesbian, career, serving as commander in (Willowgate Press) is both a Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Europe and of the NATO peace- true statement and the title Community Center. keeping force in Bosnia, among of a new book co-authored by The new work by Steven Walter Mirisch ’42 has seen many other posts. Christopher Gallagher ’80 Meyers PhD’82 won’t be a it all in Hollywood, and his The positive and negative — his eighth, in fact. Gallagher must-read for the general pub- new book, I Thought We Were implications of our digital inno- has also done some stand- lic, but its publisher says that Making Movies, Not History vations, now and in the future, up comedy, but by day he’s MRI of Bone and Soft Tissue (University of Wisconsin are the subject of Media in the a cardiac anesthesiologist at Tumors and Tumorlike Lesions: Press), offers an account that Digital Age (Columbia Univer- Stony Brook University on Long Differential Diagnosis and Atlas film critic Leonard Maltin sity Press) by John Pavlik ’78. Island, New York. (Thieme Medical Publishers) calls a “panoramic look at the The author is a professor and Eric Lui ’80, an associate is “practical, in-depth, invalu- film industry from the 1940s chair of the journalism and professor and chair of the civil able.” Meyers teaches radiol- to the 1990s, with all its highs media studies department at and environmental engineering ogy, imaging sciences, and and lows. … a must-read.” Rutgers University. department at Syracuse [New neurosurgery at the University Mirisch writes with The Network Journal has York] University, is one of two of Rochester [New York]. humor and candor about his included Sheryl Adkins-Green educators there to receive a Amy Vedder MS’82, start as an usher at Milwau- ’79 and Felicia Norwood Meredith Professor of Teaching PhD’89 has long admired the kee’s Oriental Theater to MA’82 in its annual list of Excellence award. Lui proposes Washington, D.C.-based Wilder- his place at the pinnacle of “25 Influential Black Women to use the funds from the ness Society’s focus on “good the industry — his Mirisch in Business.” Adkins-Green is three-year honor to create ecological, economic, and pol- Company has produced, in the general manager and VP a course that will study the icy information,” and now she’s whole or in part, more than of multicultural beauty at the elements of a sustainable directing its ecology and eco- one hundred films, including Alberto Culver Company in environment holistically. nomics research department. West Side Story, Some Like It Melrose Park, Illinois, but she’s John Matel MA’80 has The society was co-founded in Hot, Fiddler on the Roof, The particularly proud of A Better been a career foreign-service 1935 by the late UW profes- Apartment, The Great Escape, Chance — an educational officer since 1984, serving in sor Aldo Leopold. Vedder In the Heat of the Night, The initiative that she co-founded. Brazil, Norway, Poland, and is known for her pioneering Pink Panther, and The Mag- Norwood is the president Washington, D.C. Now he studies of Rwandan mountain nificent Seven. It’s garnered and chief operating officer of knows plenty about Iraq as gorillas and for co-founding eighty-seven Academy ActiveHealth Management in well — he’s recently been a the Mountain Gorilla Project. Award nominations and New York City, and an advo- provisional reconstruction team Performance psychologist twenty-eight Oscars, includ- cate for minority youth. She’s leader at Al Asad Western Rob Smith ’83 of Waltham, ing three for Best Picture. served on the boards of visitors Anbar. Matel planned to return Massachusetts, has published In addition, Mirisch has of the UW’s political science to Washington in September Black Belt for Life: A Memoir of received the Academy’s Thal- department and the La Follette to direct the U.S. State Depart- Personal Development and the berg Memorial Award and School of Public Affairs. ment’s International Informa- Martial Arts (Xlibris). He says he its Hersholt Humanitarian The International Reading tion Programs policy office. views it “more as an extended Award, the DeMille Award Association has a new board Speaking of foreign ser- letter to his son, whom he tries from the Hollywood For- vice president in Patricia vice, Daniel Speckhard ’80, to teach the principles inherent eign Press Association, the Edwards PhD’79. She’s a dis- MA’82, MS’83 has gone on in the martial arts.” Selznick Lifetime Achieve- tinguished professor of teacher to another ambassadorship What’s Steve Burrows ’84 ment Award in Theatrical education at Michigan State — this time in Greece. A career been up to lately? He’s been Motion Pictures from the University in East Lansing and diplomat, Speckhard’s last post- shooting comedic commercials Producers Guild of America, was president of the 2006–07 ing was as the deputy chief of in the U.K., Australia, New and an honorary doctorate National Reading Conference. mission at the U.S. embassy Zealand, South Africa, Japan, from the UW. He’s served To recognize his commit- in Baghdad, following a year and Thailand, and finds that four terms as president of the ment as the longest-serving directing the Iraq Reconstruc- “humor is indeed universal.” Academy of Motion Picture member of the Random Lake, tion Management Office there. He also works in TV, short films, Arts and Sciences. Wisconsin, board of education, Barbara Cox JD’82 has and feature films, and this

FALL 2008 53 ALUMNI NEWS

spring, he joined the directorial engineering for Dolby Labo- where Washingtonian maga- Bookmark roster of Great Guns USA, ratories, and then was VP of zine ranked Mark Behrens a production company in L.A. engineering for Tymphany ’87 among Washington, D.C., See burrowsofhollywood.com Corporation. Now he’s founded attorneys. He’s a partner in the “for all the silliness.” CJS Labs in San Francisco, a public-policy group of Shook, Most people probably consulting firm specializing in Hardy & Bacon. Thanks to wouldn’t mind being paid to acoustics and engineering for Mark’s father, Edwin Behrens think about cookies all day, audio and telecommunications. ’60, MS’61 of Great Falls, which is what Greg Hundt Struck also reports that John Virginia, for letting us know. ’84 does. He’s the VP of supply Radanovich ’85 is a music Duke (Victor) Fisher III chain for the HoneyBaked Ham journalist living in Delaware; ’87 has a long history of success Company in Atlanta, but he’s Milwaukee attorney Tomislav as an activist, mediator, special also the new president of Hei- Kuzmanovic ’85, JD’88 spent professor of law at Hofstra In Abroad for Her Country: di’s Heavenly Cookies, a recent time this spring trying his Law School, and as the co- Tales of a Pioneer Woman HoneyBaked acquisition. Yum. second case at the International founder, CEO, and lead trainer Ambassador in the U.S. For- Depression strikes one in War Crimes Tribunal in The of Learning Laboratories — a eign Service (University of five people, and research shows Hague; and Mark Giaimo ’86 Bainbridge, New York-based Notre Dame Press), Jean that writing can help. That’s is a mural artist, cartoonist, and training and facilitation organi- Wilkowski MA’44 shares why Hayward, California-based musician in Washington, D.C. zation. Fisher’s work was hon- her challenges as an early science journalist and editor The Great Lakes Water ored in 2007 with the Cooke international career woman. Elizabeth Maynard Schaefer Wars (Island Press) is a compre- Peace Innovator Award from During her thirty-five ’84 has provided therapeutic hensive account of the people, the New York State Dispute years of diplomatic service, techniques in Writing through stories, and issues behind the Resolution Association. starting in 1944, Wilkowski the Darkness: Easing Your battles over the earth’s larg- Since 2006, (Barbara) rose through the ranks at the Depression with Paper and Pen est collection of fresh surface Erin Gallagher ’87 has been State Department to become (Ten Speed Press). A bipolar- water — and a timely offering working in The Hague as a the first woman U.S. ambas- depression sufferer herself, by Madisonian Peter Annin war-crimes investigator for the sador to an African country Schaefer has also taught a cre- ’86 that’s now in its fifth print- United Nations International and the first woman acting ative-writing course for people ing. The author is a former Criminal Tribunal for the for- U.S. ambassador in Latin with mood disorders through Newsweek reporter. mer Yugoslavia, focusing on America. She worked in nine Stanford University since 1988. With a recently completed the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre countries on three continents Jay Sorensen ’84 says that MBA from DePaul University in Bosnia. Gallagher earned before retiring in 1980. “ancillary revenue” in the air- under his belt, Kenneth Blazer California’s 2005 Investigator of Among Wilkowski’s last line industry — revenue beyond ’86 of Aurora, Illinois, has the Year award for her work in career endeavors were ticket sales — is both the indus- been promoted to director of her previous post as a criminal preparing for the 1979 U.N. try’s best way to cope with fuel global accounts at APL Logistics investigator for the San Fran- Conference on Science and costs and the subject of his new — part of the Singapore-based cisco district attorney’s office. Technology in Vienna, and book, Ancillary Revenue Guide: NOL Group. Gloria Materre ’88 is accompanying a U.S. delega- The First-Ever Resource for Air- You’d have to try hard to just one of several Badger tion on a visit to China. She’s lines Seeking Ancillary Revenue keep up with Helen Klebe- attorneys who’s been on the the only woman to receive Nirvana (AirlineInformation. sadel ’86, MFA’89 (klebesadel. move recently. She’s a special- the Foreign Service Cup org). Sorensen is the president com) — the Madison-based ist in corporate, real estate, from the Diplomatic and of IdeaWorks, his own brand- artist, educator, and activist has and entertainment law who’s Consular Officers, Retired. marketing firm in Shorewood, led many watercolor and cre- joined Chicago’s Handler, Donna Shalala — a for- Wisconsin. ativity workshops this summer Thayer & Duggan as senior mer U.S. Secretary of Health Jeffrey Toretsky ’84 was and fall throughout Wisconsin counsel. Solheim Billing & Grim- and Human Services and a one of only thirteen physician- and in Kansas City. mer in Madison has welcomed former UW-Madison chan- scientists this spring to receive When publishers of Lauren Lofton ’96 as an cellor who’s now president a 2008 Clinical Scientist Award Detroit’s major ethnic and associate; Amanda Prutzman of the University of Miami in Translational Research from minority newspapers gathered ’02, JD’07 and Jillian Walker — called Abroad for Her Coun- the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for a roundtable conference ’02 have joined the collections try a “serious and charming — a $750,000 award, given this spring, their host was Hayg group of Messerli & Kramer autobiography of a pioneer over five years. Toretsky is a Oshagen MA’86, PhD’90, a in Minneapolis; and Michael woman diplomat. Madeleine pediatric oncology physician professor at Wayne State Uni- Strand ’02 is a new associate [Albright] and Condi [Rice] and researcher at Georgetown versity and the director of its in the real estate and land-use would not have made it to University’s Lombardi Compre- Project Ethnic Media. The event groups at Denver’s Brownstein secretary of state without hensive Cancer Center. was part of New Michigan Hyatt Farber Schreck. Lastly, Ambassador Wilkowski’s Christopher Struck ’85 Media, a networking initiative patent attorney Bryan Clark courage and skill.” writes that he’s worked in that Oshagen founded in 2006. ’04 is a new associate with the Denmark, became director of The top 1 percent: that’s Webb Law Firm in Pittsburgh.

54 ON WISCONSIN ALUMNI NEWS

A Markwardt Award has design in Oshkosh. Medal committee this year. gone to Robert White PhD’88 One a day for one year: With degrees in econom- Bookmark from ASTM International, one that’s the commitment that ics, international manage- of the world’s largest interna- Madisonian Angela Richard- ment, and marketing, Michael tional standards-development son ’93 (a.k.a. Olive Talique) Wandschneider ’94 seems and delivery systems. The honor made on January 22, when well equipped for his recent recognizes White’s contribu- she began carrying her cam- promotion at Kohler Company tions in developing standards era everywhere and posting in Kohler, Wisconsin. He’s for the fire performance of one photo every day on flickr. moved up from senior product wood in building construction. com/photos/olive_talique/ manager of performance He’s been with the USDA’s sets/72157603781128699, along showering to marketing Forest Products Laboratory in with her commentary and feed- manager of bathing products. Madison since 1975. back. In May, Richardson was It would be quite a com- part of a local exhibit marking mute from The Dalles, Oregon, Cold War rivalries, spies, her one-hundredth day. to Madison, so Erica Bode defection attempts, the civil 90s Lynne Snifka ’93 writes Jacobsen ’95 — who was rights and women’s move- that she “recently shocked recently promoted to editor ments, the first doping The Orlando, Florida-based herself and many of her loved of the Journal of Chemical scandal, the advent of televi- design firm of MSCW has pro- ones” by moving to Fairbanks, Education’s secondary-school sion and product-promotion moted Keith Becker ’90 from Alaska, to become an assistant chemistry section — works long money, and legendary senior landscape designer to professor of journalism at the distance. The publication’s edi- athletes all came together project manager. He was previ- University of Alaska. torial offices reside at the UW, in Rome in 1960 to create ously a landscape architectural Kudos to Amanda Veith where Professor John Moore an Olympics to remember. designer and construction man- ’93, the executive producer of of the chemistry department Pulitzer Prize-winning ager for Walt Disney World. a short comedy film called The serves as editor-in-chief. author, Washington Post Jodi Dinkes Hurwitz ’90 Job (TheJobTheShort.com) that Yorel Lashley ’95, MA’98 associate editor, and master has won an Emmy Award! At received the Grand Prix in May is a professional musician and storyteller David Maraniss the September 2007 ceremony at the tenth Festival Interna- band leader (meleemovement. x’71 has now crafted a stir- for the primetime television tional des Très Courts, which com) who’s making a differ- ring and provocative account awards, she was honored in the highlights the world’s best ence in New York City through of those Games in Rome 1960: Outstanding Variety, Music, or short films — and that’s just Drum Power (mydrumpower. The Olympics That Changed the Comedy Special category for a recent accolade among the com), a youth leadership pro- World (Simon & Schuster). her work as the producer of many it’s earned. Veith worked gram that he founded in 2000. Maraniss weaves a rich NBC’s “Tony Bennett: An with Screaming Frog Produc- Lashley is also a recent parent, tale by chronicling the American Classic.” She lives in tions in L.A. to create the film. along with his spouse, Erica complex confluence of sports, Scarsdale, New York, with her Teacher magazine has Nelson ’98. She danced profes- culture, and international spouse, Mark Hurwitz ’90. called the Milken Educa- sionally in New York before politics that marked the 1960 Navy Commander Joseph tor Awards the “Oscars of earning a law degree and join- Games. He also follows many Olson ’91 has become the teaching,” and Anne Clark ing the Center for Family Rep- of those Games’ unforget- commanding officer of the MA’94 received one during a resentation as a staff attorney. table athletes — decathlon U.S.S. Green Bay — “an exciting gala event in March. She was Wisconsin Woman maga- gold-medal winner Rafer honor for a Wisconsin native among seventy-five educators zine called Fabiola Lazo Johnson, sprinter Wilma and big Green Bay Packers fan!” to receive an award check of Steckler Hamdan ’96, MS’97 Rudolph, and the young writes his father, Dick Olson $25,000 through the country’s a “force of nature in Madison’s boxer who gained fame as ’59 of Madison. The new vessel largest teacher-recognition Latino community,” and the Muhammad Ali — whose is an amphibious transport dock program. Clark is an instructor Business Forum, a professional individual triumphs were ship that’s scheduled to be and a curriculum and special- women’s organization, hon- symbolic weapons in an commissioned in January. education coordinator at the ored her with the 2007 Dane escalating Cold War. Kevin Rau ’92, MFA’04 Boston Arts Academy. County ATHENA Award. Why? Even the recent summer has won a Gold Award from Nick Glass MA’94 After she arrived from Bolivia, Olympics in Beijing — with Graphis, The International founded TeachingBooks in Hamdan overcame many chal- the protests and controversy Journal of Visual Communi- Madison, but he’s also initiated lenges and has given so much that swirled around it — may cation for a poster that he a fun and unusual collection: as a social worker for the Dane not make history, foreshadow designed celebrating the fifti- hundreds of delightful audio County Department of Human a new era, or create the kind eth anniversary of the Helvetica clips of children’s book authors Services and a founder of many of lasting influence that those typeface. It will also appear pronouncing their names and social-service organizations. Olympic Games in Rome in the Graphis Poster Annual sharing brief stories about After Lubna Qureshi ’96 did, nearly fifty years ago. ’08/’09. Rau is a UW-Oshkosh those names (TeachingBooks. completed her doctorate in adjunct faculty member and net). What’s more? Glass is history at UC-Berkeley in 2006, the proprietor of rauhaus thrilled to be on the Newbery her dissertation earned a book

FALL 2008 55 ALUMNI NEWS

contract from Lexington Books. places. Patel works for the Madagascar, to his next post asked Thomas to manage it. Look for it this fall: Nixon, Florida chapter of the March of as consul at the U.S. consulate They celebrated their first year Kissinger, and Allende: U.S. Dimes; she’s the organization’s general in Perth, Australia. in business in July. Involvement in the 1973 Coup state director of the March for We rarely receive such in Chile. Babies, its major fund raiser. humbling Alumni News sub- Steve Vanderheiden Aurora Health Care’s 2000s missions as this one from Ann MA’96, PhD’01 has written corporate affairs department Klosterman ’06: she bicycled Atmospheric Justice: A Politi- has a new VP of government Getting exercise can be tough across the country — from San cal Theory of Climate Change affairs in Rachel Roller ’99. when you’re traveling, but Diego to St. Augustine, Florida (Oxford University Press). He’s She joined the Milwaukee- Giselle Schmitz ’00 is trying — in seven weeks to raise an assistant professor of politi- based not-for-profit health to help. As president of Rox money for the developmentally cal science and environmental care provider last year. Fitness in Mountain View, Cali- disabled adults with whom she studies at the University of There was a nice Badger fornia, she’s developed a novel works at Community Entry Colorado in Boulder. collaboration on Along Wiscon- online trainer: a comprehensive Services in Jackson, Wyoming. Poetry lovers, keep your sin’s Ice Age Trail (University of video workout program that’s A 2008 Gates Cambridge eyes on Erin Hanusa ’99 of Wisconsin Press): Eric Sherman goal oriented, includes a circle Scholarship has gone to Rishi Madison. She’s been hailed ’99 and Andrew Hanson III of support, adapts as the user Wadhera ’06, a medical as one of the nation’s most ’89 co-edited the book, and becomes more fit, and is view- student at the Mayo Clinic promising young poets and has U.S. Representative David able on any device that can College of Medicine in Roch- garnered lavish praise for her Obey ’60, MA’68 (D-Wisconsin) capture and play MP4 videos. ester, Minnesota. He’ll use it debut collection, The House wrote the foreword. The Ice Two UW zoology grads are to complete an MPh in public of Marriage (Louisiana State Age National Scenic Trail is a going to the dogs — literally. health at Cambridge University University Press), whose “pas- thousand-mile footpath that lies Erika Thomas ’04 and Katie in England. Wadhera is the first sionate, candid verse reconciles entirely within the state. Raschka ’04 met their fresh- Badger to receive this scholar- longing with understanding.” Neal Vermillion MA’99 man year and were roommates ship, created in 2000 by the Bill This spring the Tampa spent some vacation time in throughout college. Then, after & Melinda Gates Foundation. Tribune profiled Monica Sang- Wisconsin this summer while a few years in animal-related havi Patel ’99 as one of its transitioning between his work, Raschka bought a Central Paula Wagner Apfelbach ’83 swears “Rising Stars” — a young pro- last post as consul at the U.S. Bark Dog Day Care franchise that Alumni News will not make you fessional who’s definitely going embassy in Antananarivo, in New Berlin, Wisconsin, and look fat.

56 ON WISCONSIN John Francis from the Coast Guard in Washington, Berkeley. “I have to let go of the old self, Continued from page 31 D.C. The agency was developing the which is very scary sometimes. Who am “Obviously, there are people who believe regulations that would implement the I going to be after I start riding in cars?” that you can do this work. And it hit me 1990 Oil Pollution Act, which had been how I would shoot myself in the foot as a passed in the wake of the Valdez disaster. HE JOHN FRANCIS OF black man, to say that I couldn’t do things They needed a method for quantifying 2008 is a man who continues because that’s what I got raised to think. the economic value of natural resources to devote his life to the envi- From then on, I just went on and got my damaged by oil spills, a topic that Francis ronment, but whose definition had researched for his dissertation, and Tof the environment is broader than most degree. And it was because I had professors there who took the work that I was they hoped he could join them immedi- people’s — it includes civil rights, human doing as serious, important work. It was ately. They would send him a plane ticket rights, gender equality, and economic one of the better experiences of my life.” by overnight mail. equity. “It’s really about how we treat Francis finished his course work, But Francis still didn’t ride in planes each other,” he says. “Absolute bottom passed his preliminary exams, and began — or in trains or cars. Amazingly, the line. Because if we are part of the envi- work on his dissertation on the costs and Coast Guard was willing to wait for him ronment, and we treat ourselves so badly, legal conventions of managing oil spills. to arrive by bicycle. Since he wasn’t able what we do manifests in the physical The topic seemed obscure until March to get back and forth quickly, he had to environment.” 1989, when the Exxon Valdez spilled 10.8 finish up some business in New York. By Starting on Earth Day each year, million gallons into Prince William Sound. the time he was finally able to hit the road Francis spends several weeks walk- Suddenly reporters were calling the Insti- and bike to D.C., it was two months later. ing, and then flies home from wherever tute for Environmental Studies and asking Francis stayed at the Coast Guard he ends up. Since 2005, he has been to speak to an expert on oil spills. The only for fourteen months, developing methods retracing his journey across the country, problem was that the expert didn’t speak. for measuring natural resource damage, moving from east to west. This year he Francis’s major professor, John Steinhart, and acting as project manager for a study walked through Pennsylvania and Ohio. fielded the calls for him. on the oil spill risks of deep-water ports. “I have this dream to walk around the He was given a civilian service award world, which I haven’t completed yet, N EARTH DAY 1990, and, having made plenty of D.C. connec- although I’ve probably put that many Francis gathered with tions, he certainly could have continued miles in,” he explains. “The journey is friends and family at a hotel working in environmental policy. Instead, really the process, and it’s not whether in Washington, D.C. His Francis decided to continue walking. I get around the world, it’s the experience Oforty-fourth birthday had recently passed, He sailed to the Caribbean aboard a I have on that journey.” and he had marked the occasion as he seventy-two-foot wooden yawl, eventu- And so he travels from place to place, always did, by re-evaluating his vow of ally walking across Cuba, Brazil, Bolivia, giving lectures, joining environmental silence. Now, after playing a song on the Argentina, Venezuela, and Chile as a and community partnerships, and devel- banjo, he opened his mouth and spoke U.N. Goodwill Ambassador. oping a curriculum called Planetlines the words he would return to again and It was while walking past a prison in that aims to use walking as a vehicle for again in his later incarnation as a public Venezuela in 1994 that he had an epiph- studying science, social justice, and com- speaker: “Thank you for being here.” any. Confronted by a guard demanding munity service. Things seem to fall into “Praise the Lord!” somebody shouted. identification, Francis found himself place for him, and contacts lead to other The very next day, as Francis was imagining that he was an escaped pris- contacts, all adding up to a life that con- riding his bicycle to Gallaudet, the college oner cleverly disguised as Dr. John Fran- tinually surprises him. for the deaf, he was hit by a car. Yet hav- cis. As he thought about it during the “What I thought was going to hap- ing cast aside one vow, he was not ready next hundred miles of walking, he real- pen was I was going to start walking and to dispense with the other, and he refused ized that he was a prisoner — a prisoner I would get a little cabin in Inverness, to ride in the ambulance, choosing instead of his own decision not to use motorized and I would spend the rest of my life just to walk the fifteen blocks to the hospital, vehicles. What if the Coast Guard hadn’t exploring around here, which wouldn’t despite a badly injured shoulder. News of allowed him to take two months to get to be a bad life,” he says thoughtfully. his decision made the Los Angeles Times. Washington? Would it have been worth “Not a bad life,” he repeats, and smiles. Francis was in Washington to passing up the opportunity to resolve the “Instead, I’m all over the world.” research his dissertation, and he ended very problem that had inspired him to up defending it by telephone so that he stop driving in the first place? Dashka Slater writes about the environment for wouldn’t have to walk back to Madison. “The lesson for me was that I have to publications ranging from Sierra to The New York Times Magazine. She is also the author of three A year later, in 1991, he was with some reassess wherever I am to get to the next books for children and a novel for adults. Read friends in New York when he got a call place,” Francis told the students at UC- more at www.dashkaslater.com.

FALL 2008 57 PHILANTHROPY

A Father’s Legacy UW professor uses inheritance to help others finance the cost of college.

After her father died two years ago, Ellen Zweibel received JAMES GILL an inheritance. She wasn’t quite sure what she would do with it, but the UW-Madison professor knew she would like to help others. Her father, John Gould, had emphasized education. “He didn’t have a college degree, for a combination of financial and family reasons,” says Zwei- bel, who teaches and conducts research in physics and astron- Philanthropic investment omy in the College of Letters in UW-Madison promises to and Science. “He fostered my curiosity, and he always encour- provide a tremendous return aged me to be interested in as the university applies its science and the world. “I wanted to do something resources to bring greater to memorialize him in some understanding of our world way,” she says. “He was a refu- gee from Czechoslovakia during and to find answers to society’s the Nazi era. I thought about most critical problems. For more helping refugees, but I was not really sure what to do.” “I’m very proud of the education we can offer people. I want it to be information about the University So Zweibel turned her as accessible as possible,” says Ellen Zweibel, UW professor of astron- thoughts to funding young omy and physics, who has used an inheritance to support need-based of Wisconsin Foundation, people’s dreams. “I have been scholarships through the UW Foundation’s recently launched initiative, “Great people. Great place.” call (608) 263-4545. reading so much about how the cost of education is pricing astronomy and physics, and my amount of money can make a so many people out of the mar- father liked chemistry,” Zwei- big difference. Would a $1,000 ket,” she says. “I’m very proud bel says. “So my first thought or $2,000 grant make a differ- to be a faculty member here. was a scholarship for a student ence to a student, given that I’m very proud of the education in one of those fields, but when it’s less than tuition? I’m sure we can offer people. I want it it was explained that there was now that it does.” to be as accessible as possible.” this match, I made no restric- She looks to her past for She met with staff at the tions. That was just too good to an indication of how finan- UW Foundation and discovered pass up.” cial times have changed. “My a new initiative that would Soon thereafter, Zweibel set mother became a high school match her gift dollar-for- up the first faculty-supported, teacher shortly before I went dollar if it went to campus- need-based scholarship endow- to college,” says Zweibel, who wide unrestricted, need-based ment as part of the foundation’s grew up in New Jersey. “Her student support. The founda- recently launched initiative, take-home pay was about three tion’s board of directors has “Great people. Great place.” times the cost of room, board, made $20 million available to “I didn’t know whether the and tuition at the University match such gifts. (Endowment amount of money I was talking of Chicago, where I went as an funds of $25,000 or more for about would matter,” she says. undergraduate. That’s just stag- need-based scholarship gifts “I didn’t know if you needed gering for a place that now, restricted to colleges or similar half a million dollars to walk I think, costs close to $50,000 units are being matched fifty through the [foundation’s] a year. The cost of education cents on the dollar.) door. I was surprised to dis- compared with wages and sala- “I am in two departments, cover that a relatively modest ries has just gone up so much.

58 ON WISCONSIN PHILANTHROPY

“Considering the kinds inside. It makes such a difference she says. “They see this other of jobs my parents had — my in what you can do in life.” side of us, where it might seem mother being a teacher, my Zweibel believes there’s to them sometimes that we’re father being a tool-and-die another good reason for faculty creating obstacles for them. I believe it’s important for them to see that we care about “Would a $1,000 or $2,000 grant make a making education accessible — difference to a student, given that it’s less regardless of means.” As for her feelings about the than tuition? I’m sure now that it does.” use of that inheritance? “There certainly were other things I maker — with three kids, they members to support students. might have done with it,” she could never have sent all three “I think it matters for students says with a smile. “Setting up of us to private schools,” she to know that [someone] cares this scholarship has brought me says. “Education transforms peo- about keeping them in school, nothing but happiness.” ple on the outside and on the especially a faculty member,” — Chris DuPré

A Homecoming for Tandem Press Plans for this off-campus studio will make it an on-campus gem.

It’s not that the people at alumni, and the Madison “As someone involved in the Tandem Press mind sharing community at large.” entrepreneurial world, I believe space with Wisconsin’s state car Panczenko, the board of that in order to create a vibrant fleet facility. Rather, being off directors, and friends of Tandem climate for entrepreneurs, we campus makes Tandem Press’s Press are working to raise $2.5 need a vibrant climate for the mission of bringing together million for this important step arts. Tandem Press is one of the artists, master printers, and UW- in Tandem’s progress. Thanks to university’s hidden assets.” Madison students, faculty, and a $250,000 challenge gift from Founded in 1987, Tan- staff more of a challenge. a couple who wishes to remain dem Press is a self-supporting According to East Campus anonymous, the campaign printmaking studio affiliated Gateway plans, Tandem Press was launched with a dollar-for- with the Art Department in will be able to leave the fleet dollar match. the School of Education. A behind and take up residence in “We have been supporting wide range of what Panczenko state-of-the-art space just east Tandem for about five years. describes as “blue chip” artists of the Kohl Center. This new Their work is stunning. Mov- cycle through Tandem year- home, located on the ground ing Tandem closer to campus round. floor, will make it possible for will help tremendously in giv- Printmaking is a centuries- people to sample many of the ing them more exposure to old process that begins with an prints this nationally known faculty, students, and especially artist’s design. Transferring the fine-arts press has to offer. alumni,” explains one of the design to a final series of prints “It has always been the donors. “They will have the that reflect the artist’s vision is dream of Tandem Press to opportunity to display their labor intensive and meticulous, move to campus, since we are work. This will be a natural but the results are spectacular currently three miles away,” place for alumni events. We works of art sought by museums says Paula McCarthy Panc- want to see this happen, and and private collectors. Visit zenko, executive director. “To when it does, it will enable tandempress.wisc.edu for a be on campus will enable us Tandem to make an even bigger look at new pieces and more to increase our visibility to the contribution to the growth information. university community, visiting of the arts community. — Merry Anderson

FALL 2008 59

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4 MONTHS FREE! FREE FREE LIMITED-TIME BONUS: Get our BEST package— Professional HD DVR with over 265Vaa"Y^\^iVaX]VccZah including: Installation upgrade FREE Lease fee of $4.99/mo. for 2nd & each add’l Qualifying programming, DVR & HD 6 months receiver. Complex/Custom installation extra. Access fee commitments req’d. of SHOWTIME® Handling & delivery fee of $19.95. 7 Channels 12 Channels 9 Channels 3 Channels When you purchase CHOICE XTRA™ package or higher. Activate PREMIER™ package when you purchase NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ for $74.99/mo. for 4 mos.

Offers end 10/31/08 & are based on approved credit. Credit card req’d. New customers only. See below for full offer details. =^\]ZgXjhidbZghVi^h[VXi^dcgVi^c\hi]VcXVWaZ-nZVghgjcc^c\AdXVaX]VccZah^cXajYZY†CdZfj^ebZciidWjnCdhiVgi"jeXdhih 2008 American Customer Satisfaction Index, University of Michigan Business School. Among the largest national cable and satellite providers. Don’t miss out on Badger™ sports! Call 1-800-370-3578 today

Credit card not required in MA and PA. Ûpon activation of new DIRECTV service, DIRECTV will mail one (1) Wisconsin dish cover to the name and address used to activate the new DIRECTV account. Please allow 6–8 weeks for delivery of dish cover. †Eligibility for local HD channels based on service address. A DIRECTV Slimline Dish required in some markets to receive local HD networks delivered by DIRECTV. An H20, HR20, H21 or HR21 model DIRECTV HD Receiver and an HD television set are required to display HD programming. Number of channels varies by package selected. PROGRAMMING OFFERS: OFFERS MAY NOT BE COMBINED. LIMIT ONE PROGRAMMING OFFER PER ACCOUNT. Account must be in “good standing,” as determined by DIRECTV in its sole discretion, to remain eligible for offers. DIRECTV System has a feature which restricts access to channels. In certain markets, programming/pricing may vary. Package pricing at directv.com/packages. FOUR FREE MONTHS OFFER: Featured package name and price: PREMIER $104.99/mo. 2008 NFL SUNDAY TICKET billed in four monthly installments of $74.99 each. In the fifth month, PREMIER package will automatically continue at the then-prevailing rate and DVR service will continue at $5.99/mo.; unless customer calls DIRECTV to change equipment and service. NFL SUNDAY TICKET automatically continues each season at a special rate, unless customer calls to cancel prior to start of season. Blackout restrictions and other conditions apply. SHOWTIME OFFER: SHOWTIME free for six months, a $72 value. Offer void where prohibited, taxed or restricted. CUSTOMER’S SHOWTIME SUBSCRIPTION WILL AUTOMATICALLY DISCONTINUE IN THE 7TH MONTH. INSTANT REBATE: Advanced equipment instant rebate requires activation of NFL SUNDAY TICKET (retail price $299.96 or 4 monthly payments of $74.99 each) and the PREMIER package or LO MÁXIMO package ($104.99/mo). DVR service ($5.99/mo.) and HD Access fee ($9.99/mo.) commitments required for HD DVR lease. LIMIT ONE ADVANCED EQUIPMENT REBATE PER DIRECTV ACCOUNT. INSTALLATION: Standard professional installation only. Complex/Custom installation extra. SYSTEM LEASE: Purchase of 18 consecutive months (24 months for advanced receivers) of any DIRECTV base programming package ($29.99/mo. or above) or qualifying international services bundle required. FAILURE TO ACTIVATE ALL THE DIRECTV SYSTEM EQUIPMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE EQUIPMENT LEASE ADDENDUM MAY RESULT IN A CHARGE OF $150 PER RECEIVER NOT ACTIVATED. IF YOU FAIL TO MAINTAIN YOUR PROGRAMMING COMMITMENT, DIRECTV MAY CHARGE A PRORATED FEE OF UP TO $480. RECEIVERS ARE AT ALL TIMES THE PROPERTY OF DIRECTV AND62 MUST BE ON RETURNED WISCONSIN UPON CANCELLATION OF SERVICE, OR ADDITIONAL FEES MAY APPLY. VISIT directv.com OR CALL 1-800-DIRECTV FOR DETAILS. Programming, pricing, terms and conditions subject to change at any time. Pricing residential. Taxes not included. Receipt of DIRECTV programming subject to terms of DIRECTV Customer Agreement; copy provided at directv.com/legal and in first bill. HBO is a service mark of Home Box Office, Inc. SHOWTIME and related marks are registered trademarks of Showtime Networks Inc., a CBS Company. Starz, Encore and all related registered marks or unregistered service marks are property of Starz Entertainment, LLC. NFL, the NFL Shield design and the NFL SUNDAY TICKET name and logo are trademarks of the NFL and its affiliates. ©2008 DIRECTV, Inc. DIRECTV and the Cyclone Design logo, PREMIER are trademarks of DIRECTV, Inc. All other trademarks and ser vice marks are the property of their respective owners.

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Unrestricted gifts to the University of Wisconsin You may designate your Foundation are powerful. They allow us to take advantage unrestricted gift to any of these funds. of new opportunities, meet unanticipated challenges and CALS Forward Fund Wisconsin School of Business Annual Fund foster an enduring tradition of academic excellence. School of Education Fund for Excellence College of Engineering Fund for Excellence Your investment will help retain top faculty, support School of Human Ecology Development Fund deserving graduate and undergraduate students, offer Law School Fund students real-world experiences and provide seed funding College of Letters & Science Strategic Initiatives Fund School of Medicine and Public Health Fund for new, innovative and interdisciplinary programs. School of Nursing—Dean’s Fund for Excellence Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies Fund Contact us for additional information about making Pharmacy School—Dean’s Priority Fund a difference in people and programs at the UW-Madison. School of Veterinary Medicine—Dean’s Fund for Excellence Office of Annual Giving 608-263-4545 Y www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu 1848 University Ave. l P.O. Box 8860 l Madison, WI 53708-8860

Y FALL 2008 63 There’s Nothing Like It. “ E ach time I return, I get that special feeling. It’s very comfortable, warm and friendly, bordering on perfection. There’s nothing like it … it’s a very special place.” Lorraine L. University of Wisconsin Parent # ! &! $'&% $' #%"$%" %*(&+!% +"/ %- *, (&-%3 '(*$%*)3(%*#3&$$+%!*/3(! *3!%3* 3 $!# & &-%*&-% !)&%3 23')# '(*$%*) % 0*!$) ()1 * * ( * '(*3 &! &( #+$%! )*+%*) +#*/ % )* 23&('&(*3(%*#)3&(3.+*!,)3%3&(3&$'%/3 !%%*!,''(!*!&%3'(& ($)

Today’s Support Leads to Tomorrow’s Success

2008

Each year the UW Athletic Department faces the challenge of supporting nearly 800 student-athletes in 23 varsity sports. The ongoing generosity of over 15,000 friends and fans is vital to funding the scholarships and facilities needed for tomorrow’s success.

INVEST IN EXCELLENCE Contribute to Wisconsin Athletics. Contact the Badger Fund at 608.262.1000 or visit uwbadgers.com.

64 ON WISCONSIN MAIN EVENTS

Campus online Made in Wisconsin: Resources 17 Miller Brewing — Online History 102: The Take a “hard-hat” tour of the 1920s to the Present with famed Milwaukee brewery. Wisconsin Alumni Stan Schultz — History isn’t Afterward, eat lunch at the Association (WAA) a thing of the past. It’s shap- Miller Inn, enjoy a guided tast- (608) 262-2551 ing the present. Find out how ing of different beer styles, Fax (608) 262-3332 post-Civil War American his- and hear from Miller employ- 20072008 Toll free (888) 947-2586 tory continues to impact your ees. Register online at (888-WIS-ALUM) everyday life by taking part uwalumni.com/madeinwi. BADGER FOOTBALL [email protected] in Professor Schultz’s infor- Homecoming SCHEDULE uwalumni.com mative, entertaining online 18-25 2008 — It’s Alumni Address Changes course held October 28 to Bucky to the Rescue! Make AUGUST (608) 262-2551 or December 11. Visit uwalumni. plans now to attend a variety 30 Akron com/learning or call (888) 947- of super events during Home- Toll free (888) 947-2586 SEPTEMBER www.uwalumni.com/directory 2586 for details. coming. Visit uwalumni.com/ 6 [email protected] homecoming to see a full Marshall schedule, including the 13 @ Fresno State Alumni Death Notices october 5K charity run/walk, (WAA Tour) (608) 262-2551 or pep rally, 27 @ Michigan Toll free (888) 947-2586 UW Advocacy Forum parade, and OCTOBER [email protected] 4 — You’re invited to this the BADGER 4 UW Foundation year’s Alumni for Wisconsin HUDDLE® Ohio State 11 (608) 263-4545 Advocacy Forum on Saturday, tailgate. Penn State October 4. This is an exciting 18 @ Iowa (WAA Bus Tour) [email protected] Chancellor’s opportunity to visit campus, 25 www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu Welcome — Join UW Illinois (Homecoming) meet with UW leaders and 23 alumni, students, staff, and UW-Madison elected officials, and share your NOVEMBER friends of UW-Madison at this www.wisc.edu ideas on how to strengthen our 1 @ Michigan State complimentary Kohl Center great university. Visit alumni- (WAA Bus Tour) Call WAA toll free at event to celebrate our great 8 @ Indiana (888) WIS-ALUM for forwisconsin.org or call WAA’s public university and officially 15 more details about Mike Fahey at (608) 263-2645 Minnesota welcome Chancellor Carolyn (Parents’ Day) these events. Or check for more information. “Biddy” Martin PhD’85 as 22 Cal Poly out our event calendar at Homecoming Golf its new leader. Call WAA at uwalumni.com/calendar. 10 Outing — This annual (888) 947-2586 for details. All UW alumni and friends event at University Ridge Golf are invited to attend WAA’s Course is part of UW-Madi- BADGER HUDDLE® pre-game son’s Homecoming celebra- november tailgates at all away football games and select home tion. The package includes games. Visit uwalumni.com/ eighteen holes of golf, com- First-Year huddles to register. plimentary cart rental, lunch, 14–16 Parents’ and more. Proceeds benefit Weekend — Parents of After the 2008 season, Coach the Dean of Students Crisis first-year students will have Bret Bielema and his staff Loan Fund. For details, visit a chance to attend Friday invite Badger fans to travel uwalumni.com/homecoming classes, meet campus officials, with them on a one-of-a- kind Caribbean Cruise with or call (888) 947-2586. and cheer for the Badgers at the Coaches. You’ll have the Camp Randall Stadium. Visit Badger Career Expo chance to talk one-on-one uwalumni.com/fpw for details. 16 — Make contacts and with the coaches at exclusive explore your career options at Greek Life dinners and receptions for the first-ever Badger Career 21–23 Reunion UW travelers. Make your res- Expo in Minneapolis. You’ll Weekend — Celebrate with ervation today at uwalumni. com/footballcruise. meet with representatives UW Greek alumni at the from dozens of Wisconsin annual Greek Reunion Week- Contact WAA: companies who are looking end. Enjoy a Badger football (888) 922-8728 for driven Badgers to join game, tours of campus fra- [email protected] their companies. Visit ternities and sororities, and uwalumni.com/athletics uwalumni.com/badgerexpo more. Visit uwalumni.com/ for more information. greek for details.

FALL 2008 65 FLASHBACK ALFRED EISENSTAEDT/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES

The Game of Life

When Marquette University kicked off the 1939 football season at Camp Randall, it wasn’t exactly the game of the century. The Badgers won, 14-13, but it was the team’s only victory in a 1-6-1 season. So what was Alfred Eisenstaedt doing there? The legendary Life magazine photographer was looking at pretty girls — or rather one girl, Merrilyn Knud Hansen ’42. Knud Hansen (then Merrilyn Olson) was the subject of a pictorial on coed life, and Eisenstaedt was snapping shots of her and her date, Brooks Conrad x’42. The photos were published, amid articles on the start of World War II, in Life’s October 1939 issue. But On Wisconsin can now reveal a hint of scandal attached to the images: they were staged. Knud Hansen, a Madison native, says the social editor of the Wisconsin State Journal had nominated her for the project, and that her date for that day had been hand-picked, too. “I was pinned to Carstens Slack [’40],” she says, referring to her steady boyfriend, “but he was a Kappa Sigma. The editor was married to a D.U. [Delta Upsilon], so she matched me with Brooks [also a D.U.]. It was very political.” Knud Hansen went on to marry Slack, and after he died in 1991, she married John Knud Hansen. She now lives in Maryland. Conrad left the UW without receiving a degree. He passed away in March 2008. Eisenstaedt’s reputa- tion continued to grow — his photo of a sailor and woman kissing in Times Square at the end of World War II is a national icon. And Marquette? It last played a varsity football game in 1960. — John Allen

66 ON WISCONSIN