Summer 2006 11 Dispatches

DISPATCHES Plays Well with Others UW’s innovative cluster hiring program shows results — but will it continue? Where Walter Block’s business challenging — as promised. would have said, ‘That has card lists his faculty title, it “Clusters were really a bril- nothing to do with us,’” says should say, “Continued on next liant idea to intervene in the Anne Miner, a business profes- card.” Block, a rising star work- smokestack model,” in which sor who helped develop the ing on medical-imaging tech- academic departments operate cluster. “They don’t think that nology, is an associate professor mostly independently, says anymore.” of biomedical engineering. And Laurie Beth Clark, assistant “People are talking with an associate professor of med- vice chancellor for faculty and each other, and I think that’s ical physics. And an associate staff programs. “I think what the single most important professor of radiology. we’ve shown is that people are objective of the clusters,” says “And I’m hoping to get an finding ways to work across Charles Cohen, a history pro- appointment in electrical engi- disciplines.” fessor who hired four professors “Guys in the house used to make neering soon,” he says. Faculty hired under the as part of a cluster on religious fun of me for watching her show For Block — and several program have generated tens studies. He adds that the cluster until they tasted her recipe for dozen professors meatloaf and mashed potatoes.” like him — hop- JEFF MILLER ping departmen- — Junior Brian Nagle, a mem- tal fences isn’t a ber of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, hobby. It’s a big on how cooking tips from reason why Martha Stewart’s lifestyle show, they’re here. Col- Martha, have improved the qual- lectively known ity of food served in the house. as cluster hires, Stewart interviewed Nagle during these faculty were anE AprilPI broadcastLOG andU laterE sent brought in under the fraternity a signed apron. a unique UW program that recruits small groups of faculty who work at the intersection of several different fields. Created by former Chancellor David Ward MS’62, PhD’63 850 in 1998, clusters Associate professor Walter Block, left, describes some of his research on medical The average number of mopeds were meant to imaging technology to radiology professor Thomas Grist. As a cluster hire, Block has parked on campus on a typical challenge the aca- a part-time appointment and an office in the radiology department, which gives him access to clinicians and facilities that help him push his research forward. day, according to UW Transporta- demic status quo tion Services estimates. Starting while helping the in fall, moped drivers will be university establish expertise in of millions in grant money and program was “absolutely criti- required to purchase an annual emerging areas of knowledge sparked new research collabora- cal” to anchoring the religious parking permit, a step campus — fields such as nanotechnol- tions in areas such as genomics, studies program, which recently officials think is necessary to ogy and genomics, which don’t computational sciences, and began offering a core curricu- help keep the growing buzz of fit neatly into any one academic environmental science. They lum for majors. scooters under control. discipline. The program has have enabled the creation of Perhaps nowhere is the funded 140 faculty positions in new interdisciplinary programs, bridge-building potential of 49 clusters, which were chosen such as one on entrepreneur- clusters more evident than in from more than one hundred ship that brings together biomedical engineering, where proposals during five rounds of expertise in business, law, and Block is one of three professors competition. engineering. hired to develop new medical Now, as many of those fac- “There are conversations technology. An expert in med- EPILOGUE ulty approach key stages in between different departments ical imaging, Block has two their careers, the experiment that if you’d said ‘entrepreneur- offices — one in the Engineer- appears as innovative — and as ship’ to them ten years ago, ing Centers building, where he 10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES is surrounded by people who home departments, which often “One of the great strong know how to build things, favor depth over interdiscipli- points of this university is the and one in the Clinical Sciences nary breadth in tenure reviews. lack of institutional barriers to Center, where he works along- So far, cluster professors are this kind of thing,” he says. “In side the medical professionals earning tenure at the same pace some very top-down universi- who will ultimately use those as other faculty, but many of the ties, it’s very hard to collaborate tools in patient care. hires are just now approaching with people outside your “That makes it very easy their review periods. How well department, if not impossible. to work on projects together,” they fare may be a telling sign But here, it’s wide open and has he says. of whether the program is been for a long time.” Robert Radwin, chair of indeed fostering new respect “When departments do this biomedical engineering, credits for expertise that reaches across right,” adds Foley, “they create a the cluster hires for fostering a departmental boundaries. lot of other parallel benefits that collaborative atmosphere “Any interdisciplinary fac- can pay off for years to come.” throughout the unit, which now ulty pose a particular tenure — Michael Penn involves nearly sixty faculty from challenge to institutions that five colleges. “It wasn’t that we have created discipline-based weren’t doing these kinds of depth models for research,” says Q AND A MICHAEL MESSNER things before, but the cluster Clark, adding that the university has helped amplify it,” he says. is beginning to encourage Liah Hansen ‘06 Clusters played a significant departments to “articulate new and Chloe role, he says, in the department criteria for how to look at excel- Britzius ‘06 landing a $3 million, five-year lence in broad knowledges.” Talk about face time: recent grant to translate research into These obstacles haven’t grads Liah Hansen, left, and marketable technology. discouraged other institutions Chloe Britzius are trying to While those results are from adopting the cluster fund a trip around the world promising, the cluster-hiring model. The University of Califor- by selling their foreheads as advertising space. The two charge experiment does have some nia, the State University of New companies a fee, beginning at eighty dollars a day, to put a tem- rough edges. Searches that York, Purdue, and Virginia Tech porary tattoo of the company’s logo on their foreheads. At their involve multiple departments are among the universities that Web site (www.youtattoous.com), they’re offering eighty days of are often cumbersome and in a have launched similar programs, head space, and they hope to raise enough money to begin their handful of cases have dissolved and Florida State University travels in September. into turf battles. A few clusters recently announced plans to Q: What is the strangest thing you have had to put on your have not yet been able to fill fund two hundred new faculty forehead? their allotted positions, and oth- positions via cluster hiring. A: We don’t think any of them are “strange.” ers have already lost faculty to At UW-Madison, tight more lucrative offers elsewhere. budgets have prevented the Q: Is there anything you would not put on your forehead? Departments have some- university from adding any new A: We talked a lot about this issue before starting the project. times fallen victim to the “overly clusters since the last round was We aren’t willing to wear anything obscene ... we decide on a democratic Wisconsin thing,” approved in 2003, which has case-by-case basis. says environmental studies raised some questions about Q: What is the typical reaction? professor Jonathan Foley ’90, whether the program will con- A: Double takes ... sometimes triple takes. Some people have PhD’93, who leads a cluster tinue. Clark says the administra- been very curious and have asked us about what we are doing, on emerging environmental tion is committed to continuing and we explain it to them. threats. Before hiring three pro- with existing clusters, and it Q: What is the most memorable reaction you have gotten? fessors for his cluster, he set a will explore opportunities for A: When we wore the tattoos for Patrick Properties, a girl came up rule: “Leave your baggage at expanding the program if to us and asked us where she could sign up to wear tattoos, too. the door. If it looks like you’re funding becomes available. angling for your department, Michael Pariza ’67, a food Q: Do you wear it to parties or class? you’re out,” he says. “I was science professor who serves on A: We have worn them to class and handed out fliers to people ready to be a jerk about it, but the UW’s cluster steering com- coming into our classes. We wore them to the bars and to the everyone got along great.” mittee, hopes that happens, say- Memorial Union Terrace. Another potential issue is ing that no place may be better Q: Do you have the feeling you have something on your whether young assistant profes- suited for a long-term commit- face even when you don’t? sors hired under the program ment to interdisciplinary clusters A: Actually, it is the opposite. We sometimes forget that we have are able to get tenure in their than UW-Madison. them on and start to wonder why people keep staring at us. SUMMER 2006 11 DISPATCHES Face to Face Students aren’t the only ones logging in to the Facebook.

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