Author: mnchua

Good chemistry: Protecting lakes and streams with natural chemical compounds

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As a graduate student, Sarah Balgooyen has researched phenolic contaminants and their presence in water systems. Phenolic contaminants such as BPA – the chemical commonly known from plastic water bottles – enter lakes and streams where they harm the ecosystem. Other phenolic compounds often come from pharmaceuticals or personal care products. Balgooyen focuses on a mechanism that could help break down these chemicals before they reach the ecosystems at all: oxidation by manganese oxide.

Meet the 2019 Bouchet Society inductees

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The Graduate School has selected five scholars for the 2019 cohort of the UW–Madison Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society. The Bouchet Society provides scholars with a network of peers who exemplify character, leadership, scholarship, service, and advocacy for those who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy. The 2019 class of Bouchet scholars will …

UW-Madison graduate programs ranked high by U.S. News

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UW-Madison graduate programs are once again ranked among the nation’s best in the 2020 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.” “Our graduate programs provide students the opportunity to learn from and be mentored by world-class faculty who encourage curiosity and creativity,” says William Karpus, dean of UW–Madison’s Graduate School. “I am proud of the faculty and staff who work hard to prepare our students for careers in their chosen fields as well as inspire them to continue learning by asking the most important questions.”

UW–Madison conferred the most PhDs in 2017

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The University of Wisconsin–Madison granted more doctorates than any other U.S. institution in 2017, rising from 2nd place the year before. The 844 awarded doctorates place the UW at the top of PhD-granting institutions, according to the Survey of Earned Doctorates. Overall, U.S. institutions granted 54,664 doctorates, a decrease of about half a percent from 2016.

Collecting data on kids’ environments and health

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Researchers use all sorts of methods to collect their data. For one project on campus, that method takes the form of a cute, animal-shaped backpack. Graduate student Amy Schultz specializes in environmental epidemiology, which studies how environmental factors affect human health at the population level. She is a leading research assistant on a project called CREATE: Cumulative Risks, Early Development, and Emerging Academic Trajectories.

UW–Madison announces 2018 Teaching Assistant Award winners

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Fifteen graduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have been selected as recipients of the 2018 Campus-Wide Teaching Assistant Awards. UW–Madison employs over 2,000 teaching assistants (TAs) across a wide range of disciplines where they are an integral part of the Wisconsin Experience. Their contributions to the classroom, lab, and field are essential to the university’s educational mission.

UW–Madison raises TA stipend rates

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The University of Wisconsin–Madison is raising the minimum stipend for teaching assistants on campus by almost 9 percent for the upcoming 2019-2020 academic year. The increase of 8.99 percent brings minimum teaching assistant stipends up to $20,000 for a nine-month, 50 percent appointment, and places UW–Madison at or above the median stipend rate at its public peer institutions. Many departments pay stipends above the minimum rate in order to be competitive in recruiting top graduate students.

Astrophysical discovery rekindles excitement among researchers

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Deep in the ice beneath the South Pole, an array of sensors in the IceCube detector picked up on something in September 2017 that hinted at a solution to a centuries-old mystery. In the following months, a team of international scientists including a number of UW-Madison graduate students scrutinized everything they knew about the cosmic event. They arrived at the conclusion that the subatomic, ghostly particle called a neutrino that entered the detector had come from a specific type of galaxy, far away from Earth.

Graduate School welcomes two new directors

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Two new staff members have joined the Graduate School team, filling positions essential to the Graduate School’s mission to serve students and programs across campus. Amy Kuether will assume the role of Director of Academic Services Jan. 22 and Scott Carter will join the Graduate School as Fellowship Director Jan. 10.

Graduate degree bolsters clinician’s research into preventing blindness

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The technology for an eye specialist to review a picture of a patient’s eye taken miles away to screen for eye disease has been around for decades. Yet, less than half of Wisconsin adults with diabetes, who are particularly vulnerable to vision-threatening diseases, get annual eye screenings. Yao Liu, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, has been working to increase access to this technology.