Success is ours proclaim the Co-Presidents. This year’s speaker has been our first choice for the past several years and for various reasons we have been unsuccessful in attaining him. We are announcing today that Dr. John D. Wiley, Former UW Chancellor and current director of the newly created
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID)
will be our guest speaker at Founders’ Day on Thursday, May 13, 2010. ON WISCONSIN!!!!!
This is an event that you do not want to miss. Put it in your calendars NOW. Make sure to click on the Red links embedded in the following paragraphs to learn more about this exciting research collaborative and the LEED building that will house it.
Capping an intensely competitive process, five proposals from University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty have been selected to form the intellectual heart of the
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID).
WID is the public half of the
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID)
, complemented by the private
Morgridge Institute for Research
. Both entities will occupy the new interdisciplinary research facility now under construction in the 1300 block of University Avenue.
Chosen from a final pool of 12 proposals, the five research themes and their faculty leaders selected for inclusion in the new institute are:
>> Epigenetics or how genes are activated or inactivated, led by John M. Denu, a professor of biomolecular chemistry in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
>> Tissue engineering scaffold research, led by Lih-Sheng Turng, UW-Madison professor of mechanical engineering.
>> Health Technology Design in the Living Environments Laboratory aimed at accelerating the development of personal care diagnostic and therapeutic technology, led by Patricia Flatley Brennan, professor of industrial and systems engineering and nursing.
>> Optimization in Biology and Medicine, a mathematical approach to minimize or maximize the variables of a given subject, led by Michael C. Ferris, professor of computer science.
>> Systems Biology, an integrated, "system level" understanding of living organisms, spearheaded by John Yin, professor of chemical and biological engineering.
About the Building
The
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID)
building, to be completed in late 2010, will house the public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the private Morgridge Institute for Research in a single, four-story facility constructed on the entire 1300 block of University Avenue (bordered by Campus Drive, North Randall Avenue and North Orchard Street) on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The building will serve as a hub for interdisciplinary research – spanning biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technologies – that will lead to the development of new biomedical treatments and technological applications aimed at improving human health and welfare. It will contain approximately 106,000 assignable square feet of research space, including wet and dry laboratories, research support areas, core facilities and offices.
As a gateway to campus for the public, the building also will be home to teaching labs, designed as "dream" collaborative learning environments. The labs will host a wide range of education programs for K-12 and college students, science teachers and the public.
Plans for the ground floor, currently known as the
Town Center include public gathering spaces, shops and restaurants designed to revitalize the streets around the facility and enrich the campus environment.