Instructor Biographies

David Baumler is currently a post-doctoral research associate in Prof. Nicole T. Perna’s Genome Evolution Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his B.S in Biochemistry (96), M.S. in Food Microbiology & Safety (00), and Ph.D. in Cellular & Molecular Biology (06) from UW-Madison. He joined Dr. Perna’s ASAP Genome database team in the fall of 2006, and focused on curation, analysis, and conservation of biochemical pathways and subsystems of the microbial genomes that comprise the family Enterobacteria (such as E. coli and Salmonella). He also has worked to extend the use of the ASAP genome database to undergraduate educators as a tool for inquiry-based exercises to integrate bioinformatics throughout the undergraduate biology curriculum.

Since August 2008, he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship through the BACTER (Bringing Advanced Computational Techniques to Energy Research) program at UW-Madison. His current research involves working in the area of systems biology in collaboration with Prof(s) Perna and Jennie Reed (Chemical and Biological Engineering, UW-Madison). He has constructed computational models representing the reconstructed metabolic networks of numerous E. coli strains to aid in the bioengineering of an economical biofuel producing strain. Over the last 10 years at UW-Madison, he has taught over 1,000 students in an array of subjects ranging from fermented beverages to microbial genomics, and is known for his creative and enthusiastic teaching style.

Paul Sondel obtained BS and PhD training at UW Madison and his MD from Harvard. He joined the UW faculty in 1980 in the Departments of Pediatrics, Human Oncology and Genetics, and became leader of the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Program in Immunology and Immunotherapy in 1990, when he also became Head of the Division of Pediatric Oncology. His research has emphasized the translation of laboratory immunology into clinical progress. Specifically his research team is pursuing ways that a patients own immune system can be effectively directed against their own cancer. This has involved studies in vitro, studies in mice, "first in human" studies of new experimental agents, and larger national studies of clinical efficacy. A recent national study of this approach in neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer, has recently shown that this approach is improving the cure rate for this disease.

Joanna Skluzacek is currently the 4-H STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Specialist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Youth Development at the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension. In this capacity, Skluzacek works with community partners and cooperating Wisconsin counties to bring STEM educational materials to youth. She received her B.S. in Environmental Science from Minnesota State University-Mankato in 1997 and her Ph.D. (’05) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Environmental Chemistry and Technology. Skluzacek’s main training has been in the field of water chemistry and the investigation of inorganic materials for water purification.

Before attaining her position at UW-Extension, Skluzacek was a post-doctoral researcher at Penn State University where she was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship to study water quality and remediation strategies in Ghana, Africa. In this regard, she spent almost one year in rural Ghana investigating water quality and remediation techniques suitable for developing nations in West Africa.

Irwin Goldman has worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1992 and is currently Professor of Horticulture. From 2004 through mid-2010, he served in the administration of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences as an Assistant, Associate,Vice, and Interim Dean. His work focuses on breeding and genetics of vegetable crops, primarily carrot, onion, and table beet. Together with his students, he has studied the intersection between vegetables and human health, often in interdisciplinary teams.

Goldman holds a B.S. in Agricultural Science from University of Illinois, M.S. in Crop Science from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Maize Genetics at the University of Illinois. His teaching responsibilities include two courses in plant breeding and genetics and a course on vegetable crops.

Kerck Kelsey, has been studying and writing about the Washburns for eighteen years. His third book about them was published in June. He is a direct descendant of Cadwallader C. Washburn.

Dr. Johnson is a neuropsychologist with research interests in brain function in clinical disorders. Current projects focus on A) the neurobiological and psychological processes that affect memory; B) early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease; C) imaging markers of AD progression; D) brain changes in normal aging; E) the effect of intervention on the brain in aging and AD. His lab has funding from The National Institute on Aging, The US Dept of Veterans Affairs, and the State of Wisconsin.

Institute on Aging
Wisconsin Alzheimers Disease Research Center (WADRC)

Dr. Dailey is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology. He specializes in voice, airway and swallowing disorders. He is also interested in clinical applications for professional and performing voice disorders, laryngeal cancer, laryngeal premalignancy, spasmodic dysphonia, laryngeal tremor, vocal cord paralysis, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, airway stenosis, and dysphagia.

Jim Lattis is director and co-founder of UW Space Place and a faculty associate in the UW-Madison Department of Astronomy. He draws heavily on his background in the history of science for teaching and outreach, is active in the preservation of historical sites and materials related to the history of astronomy, and also writes and publishes in the field.

Nigel Cook is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Food Animal Production Medicine section of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine. He qualified as a veterinarian in 1992 and worked in a large food animal clinic in Southern England for four years before moving to the Royal Veterinary College, Hertfordshire, where he spent three years as lecturer and head of the Large Animal Ambulatory Clinic. Since 1999 he has been in Wisconsin, providing a milk quality, lameness and facility troubleshooting service to farmers, teaching veterinary students, and developing research related to the influence of the environment on hoof and udder health. He is section head of the Food Animal Production Medicine group, past chair of the AABP Bovine Lameness Committee and current Vice President of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners.

Heidi Goodrich Blair received her bachelor's degree in Biology at the University at Albany, SUNY, and her Ph.D. in molecular biology at the same institution. After conducting post-doctoral research at Harvard Medical School she joined the Department of Bacteriology of UW-Madison in 1997, and is now a Professor. At UW, Heidi has dedicated herself to conducting and promoting Microbial Symbiosis research. With Dr. Katrina Forest she wrote a successful Cluster Hire proposal that led to the recruitment of four faculty members who study beneficial microbe-host associations. Heidi directs the Symbiosis Cluster, co-directs the NIH training program "Microbes in Health and Disease", and teaches both a graduate level course in Microbial Symbiosis and an undergraduate course in Microbial Genetics and Molecular Machines. Heidi's research focuses on the molecular basis of symbiotic associations between bacteria and invertebrate animals.

Elizabeth French is a third year Ph.D. candidate in the Dairy Science Department. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Animals Sciences in 2005. The decision to continue graduate studies in dairy nutrition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison arose from jobs at the UIUC dairy farm and extensive research within a dairy nutrition laboratory. Upon finishing her Master’s degree at UW-Madison working with distillers grains as a component of dairy cattle diets, she decided to pursue a doctorate degree. Her research has shifted from the feeding side of dairy nutrition to relating milk components with products from rumen fermentation. In addition to research, she has assistant coached the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge team for UW-Madison, coached the Midwest Dairy Challenge team for the past two years, organized the dairy science major for UW Grandparents University, and held an interactive laboratory at the PDPW Youth Leadership Derby.

Dr. Dalecki is a Professor of Sociology whose topic areas include social change, research methodology, and energy. He teaches the first sequence course in the Renewable Energy minor at UW-Platteville, and is part of the team creating a new Sustainable and Renewable Energy Systems major. Recent presentations have included "Got Energy?" and "The Ethanol Fraud." He received his BS from the University of Wisconsin--Platteville, his MS from Texas Christian University and his PhD from The Pennsylvania State University. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is currently the President of the Platteville Common Council. His interests include Zen, politics, golf, poker, and energy.

Yuri P. Danilov is a neuroscientist with over 35 years experience in research on brain function and the special senses, including vision, taste, hearing, proprioception and balance. Dr. Danilov is the lead discoverer of the balance retention effect, lead development of the specific training regimens, and continues to identify potential clinical and non-clinical application of neuromodulation and sensory substitution technology. Dr. Danilov received the M.S. degree in biophysics, in 1978, from St. Petersburg University in Russia and the Ph.D. degree in neuroscience, in 1984, from the Pavlov Instititute of Physiology, Russian Acadamy of Science. Dr. Danilov was Senior Scientist (11/00 – 12/04) and Director of Clinical Research at Wicab, Inc., where he oversaw both conceptual development for the BrainPort system as well as its clinical testing. Currently he is Senior Scientist in Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Medicine. His interest areas are neuroplasticity, neurorehabilitation, human performance, human performance, and human sensory systems.

Phil Pellitteri is a distinguished faculty associate with the department of Entomology and has run the Insect Diagnostic Lab since May of 1978. He is also an Extension entomologist and gives 40-50 talks and workshops around the state every year. Phil is on public radio and teaches in the Farm and Industry Short Course, and on the UW-Madison campus.

Dan Wallace has been a staff member of the Synchrotron Radiation Center for the past 32 years. He was a part of transforming a corn field into a world class, lightsource and research facility.
He helped build the electron accelerator, helped design and build beamlines to deliver synchrotron light and assisted researchers with experiments. Recently he has been assisting with Education and Outreach activities to share the beauty of light.

Chris Moore is the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC), a National Lightsource. He has been at SRC for over 10 years coordinating programs for groups ranging from grade school students to seniors. He enjoys finding unique and engaging ways to teach people about the phenomena of light and how it is used as a tool to do scientific research.

Bret Payseur received his bachelor's degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology AND Anthropology from the University of Colorado - Boulder in 1996. He earned a Master's degree in Evolutionary Biology from Northwestern University Medical School. Bret received his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona in 2003 and performed postdoctoral research at Cornell University. Bret has been assistant professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Wisconsin since August 2005. Bret uses genomics to understand the evolutionary processes that shape genetic variation within and between species.

Lorna Zach managed the collaborative, multi-disciplinary WAGE –sponsored project, on Food Import Safety and she is an associate at the Center for Human Performance and Risk Assessment in the College of Engineering, which is spear-heading this project. She consults under the name, “System Solutions for the Food Industry” and has many years experience in the food processing and agriculturally-related industries. Both her MS in food science and her BS in chemical engineering are from this University, although she received her PhD from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Lorna is currently editing a book on this subject.

Dr. Shult currently serves as Director of the Communicable Disease Division and Emergency Laboratory Response of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene. He received his Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has over 30 years of experience in clinical and public health microbiology with service in the private, university and public health sectors and directs statewide emergency laboratory response during disease outbreaks and public health emergencies, including bioterrorism. He currently serves on a number of local, state and national public health planning, preparedness and response working groups dealing with pandemic influenza, bioterrorism and emerging and vaccine-preventable diseases.

Gregg Vanderheiden is a professor of Industrial and Biomedical Engineering, and director of Trace R&D Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has worked in technology and disability for more than 35 years and currently directs the NIDRR Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Information Technology Access, and co-directs the RERC on Telecommunications Access (joint with Gallaudet University).

Dr. Vanderheiden was a pioneer in the field of Augmentative Communication (a term taken from his writings in 1979), and worked with people having physical, visual, hearing and cognitive disabilities. His work with the computer industry led to many of the access features that are standard today. For example, access features developed by Dr. Vanderheiden and his team have been built into the Macintosh OS since 1987, OS/2 and the UNIX X Window system since 1993, and more than half a dozen were built into Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista and now System 7. His work is also found in the built-in access features in ATMs, Point of Sale terminals, and cross-disability accessible USPS Automated Postal Stations, as well as the accessible Amtrak ticket machines, and in airport terminals.

Dr. Vanderheiden has served on numerous professional, industry and government advisory and planning committees including those for the FCC, NSF, NIH, VA, DED, GSA, NCD, Access Board and White House. Dr. Vanderheiden served on the FCC's Technological Advisory Council, was a member of the Telecommunications Access Advisory committee and the Electronic Information Technology Access Advisory Committee (508 and 255 refresh) for the US Access Board, and served on the steering committee for the National Research Council's Planning Group on "Every Citizen Interfaces," and the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine Committee on the Future of Disability in America.

He has received over 30 awards for his work on technology and disability include the ACM Social Impact Award for the Human-Computer Interaction Community, the Ron Mace Award, the Access award from AFB, the Yuri Rubinski Memorial World Wide Web Award (WWW6), and the Isabelle and Leonard H. Goldenson Award for Outstanding Research in Medicine and Technology (UCPA).

Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT)
NPII
Raising the Floor

Dominique Brossard is an associate professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication, with affiliations in Global Studies and the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies. She is the leader of the Societal Implications of Nanotechnology group in the NSF-funded Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) and teach courses in strategic communication theory and research with a special emphasis on science and risk communication.

Dr. Brossard’s research program focuses on the intersection between science, media and policy. She researches public opinion dynamics in the context of controversial scientific innovations, such as biotechnology, stem cell research and nanotechnology. Dr. Brossard is particularly interested in understanding the role of values in shaping public attitudes, and in cross-cultural analysis of these processes.

Dr. Paul Esker is a native of Weston, WI (around the Wausau area). He graduated from UW in 1998 with a B.S. in Genetics and Bacteriology. He attended Iowa State University for his M.S. degree in Plant Pathology and also has a PhD from Iowa State in Plant Pathology and Statistics. After a Postdoctoral position with NSF (Biological Informatics) that had him traveling between Kansas State, Iowa State, and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), He joined the Department of Plant Pathology at UW in September 2007. Paul currently holds an extension-research appointment studying diseases of field crops, small grains, and forages.

Dave Nelson is a professor of Biochemistry. He has a B.A. from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. from Stanford Medical School.

Dr. William Bland obtained his graduate degrees at the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After several years of research on crop root growth and water use in Central Texas he returned to UW-Madison in 1991. He conducts research on water use by crops, teaches and advises in the Agroecology MSc program, and teaches a general science class titled, "Earth's Water:Natural Science and Human Use."

Richard Keller is Associate Professor of Medical History and Bioethics. His research lies at the intersection of the history and ethnography of European and global health. His first book, Colonial Madness: Psychiatry in French North Africa (University of Chicago Press, 2007), is a study of cross-cultural psychiatry in the twentieth century. He is now at work on a new project, a study of the intersections of human and environmental vulnerability in the deadly European heat wave of 2003. Based on extensive fieldwork and archival research, the project explores the coupling of human, natural, and technological systems in a period of disaster. Keller teaches courses on the historical and contemporary dimensions of European and international health.

Lindsey Moser completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of St. Thomas in MN. She then obtained a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the direction of Stacey Schultz-Cherry. Her graduate work focused on the cellular effects and mechanisms of the diarrhea-inducing pathogen astrovirus. Following graduate school, Dr. Moser did a brief stint as a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Schultz-Cherry’s laboratory examining the cellular responses to influenza virus before accepting a post-doctoral position in Dr. Laura Knoll’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here at UW, she is currently working to develop a model to study the sexual forms of Toxoplasma gondii in the laboratory.

Ankur Desai is Assistant Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and faculty affiliate of the Center for Climatic Research in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. His research sits at the intersection of micrometeorology and ecosystem ecology, revolving around questions of regional surface-atmosphere exchanges of greenhouse gases, water, and energy, which are answered using tower, airborne, and satellite observations, and climate models. These questions help improve understanding how ecosystems modify the climate and vice versa, feedbacks that are critical to improving prediction of climate change.

Jim is a native of Wheaton, IL. He holds a B.S. from North Carolina State University in Agronomy, a M.S. from Texas A&M in Soil and Crop Science and a PhD from North Carolina State University in Plant Pathology. Jim is an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology and has statewide responsibilities for diseases of turfgrasses. He participates in many training programs for turfgrass professions and is the lead trainer for Pesticide Applicator Training for the Turfgrass Industry. In his free time, Jim loves to play golf, hike and spend time with his wife Anna and greyhound, Dash.

Originally an engineer working on windshield and canopy system on fighter jets, followed by a stint in business and the restaurant industry, his love for plants and all things growing finally led him back to degrees in horticulture and genetics. Joshua now manages the DNA sequencing facility where they try to provide researchers at UW with the tools to answer questions about DNA, the genetic code that forms the basic instruction set for life.

Katherine (Trina) McMahon is an Associate Professor with a joint appointments in the Bacteriology Department and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. She obtained her BS and MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. She has been at UW since 2003. Trina is passionate about microbes and water. Her research program focuses on the role that bacteria play in controlling water quality in wastewater treatment plants and in lakes. Trina teaches courses in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Biocore, and Microbiology.

Phil Simon is a Research Geneticist for the USDA, ARS, and a Professor of Horticulture University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research focus is on carrot and garlic genetics and breeding to improve the crop for growers and consumers, collection and utilization of germplasm, and development of genomics tools for these crops. He oversees the USDA carrot improvement program which provides new carrot breeding stocks for carrot breeders globally. He has been on several germplasm collection expeditions in Central Asia, North Africa and Europe to collect wild and cultivated carrots. His carrot research examines genes that control the orange, red, yellow, white, and purple colors of carrots, while his garlic research studies production of true seed and genetics of garlic.

Michael S. Arnold joined the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an assistant professor in August 2008. He directs the Advanced Materials for Energy and Electronics Group at UW-Madison and is a leader in the research of novel materials for next generation solar photovoltaic, optoelectronic, and semiconductor logic devices. Professor Arnold graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 2001. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2006 from Northwestern University in Materials Science and Engineering. Professor Arnold also conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he studied carbon-based electronic materials for high-efficiency white lighting and
photovoltaics.

Dr. Waller is an ecologist in the Department of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who teaches courses in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. His research focuses on threats to plant and animal diversity, the impacts of deer browsing and invasive species, and the fate of small populations. His research in evolutionary biology and population genetics focuses on the evolution of mating systems and the genetic threat of inbreeding. He works with environmental organizations, land trusts, and state and federal resource agencies and scientists to inject science more effectively into forest and game management. He co-authored Wild Forests: Conservation Biology and Public Policy (Island Press 1994), co-edited The Vanishing Present: Shifts in Wisconsin’s lands, waters, and wildlife (Univ. of Chicago Press 2008), and has authored or co- authored over 100 journal articles. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Evolution and former President of the Society for the Study of Evolution.

Susan Lederer is the Robert Turell Professor of History of Medicine and Bioethics and Chair of the Department of Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She is the author of Subjected to Science, Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature, and Flesh and Blood: a Cultural History of Organ Transplantation and Blood Transfusion.

Eve Emshwiller joined the faculty of the Botany Department of UW-Madison as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2006. Prior to that she was an adjunct curator at the Field Museum in Chicago for over 7 years. Her Ph.D. from Cornell University is in systematic botany and ethnobotany. At UW she teaches introductory botany and has also developed a new course on Ethnobotany, a broad field that crosses disciplinary boundaries to study all aspects of the interactions between human cultures and plants.

Dr. Emshwiller’s research concentrates on the evolution and conservation of diversity of crop plants and their wild relatives. She primarily studies an Andean tuber crop called “oca”, or Oxalis tuberosa, by conducting field work in remote areas of the highlands of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, interviewing Native farmers who grow oca, and then using DNA data to study the evolution of the crop.

Mr. Feltz is the leader of the Satellite Nowcasting Aviation APplications (SNAAP) team and the NASA funded Advanced Satellite Aviation-weather Product (ASAP) effort at the UW-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS). He directs a group of researchers/scientists toward the goal of using current derived satellite based meteorological products to improve forecasting of aviation weather hazards through FAA, NOAA, NASA, and military agencies. Mr. Feltz is involved with validation of future meteorological in situ and remote sensing instrumentation and currently has PI, PM, and Co-I responsibilities on five satellite remote sensing related research projects. Research achievements include: development temperature and moisture retrieval algorithms for ground based high resolution fourier transform interferometric radiometer radiance measurements; advancement of satellite derived meteorological field for operation use in detection of aviation weather hazards; development of new meteorological applications for remotely sensed atmospheric temperature, water and wind fields; validation of remotely sensed atmospheric state; surface-based passive remote sensing of clouds; successful participation in a number of field experiments consisting of deployment of Winnebago (AERIBago) with numerous meteorological instruments; and instrument performance analysis.

David Van Sickle, PhD began his career studying asthma among Native Americans in Alaska, Arizona and New Mexico. With funding from the National Science Foundation he then spent several years examining the rising prevalence of asthma and allergy in India. In 2004, David became an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he was assigned to the Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch. As a disease detective, he investigated the health effects of exposure to mold in New Orleans, to chlorine gas in South Carolina, to carbon monoxide in Florida, and to ambient ozone among student athletes in Georgia, and provided scientific support to the National Asthma Control Program. In addition, he helped establish emergency illness and injury surveillance in coastal Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

He left CDC in 2006 to take a position as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin. In Madison, he continued to carry out research on the global epidemiology of chronic respiratory disease and became interested in the potential of new technologies to improve population health. Last year, he founded Reciprocal Sciences to develop a variety of new tools for real time public health surveillance.

Terence Barry received his B.S. in Zoology from UW-Madison, his M.S. in Zoology from the University of Hawaii, and his PhD in Endocrinology-Reproductive Physiology from UW-Madison. Prior to joining the staff of the UW Aquaculture Program in 1990, Dr. Barry taught high school biology for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Western Samoa, and managed a large USAID-funded aquaculture research and development project in the Philippines. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tokyo, and an East-West Center Scholar in Honolulu. He also spent two summers conducting research on reproduction in male sharks at the Mount Desert Island Marine Biological Laboratory in Maine.

From 1996 to 2006, Dr. Barry owned one of Wisconsin’s largest private fish hatcheries. In 2006, he co-founded a start-up technology company called AquaMost to commercialize a patented water purification technology called photoelectrocatalytic oxidation (PECO). The PECO device converts aqueous ammonia directly into nitrogen gas, and is being developed to replace biofilters in recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS).

Walter Block received his BS in Electrical Engineering in 1986 and his Masters in Electrical Engineering from Stanford in 1988. From 1988 – 1993, he worked as a development engineer on some of the early generation MRI systems for General Electric Healthcare in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He returned to Stanford to obtain his doctorate in Electrical Engineering in 1998, with his research concentrating on fast abdominal imaging. He joined the faculty of the Biomedical and Medical Physics faculty in 2000. His research group at UW-Madison develops fast imaging methods that propel MRI into new application areas of healthcare.

Dr. Saupe is a Madison native, having completed both his Bachelors and PhD (Physiology Department) degrees at the University of Wisconsin. Between these two degrees, he completed a Masters of Science in exercise physiology at Penn State University, and worked for the Chicago Fire Department. He conducted his post-doctoral training at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston prior to joining the faculty at Boston University.

Dr. Saupe is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, moving from Boston University to the UW in December of 2001. As a physiologist, his general interest is in using interventions including aging, diet, exercise and injury/disease to investigate the cellular and molecular underpinnings of pathophysiological processes.

Brooke Norsted is the Assistant Director of the UW Geology Museum where she spends her days talking to kids about dinosaurs and rocks (not a hard sell!) and coordinating science outreach events on and off campus. She earned a B.S. in Geology at Gustavus Adolphus College and a M.S. in Geology at UW Madison. Brooke has a keen interest in taking science outreach to non-traditional venues as well as a commitment to introducing young women to science careers. She is the coordinator of outreach efforts tied to a NASA Astrobiology Institute grant, is on the planning committee of annual Darwin Day festivities on the UW-Madison campus, and is the co-chair of Expanding Your Horizons (a one-day conference for middle school girls interested in science). Away from work Brooke enjoys playing with her two dogs, being entertained by her four chickens and is looking forward to learning how to skijor this winter.

Gary Lyons joined the UW School of Medicine in 1991 following postdoctoral research fellowships at Stanford University Medical School and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He is a Professor of Anatomy who teaches first year medical students and does research on mouse stem cells. He is a member of the UW Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center and Chair of the UW Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee. Gary’s research is focused on the potential of embryonic stem cell-derived cardiac progenitors to repopulate the adult mouse heart following myocardial infarction.

Denise M. Ney is Billings Bascom Professor of Nutritional Sciences and a Waisman Center investigator. She received a PhD in nutrition from the University of California-Davis and joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1986. Denise served as Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences (1997-2003), Director of the campus NIH Training Program in Molecular and Applied Nutrition (1998-2008) and Director, Didactic Program in Dietetics (1989-20080. Denise’s NIH-funded research program addresses two areas: gastrointestinal physiology with emphasis on the neuroendocrine regulation of intestinal adaptation and the nutritional management of phenylketonuria (PKU). The goal of the PKU research is to improve the nutritional management of PKU using glycomacropeptide, a protein in cheese whey that is naturally low in phenylalanine. Studies are being conducted in children and adults with PKU who are cared for in the Waisman Center Biochemical Genetics Clinic.

As a native of Wisconsin, Lynn Gilbertson is proudly entering her second year of graduate study in the field of Communicative Disorders at UW-Madison under the guidance of Professor Robert Lutfi. She received her B.A. in 2008. Her research interest centers around sound preferences and auditory attention of young children with autism spectrum disorder. Her research career was sparked as an undergraduate when she was awarded a Hilldale Award for the Auditory Preferences of Children with Autism project in collaboration with Professors Robert Lutfi and Susan Ellis Weismer.

Michael Corradini is Professor and Chair of the Engineering Physics Department and joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering and Institute of Environmental Studies. He is a mechanical and nuclear engineer with research interests centered primarily in thermal hydraulics and multiphase flow. He especially emphasizes the areas of reactor operation, reactor safety, waste reprocessing, and recycle and risk assessment. He is director of the college's Wisconsin Institute of Nuclear Systems and chair of the UW Energy Institute.

His research focus is in energy policy, nuclear safety with technical focus on multiphase flow is to help students understand basic physical phenomena which they analytically model or experimentally measure.

Catherine Woodward is broadly interested in tropical ecology and conservation and has been working on and off in the neotropics since 1989. Catherine is a research associate at UW-Madison's Center for Biology Education where she is working on the development of online courses for the Wisconsin Teacher Enhancement program.

In collaboration with a former dendrology student, Corey Hart, they have developed a Key to Wisconsin Woody Plants for the iPod, thanks to a grant from UW-Madison's Division of Information Technology. This key is the first of its kind, and uses iPod technology in a ground-breaking way to provide a highly transportable easy-to-use reference for identifying Wisconsin trees and shrubs.