Instructor Biographies

Dr. Jenny Saffran has been on the faculty of UW-Madison since 1997, when she received her Ph.D. in Brain & Cognitive Sciences and Linguistics from the University of Rochester. She is currently College of Letters & Science Distinguished Professor of Psychology, and an investigator at the Waisman Center. Her lab, the Infant Learning Lab, has an international reputation in the area of developmental psychology. She has received a number of major awards, including several early career awards from the American Psychological Association, and received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton. Dr. Saffran has also received several teaching awards on the UW-Madison campus. She is married to fellow Psychology professor Dr. Seth Pollak, and is the proud mom of two kids who are still in the throes of language learning.

Harold Tobin is Associate Professor of Geophysics at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He spends his time studying the faults at the Earth's tectonic plate boundaries, especially those that lie beneath the sea and cause devastating tsunami. His research spans seismic wave imaging of the earth's crust, months-long expeditions at sea sampling below the sea bed, and laboratory experiments in the physics of faulting. Professor Tobin is Chief Project Scientist for the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE), a long-term effort to drill into and monitor undersea earthquake faults off the Pacific coast of Japan. He operates the Geology and Geophysics Department's Geoscience Visualization Lab in Weeks Hall and teaches courses in Oceanography, Geophysics, and Plate Tectonics.

After hosting a public radio program for 34 years, Larry Meiller admits that the best part of his day is his 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. shift on Wisconsin Public Radio. Larry and his producer, Jim Packard, tend to focus on environmental issues, consumer issues, and helpful "how-to" topics.

Larry Meiller also teaches at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He advises about 100 undergraduate and several graduate students in the Department of Life Sciences Communication. He's assistant dean for undergraduate academic student affairs in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and serves on several college and department committees.

Clint Sprott earned his bachelor's degree from MIT in 1964 and his PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1969. His professional interests are in experimental plasma physics and nonlinear dynamics.

John Hawks received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, and a postdoctoral in evolutionary genetics at the University of Utah. For six years, he has been in the Department of Anthropology at UW-Madison. Dr. Hawks studies the skeletal and genetic variation of ancient humans, developing mathematical theories to describe the interactions and evolution of ancient people. His recent work combines traditional methods and knowledge from anthropology with the emerging technology of genomics and bioinformatics.

Hilton has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Newberry College (1970). He served as president of the Alumni Association and as a member of the College's Board of Trustees 2004–06. He originated and was chair of the international John Bachman Symposium, which recognized Newberry's founder during the College's 150th anniversary year. Hilton earned a Master of Arts in Teaching in Biology from Winthrop University (1977), through which he inventoried and studied the ferns of York County, SC. He also has a Master of Science in Ecology and Behavioral Biology from the University of Minnesota (1982), where he conducted a four-year field study of the behavioral ecology of Blue Jays, Cyanocitta cristata.

Today, Bill continues his work as an educator through lectures and workshops. He presents for students and teachers in schools and school districts and for other groups across the country, as a consultant in science curriculum, design and implementation and outdoor learning. Bill is a widely published author on nature and education. He has special interest in teaching science by integrating it with other subject areas. Hilton has studied extensively and trained students, teachers and "citizen scientists" of all ages in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, the District of Columbia and abroad in Australia, Canada, Colombia and Costa Rica.

Erik Olin Wright was born in Berkeley, California, in 1947, grew up in Kansas, and was educated at Harvard, Oxford, and the University of California-Berkeley. He has taught sociology at the University of Wisconsin since 1976 where he is currently Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology. His academic work has been centrally concerned with reconstructing the Marxist tradition of social theory and research in ways that attempt to make it more relevant to contemporary concerns and more cogent as a scientific framework of analysis. His empirical research has focused especially on the changing character of class relations in developed capitalist societies. Since 1992 he has directed The Real Utopias Project which explores a range of proposals for new institutional designs that embody emancipatory ideals and yet are attentive to issues of pragmatic feasibility. He has published several books is currently completing a book entitled Envisioning Real Utopias.

Seth got his B.S. in 1991 at Columbia University in New York, NY. In 1996, he received his M.D. at the New York University School of Medicine. From 2002-2004, Seth was an instructor at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. Since 2004, he has been an assistant professor here at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Currently, in the Department of Surgery he is conducting research on high-resolution ultrasound imaging of vocal folds and the characterization and treatment of the scarred vocal fold.

Douglas B. Weibel received his B.S. degree in chemistry in 1996 from the University of Utah (with Prof. C. Dale Poulter) and his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2002 from Cornell University (with Prof. Jerrold Meinwald). From 1996-1997 he was a Fulbright Fellow at Tohoku University, Japan where he carried out organometallic chemistry (with Prof. Yoshinori Yamamoto). From 2002-2006 he was a postdoctoral fellow with George M. Whitesides at Harvard University. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Biochemisty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an affiliate of the Genome Center, and a trainer in the Biophysics Program, Biotechnology Training Program, the Cellular and Molecular Biology Program, the Chemistry and Biology Program, the Materials Science Program, and the Molecular Biosciences Training Program, all at UW-Madison. His research interests span the fields of biochemistry, biophysics, chemical biology, materials science and engineering, and microbiology.

Sherrie Gruder is a Sustainable Design Specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Extension. Based in Madison, Sherrie provides statewide education and technical assistance on green building, sustainable development, energy conservation and renewable energy. Sherrie is working on many fronts to promote sustainable development and create an infrastructure to facilitate it in Wisconsin. She works with state and local government, architects, engineers, contractors, haulers, renewable energy providers, suppliers and the public. Sherrie also coordinates the state public benefits energy program, Focus on Energy, for UW-Extension’s statewide network of agents. Sherrie chairs the City of Madison Sustainable Design and Energy Committee, co-chaired the Madison Mayor’s Energy Task Force and co-authored the blueprint to make Madison a green capital city with sustainable design and energy supporting its economic vitality. She hosts a green building show on Wisconsin Public Radio and leads the annual Wisconsin Tour of Solar Businesses in Madison, among many other projects throughout the state.