Instructor Biographies

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.