JULY 2002

A special ceremony honors the first 24 graduates of the PEOPLE program who are enrolling at UW-Madison in the fall. Designed to increase diversity in the student body, the program offers selected students at Milwaukee and Racine public high schools a chance to participate in year-round sessions at home and on the UW campus that focus on academic skills and the transition to college.

Researchers at the School of Veterinary Medicine further improve a synthetic solution for storing human organs outside the body. By adding natural factors to the UW Solution, first developed in the late 1980s, researchers have increased storage times for organ transplants.

A UW nutritional scientist begins leading a four-year project to study eating habits among young adults and improve nutrition education campaigns. Working with participants in 10 states, the researchers will examine barriers to healthy eating and test a strategy to overcome them.

A powerful nuclear magnetic resonance magnet soon to be installed on campus will position a UW-Madison lab to remain as one of the top NMR research facilities in the world. Provided under a grant from the National Institutes of Health, the magnet allows the study of biological macromolecules —the proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, complex carbohydrates, and hormones that underpin all life.

Donald A. Nichols, a nationally known economist who has taught at the UW for more than 35 years, is named director of the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, which offers master's degrees in national and international public affairs.

AUGUST 2002

Martin T. Cadwallader, a professor of geography who served as an associate dean in the Graduate School, is appointed dean of the school and vice chancellor for research. He now assumes leadership of an internationally recognized school that oversees the graduate education of nearly 9,000 students, is the administrative home for 19 centers and institutes, and has overarching responsibility for the university's $550-million-plus research enterprise.

To prepare to test for chronic wasting disease, a fatal disease detected in Wisconsin's white-tailed deer, the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory begins renovations on a CWD testing lab, which will receive the majority of more than 50,000 tissue samples expected to be collected during the fall and winter.

Demolition work begins at the ROTC building to make way for an addition to the Biotechnology Building. Construc-tion on the addition, which will house the Genome Center and the Laboratory of Genetics, is expected to be completed by summer 2004. The addition is one of four projects included in the BioStar Initiative, a building program aimed at maintaining UW-Madison's status as a world leader in biotechnology research.

For the first time, students are able to use a Web-based system for class enrollment and registration. In addition to using the system to select classes quickly and efficiently, students can use the secure site to access their student records, and check Web mail, campus calendars, and personal information about tuition and financial aid.

Pharmaceutical sciences professors release findings about the genetic elements in soil-dwelling bacteria that are responsible for producing toxins that are among the most effective anticancer agents known. Their discovery—which allows improvements in production and development of new compounds—portends the practical advent of powerful drugs to treat certain cancers.

SEPTEMBER 2002

Sixteen mini-learning communities—up from four first offered during 2001 —begin operating during fall semester as a way of breaking the large campus into smaller sections for first-year students. Called First-Year Interest Groups, they center on a particular theme, with up to 20 students per group taking a set of three classes.

A campus/community effort to reduce the consequences of high-risk drinking receives a four-year grant renewal from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Known as the PACE Coalition, the project is working to change policies and support alternatives to high-risk drinking.

Marsha Mailick Seltzer, a veteran faculty member and administrator, is named director of the Waisman Center, one of the world's leading centers of research on developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases. The center, with core programs funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, consists of 60 laboratories for basic and clinical biomedical and behavioral research.

Melvin H. Weinswig, dean of the UW School of Pharmacy, shares plans to retire at the end of the academic year. During his tenure, Weinswig led a fund-raising campaign to construct Rennebohm Hall on the west end of the campus and oversaw a transformation in the school's curriculum to meet the needs of pharmacists in today's health care environment.

A novel form of vitamin D is shown to grow bone in the lab and in experiments with animals, a result that holds promise for the estimated 44 million Americans who suffer from or are at risk for the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis. A team of UW scientists, led by biochemist Hector F. DeLuca, studied a potent Vitamin D analog in the lab and in animals, finding the potential for developing a class of drugs that could effectively reverse bone loss.

OCTOBER 2002

A campuswide planning team works to bring the university into compliance with a new federal visa monitoring system, changes that will affect the approximately 5,000 international students and scholars at UW-Madison. Under the system, U.S. institutions that admit students on certain visas will be required to report changes in student and visiting faculty status to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The National Science Foundation selects UW-Madison to lead a $35 million effort to reform math and science education in the nation's schools. The five-year initiative, which includes participation by more than 80 faculty and staff, will engage the expertise of leading scientists, mathematicians, education researchers, teachers, and others.

A new study of aging led by UW-Madison will bring together 40 researchers from 16 institutions to understand a fundamental question: What are the different pathways to health and illness? With a $26 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, the project will follow the behavioral, sociological, psychological, and biological well-being of more than 7,000 people between the ages of 35 and 85.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designates the UW's Institute for Research on Poverty as one of three Area Poverty Research Centers. The center will focus on research and analysis of poverty and antipoverty policies in the upper Midwest. The institute has sponsored studies of the nature, causes, and consequences of poverty for 36 years.

NOVEMBER 2002

The School of Education develops a new consortium to help make advanced-placement courses available to high school students throughout the state. Using existing teleconferencing facilities owned by local school districts, the consortium will provide "real time" AP classroom instruction. Nearly one-quarter of Wisconsin high schools—many in low-income rural or urban districts —have not been able to offer AP courses, which are becoming more important for college-bound students.

UW-Madison scientists announce that they may have identified an enzyme that is critical to the ability of cells to metastasize, a biological phenomenon by which cells migrate. Because of this enzyme's central role, the researchers say it provides a promising target for developing drugs that would render cancer cells immobile, thereby unable to migrate to other parts of the body.

Alan R. Fish, who served as administrative officer and associate athletic director for the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics since 1989, is appointed associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management. He will remain the project manager for the Camp Randall Stadium renovation, while overseeing management of campus facilities, energy conservation, and safety.

The School of Business announces the nation's first MBA program in product management, established by a $6.4 million gift from business alumna Signe Ostby and her spouse, Scott Cook. While some universities offer a class or two in product management, no other university has a dedicated program.

According to figures released by the Institute of International Education, UW-Madison tracks with national trends that show an increase in American students studying abroad and international students enrolled in the United States. The UW saw an increase of 11 percent for students studying abroad. The university also has one of the largest populations of foreign nationals enrolled in its programs of any college or university nationwide.

DECEMBER 2002

UW-Madison Connections, a pilot program that offers students dual admission to UW-Madison and a UW Colleges campus, expands to include Madison Area Technical College in fall 2003. Students admitted into the program are guaranteed an opportunity to finish their undergraduate degrees at UW-Madison after successfully completing two years at a participating college.

A team of UW scientists finds that beet pigments may boost levels of proteins that help detoxify potential cancer-causing substances and purge them from the body. The next phase of the study will determine if the pigments can be absorbed by the body in amounts sufficient to protect against cancer.

Darrell Bazzell, a veteran Wisconsin state government administrator and secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, is selected to be the UW's new vice chancellor for administration. The position serves as the university's chief budget officer and has overall supervision of the university's administrative functions. Bazzell succeeds John Torphy, who retired after 13 years at UW-Madison and nearly three decades in state government.

JANUARY 2003

The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a groundbreaking effort housed at UW-Madison for 45 years, begins a new phase to survey how a person's entire life influences—and can improve—the aging process. The study, which has served as a major resource for policy makers and social science researchers in various aspects of adult life, will continue to survey thousands of individuals who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957 and are now becoming senior citizens.

Funding is awarded for the first eight outreach projects to be supported through the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment, which is designed to support the century-old mission to use university resources to improve the lives of citizens in the state and beyond. The $18 million endowment, established through the estate of two former university administrators, is supporting projects ranging from community-based antipoverty education, to dance as a culturally expressive art form, to a curriculum guide on weather and folklore.

To work toward increasing diversity and encouraging a positive environment for the entire campus community, Bernice Durand, a professor of physics who has played key leadership roles on campus, is appointed associate vice chancellor for diversity and climate. She will help to implement the campus goals contained in Plan 2008, a blueprint for attaining the diversity goals adopted by the Board of Regents.

According to a new study by UW researchers, preschool programs can impact not just school readiness and performance, but long-term family outcomes, including decreasing the rate at which enrolled children will be abused or neglected by their parents or caregivers. This is the first study to show that a school-based educational intervention program with intensive parent involvement can reduce child maltreatment.

FEBRUARY 2003

Two experiments led by the UW's Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics, which were investigating the biological changes of plants in a weightless environment, are lost when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entry. Before the mission, center staff worked closely with the spaceflight crew to train them on conducting the experiments.

A team of UW scientists reports that it has developed methods for recombining segments of DNA within stem cells, making it possible to manipulate any part of the human genome to study gene function and mimic human disease in the laboratory dish. The technique, previously used only with mice, may speed the effort to produce cells that can be used therapeutically.

UW researchers announce a quick and painless technique, called cardiac elastography, that enables cardiologists to see what parts of the heart contract as it pumps blood through its chambers to the rest of the body. Researchers say it could become a noninvasive way to screen for coronary heart disease, a condition that claims the lives of 2,000 Americans every day.

Pat Richter, the UW's director of athletics, announces that he will retire in April 2004 after 14-plus years, making him the longest-tenured director in the Big Ten Conference. Head Football Coach Barry Alvarez will assume dual roles as head football coach and athletic director. Of Richter, Chancellor John D. Wiley says, "Through his leadership and ability to assemble a strong departmental team, UW Athletics is more fiscally sound, more highly competitive, and more visible worldwide than ever before."

MARCH 2003

UW-Madison and its patent management organization, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, ranks sixth among all U.S. universities in 2002, according to the United States Patent Office. With 81 patents, the UW tied with Johns Hopkins University. Ninety-two Wisconsin companies currently in operation are built around technologies developed in the university's labs.

More than 600 high-school students, from schools ranging from Wisconsin Rapids to Milwaukee, converge on campus for the university's second annual World Languages Day. The event's 45 sessions highlight language, culture, and area studies programs at the UW, and emphasize the importance of language in a global community.

APRIL 2003

Building on their 2001 discovery of a cellular doorway used by anthrax toxin to enter cells, UW Medical School researchers identify a second doorway, or receptor. The finding could offer new clues to preventing the toxin's entrance into cells, and provide pharmaceutical companies with important ammunition to attack anthrax disease.

A new grant funds a project to survey the university's archaeological sites—including effigy mounds, cemeteries, and ancient camps—and develop signs and an interpretive map for campus visitors. The project's coordinator says no other university in the world has the number and variety of effigy mounds and earthworks.

MAY 2003

The university announces a new Office of Corporate Relations to strengthen connections between UW-Madison and Wisconsin businesses. Creation of the office was recommended by a task force convened by Chancellor John D. Wiley to advise on ways to better serve businesses that look to the university for help in solving problems and challenges. Charles Hoslet, senior special assistant to the chancellor for state-government relations, is named to direct the office.

Hoping that eating breakfast will help students ace their spring semester final exams, University Health Services hands out free healthy foods on campus, along with information about nutrition and stress management.

At spring commencement ceremonies, Jerry Zucker, UW alumnus and director of the blockbuster movie "Ghost," addresses graduates, and the university confers honorary degrees to computer engineer Carl Anderson, former United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, and Brazilian sociologist Neuma Figueiredo de Aguiar.

Eleven students receive Wisconsin Idea Undergraduate Fellowships, which provide them the opportunity to create outreach projects with community organizations. Projects range from an audit of residential properties and stormwater runoff, to AIDS education for rural communities, to literacy services for underserved children.

In light of budget difficulties and related work by other campus units, a decision is made to close the Land Tenure Center, which was established on campus in 1962 to study and address land, poverty, and environmental issues in developing countries.

JUNE 2003

The university's International Institute is awarded nearly $12 million in federal grants administered by the U.S. Depart-ment of Education. The number and size of the awards, unprecedented in UW-Madison's history, go to eight of the institute's area and international studies programs, including seven existing federally funded centers at the institute, plus a new International Studies center.

Northern Wisconsin is changing, and, in the coming years, this hallowed holiday spot could change even more dramatically, notes a report from UW researchers. Working with various community groups, the researchers developed four scenarios, which forecast different drivers of change—both positive and negative—that could help those planning for the area's future.

Research on chronic wasting disease gets a significant boost from major funding: $5.2 million to study the molecular and environmental aspects of the disease, and $2.4 million to study the behavior and persistence in soils of the agent believed to cause the disease, and to determine its potential for spreading to other species.

Jeanette Roberts, an academic administrator and professor from the University of Utah, is selected as the new dean of the School of Pharmacy, which educates 90 percent of the state's pharmacists.

The National Cancer Institute announces plans to fund a $10 million Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research at UW-Madison that will strive to improve the quality of life for cancer patients and their families, particularly those from underserved populations.