Protocol for Interfacing with Federal Agents in the Discovery Building
Guidance on what to do if you come into contact with a federal agent in the Discovery Building: Federal agents are free to enter any public areas on campus, including most of the first floor of the [...]
2025 Pi Day Comes Full Circle
On 3/14, WIDites came together to celebrate the wonders of both pi and pie! With over 15 delicious pies, tarts, pop-tarts, and other sweet treats shared, it was a feast worthy of this mathematical [...]
WID Exit Form
Are you graduating, starting a new job, or moving on to new ventures? Please let us know so we can give you a proper send-off and update our records accordingly. Please fill out the form.
Undergraduate Research Fellowship Opportunities Due in February and March
Historically, WID undergrads and their mentors have great success applying for these funds. In fact, there has been at least one Hilldale Undergraduate award winner nearly every year WID has been in existence.
Cultivating Connections Registration Now Open
Showcase your cutting edge interdisciplinary research and collaborations. Registration ends on March 31st.
Eleboeba May Receives NSF SemiSynBio-III Award
Her work will focus on developing computer models of electrical and cellular interactions to establish metrics for efficient data flow through these systems.
Jo Handelsman Named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors
UW–Madison’s three new fellows–Susan Hagness, Jo Handelsman, and Justin Wilson–bring the university’s total representation to 15.
Kirstan Gimse is December Graduation Student Speaker
She hopes hope her story can help other people who struggle with feelings of self-doubt and encourage them to keep reaching towards their dreams.
Bioicons – Free resource for poster graphics
Save hours of Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator work with free downloadable scientific illustration icons.
Endings: A Farewell from Kalya Cohen
Dear Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. This blog post will be my last and, as such, it gives me cause to reflect on my experience as your writer-in-residence. Before I do, there is one overarching banner I’d like to drape across this post, and it’s Thank you! Thank you all for embracing me, my book project, and the position of writer-in-residence at WID. I leave enriched with the wisdom you shared and the kindness you showed me.
David Baum Lands Origin of Life NSF Study
Seeking collaborators to apply chemical, ecological, and evolutionary principles to elucidate the origins of life entailing both theoretical and empirical research.
Karen Schloss earns promotion to Associate Professor
Among her collaborative endeavors is the UW Virtual Brain Project™ which immerse people in a model of the brain based on real brain scans, allowing them to follow the path from sensory input to cortex via virtual reality.
News Wanted
WID can help to promote science stories, including publications and grants, and events via articles, press releases, social media, campus emails, and more. Submit a Comms ticket to get started with the WID communications office.
Handelsman Lab Odyssey
In which Kayla the Investigator, headed down to the Handelsman lab to ask “Have you ever solved a real-world mystery, something small, perhaps on your way to work or school when you were younger? A kind of What’s that? How’d that happen? Why’s that even there? that you could answer with simple experiments or observation." <
AJEDI Sign up now open
You are invited to be a part of meaningful, change towards building a stronger inclusive research community. Consider joining the AJEDI planning committee now. For more information, contact Andrew at ahanus2@wisc.edu.
Ten Tips for When you Feel Lost
There are many paths to writing a novel and they all go through The Woods. If the children’s story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt has taught us anything it’s that we can’t ease our journeys by skipping over or ducking under obstacles. There is no way around the swampy, buggy, painstaking parts of the writing process. The Woods is where novels are written, and authors are born. If we make it through. [...]
Fill out WID Symposium Survey
If you have a moment, please fill out this Post-Symposium Evaluation Survey and let us know what worked, what we could improve on, or any other comments. THANK YOU to all who gave inspiring talks, [...]
Evolution and Breaking into the Book Industry
I am thinking about evolutionary biology as applied to society. Specifically, I am questioning the role of literature and fiction therein. It seems that societies–at least the ones that I am familiar with–do not select for fiction writers. There aren’t clearly defined career pathways, as there are for other professions, to help fictionites get from A to B, and this is a way of selecting against the craft. (Even MFA programs are not guaranteed entry passes into the hard and rewarding work of fiction.) […]
Journey to the Beginning
Journey to the Beginning Illustration by Aedan Gardill Each day, as I make the 30-minute pilgrimage from my desk at home to my desk at work, I am walking to the riverbank. There, [...]
A Quick Contemplation
March 27, 2022 Illustration by Aedan Gardill For me, writing is less a job than it is a practice. It’s something difficult that I show up for increasingly in the hopes of [...]
Deciding What to Write
March 25, 2022 Writing does not start at the page. It starts before. Or rather, writing does not begin or end, but diffuses over the topology of time. To press the metaphor, the banks [...]
Hostile and Intimidating Behavior Training Opportunities
Hostile and Intimidating Behavior (HIB) Policy and training opportunities are available. HIB Behavior is prohibited by university policy (policies linked here: Faculty, Academic Staff, and University Staff). Campus has a website dedicated to HIB: https://hr.wisc.edu/hib/ [...]
Hailey Feinzig inducted into Phi Kappa Phi
Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 at the University of Maine by a group of students who felt a need for an honor society that would recognize excellence across the whole range of academic disciplines. Hailey, a member of the Saha Lab, is one of only 86 undergraduates chosen this year at University of Wisconsin–Madison.
WID Symposium 2022 Registration Open
The WID Symposium will be held this year on July 20, 2022 from 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM at the Memorial Union. This event is integral to being a WIDite. Please make your attendance a top priority and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Sign up for a lightning talk, present a poster or attend a lightning talk workshop. RSVP by June 6. Your response is requested whether you plan to attend or not.
WID Congratulates 5 Hilldale Undergraduate Scholars
The Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship provides research training and support to undergraduates.
“Bacteria and Me” adult coloring book published
Kohler Fellows, Tiffany Harris and Aedan Gardill, published their coloring book titled "Bacteria & Me" this month, hoping to pique audiences’ interest in learning about microbiology.
First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour with Omar Poler
The walking tour will be held Wednesday, May 25, 2022 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Register Here: https://go.wisc.edu/w8619d
Life As We Don’t Know It opens at Playhouse Gallery – Overture Center
The exhibit is free and open to the public at the Overture Center Playhouse Gallery and runs through August 28, 2022.
Register for WID Symposium July 20, 2022
All WIDites are expected to attend the day-long annual Symposium. We will explore the theme of resilience, robustness and adaptability in complex systems. Lunch provided.
May the 4th Be With You
It has been some time since any AJEDI activities have taken place. We know that many of you are tied up with end of the semester coursework, exams, projects, and life changes, we hope that [...]
Enter Your Amazing Science Images in the 2022 Cool Science Image Contest
To enter up to three of your cool science images or videos, visit the contest website for guidelines, submission requirements and a link to the entry form. The submission deadline is May 1.
Illuminating Connections: 3rd time was a charm!
Thank you to all who participated in Illuminating Connections on Thursday, April 7th. In addition to showcasing resilience and the vast expertise we can offer to the campus community, it was a fun opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with each other. Enjoy browsing the photo album of the event.
Nesting Among Scientists
I have come to America to write a novel. No. I have come to America to edit that last sentence and to craft the next, which is, at heart, all that writing is. America is not just the United States, I should be more specific. But then the sentence will suffer musically. How about: I have come to the U.S. to resolve a mystery. Better?
New Science to Script podcast added to SoundCloud
Michael Graf interviews Rachel Kropa and David Lang from the Footprint Coalition
Krishanu Saha Elected AIMBE Fellow
Krishanu Saha, along with colleagues Susan Hagness and Christopher Brace are among the 2022 class of inductees. AIMBE (American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering) Fellows are considered to represent the top 2% of medical and biological engineers in the United States.
Welcome Andrew Hanus, Director of Illuminating Discovery
Andrew Hanus joins the WID admin team as the new Illuminating Discovery Hub Director. He brings a wealth of experience in research, program management, event planning, fundraising, and stakeholder engagement.
Machine Learning Community Website Now Live
A new website brings together machine learning (ML) practitioners across a variety of departments and disciplines, and provides a space for both novice and experienced ML practitioners to advance their ML skillsets, share knowledge and resources, and form collaborations. Visit the site now to learn more: Machine Learning Community.
Amplify Your Work with Social Media
WID wants to boost your reach. Contact Pat Pointer with your social media handle.
Undergrad opportunity: Thaxton Fellowship
Undergraduate students seeking physics research experience at UW-Madison are encouraged to apply; students from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. No prior research experience is needed. Participating students do not need to have a declared physics major and do not need to have a specific faculty mentor identified in advance to apply.
Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong Team Wins a 2021 WARF Innovation Award
Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong, professor of biomedical engineering; Zachary Morris, professor of human oncology; biomedical engineering postdoctoral researcher Ying Zhang and human oncology researcher Raghava Sriramaneni win a WARF Innovation award for their work, Nanoparticle to Render Tumors More Susceptible to Treatment.
End of Semester Stressing You Out? Need to Talk to Someone?
Let’s Talk provides no-cost, informal, confidential consultations for undergrads and graduate students around campus. Going to Let’s Talk can help you gain insight, support, and information about other resources.
Lih-Sheng “Tom” Turng Elected as 2021 Fellow of SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers)
The SME College of Fellows has honored those members who have made outstanding contributions to the social, technological and educational aspects of the manufacturing profession. Turng is one of nine industry professionals that have earned this highly prestigious honor through 20 years or more of dedication and service to manufacturing.
Add your lab’s information to the campus Antiracism Learning and Action in Neuroscience Group!
The Antiracism Learning and Action in Neuroscience group is putting together a research opportunity catalog to give historically underrepresented students current information about undergraduate research opportunities across a broad range of life science labs at UW-Madison. We're currently looking [...]
Data Science Hub launching ML+X
Data Science Hub is launching its first machine learning community of practice (ML CoP) event featuring a series of 10-minute lightning talks on applied ML work.
The 2021 winners: Cool Science Image Contest Includes Three WIDites
Nisha Iyer, postdoc in the Ashton Lab; Shin-Tsz (Lucy) Kuo, undergraduate in the Schloss Lab; and Rob Nowak, Discovery Fellow are featured winners this year.
WID postdoc awarded AAAS Science & Technology Fellowship in U.S. Department of State
Amanda Hurley will work in the Office of International Health and Biodefense (IHB), which builds global health security through policy advancement.
WID Grad Student Uses TikTok to Teach Thousands About Astrobiology
Astrobiologist Lena Vincent's TikTok Reaches More Than 50K Followers
New Kohler Fellows Cohort Begins Interdisciplinary Art-Science Projects
In a competitive application process, two additional art fellows and three additional science fellows were added to the continuing group.
New Nameplates Installed
Check for accuracy and contact Pat Pointer if you have changes.
Nominate a Talented Latinx Scientist from Your Lab
We are looking for speakers for El Zoominario, a virtual seminar series to increase visibility of Latinx people in STEM and to inspire the next generation of Latinx scientists.
Discovery Building Welcome Desk Operations – Updated Fall 2021
Discovery Building Welcome Desk Operations Updated Fall 2021 The Discovery Building Welcome Desk is staffed Monday through Friday, 9:00am-3:00pm. Exceptions to this schedule may occur. Management and staffing of the Welcome Desk is provided by [...]
Discovery Building Visitor Policy – New for Fall 2021
Visitors and vendors with appointments to meet with Discovery Building occupants should use the Check-In Kiosks located on the 1st floor of the Discovery Building to send a message to the building occupant. Please read for more instructions.
Discovery Workspace Etiquette Reminders
Please be aware that noise carries. Use conference rooms or offices for in-person meetings, lengthy conversations, phone calls, and zoom meetings. Reserve rooms at conference-rooms.discovery.wisc.edu/
Pride at WID: Stories from a Lab
During Pride Month, members of the Saha Lab at WID share their stories about Pride in science, joining a lab that welcomes LGBTQ+ individuals, and maintaining an inclusive and welcoming culture.
New Researcher Toolkit Available
Explore the research lifecycle, planning, collecting and storing data, analyzing and visualizing data, publishing research artifacts, and closing out the findings, in the Researcher Toolkit.
Pride Month 2021: LGBTQ+ in Science
Many past and current LGBTQ+ scientists have faced discrimination, harassment, isolation, and abuse throughout their lives and their scientific careers. The scientists below achieved astonishing feats of scientific discovery, advocacy, progress, and more — many [...]
Pride at WID
Please take time this month to celebrate your authentic self and/or the LGBTQ+ people in your community, learn about the history of oppression and civil rights abuses against LGBTQ+ people, and engage with events and resources that support and honor Pride.
Visit the A-JEDI Library on the 3rd floor
"Check out" all of our new titles!
