Environment

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Campus History

Florence Bascom: 19th Century Rock StarSummer 2019

Florence Bascom shows off a tool of her trade: a Brunton compass. During her work with the U.S. Geological Survey, she placed benchmarks like the one pictured below, which denoted a site’s exact elevation. Florence Bascom Papers, Smith College

There’s an apocryphal story about what set…

Environment & Climate

On, Alumnae: Fran HamerstromSummer 2019

Hamerstrom, one of the UW’s pioneering ecologists, exhibits the tail feathers of a broad-winged hawk in Plainfield, Wisconsin, in 1965. UW Archives Neg. 18146

Frances (Fran — pronounced “Fron”) Hamerstrom MS’40 was a pioneering wildlife ecologist. She and her husband, Frederick, came to the UW to study…

Environment & Climate

For the BirdsWinter 2018

Mason Muerhoff

Nomen est omen, said the ancient Romans, who liked their maxims to rhyme: one’s name is one’s destiny. And while there’s little empirical evidence about this aphorism, put Anna Pidgeon PhD’00 down on the side of support. The professor with the columbiform name has…

Book

Lake InvadersFall 2018

How zebra and quagga mussels native to the Caspian Sea came to wreak environmental havoc in the Great Lakes and beyond.

The Arts

Beauty VanishesFall 2018

During more than four decades as a photographer, Michael Kienitz ’74 has worked in some of the most beautiful spots in the world — from Peru to the Hindu Kush mountain range near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. But his camera was always focused on people at the center of armed conflicts,…

Student Life

Spring Break

Can we have class outside today? Environmental science students enjoy the environment on a spring day in 2017. Science Hall houses the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies — when it’s not outdoors.
Photo by Jeff Miller…

Science & Technology

Power WalkingSummer 2017

Spencer Walts

The next renewable energy source could be right underfoot. A group of UW–Madison engineers has developed an inexpensive method to convert footsteps into electricity using wood pulp and nanofibers incorporated into flooring. It marks the latest advance in “roadside energy harvesting” — green…

Environment & Climate

Coming AttractionsSpring 2017

UW–Madison’s campus has long been known for its beauty. Iconic places such as Picnic Point and Bascom Hill bring back memories of campus life for decades of alumni.

But little of that beauty happens by accident. There’s a plan — a master plan.

Campus master plans are required under Wisconsin…

Destinations

Allen Centennial Garden

Twenty-seven distinct spaces fill the horticulture department’s public botanical garden. It is named for the late Oscar Allen PhD’30, a UW bacteriologist, and his wife, Ethel ’28, MS’30, a renowned naturalist and former faculty member.

Ben Futa, who became the…

Student Life

Terrace timeSpring 2016

Students get an early jump on Terrace time in March 2015. Temperatures soared into the sixties, giving Madisonians a chance to get some sun even though Lake Mendota remained frozen.

Photo by Bryce Richter

Science & Technology

Better Building BlocksSpring 2016

Shutterstock

Lego wants to turn its iconic bricks green by investing $150 million to find cleaner ways to manufacture them. But the iconic toy company isn’t alone in trying to change the process for the better.

Most of the chemicals used to make plastics, including water bottles,…