Jeff Miller

Following this presidential election season, On Wisconsin delves into politics with our profile of Barry Burden, UW–Madison’s internationally renowned political scientist. Burden is highly sought after by the media and the courts for his nonpartisan analysis of topical issues.

As a public university that welcomes diverse viewpoints, the UW itself strives for what administrators call “content-neutrality.” That approach came into play last spring during protests of the Israel–Hamas war that occurred here and on many other campuses around the country. On April 29, a group of students set up an encampment on Library Mall in violation of state law, making demands that targeted the university’s ties to Israel. On May 1, law enforcement officers dismantled the encampment and arrested several protesters. On May 10, the protesters peacefully took down a second encampment after negotiations with the administration.

In August, UW–Madison clarified its Expressive Activity Policy to ensure that free expression remains protected on campus and that safeguards are in place to maintain the university’s mission and operations, including the ability of students to access education without disruption. The policy and an accompanying guide are designed to better help students, employees, and campus visitors understand their rights and responsibilities and the resources available to them. It’s part of a broader effort to educate the campus community on all aspects of free expression, provide transparency, and expand civil discourse programming.

“The robust exchange of ideas and viewpoints is central to a university,” says Chancellor Jennifer L. Mnookin. “That is a key part of what a great university does, or should be doing, every day, and it is what we mean, here at UW–Madison, when we talk about fearless sifting and winnowing. That means that we will often engage with ideas and perspectives that may be new to us, and that might, in some cases, cause us unease or discomfort. My hope is that, as a Badger community, we approach our differences with open minds, a willingness to listen, respect for one another, and a generosity of spirit.”

The game captures an impressive amount of detail of the Camp Randall experience. EA Sports

After more than a decade hiatus, college football is back in video game form with this year’s release of College Football 25 by EA Sports. When you fire up your Xbox or PlayStation, you’ll find the Wisconsin Badgers well represented on screen. Camp Randall Stadium, Bucky Badger, the marching band, and a majority of the UW’s roster all contribute to a virtual Game Day experience that rivals the real thing.

The return of the video game was made possible by the NCAA’s recent reforms that allow student-athletes to profit from the use of their name, image, and likeness. It’s the first installment of the series, which dates to 1993, to feature real players. The Badgers are led by defensive backs Ricardo Hallman x’26 and Hunter Wohler x’25, who earned 90-plus ratings and a place among the top 100 players in the game. Every participating student-athlete received a $600 payment and a free copy of the game.

“To be on the game that you grew up [with] as a little kid is a really cool experience,” Hallman said after its release. “I’ve been [playing it] every day, honestly.”

College Football 25 captures an impressive amount of detail of the Camp Randall experience, from the stadium’s design, to the crowd’s “First and 10, Wisconsin” chant, to a postgame scene of UW players celebrating with Paul Bunyan’s Axe after beating Minnesota. While featuring all 134 Division 1 programs, the game ranked Camp Randall as the seventh-toughest place to play in the nation, at least virtually.

But you’ll also notice a few differences. The UW’s student section is always full at kickoff (an artistic liberty we endorse). Real coaches aren’t featured, so you won’t see Luke Fickell roaming the sidelines. And EA Sports couldn’t secure the licensing rights to “Jump Around.” Instead, the song “Tsunami” plays as the crowd jumps between the third and fourth quarters.

That change alone is a good reason to return to Camp Randall — in person.

“We knew that glaciers ebbed and flowed in the past, so we wanted to learn how the behavior of glaciers today — melting due to human-caused climate change — stacks up against their long-term fluctuations,” says Andy Jones MS’21, PhDx’26, pictured at Bolivia’s Zongo Glacier with Yasmeen Orellana Salazar MS ’24 and Matias Romero PhDx’27. Ethan C. Parrish PhD’24

As they are in many places around the globe, glaciers perched high in the Andes Mountains are shrinking. UW–Madison researchers and their collaborators have uncovered evidence that the high-altitude tropical ice fields are likely smaller than they’ve been at any time since the last ice age ended 11,700 years ago.

That would make the tropical Andes the first region in the world known to pass that threshold as a result of the steadily warming global climate. It also makes them possible harbingers of what’s to come for glaciers globally.

Satellite imagery and on-the-ground observations have provided conclusive evidence for decades that high-altitude glaciers in the Andes are steadily shrinking as warmer temperatures cause them to melt more quickly than falling snow can replenish them. What has remained unclear, though, is how the shrinkage compares to the rest of the period that began at the end of the last ice age, known as the Holocene.

“We knew that glaciers ebbed and flowed in the past, so we wanted to learn how the behavior of glaciers today — melting due to human-caused climate change — stacks up against their long-term fluctuations,” says Andy Jones MS’21, PhDx’26, the study’s coauthor.

To answer this question, the team of scientists analyzed the geochemistry of bedrock from areas near the edges of four glaciers in the high tropical Andes, choosing sites that satellite imagery showed were exposed by melting ice in only the last two or three decades. This research points to a single likely conclusion, according to UW geoscience professor Shaun Marcott: the world’s tropical glaciers are the first to shrink beyond what’s been seen in the recent geologic past.

“Glaciers are very sensitive to the climate system that they live in,” says Marcott. “They really are the place you would look to see some of the first big changes resulting from a warming climate. You can look to these glaciers and imagine what we might be looking at going into the future in other places like the western United States, which is a no-ice scenario.”

The UW’s Serling archive includes a rapturous fan letter from movie star Joan Crawford. Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

From 1959 to 1964, Rod Serling cast a spell on TV viewers as the creator, writer, and deep-voiced host of The Twilight Zone. The science fiction anthology series ventured into “the middle ground between light and shadow,” to quote Serling’s weekly intro, intoned with an exquisite sense of foreboding. The black-and-white episodes used aliens, robots, and monsters to present eerie morality tales, addressing the social ills that troubled Serling: racism, war, conformity, cruelty.

The show’s signature device was a twist ending that drove each message home — and that, throughout decades of reruns, often sent terrified children scrambling behind the couch. That’s where I spent much of my childhood, peeking over the cushions to experience Serling’s unearthly visions in such episodes as “Eye of the Beholder” and “It’s a Good Life.”

Serling had no connection to Wisconsin but, in a Twilight Zone-style twist, donated his sizable archive to UW–Madison’s Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research in 1963. It was the result of pure hustle: then-director David Knauf boldly wrote Serling a letter to see if he would be willing to hand over documents.

“Serling liked the idea of students being able to use his collection to learn from,” says Mary Huelsbeck, the center’s current assistant director. “He responded quickly, and we were the first to have this material.”

In the archive, scholars and fans can find scripts for The Twilight Zone and other socially engaged productions that elevated the television medium in the 1950s and ’60s. There are also Serling scripts for the enduring 1968 fantasy film Planet of the Apes and the 1970s TV horror series Night Gallery — another one best viewed from behind the couch. Other material includes speeches for various good causes, a delightful fan letter from movie star Joan Crawford, and communications with TV executives nervous about Serling’s controversial ideas.

Sifting through all this stuff, Huelsbeck says, you sense “a really nice guy who could also be a tough guy when he needed to be.”

Coolest of all, the UW has 1,200 recordings of Serling dictating his scripts via old-school Dictabelt technology.

“He was busy, so he didn’t type out his scripts,” says Huelsbeck. “It’s amazing to hear how quickly Serling could think while writing these scripts in his head.”

After listening to one of the Dictabelt recordings (see below), I would have to agree. But just hearing that haunting voice again scared me silly.

The certificate will be valuable for dance majors who wish to expand their career options beyond performance. Jack Ecke

There’s a high demand for dance in K–12 schools, and not enough educators are offering it, according to Chell Parkins, the Arnhold Director of Dance Education in the UW Dance Department.

“What I hear consistently from teachers is that most people don’t feel well equipped to teach dance in their physical education programs,” she says.

Now, the Dance Department is offering a certificate program aimed at undergraduate students with an interest in dance education. The 14-credit program in dance education, which launched this fall, will prepare them for a variety of careers that involve teaching dance or integrating dance in educational settings.

The certificate, while not a teacher-licensing program, will be valuable for dance majors who wish to expand their career options beyond performance. “When students go out into the world, they are likely going to be teaching — in community settings, in companies, in private studios, in schools,” says Parkins. “The dance education certificate will train them specifically in pedagogical strategies for teaching dance.”

The certificate program is unique in the nation in its focus on cultivating students’ cultural awareness and sensitivity.

“Understanding and experiencing culture through all styles of dance enhances relationships and appreciation among human beings,” says Jin-Wen Yu, chair of the Dance Department.

The dance education certificate advances UW–Madison’s commitment to being a leader within the field.

“As the birthplace of dance education, nearly a hundred years ago, this is a really important historical site,” says Parkins. “People are watching what’s going on in Wisconsin.”

Graduates with entrepreneurial skills are increasingly valued by employers. Paul L. Newby II

This fall, the Wisconsin School of Business offered an entrepreneurship major for the first time.

The new option will be ideal for double majors, says Dan Olszewski ’87, Goldberg Family Director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship. It gives students a chance to combine entrepreneurship with another area of expertise. “This allows students to obtain deep domain expertise in a field but also augment that with knowing they want to start a business in the future, which makes for a really powerful combination,” he says.

Previously, courses on entrepreneurship were an option under the management and human resources major. But now, entrepreneurship, management, and human resource management will all be stand-alone majors.

Experiential learning is an important component of the new major, and electives include classes where students learn to build and assess their own start-ups. An introductory course will include students from both within and outside the business school, providing valuable experience working on the cross-functional teams typical of many real-world start-ups.

Olszewski says entrepreneurial thinking — skills and mindsets characterized by curiosity, ambition, and creativity — is in high demand among employers.

“We’ve found that big companies are now valuing the entrepreneurial mindset so much more than they used to,” he says. “They realize that they need to be an innovative company to survive in the future, so firms are seeking that out.”

Emborg’s team was successful in reversing Parkinson’s symptoms by grafting neurons grown from monkeys’ own cells

UW–Madison researchers have successfully performed a brain cell graft in monkeys, a technique that shows promise for treating Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease damages neurons in the brain that produce dopamine, a chemical that transmits signals between nerve cells. The disrupted signals make it progressively harder to coordinate even simple movements, causing the rigidity, slowness, and tremors that are the disease’s hallmark symptoms. Working with potential cell therapies to treat Parkinson’s disease is a particular specialty of medical physics professor Marina Emborg.

Emborg’s team worked with colleagues at the National Primate Research Center to study cynomolgus macaque monkeys. The scientists were successful in reversing Parkinson’s symptoms by grafting neurons grown from the monkeys’ own cells, called an autologous transplant. A new study by a California firm, Aspen Neuroscience, then tested the technique in humans, providing hope for those struggling with a debilitating disease.

“Our results were all so exciting,” Emborg says. “And then, when I saw they had been able to begin with a human patient this spring, I just had tears in my eyes.”

When the UW team succeeded in generating plasma, it marked the first step in a new age of fusion research at the university. Bryce Richter

A fusion device at UW–Madison generated plasma for the first time, opening the door to making the highly anticipated, carbon-free energy source a reality.

Over the past four years, a team of UW–Madison physicists and engineers has been constructing and testing the fusion energy device, known as WHAM, in the UW’s Physical Sciences Lab. It transitioned to operations mode last summer, marking a major milestone for the yearslong research project.

“The outlook for decarbonizing our energy sector is just much higher with fusion than anything else,” says Cary Forest ’86, a UW–Madison physics professor who has helped lead the development of WHAM. “[Generating] plasma is a crucial first step for us in that direction.”

Fusion is a type of nuclear energy that produces relatively harmless, carbonless waste products, making it one of the cleanest potential energy sources in terms of greenhouse gases.

“We think fusion will be as good at producing electricity as any energy source would be, and we think it might be even better to use it as a source of industrial heat for making things,” Forest says.

Fusion occurs naturally in our sun and other stars to create heat and energy. Researchers have tried to replicate this process with fusion devices known as mirror machines, which limit the escape of particles from the main reactor with inward-facing magnets. But an inability to efficiently contain the plasma — and therefore to achieve net-positive energy production — had greatly limited the function of the machines until recently. Over the last decade, scientists have developed high-temperature superconductor magnets that are tens of times stronger than the magnets previously used for fusion research.

With these powerful magnets, the UW–Madison team is revisiting mirror machines as plasma energy reactors. When they succeeded in generating plasma, it marked the first step in a new age of fusion research at the university.

More and more UW–Madison students are choosing to get certificates to round out their education and give their résumés — and future careers — a boost. There were 4,210 undergraduate certificates awarded in 2022–23, compared with 1,544 a decade earlier. A certificate, like a minor at other universities, supplements a major and focuses on a specific subject area. It can also integrate multiple subject areas. Certificate programs typically span 15 to 24 credits but are not required to graduate.

“UW–Madison faculty and staff have excelled at highlighting the breadth and depth of expertise we have on campus by developing over 100 certificate programs,” says Kelley Harris PhD’08, director of Cross-College Advising Service.

Above are the undergraduate certificate programs that have added the most students from fall 2019 to fall 2023.

That means you probably wouldn’t want to compete against Bacon in swimming, either, unless you’re one of the three women on Earth who can swim the backstroke faster than she does. Bacon may have just missed the medal stand, but her career is on the rise.

Bacon grew up in the Washington, DC, area, and she came to UW–Madison for three reasons: “One was obviously the academics,” she says. “I would graduate with a really, really good degree. The second piece was the team. I felt right at home. And the third piece was head coach Yuri Suguiyama. I had a dream of being an Olympian, and I knew Yuri could get me there.”

Suguiyama has coached high-profile athletes, including Katie Ledecky and Ryan Murphy, both of whom have multiple Olympic gold medals. At the UW, he also coaches Bacon for her collegiate competitions — a season that runs from October through March. Bacon says that Olympic swimming presents a bigger emotional challenge, but Suguiyama prepared her for the drama.

“Yuri’s been a big help,” she says. “He will tell it to me straight. It’ll be like, ‘Phoebe, there’s going to be a lot of emotion. Good, bad, ugly. You will see it, and you will feel it all, and all we can try and do is manage it as best we can.’ Having that on my side streamlines my ability to be able to manage it.”

Bacon’s Paris race may have ended 0.04 seconds short of a medal, but her racing career is far from over, and she may try again in Los Angeles at the 2028 Olympics. But her first goal after Paris was just to try to relax and have a little summer vacation.

“I did a little sleeping,” she says. “I was hanging around with my family, being present, seeing them. My family means a lot to me, and spending time with them was super important. It’d been almost nine months since I’d been home.”