Quick Takes: Spring 2014

UW senior Drew Birrenkott was named a Rhodes Scholar for 2014. Only thirty-two American students win a Rhodes Scholarship each year, enabling them to pursue post- graduate study at Oxford University in England. Birrenkott is the UW’s seventh Rhodes Scholar. He’s pursuing a triple major in political science, biochemistry, and biomedical engineering.

Physics World named the UW’s IceCube project the 2013 Breatkthrough of the Year. IceCube operates a research station in Antarctica as it hunts for neutrinos — subatomic particles that are almost impossible to detect.

Harold Scheub. Photo: Jeff Miller

Harold Scheub, longtime professor of African languages and literature and teacher of the popular African Storytellers class, retired in December. Scheub (below) had been on the UW’s faculty for forty-three years.

In November, the UW launched Discovery to Product (D2P), a $3.2 million program to encourage entrepreneurship among students and faculty. D2P is designed to help UW researchers turn their ideas and inventions into marketable products.

The UW ranks sixth among U.S. universities in the number of study-abroad participants, according to the 2013 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. Some 2,149 Badgers studied abroad in 2011–12 (the academic year covered in the report). The UW also hosted 5,291 students from other nations, ranking twenty-second among peer institutions.

In October, the Daily Beast online magazine named UW-Madison the “sexiest college in America” for some reason. It also ranked the UW as America’s third-happiest college.

Raymond Cross was named president of the UW System in January. Cross has been chancellor of the UW Colleges and UW-Extension since 2011, and he succeeds Kevin Reilly as the System’s seventh president. He’s the chief executive for the UW System, which oversees thirteen universities (including UW–Madison), thirteen two-year colleges, and UW-Extension.

Published in the Spring 2014 issue