Friday June 4: Looking for alien life at the ballpark

For many people, the word "alien" means ET, Chewbacca or some green-headed space monster.

But for a group of UW-Madison researchers, alien life is very different than the Hollywood version. 

These scientists are bringing the search for life in outer space back home to Earth in Madison.

On Friday, June 4th, a group of UW-Madison researchers are taking science to the ballpark to share their work with the crowd at the Madison Mallards first Friday night game of the season.

The gates open at 5:30pm and the game starts at 7:05pm.

With interactive science stations, extremophile trading cards and a researchers throwing out the first pitch, the Wisconsin Astrobiology Research Consortium (WARC) is hoping to raise awareness of astrobiology research at UW.

Science stations staffed by WARC researchers will be up before the game.

Astrobiology trivia and movies will be broadcast on the video board before and during the game. Other fun, informative activities will be happening throughout the night.

The WARC consists of researchers from UW-Madison, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of Georgia – SREL.

Funding for this research and outreach is provided by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI).

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L&S graduate programs highly rated by U.S. News and World Report

Several University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate programs — many in the College of Letters & Science — are ranked among the nation's best in the 2011 edition of U.S. News and World Report's "Best Graduate Schools."

Graduate school rankings are an indicator of the overall quality of the department and caliber of its teaching and faculty.

Not all programs are ranked every year. Those UW programs ranked this year (along with specialties ranked in the top 10 nationally) include:

• Chemistry: tied for seventh overall, with specialties ranked in analytical (eighth), biochemistry (fifth), inorganic (seventh), organic (ninth), physical (seventh) and theoretical (ninth).
• Computer sciences: tied for 11th overall, with specialties ranked in  programming language (10th), and systems (seventh).
  
• Biological sciences: tied for 15th overall, with a specialty ranked in microbiology (third).
• Earth sciences: tied for 13th overall, with specialties ranked in geochemistry (eighth) and geology (eighth).
• Mathematics: tied for 16th overall, with specialties ranked in analysis (10th) and logic (fifth).
• Physics: tied for 17
• Statistics: tied for 12th.

Other highly ranked UW-Madison programs include:

• School of Education: ninth overall. Specialties were ranked in curriculum and instruction (first), education policy (third), elementary education (second), secondary education (second), counseling and personnel services (second), administration and supervision (second), educational psychology (first) and special education (tied for ninth).
• College of Engineering: tied for 15th overall. Specialties were ranked in nuclear (second), chemical engineering (tied for sixth), industrial manufacturing (tied for 10th).
• School of Business: tied for 27th overall. The school's part-time MBA program was tied for 15th.th overall, with a specialty ranked in plasma (tied for second).
• Law: Tied for 28th. 
  
• Medicine:  Tied for 27th, with specialties ranked in primary care (tied for 12th), family medicine (fifth), rural medicine (eighth).
  

For more on the rankings, visit: http://www.usnews.com/

New via University Communications 

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Thurber elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union

Cliff Thurber, professor and Chair of the Department of Geoscience, was recently named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

Election as a Fellow of AGU is a recognition for those who have made exceptional scientific contributions. Fellows must have attained acknowledged eminence in the Earth and space sciences. 

This designation is conferred upon not more than 0.1% of all AGU members in any given year. 

Thurber was recognized for his contributions to the study of fault zones and volcanoes and for the development of widely used methods for three-dimensional seismic tomography. 

The 2010 Fellows' awards will be presented at the Honors Ceremony during the Fall AGU Meeting in San Francisco in December.

The AGU is an international non-profit scientific association with over 50,000 members.  AGU is dedicated to furthering the sciences of geophysics through the individual efforts of our members and in cooperation with other national and international scientific organizations.

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Four L&S faculty receive development grants

Four L&S faculty have been awarded development grants from the Provost's office. 

Congratulations to the recipients!

• Profsesor Mara Loveman (Sociology) who will use demographic methods on approaches to modeling racial and ethnic population changes
  
• Profsesor Basil Tikoff (Geoscience) who will develop syllabi for new courses designed for general science introduction for pre-service teachers
  
• Professor Gillermina De Farrari (Spanish and Portuguese) develop two new course on Caribbean literature, theory and visual culture 
• Professor Stephen Kantrowitz (History) will retrain in Native American History in order to develop an undergrad research seminar
  

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GeoBadger sits with Michelle Obama at the State of the Union Address

Gabriela Farfan is a 19-year-old from Madison, Wisconsin whose passion for geology started at a young age — collecting rocks as a little girl with her father.

Gabriela has been a friend of the UW Geology Museum since she was 7 years old and her personal mineral collection is very impressive.

While in high school, Gabriela studied in the Department of Geoscience with Professor Huifang Xu, researching the causes of color in gems (Oregon sunstone). She presented a poster in the UW Geology Graduate Student research symposium and at the international Goldschmidt Conference.

In 2009, as a senior in high school, Gabriela's hard-work and research won her one of the top awards in the Intel Science Talent Search, winning a scholarship for her independent research describing why certain gemstones appear to change color when viewed from different angle. 

This finding directly affects the gemstone industry and may have applications in the nano- and materials sciences.

Gabriela is now in college as a freshman at Stanford University, and a declared geology major.

Gabriela is also a National Hispanic Scholar awardee, has two very proud parents, Abigail Farfan and Carlos Peralta, and has a real dedication to the arts: singing, drawing, painting, speaking French and Spanish, and following operas and musicals.

Story in the Wisconsin State Journal: Second local woman to attend State of Union as first lady's guest 

Category: Biological & Physical Sciences
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New year brings in awards, accolades

Here's a round-up of all of the recent awards and honors to faculty, staff and students in L&S:

• Four L&S faculty receive development grants
• Bement wins Kellet Mid-Career Award
  
• Anderson receives National Ground Water Association Award
• Five classified staff members receive Excellence Awards 
• Four from Hebrew Department receive Teaching Awards
• Schatzberg, Nyhart win scholarly publication awards
• Severn wins 2010 Presidential Honorary Membership for work with DARE
• Hall, von Schneidemessner named Fellows of Dictionary Society 
  

Send in your news to LSNews@ls.admin.wisc.edu

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Anderson receives National Ground Water Association Award

Mary P. Anderson, the C.S. Slichter Professor (emeritus) of Hydrogeology, and editor-in-chief of the journal Ground Water, has received the 2009 Keith E. Anderson Award from the National Ground Water Association.

The award is presented for outstanding contributions to NGWA by the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers, which is a membership division of NGWA.

Among other contributions to the association, Anderson is in her ninth year as editor of Ground Water.

"She has done an exceptional job in building, maintaining, and improving the quality of our journal and the respect that it gets within the scientific and engineering community," said nominator Leonard Konikow of the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia. "She has a very helpful, progressive, and positive attitude while clearly maintaining her own and the journal’s scientific integrity."[Read More]

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