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Author: gbump

More than 150 police officers and drones to monitor 55th annual Mifflin Street Block Party

Wisconsin State Journal

For each of the past 55 years, the 400 and 500 blocks of West Mifflin Street have undergone a one-day transformation. The usually quiet stretch of vintage student rentals becomes a seething mass of humanity, a jungle that officials have tried to weed and tame, often with little success. The will of a 19-year-old business major to get plastered continues to triumph over the best-laid plans of mayors and council members.

Designers of Cottage Grove’s first dog park hope to capture community’s vibe

Wisconsin State Journal

James Steiner, a lecturer in UW-Madison’s Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, collaborated with UW-Madison design students Keegan Ripley and Henry Hinchsliff to design the project, currently dubbed Bark Park. The effort was carried out through UniverCity Alliance, a campus organization that’s part of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and provides students with hands-on experience developing local projects.

Professor John (Jack) E. Johnson

Wisconsin State Journal

After spending a short time in industry, he joined the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin in 1965 and retired in 1990. While at the University of Wisconsin-Madison he taught many different courses in the area of structural engineering and developed special courses in thin shell structures.

Tom Still: Fusion energy is a nascent ‘hot spot’ for Wisconsin economy’

Wisconsin State Journal

The UW-Madison’s Fusion Technology Institute lists 167 Ph.D. graduates and is the largest program in the United States for advanced degrees in fusion engineering. Since 1965, the university has produced more than 400 graduates overall in fields such as plasma experimental, plasma theory and fusion technology.

“I came to Madison because of its nuclear energy programs,” said Oliver Schmitz, a Germany native who is the associate dean of research innovation in the UW-Madison College of Engineering. “Whenever I travel to fusion events elsewhere, it seems like 80% of the participants are UW-Madison graduates.”

Anne Mary Donnellan

Wisconsin State Journal

At a time when autistic children were denied admission to public school, her founding of Los Niños, an early haven of acceptance for autistic children, was a testament to both her empathy and her drive for practical solutions. This same blend fueled her academic achievements – a PhD from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a position as a beloved professor and lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Who was Carson Gulley, the Madison chef who inspired a ‘Top Chef’ challenge?

Wisconsin State Journal

Gulley was the head chef for UW-Madison for 27 years. Gulley was viewed by many as Madison’s first celebrity chef and had a cooking show, radio show and culinary business. Despite his success, Gulley faced significant racial discrimination in Madison, especially when it came to housing, according to Wisconsin State Journal archives.

Wisconsin worst in nation in fatal crashes involving wrong-way drivers

Wisconsin State Journal

Partial cloverleaf interchanges, with on and off ramps next to each other, are the highway intersection most susceptible to drivers mistakenly entering on exit ramps, experts say. At such interchanges, “it’s hard to know which is the correct ramp,” said Andrea Bill, a traffic safety research project manager at UW-Madison’s Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory. “Here in Wisconsin, especially in our urban areas, we have a fair amount of them.”

Robert Allen Rancourt

Wisconsin State Journal

Robert worked at Ray-O-Vac for 12 years; and later as an Administrator with the UW – School of Medicine and Public Health’s Center for Health Policy and Program Evaluation (CHPPE) and the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute. He retired from the University after more than 30 years in 2009.

Mary Alma Pankratz

Wisconsin State Journal

For more than 30 years, Mary worked for the State of Wisconsin finishing her career as a program assistant at the UW Carbone Cancer Center where she often joked that she started at the Cancer Center BC (before Carbone).

Albert “Al” Harlan Ellingboe

Wisconsin State Journal

In 1983, he joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, as a Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology with a joint appointment in the Department of Genetics. Al was an international recognized authority on the genetics of host-pathogen interactions.

Demolished UW dorms honored strong women leaders — Lynne Watrous Eich

Wisconsin State Journal

Letter to the editor: Readers who travel east on Johnson Street toward North Park Street in Madison may be interested in this: On the south side of the corridor, two former residence halls built in 1962 adjacent to each other — Susan Burdick Davis House and Zoe Bayliss House — have recently been demolished.

David George Hinds

Wisconsin State Journal

He joined University of Wisconsin Madison-Extension as an Assistant Professor and Community Development Educator in Sauk, Kenosha and Racine counties.  He was promoted to Professor and named Director of UW-Extension Local Government Center in Madison, WI.