L&S News  Author: Mary Ellen Gabriel

An interest in meteorology at UW-Madison launched a career in ocean science and a strong desire to give back.

The Center for Academic Excellence supports underrepresented students every step of the way, thanks to determined, compassionate leaders and a strong sense of community.

Planet Earth is changing. UW’s climate scientists study how much, how fast and whether we can adapt. Here’s an inside look at their world — which is also ours.

A national search to fill a new position in the College of Letters & Science (L&S), the largest college at UW-Madison, has concluded with an offer to a highly-respected internal candidate, whose work advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education has earned him accolades on UW’s campus and beyond.

Erika Marin-Spiotta received the Ambassador Award from the American Geophysical Union, in recognition of her efforts to diversify the field of geoscience, one of the least diverse disciplines in the U.S. The AGU also recognized her for teamwork with a Presidential Citation.

The Humanities Building has outlived its usefulness, and serious maintenance costs and outdated classrooms are driving the push for a new, forward-looking building for L&S. Part of the university's biennial capital budget request to the State of Wisconsin, the new building would be sited at the corner of West Johnson and North Park Streets and would provide 1800 seats in 19 classrooms that support active, collaborative learning and modern technology.

It’s not often that a graduate student has the opportunity to fine-tune the inner workings of a high-energy gamma-ray telescope, but that’s
exactly what physics graduate student Leslie Taylor was doing in the remote mountains of Arizona, at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory
some 35 miles south of Tucson.

As part of a series, L&S is taking a look at how professors and students are adapting to teaching and learning during the global coronavirus pandemic. A limnology seminar meets outside, while a lab tackles a new language.

A discovery about plankton’s ability to evolve offers hope for ocean life.