Alumni & Friends

EatStreet's Matt Howard (BS'11, Economics and Political Science) and Alex Wyler, along with a third cofounder, met in their freshman year at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and launched its first food delivery website called BadgerBites.com. Seven years later, the now-renamed EatStreet has raised over $37 million, launched in 250 markets and now delivers to more than 1.7 million customers as it moves to dominate delivery in mid-level markets.

Many big data visualization techniques are based on outdated models that can end up producing misleading results. Szafir aims to change that. Her research involves modeling how the brain perceives visual information, then using those models to develop ways to visualize big data in ways that humans can quickly and correctly understand.

"Badger blood doesn’t go away, even though we haven't lived in Madison in a very long time. My wife and I still think of ourselves as Badgers," says Thomas J. LeBlanc (MS '79, PhD '82). His education in computer science has taken him far: LeBlanc recently became the 17th president of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Mary Annette Pember (B.A.'85, Journalism) is featured in Yes! Magazine: "I tend to lie low during Native American History Month and dodge the Moon of Explaining Indians to White People. But not this year."

Madison Alderman Zach Wood, a UW-Madison graduate, and recent alum Hayley Young, along with current junior Noah Roberts, were elected into the local government spots they currently hold while studying at UW-Madison.

“We think the world of Tamara Grigsby and we think she is a great role model as we want all of our social work students to be thinking about making social change in the world,” says Stephanie Robert, director and professor at the UW School of Social Work.

The three recipients, now teaching science in Monona, Rhinelander and Wauwatosa, are members of the 2017 class at the Knowles Teacher Initiative, whose purpose is “to increase the number of high-quality high school science and mathematics teachers."

The speakers for this year's winter commencement ceremony, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, spin wild tales for a living. But the story of how they met on campus years ago couldn't be more ordinary - or have a happier ending, the two alums say.

Ken Weston (BS'52, MS'55, PhD'63, Mathematics), 88, and his sister Genevieve Weston, 87, continue to operate Weston's Antique Apple Orchards in New Berlin, WI. The orchard is operated as a nonprofit, and the Westons are making sure that the history of the orchard and its apples is being preserved with the help of a few employees and a team of volunteers.