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Father of the Pill and UW alumnus dies Friday at 91 years old By Bri Maas THE DAILY CARDINAL
COURTESY OF MATT MCMANUS
Wisconsin School of Business graduate Matt McManus launched Bokos, a sandal company based in Minnesota, April 2013 while finishing his senior year at UW-Madison.
ALUMNUS PROFILE
Recent grad becomes small business owner your own,” McManus said. “As long as those mistakes are learning experiences, I think mistakes are just fine.” McManus, who graduated with a double major in marketing and management, co-founded Bokos while preparing to graduate from the Wisconsin School of Business in 2013. The recent graduate said he juggled schoolwork and planning the Bokos launch for months, with help from the professors in the business school along the way. “The business school professors were really, really phenomenal. They obviously have their own experience out-
By Bri Maas THE DAILY CARDINAL
Former UW-Madison student Matt McManus found inspiration for one-piece rubber sandals from his co-founder and brother, who returned from a trip to Beijing with a pair of unique sandals that sparked envy among family and friends. McManus said the coveted sandals eventually became the basis for Bokos, a shoe company based in Plymouth, Minnesota, after a research process largely centered on trial and error. “The hardest part is you never know what to expect, so you have to make mistakes on
side of just being professors, and they were really great resources to ask questions,” McManus said. Working with his brother is rewarding because they have complementing skill sets and generally agree with each other, McManus said. However, he added that working with family can be a challenge. “You have to try to not always talk about business,” McManus said. “It’s easy to make that always the topic, but you definitely have to draw that line when you’re not on the clock.” McManus said the most
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Carl Djerassi, a 1945 UW-Madison graduate and recipient of a 1995 honorary degree, died Friday at the age of 91, according to a university news release. The chemist, poet and playwright was most known for his work with steroid hormones, the groundwork for the first oral contraceptive. Djerassi emigrated from Vienna to the U.S. in 1939 and attended UW-Madison until 1945, when he began working with colleagues in Mexico City to create a synthetic steroid hormone. The substance contributed to the first hormonal oral contraceptive, deeming him the “father of the birth control pill,” according to a October 2012 release. Upon receiving a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Wisconsin Alumni
Association in 2012, Djerassi addressed the societal impact of the birth control pill. “People think the pill should be either credited or blamed for the sexual revolution; that’s a gross oversimplification,” Djerassi said in the release. “People forget the ‘60s were the decade of hippie culture, drug culture, rock ‘n roll culture and, most importantly the flowering of the women’s movement. All these had something to do with sexual liberation.” More than a noted scientist, Djerassi was also a recognized artist and art collector, according to the release. He began writing poetry and plays in the 1980s as a way to educate the public through fiction without them knowing it, according to a 2014 interview with Chemistry World. “I really decided it would be interesting to lead a totally different
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COURTESY OF UW COMMUNICATIONS
Carl Djerassi, the UW-Madison alumnus who helped discover the basis of the first oral contraceptive, died at age 91 Friday.
Researchers pinpoint fluorescent dyes to assist brain cancer surgery UW-Madison scientists identified two new fluorescent tumortargeting agents that light up brain cancer cells, according to a Jan. 22 press release. Researchers injected alkylphosphocholine agents into mice implanted with cancer cells, which then flowed through the blood-
stream and to the brain in order to illuminate the unhealthy cells. These compounds are detectable by many modern microscopes, making them useful for surgeries. “[The discovery] allowed us to create fluorescent APC agents that can visualize cancer cells beautifully under high-resolution
microscopy,” Dr. Jamey Weichert, associate professor of Radiology, said in the release. A scientific paper written by Dr. John Kuo, associate professor of Neurological Surgery, and Weichert showed APC agents can detect more than 55 different cancer lines, including some resistant
to current treatments. Cancer cells absorb the APC agents, which can either allow the cancer cells to be seen or deliver a radioactive medicine that kills the cells. A tumor-labeling agent is approved for use in Europe, but one of the agents discovered is superior to it. Both APC agents
show cancer-selective uptake, so normal cells are not affected, according to the release. “It can be difficult to distinguish between cancer cells and adjacent healthy tissue,” Kuo said in the release. “This study is an important proof of principle.” —Martin Rakacolli
Madison Police Department investigates possibly linked sex offenses in State Street area Madison police are now investigating two similar sex offenses in the downtown area following a second report from a victim, according to a Madison Police Department incident report.
After reading a news report about an inappropriate touching incident that happened downtown Wednesday, a 47-year-old Madison resident contacted authorities reporting she had been physically
violated in a similar manner while riding on a Madison Metro bus. She said the incident occurred near State Street and Lake Street soon after the first victim reported being assaulted. Due to the proxim-
Badgers cruise to second consecutive road win
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ity and similarity of the incidents, it is possible the same suspect is responsible. However, according to Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain, presently it is unknown whether or not this is true.
The suspect, a large male in his late 20s to early 30s of possibly Middle Eastern or Hispanic descent, was last seen wearing a heavy winter coat, a knit winter cap and a backpack.
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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”