College of Letters & Science
IN FOCUS
November 2019, Vol. 9, No.11
A toxic wor k environment
This UWM alum is working to protect veterans from toxic exposures. P. 6.
Lights, camera, pa
Contents
UWM econom
Feature Stories
Professor reveals Hollywood pay gaps Biologist pinpoints genes for fish nerves Alum protects vets from toxic exposures Prof wins grant for autism genetic research Geosciences grad mans Mars Rover camera Student’s internship to aid refugees Physics profs win grant for battery start-up L&S faculty win university service awards
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Hollywood is a star-studded land of glitz, glam, and pay gaps. According to new research conducted by UWM labor economist John Heywood and his coauthors, female stars in the nation’s movie capital earn an average of $1 million less per film than their male counterparts when they perform in similar roles. The gap persists even accounting for actors’ experience, box office earnings, and a host of other factors. Heywood and his colleagues’ work has been highlighted on Bustle and in The Guardian. You found that there is a significant gender pay gap in Hollywood. What did your research reveal? What we found is that if you look at the raw gap between what men and women are paid in Hollywood at that “superstar” level, it’s an over $2.4 million difference. If you then throw all of the economist “bag of tricks” at it to try and figure out why – everything from how many John Heywood Twitter followers they have to how long they were involved in the profession, to how much time their filming took, what stunts they did, and all kinds of other things – we can get that “down” to about $1 million.
(414) 229-2923.
So all other things being equal, there’s still a $1 million pay gap. The only difference is the gender of the actors.
L&S Dean: Scott Gronert
Well, that’s an interesting question. That’s the first interpretation, that it’s the gender of the actors. But let me try to be a bit more specific about what might be going on.
In Focus Editor: Deanna Alba
One of the things that’s harder to explain is that males earn much more in an adventure movie than women do. That’s interesting; does that mean that the viewing public, when they see an adventure movie, like a male lead more? I’m
Find us at UWMLetSci
2 • IN FOCUS • October, 2019
ay gaps!
mist examines Hollywood’s gender pay disparity not saying that the answer is yes, but I’m saying that it’s a potential explanation for what we find. Labor economists often distinguish between discrimination that might happen in the employment market … and discrimination that occurs because of customer preference. Can you talk about your methodology? What did you control for? Our sample was really limited to the stars. We have observations on about 300 or 400 actors, some of them viewed more than once. We mined data from IMDB.com and Box Office Mojo. One of the interesting things we were able to do was look within films. We would look at the same film and it would have a male and female actor in it. We were able to, within that film, adjust for differences, as we mentioned with stunts and time they spent on the movie, but also the actors’ whole track record of previous box offices (earnings) up to that point, which might be an indicator of their productivity or their success. So we were able to control for that. Did you find ways to mitigate the pay gap? One of your coauthors suggested that studios and actors should try making their contracts public. This is a suggestion and it’s currently being studied by many different economists, which is to what extent do gender earning gaps diminish when information is public. At this point, I don’t think there’s a firm answer, but it is a possible way. One of the things that’s interesting in Hollywood is that the stars don’t typically negotiate their own contract. They have agents. Often, the agents for the males and females are the same, or the same companies, at least. You’re saying the agency representing Tom Cruise might be representing Amy Adams? Exactly. One of the things you often hear about other labor markets is ‘women are not assertive,’ or ‘women are not asking for raises,’ or ‘women are not putting their best foot
forward,’ and so on. But if it’s the same agent who has the standard Hollywood contract where they get the same percentage slice of (the star’s earnings), they have every incentive to get as a big a contract for Amy as they do for Tom. What makes studying Hollywood different from studying other labor markets? Hollywood is an interesting case study. One of the things we also often hear about as to why women don’t do as well in the labor market is that they have family duties and they don’t like to travel and they can’t be as committed to the work. But when a female lead and a male lead are in the same movie in the same remote location missing the same number of days away from home, none of that really applies. The fact that the work is so comparable, that it happens in the same place at the same time, that the people do it together, makes it a little bit different. Did any of your findings surprise you? Much of the concern by the female actors was not just what they were paid, but in how short their careers were relative to men. What was implied there … is a differential ageism having to do with perceptions of beauty. Older male actors can still be distinguished and good-looking, and the feeling was that maybe Hollywood was not willing to let older women be those things. We tried to explore that a little bit in the paper. The first thing we found was that if female actors are going to be a star, they tend to become a star more quickly. Also, that those women who persist as successful stars late into life are not hurt more later in life in terms of earnings. Meryl Streep does no worse now than she did 20 years ago relative to her male colleagues. Did you actually watch movies as part of your research? My wife would have loved to see these movies, but it turns out I’m not a huge movie fan. I was more attracted to the labor market than the movies. By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 3
The ‘eyes’ have it When our optic nerve is damaged – by glaucoma or diabetic neuropathy, for example – it’s basically game-over for our eyesight. The nerve can’t be healed and our vision loss can’t be restored. But that’s not the case with fish, which can regenerate their optic nerve in 12 days and regain their eyesight after an additional 80 days after an injury. UWM biologist Ava Udvadia just figured out how they do it, and she hopes that discovery will lead to treatment for eye ailments in humans. Of injured eyes and growing cells A nerve cell, or neuron, consists Ava Udvadia of three major parts: A body, which contains the nucleus of the cell; dendrites, which receive incoming information; and an axon, a “tail’ that connects the neuron to cells in another part of the body to transmit information. The optic nerve contains the axons of neurons that transmit visual information from the eye to the brain. In the type of eye injuries Udvadia is studying, the initial injury is to the axons, while the cell bodies remain intact for a while. In order to repair the injury, the neurons need to regenerate their axons and reestablish connections with the brain. That’s impossible for fully mature neurons in the central nervous system of mammals, which are locked into their current state. It’s not impossible for developing neurons, however, which got Udvadia thinking about how to reprogram damaged adult neurons. “Nobel prize-winning work on induced pluriopotent stem cells showed us that you can take a take a fully differentiated cell from an adult tissue and you could
4 • IN FOCUS • November, 2019
Biologist stu
actually reprogram it – that is, back it up to a state where now, it could give rise to any type of cell in the body,” Udvadia said. “With a damaged optic nerve, we don’t want to back the neurons up that far. We want to keep them as neurons, but back them up to a state where they can rewire their connections to the brain. Fish can do it, mammals can’t. Why not?” A good question, especially since fish and humans use similar programming to initially wire the visual system during development. That is, the same genes tell neurons to grow their extensions during development and to stop growing in adults. The difference between fish and humans is in the ability to turn the growth program back on after injury in adults. The answer, Udvadia thinks, is in the arrangement of each species’ genetic information. This arrangement enables fish to “turn on” a genetic program that regenerates their nerve. The arrangement in mammals prevents the reactivation of the axon growth program. A novel approach to experimenting To understand how fish regenerate their optic nerves, Udvadia and her team took a different approach. “In the past, people looked at regeneration as a single event. Our approach looked at it as actually being a series of events,” Udvadia said. “We know in development as the neuron is growing to make its connections – very specifically, the neurons in the eye making this connection to the brain – it has to go through a lot of different and complex environments.” She and her team looked at several key points in the fish’s regeneration timeline: 1. The injured neuron first has to grow past the site of the initial injury. 2. The neuron has to choose the correct crossroads when its connection reaches the juncture of the
udies fish for optic nerve solutions in humans mechanisms regulating the changes at those time points? A genetic map – for fish and mammals? Udvadia found the genes whose expression was changing – some 7,000 of them. She and her team broke those down into categories of genes whose expression peaked early in the process, in the middle, and late in regeneration. That way, they could focus on groups of genes that peaked at the same time and understand what mechanism was responsible for regulating them. They found not only sequences within the fish’s genetic information that could instruct the cell which genes to turn on and off for regeneration and when, but also changes in transcription factors – chemicals that bind to the DNA and control the genes for regeneration. With the fish’s regeneration-associated gene programming identified and its regulatory sequences uncovered, Udvadia now faces a new task.
This diagram shows the path an axon must travel to regenerate a damaged optic nerve in a fish. “DPI” indicates “Date Past Injury.” Diagram courtesy of Ava Udvadia.
other optic nerve. It has to connect to the opposite hemisphere of the brain, rather than grow into the closest hemisphere or into the other eye. 3. The neuron has to reach the part of the brain responsible for processing visual images. 4. Finally, the neuron has to wire up correctly. If it doesn’t make the exact connections in the brain it’s supposed to, the fish won’t process images correctly, like pixels out of place on a computer screen. At each time point, Udvadia asked two questions: What are the genes whose expressions are changing during each stage of regeneration, and what are the
“If we can identify from among these transcription factors which ones are different in the response in mammals and fish, now we’re at a place to define what we need to tweak in mammals to get them to switch this program on,” Udvadia said. Those are the next steps in her research. Udvadia hopes to begin working with mice to understand the genetic mechanisms at play when they receive such an eye injury. Eventually, she hopes that understanding how fish regenerate their optic nerves will open avenues for treating eye injuries in mammals and humans. Her research could even have implications for other nerve injuries in areas like the spinal cord. Udvaida’s research was published in early October in Scientific Reports, and she presented her work at the Society for Neuroscience’s conference in Chicago in midOctober. By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 5
A U.S. Marine with the Warfighter Express Services Team assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 2, walks away after disposing of trash at the burn pit at Forward Operating Base Zeebrugge, Helmand province, Afghanistan, March 6, 2013. Photo by Sgt. Anthony L. Ortiz.
There’s so
Chemistry grad When U.S. troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, they frequently disposed of garbage using burn pits – huge holes where they dumped everything from household trash to medical waste, doused it in jet fuel, and set it alight. “A lot of these pits were burning 24 hours a day, and they were located on or near the military installations where service members served,” said Rebecca Patterson, a Navy veteran and a UWM alum. “They inhaled this smoke all day long, and there was a lot of bad stuff in there.” Patterson was especially interested in one particular class of chemicals released in these burn pits: Dioxins, the same cancer-causing compounds found in Agent Orange from the Vietnam War era. She made them the topic of one of her final research papers at UWM. “That was my introduction to environmental exposures in the current war connected to environmental exposures in Vietnam,” Patterson said. “It made me realize that I wanted to study environmental health.” Now, as the assistant director of the Veteran’s Health Council, she gets to do just that. Working for veterans The Veterans Health Council is a program of the congressionally chartered veteran service organization Vietnam Veterans of America. The Council’s goal is to improve health care for veterans by educating service members, veterans, their families, and health care professionals about health issues associated with military service. For Patterson, that means keeping up with the science as information comes out about environmental exposures service members may have faced. The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine are currently studying health effects from the burn pits, and they’ve recently turned their eyes toward another contaminant.
6 • IN FOCUS • November, 2019
“They’re starting to look into PFAS, which is a class of chemicals that has contaminated our water supply across the country,” Patterson said. “Several chemicals were, and others remain, a component of the aqueous film-forming foam that
omething in the air
d works to protect veterans from toxic exposures the military uses for oil-based fires.”
condition was caused by an environmental exposure they experienced during their service.
She is also working on a grant funded by the Wounded Warrior Project that allows the Veteran’s Health Council to collaborate with other organizations to advocate for service members, veterans, and their families affected by toxic exposures. Patterson also conducts training for health care providers so they can learn to better serve their patients with military backgrounds.
A personal mission Advocating for service members is a mission near and dear to Patterson because she’s a Navy veteran from a family of Navy vets. Patterson joined up when she was 21 and trained as a Farsi linguist at the Defense Language Institute in California. She was stationed in Georgia (USA) and completed a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf. When her service ended, Patterson enrolled at UWM where she majored in chemistry and earned certificates in forensic science and forensic toxicology. While on campus, she found herself drawn to other student veterans.
The shortcomings of medical care When most people think about the health issues affecting veterans, their minds jump to combat wounds or PTSD. But limited thinking is a mistake, Patterson warns, and health care providers who work outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system need to be prepared.
Rebecca Patterson stands outside U.S. Senator Ben Cardin’s (Maryland) office after a meeting discussing PFAS contamination during Patterson’s High Ground Veterans Advocacy Fellowship training week. Patterson advocates for veterans’ health. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Patterson.
“Less than 20 percent of military veterans receive all of their health care at the VA. A lot of veterans do not selfidentify to their non-VA providers because they don’t understand the significance of the things they’re exposed to; they have no idea of the health effects they can cause,” Patterson said. “The fact that our health care providers are not asking if we’ve ever served in the military means they don’t know how to accurately diagnose and treat us, and that’s a big problem.” The effects of toxic exposures can vary. For veterans affected by Agent Orange, an herbicide used during the Vietnam War, effects can include cancer, Parkinson’s, diabetes, and neuropathy, among many other conditions. The effects of more recent exposures, like the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, aren’t clear yet because it may be years before long-term health consequences manifest. That presents an additional challenge: When veterans seek care or compensation from the federal government for health conditions, they often have to prove that their
“The Student Veterans of America chapter at UWM had just started. Through those early years, we were able to get the Military and Veterans’ Resource Center started. Once that was built, I spent a lot of my time there,” Patterson said. Later, she got involved with UWM’s student association as the veterans advocacy senator. She’s kept up that tradition of advocacy ever since. After graduating, she took an AmeriCorps Vista position with Student Veterans of America National Headquarters for a year before attending graduate school at the University of Maryland for a master’s degree in environmental health. She began working with the Veteran’s Health Council just prior to graduating. She credits UWM for her success. “The very welcoming veteran culture set me on the path to everything I’ve done since,” she said. “I definitely credit UWM and the veteran services it provides for my growth.” By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 7
Work to uncover genetic causes of autism wins $1.7 million grant Genes play a major role in how autism begins and unfolds. But exactly what is going on inside the brain cells, or neurons, is still unknown. A biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is investigating the exact genetic characteristics underlying autism using a powerful new model: A certain gene mutation that affects the hearts and brains of children, causing a lethal disease called Timothy syndrome. Christopher Quinn, a UWM associate professor, is interested in this particular gene mutation because one of the symptoms of Timothy syndrome is autism. “Because we believe that most causes of autism involve complicated interactions between many genes, the Timothy syndrome gene mutation offers us a simplified model to begin the research because, in this case, a single gene mutation results in autism,” Quinn said. The work is supported by a $1.7 million grant Biologist Christopher Quinn is studying how autism begins and unfolds using the brain cells of a tiny worm as a model. (UWM Photo/ from the National Institutes of Mental Troye Fox) Health. Quinn’s lab uses a microscopic worm as a model to understand how gene mutations affect brain circuitry. This worm has only 302 neurons, compared to more than 100 billion neurons that are found in the human brain. Despite the simplicity of this animal, it has many similarities to humans when it comes to genes and cellular functions. Disrupting communication When the gene being studied, the CACNA1C gene, functions normally, one of its jobs is to facilitate communication. Already Quinn’s lab has found that, in the worm, the mutated gene disrupts communication by changing the circuitry of the electrical signals that neurons use to talk to each other. “Neurons do eventually connect with other neurons, but not in the right place,” he said. “There’s lots of evidence that these electrical signals are mistargeted. We just don’t know why.” As part of the study, Quinn also will investigate whether the gene mutation alters how the neuron rids itself of unnecessary or dysfunctional components – in other words, how it takes out the trash. In a normal cell, genes give instructions for waste disposal to specific parts of the cell. Quinn wants to know which part is potentially disabled by the mutation – and whether that also affects neuron communication. Lastly, he will identify interactions between the CACNA1C gene mutation and other autism-linked genes that could potentially be used to predict and diagnose autism. Scientists have identified at least 100 genes that are strongly linked to the condition. This deep cellular dive into the influence of the mutated gene is important not only to understand autism, Quinn said. What he finds may be applicable to other neuropsychiatric disorders because variants of the CACNA1C mutation have been associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. By Laura Otto, University Relations 8 • IN FOCUS • November, 2019
Geosciences grad is a “space camera operator” Darian Dixon takes pictures of Mars for a living, and it’s more than a point-and-click operation. The 2015 UWM graduate is a mission operations specialist at Malin Space Science Systems, a California company that operates some of the cameras for NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover. Dixon, who has a bachelor’s degree in geosciences, teams up with colleagues to construct and send the complicated computer commands for taking the photos. Then they must wait a day or two before images are transmitted back to Earth and processed. “It is still the basics of traditional photography,” Dixon says, “just done on another planet in a really remote way.” What more can you share about being a mission operations specialist? I would say it’s a fancy way to say “space camera operator.” That’s what I like to call it. There are two color cameras called the Mastcams, because they’re sitting on top of the mast. And so in my job, I operate those cameras, I ensure the health and safety of those cameras, I help manage the data and help deliver the data that will be taken to the public and to the scientists. What’s a typical day like? It’s coming in, getting the lay of the land and just diving in with the rest of the team and figuring out what we write in those commands. During that whole process, there’s just a ton of constant checking, constant reading over what we write, constantly making sure our numbers make sense. It’s extremely collaborative, which is welcome. How did UWM prepare you for your career? The geosciences department was great – awesome faculty. They were really willing to give students
Geosciencees graduate Darian Dixon helps operate some of the cameras on NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover. Photo courtesy of Darian Dixon.
opportunities to explore their own interests. I worked with a professor who was also the undergraduate advisor for the department at the time, Lindsay McHenry. She also studies Mars and a lot of environments here on Earth. She studies Mars minerology. She was able to use grant money for me to be on her research team at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California helping out one of her grad students. That was kind of my first big research project, and that was probably the most influential thing that got me on this path. What are your best memories at UWM? One is definitely that research trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park. That was my first time ever going to a national park. I was also a mentor at the Student Success Center to new students. Outside of academics and science, working there was my favorite experience. We did a
lot of events, a lot of stuff with new students in the summer. Twenty to 30 undergrads in a small office getting people excited about school. What’s the coolest or weirdest image that you’ve taken on Mars? I would say the sand, honestly. The chemistry of the rocks on Mars, it’s what’s called mafic, and mafic rocks are typically more iron- and magnesium-rich rocks. They’re dark in color. Essentially, sand comes from rocks and it’s just broken-down rocks. There are so many times we drive up to or past sand dunes on Mars, and there are just these huge, wide expanses of this sand. It’s this beautiful, shimmering dark sand that forms these really cool ripple features – they’re almost hypnotic. It’s one of those things that makes you go, “Wow, this is not Earth. This is a completely different place.” By Genaro C. Adams, University Relations
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 9
Psychology student helps refugees navigate new lives in Milwaukee Aiden Woolsey’s job is to teach people how to use the bus. It may seem like a small or unnecessary task, but for the refugees he’s working with, it can mean the world. Woolsey is a refugee resettlement intern working with the International Institute of Wisconsin. The organization helps refugees and immigrants transition to their new homes by offering everying from language classes to cultural orientation to, yes, lessons in how to ride public transportation. For Woolsey, a UWM student majoring in psychology and religious studies, the internship is a way to build experience while helping some of Milwaukee’s newest – and more vulnerable – residents. “I mainly work with refugees from the Congo or Burma (Myanmar),” Woolsey said. “It’s been an opportunity where I’ve been able to challenge and push myself out of my comfort zone to be an advocate for somebody else and make sure their needs are met.” Refugees to the United States are fleeing violence or persecution for their race, religion, nationality, social group, or political views in their home countries. They undergo a years-long application processes before being resettled Aiden Woolsey is a refugee resettlement intern with the International Institute of Wisconsin. Photo around the country, where they face the challenge of courtesy of Aiden Woolsey. learning to integrate into their new home. They not only have to contend with finding work, learning English, and dealing with culture shock, but they also have to navigate tasks that Americans often take for granted, like going to the grocery store or riding the bus. That’s why one of Woolsey’s main job duties is introducing refugees to the Milwaukee County Transit System. “We go stop-by-stop, pointing out street signs and stop signs. I take them to a bus stop and we go over everything,” Woolsey said. “I explain paying, or scanning a card, and the different signs and symbols. Once we’re close to our location, I teach them how to get off.” Even innocuous things can present a puzzle to someone who has spent their entire life in another country. “I’ll often point out, when I’m walking with clients, what is a fire hydrant, and what does it do. Do we touch it? Do we do anything with it?” Woolsey said. “I point out various things in the environment to assess what refugees know. It’s a way to introduce them to new things and also practice speaking English.” In addition, he lends a hand during English as a Second Language courses and cultural orientation classes, as well as organizing and filing around the office. Woolsey started his internship in May and has found many opportunities to use his UWM education in his work. “My psychology classes have played a role in how I teach a class, or how I interact with the people I work with,” he said. “My religious studies classes give me a broad sense and understanding of how religion and culture (can shape) our interactions and their experience here. It’s given me a basic perspective and understanding of where others are coming from.” Woolsey will graduate in December. He hopes to take a year off before continuing his psychology education in graduate school. Until then, you can find him on the bus, helping Milwaukee’s newest residents navigate their home. By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science 10 • IN FOCUS • November, 2019
UWM battery startup awarded a second federal commercialization grant Two physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have been awarded a grant of just over a $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop lithium-ion battery parts made from a unique, patented material called graphene monoxide. Their material dramatically boosts the energy storage capacity of li-ion batteries. Dr. Carol Hirschmugl and Dr. Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, founders of UWM-incubated startup SafeLi LLC, received a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant to further commercialize the material they created in their physics laboratories. Electric vehicle manufacturers and drivers want safer, longer-lasting batteries that charge quickly and use new, low-cost materials compatible with battery manufacturing infrastructure. SafeLi will manufacture parts of the batteries, including anodes, that meet all of these requirements. “Graphene monoxide, a novel nanomaterial that is a 2-D solid crystalline form of carbon monoxide (CO), is the first and only solid form of CO known to mankind which occurs at room temperature and exhibits exciting properties,” said Gajdardziska-Josifovska. To learn how to bring their research discovery to the market, the physicists joined the Milwaukee I-Corps program, a partnership of five area universities dedicated to turning academic knowledge into products and startups. Administered by UWM and funded by the National Science Foundation, it’s the only I-Corps site in Wisconsin. Through I-Corps, the team met business mentor Loren Peterson, an entrepreneur in UWM’s Lubar Entrepreneurship
Professors Carol Hirschmugl and Marija Gajdardziska are developing materials that will let batteries charge faster and store more energy.(UWM Photo/ Derek Rickert)
Center. The researchers subsequently were accepted into the national I-Corps program, giving them access to interview people in several leading companies interested in battery advancement.
winning third prize in the Advanced Manufacturing Division that had more than 60 entrants, and won the first prize at the SEED SPOT pitch competition, co-hosted by the Association for Women in Science.
“Our anode material, due to its properties, has the potential to be disruptive in the battery market,” said Hirschmugl. “The I-Corps experience made our startup possible in a way that we never would have expected.”
The STTR grant opportunity is unique, supporting a formal collaboration between SafeLi and UWM in Phase I and Phase II, and fulfilling STTR’s role in bridging the gap between basic science and the commercialization of resulting innovations.
The current funding is a Phase II grant that follows the successful completion of a Phase I technical and commercial proof-of-concept award. The Phase II grant will support the scaled-up production of graphene monoxide to enable the development of larger prototype batteries relevant for electric vehicles. It will also allow SafeLi to grow to 10 employees and to start pursuing angel, venture, and/or corporate capital funding. This grant brings the total federal and state funding for SafeLi to $1.5 million since the business was launched in December 2016. The company recently competed in the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Competition,
Before becoming entrepreneurs, Hirschmugl and GajdardziskaJosifovska published hundreds of research articles in peer reviewed journals and secured over $10 million in funding for their research in nanoscience and nanotechnology of oxide materials, surface-bulk interactions, materials synthesis, and electron- and IR-based analysis. Gajdardziska-Josifovska is currently dean of the UWM Graduate School. By Laura Otto, University Relations
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 11
Letters & Science facutly honored for UWM service Each year, UWM honors faculty and staff members who have made an impact on the university and its students. Several Letters & Science faculty and staff members were among those recognized for their achievements and service. The awardees are listed below. To read more about their accomplishments, visit https://bit.ly/2JHvmJw.
Gwynne Kennedy, English UWM Faculty Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
Aims McGuinness, History UWM Faculty Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
Gregory Jay, English Office of Research/ UWM Foundation Senior Faculty Research Award
Jocelyn SzczepaniakGillece, Film Studies UWM Research in the Humanities Award
Philip Chang, Jolien Creighton, Physics Physics Office of Office of Research/ Research/ UWM Foundation UWM Foundation Senior Faculty Research Award Research Award
Douglas Stafford, Milwaukee Institute for Drug Discovery UWM Academic Staff Outstanding Performance & Service Award
Chris Cantwell, History Joanne Lazirko Award for Excellence in Teaching with Technology
Lawrence Baldassaro, profesor emeritus of French, Italian, and Comparative Literature ... Ernest Spaights Plaza Honoree The Ernest Spaights Plaza is named in honor of the late Professor Ernest Spaights and is dedicated to individuals who have made significant, enduring and campuswide contributions to the growth and development of UWM. 12 • IN FOCUS • November, 2019
Laurels and Accolades Rebecca Neumann (Economics) was recognized by the Milwaukee Business Journal as a “person on the move” after she was elected as the chairperson of the Board of Directors for SecureFutures, a nonprofit that provides financial education, tools, and mentoring for teens. https://bit.ly/2oi16Ng
Vincent Larson (Atmospheric Science) received a three-year grant for $491,566 from the Office of Biological & Environmental Research in the U.S. Department of Energy for his project titled, “Turbulent processes that influence boundary-layer cloud structure.” The work aims to improve methods of cloud observation and modeling to understand how turbulent cloud processes affect boundary-layer cloud structure.
African and African Diaspora Studies professor Gladys Mitchell-Walthour (back row middle, wearing green scarf) stands with the members of the United States Network for Democracy in Brazil.
Vincent Larson
Graduate student Kenzie Allen (English) is joining the College of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada, as a lecturer in the English Department this fall. Allen is currently an R1-Advanced Opportunity Program Fellow and the founder and managing editor of the Anthropoid collective.
Gladys Mitchell-Walthour (African and African Diaspora Studies) was elected co-Director of the United States Network for Democracy in Brazil at the Network’s second national conference in mid-October at Georgetown University. Mitchell-Walthour also heads the Network’s Afro-Brazilian committee. The United States Network for Democracy in Brazil is a grassroots organization with 1,500 members. The group was founded by James Green of Brown University, who is also the other co-Director. https://www.democracybrazil.org/
https://bit.ly/2oiAnjE
Patrick Brady (Physics) is the principal investigator on a multi-institutional team that will receive a $2.8 million award from the National Science Foundation under the Harnessing the Data Revolution program entitled, “A Framework for Data Intensive Discovery in Multimessenger Astrophysics.” https://scimma.org/
Portia Cobb (Peck School of the Arts), Debra Gillispie (Mothers Against Gun Violence), Leslie J. Harris, and Erin Sahlstein Parcell (both Communication) have received two grants for The Gun Violence Project. They received a major grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. They also received a grant from Villanova University’s Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society (WFI).
Managing editor Michelle Maternowski (WUWM Radio) was chosen to participate in the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Editorial Integrity & Leadership Initiative. Participants work in small cohorts and receive one week of intensive learning and discussions and one-on-one coaching from industry leaders. Reporter Angelina Mosher Salazar (WUWM) was selected to participate in the “Power of Diverse Voices: Minority Writers Workshop,” sponsored by the Poynter Institute Nov. 7-10.
https://bit.ly/36nTF92
https://bit.ly/2C5gwrS
People in Print PhD student Luisa Koo (English). 2019. Train to Busan. In The Spaces and Places of Horror (eds. Francesco Pascuzzi and Sandra Waters). Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press. https://bit.ly/2od6bGW
Jennifer Johung (Art History). 2019. Vital Forms: Biological Art, Architecture, and the Dependencies of Life. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. https://bit.ly/2KK5nCl
College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 13
In the Media and Around the Community Ruth Jones (’15, MA History) discussed “A Century Celebration: Women’s Suffrage in South Dakota, 18681918” at the Brookings Public Library in Brookings, South Dakota in October. https://bit.ly/2mZUGCr President Trump’s base will likely view the president as having made progress on his campaign promises and in international affairs, Thomas Holbrook (Political Science) told the Sinclair Broadcast Group. (https://bit.ly/2p5ul6B) At a later date, Holbrook speculated to the group that President Trump would receive only a temporary bump in ratings after news that U.S. forces caused the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. (https://bit.ly/2C2LXDq)
Scott Dettman (’09, BA; ’13, MA Political Science) shared how he identifies talented job candidates in his role as CEO of Avenica, a career matchmaking company, in an article published on Medium.com. https://bit.ly/2OrSOh5
Gladys Mitchell-Walthour (African and African Diaspora Studies) gave an interview about the Bolsa Familia Program in Brazil, a conditional cash-transfer program that has lifted many Afro-Brazilians out of poverty. The interview appeared in Feminisms Journal (Revista Feminismos). https://bit.ly/35aR69D President Trump’s tweets regarding the U.S. Census will likely impact whether or not people choose to respond to the Census, Margo Anderson (emerita History) told Vice News. https://bit.ly/2VtXnsy Erin Winkler (African and African Diaspora Studies) presented, “How Children Learn About Race and How Adults Can Help” at the Cedarburg Public Library in Cedarburg, Wisconsin in early November. https://bit.ly/2MKnUza
Noelle Chesley (Sociology) spoke to residents at St. John’s on the Lake in September about the role of digital technology in shaping family dynamics. 14 • IN FOCUS • October, 2019
A new approach for searching for black-hole mergers differs from that of the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration, a group of astronomers using an ‘eyes-wide-open approach” to scan the universe for gravitational waves, LIGO spokesman Patrick Brady (Physics) said on Sky and Telescope. https://bit.ly/2OBsWzq Despite new research that shows people of different socioeconomic status lived in the same households on ancient European farms, there is no evidence the lower class were slaves, Bettina Arnold (Anthropology) said in a Science News article. https://bit.ly/2OEaiH4 Aneesh Aneesh (Sociology) was a featured speaker regarding his research on algocratic governance at the University of Helsinki in Finland on Sept. 23. He also led a two-day workshop on the topic September 19-20. The U.S. Supreme Court is taking on some politically divisive cases this year, including an LGBT workplace discrimination case and an abortion access case. Sara Benesh (Political Science) weighed in on the docket in U.S. News and World Report. In October, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared the state’s first-ever Indigenous Peoples Day. Kim Blaeser (English) explained the significance on WUWM. (https://bit.ly/33GEaa9) She also gave a talk about the “Worlds of Poetry” at the Twin Cities Book Festival in October alongside poets Douglas Kearney and Janaka Stucky. https://bit.ly/30Upp1J NBA teams have a home court advantage when it comes to shooting free throws and two-pointers, according to research by Paul Roebber and PhD student Austin Harris (both Atmospheric Science). InsideScience. org reported their work. (https://bit. ly/2ojgHga) Roebber also explained to Mashable.com how the jet stream was to blame for a range of weird temperatures across the U.S. in October. (https://bit.ly/2p5dmkS) He also discussed how climate change impacts the way water moves with Newsweek in an article discussing a “flash drought” affecting much of the U.S. in early October. (https://bit.ly/33awtbN)
Hamid Mohtadi (Economics) explained the effects on domestic manufacturing and purchasing caused by the Trump administration’s trade war with China in an article in the Milwaukee Independent. https://bit.ly/2pu3Sjq As newsrooms across the nations shutter and lay off staff, Denise Lockwood (’99, BA Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies and ’10 Certificate in Professional Writing), who is the owner of the Racine County Eye, detailed her hopes for the sustainable future of journalism on the publication’s website. https://bit.ly/35XG7kl Chicago celebrated the history of beer with a weekend Beer Culture Summit hosted by the Chicago Brewseum in late October. Jennifer Jordan (Sociology) was an invited speaker presenting on the history of women in brewing. https://bit.ly/2ogE0Ht
As Wisconsin lawmakers push a bill that would require schools to teach cursive, Martha Carlin Jennifer Jordan (History) told Fox 6 News that such an education would help students connect with history and family. https://bit.ly/2N8KaSe In October, the College of Letters & Science invited scientist Ken Nealson to deliver the annual Dean’s Distinguished Lecture in the Natural Sciences. WUWM previewed Nealson’s talk about the discovery of “electric bacteria.” https://bit.ly/361VpEO Sydney Chamberlin (‘15, PhD Physics) reflected on her role as a 2019 Science Fellow with the California Council on Science & Technology. The CCST recruits 10 fellows each year to advise the California state legislature on scientific and technological policies. https://bit.ly/2Pn3Ioy
Weeks ago, Rachel Buff (History) affirmed U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s description of detention centers for migrant children at the U.S. border as “concentration camps.” A review of the film “Jojo Rabbit” in The Michigan Daily highlighted Buff’s statement. https://bit.ly/34h4jMX Graduate student Beatrice Szymkowiak (English) was a featured performer at the October 12 installment of the BONK! Performance series, which showcases poets, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and other creative artists at different locations around Racine. https://bit.ly/35rPUie
Passings Peter Tessner (’76, MA Philosophy) passed away in late July in Hartford, Connecticut. Tessner was the coauthor of “Planck’s Principle,” published in 1968 in the journal Science. The article examined how scientists in Britain came to embrace Darwin’s theory of evolution. Tessner was a Milwaukee native Peter Tessner turned world traveler who lived in Greece, Spain, and China over the course of his life. He enjoyed volunteering and reading. View a full obituary at https://legcy.co/2LREuwu.
Robert (Bob) H. Fenske (‘58, BA History) passed away in Oxford, Wisconsin on Oct. 17 at the age of 87. Bob also earned a Masters degree and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He worked for the Illinois State Board of Higher Education and served as the Director of the Research Institute with American College Testing. In 1974, Dr. Fenske became a Professor of Higher Education at Arizona State University where he taught for 31 years. He was a prolific scholar, widely recognized for his research on student financial aid and other topics related to college students. View a full obituary at https://bit.ly/2N5RLCg. College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 15
Upcoming Events
November 2019
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November 5 - December 19
Art History Exhibit: Work+Water. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Emile H. Mathis Gallery (Mitchell Hall). The gallery is open Monday-Thursday and is free and open to the public. https://bit.ly/2nyKCQy
November 7
United We Read. 7:30 p.m. Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee. Readings by Sasheene Denny, Brandon Henry, Jessie Roy, and Rebecca Dunham.
November 8 December 13
Planetarium Show: Celestial Celebrations. Fridays at 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Manfred Olson Planetarium. A matinee show runs 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23. Tickets are $6 and are available online. Family-friendly. https://bit.ly/2NqRwRg
November 8-29
Science Bag – Cooked: Science in the Kitchen. Shows occur Fridays 7 p.m. Physics 137. A matinee show 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10. Shows are free and family-friendly. Paul Lyman (Physics) reveals the fun science behind cooking. https://uwm.edu/science-bag/
November 8-9
7th Lusophone and Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Keynote speakers include Javier Rivas (University of Colorado, Boulder) and Sonia Barnes (Marquette University). https://bit.ly/2WxvzUX
November 8
Neuroscience Seminar: Cerebellar Interactions with the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex during Learning. 2 p.m. Lapham N101. John Freeman, University of Iowa. Geography Colloquium: Workshop for Grant Writing. 3 p.m. AGS Library. Kari Whittenberger-Keith, UWM.
November 10
Science Bag – Cooked: Science in the Kitchen. Shows occur Fridays 7 p.m. Physics 137. A matinee show is 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10. Shows are free and familyfriendly. Paul Lyman (Physics) reveals the fun science behind cooking. https://uwm.edu/science-bag/ 16 • IN FOCUS • November, 2019
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November 11
Talking about Toilets and Japanese Culture. 3:30 p.m. Bolton B60. Sharon Dormier, University of MassachusettsAmherst, presents a history of Japanese toilets. Free and open to the public. https://bit.ly/2NslBA1
November 12
Tadoku and the Art of Reading Japanese Fluently. Noon. UWM Library E281. Sharon Dormier, University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
November 14
Geosciences Colloquium: Moving beyond traditionRethinking field-based teaching and learning in geosciences. 4 p.m. Lapham N103. Christopher Atchison, University of Cincinnati.
November 15
Harold and Florence Mayer Lecture: Flood Risks and Environmental Injustice-Case Studies from Houston and Miami. 3 p.m. AGS Library. Jayajit Chakraborty, University of Texas El Paso. Feminist Lecture Series: Engendering Global Capital-Homoerotic Triangles that Facilitate Foreign Investment in Emerging Markets. 3 p.m. Curtin 175. Kimberly Kay Hoang, University of Chicago.
November 17
Planetarium Show: Celestial Realm-Stars in Ancient Egypt. 2:30 p.m. Manfred Olson Planetarium. Travel the Nile with Jocelyn Boor (UWM Classics). Tickets are $6 and are available online. https://bit.ly/2JG5jlM
November 18
Film Screening: “Little White Lie”. 7 p.m. Union Cinema. Filmmaker Lacey Schwartz discovers a family secret and begins tracing her African heritage. A talkback with Schwartz follows the screening. Sponsored by the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies. https://uwm.edu/jewish-studies/
November 19
The Lines Between Us: Inequality and Segregation in the American Metropolis. 7 p.m. Greene Hall. Lawrence Lanahan, the author of “The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore’s Racial Divide,” will discuss his recent book. Books will be available for purchase from Boswell Book Company. https://uwm.edu/urban-studies/
November 20
Women’s & Gender Studies’ Brown Bag Lunch: Reframing Non-Consensual Intersex Surgeries as Conversion Therapies. 12:30 p.m. Curtin 535B. Cary Costello, UWM. https://bit.ly/32aCzby
November 21
Geosciences Colloquium: The Glacial Yo Yo Inferring Glacial Regime and Ice Dynamics from Past Sedimentary Records. 4 p.m. Lapham N103. Ross Powell, Northern Illinois University.
November 22
Neuroscience Seminar: Cognitive- and addictionrelated outcomes in a rat model of mild traumatic brain injury. 2 p.m. Lapham N101. Christopher Olsen, Medical College of Wisconsin.
November 23
Planetarium Show: Celestial Celebrations. 2 p.m. Manfred Olson Planetarium. Tickets are $6 and are available online. Family-friendly. https://bit.ly/2NqRwRg
Suicide Incorporated – a darkly comic play. 7 p.m. Honors House 196. The Honors Drama Club presents a darkly comic play about opportunism redemption. Directed and performed by honors students. Free and open to the public. https://uwm.edu/honors/
Alumni Accomplishments Justin Cruz (’04, MS Mathematical Sciences) was profiled by the UW-Madison Alumni Association for his decades-long career rising through the ranks of American Family Insurance. Cruz is now the company’s chief diversity officer after a long climb up the corporate ladder in a world that is sometimes more challenging to people of color. https://bit.ly/2p3cNb7 Adam Bernander (’01, BA Political Science) joined the Herrling Clark Law Firm in Appleton, Wisconsin, in the family law practice. He will focus on divorce cases, maintenance and child support claims, property division disputes, and issues involving child custody and placement. Bernander earned his law degree from Marquette University Law School. https://bit.ly/2AFyTTD
Brandon Anderegg (’17, BA Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies) joined the reporting team of the Milwaukee Business Journal to cover the publication’s startup, banking and finance, and technology beats. He was previously a reporter with the Waukesha Freeman. https://bit.ly/30ZCVkw
Brandon Anderegg
Bethany Nelson (’07, BS Physics) was profiled on UW-Madison’s news website for her unique role as the university’s export control program. She helps faculty and staff navigate U.S. export control laws and regulations. https://bit.ly/2Ntt2qH Ken Cammilleri (’13, Masters of Public Administration) is the new city administrator of Scandia, Minnesota. He was profiled in the city’s local paper earlier this month. Cammilleri has served in several public service positions in Wisconsin and most recently was the city administrator of Pine City, Minnesota. https://bit.ly/2N40gxF Imran Kurter (’09, BA History) joined Probst Law Offices in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a company that practices family law. Kurter has experience in family law, criminal law, and other areas. He previously worked with Kurter Law Offices. https://bit.ly/2C2YIOh Andrea Jackson (’09, BA Psychology) began a new position at Samarian Neuropsychology – Albany (Oregon). She also sees patients at Samaritan Family Medicine – Geary Street. Jackson completed her fellowship training at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. https://bit.ly/34o1Ksj College of Letters & Science • UW–Milwaukee • 17
