Earth, Environment, and Sustainability – Badger Talks – UW–Madison

Steve Ackerman

fpuleo — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 15:23:31 +0000

Steve Ackerman moved to Wisconsin in 1987, accepting a research scientist position in the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC). He joined the UW-Madison faculty in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in 1992. Professor Ackerman served as Director of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) from 1999-2019. This research organization is a collaboration between the UW-Madison, and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Wisconsin is widely recognized as the birth place of weather satellites, and CIMSS is key to Wisconsin’s current reputation.

He served as Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education at UW-Madison between 2019-2023. This position provides institutional leadership in research and graduate education across campus with responsibilities for the development and implementation of strategic initiatives that seek to maintain and enhance excellence in these areas.

Recognition awards include being elected fellow to the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in 2014 and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in 2011. He received the AMS Teaching Excellence Award in 2009 and a UW-Madison Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1999. He is also a recipient of the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal in 2010.

He, along with Professor Jonathan Martin, is one of the ‘weather guys’, who appear monthly on Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss the weather and climate. They also write a weekly blog (http://wxguys.ssec.wisc.edu/) and a column for the Wisconsin State Journal which answer people’s weather questions.

Teri Allendorf

mreinfeldt — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 16:25:51 +0000

Dr. Teri Allendorf is a conservation biologist who has worked on issues of local communities and conservation since 1994. She was a member of USAID’s Biodiversity Team, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, and has partnered with NGOs and communities on conservation issues in Nepal, Myanmar, China, and India. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in journals and taught courses at the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Future Generations University, as well as short courses in India and Namibia. She has also consulted on biodiversity and forestry projects for USAID in Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Nepal, Guatemala, and Guyana. Currently, she is the director of Community Conservation, based in Viroqua, WI.

This talk can also be offered in Nepali.

Carsyn Ames

mreinfeldt — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 20:53:47 +0000

Carsyn has served as the curator for the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey (WGNHS) since 2018. Overseeing more than 125 miles of rock core, 12,000 individual sets of water well cuttings, and over 15,000 hand samples and related documentation, Carsyn spends her time working with the collections in various capacities. Often, Carsyn can be found making efforts to better organize and preserve samples for their future use in WGNHS projects and beyond. She earned her M.S. in Geology at the University of Iowa after growing up in the upstate of South Carolina, and attending the University of South Carolina for her B.S.

Karthik Anantharaman

mreinfeldt — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 16:49:48 +0000

Dr. Karthik Anantharaman is an Associate Professor and Vilas Faculty Fellow in the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his laboratory studies microbial and viral ecology with applications for human and environmental health, such as in antimicrobial resistance and phage therapy. His interdisciplinary research program uses a combination of computational, laboratory and field-based experiments to develop and apply novel approaches to study viral diversity, ecology, and evolution in environments ranging from soil, lakes, oceans, and the human gut.

Alan Attie

fpuleo — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 19:45:56 +0000

Alan Attie’s research focuses on the genetics of diabetes and disorders affecting cholesterol metabolism. His lab takes advantage of natural variation in mouse strains to look for genes that affect these disease processes. He believes scientific thinking is important for everyone, not just scientists, so he’s happy to talk about this subject, too.

Annie Bauer

jbedermann — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:52:37 +0000

Annie Bauer is a geologist and geochronologist– she studies how the Earth became a habitable planet, from the origin and evolution of the earliest continents to the development of an oxygen-rich atmosphere. In her work, Annie uses the decay of radioactive isotopes in rocks and minerals as chronometers and tracers of major geological processes.

David Baum

jnweaver — Mon, 01 May 2017 20:47:32 +0000

David A. Baum is Professor (and former Chair) in the Botany Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he conducts research in evolutionary biology, plant genetics, and the origin and early evolution of life. He obtained an undergraduate degree in Botany at Oxford University, a Ph.D. in Population and Evolutionary Biology from Washington University, and then conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin. He served on the faculty of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, earning tenure in 2000, before returning to the University of Wisconsin in 2001. Baum has published two books and >120 research publications and been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Young Investigator Award, an NSF Career Award, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He teaches courses in introductory biology and evolution and was honored with the UW-Madison’s Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015.

Timothy Baye

jbedermann — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 16:17:00 +0000

Tim Baye is a Professor of Business Development/Energy Finance & State Energy Specialist, University of Wisconsin. His research and educational programs serve energy industry executives, professionals and policy leaders. He has over 30 years’ experience in industrial renewable energy projects and policy, in education, executive and advisory capacities.

Allison Bender

mreinfeldt — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 15:49:15 +0000

Allison Bender is the Outreach Coordinator for the Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI). She has a background in environmental education and has worked as a naturalist in state parks across Wisconsin and Minnesota. After completing a B.A. in environmental studies at St. Olaf College, she served as an AmeriCorps Member at Whitewater State Park in Minnesota’s Driftless Region. At WEI, Allison coordinates a wide variety of educational programming and works with scientists to translate their research into hands-on activities, lessons, and events for learners of all ages.

Vicki Bier

jnweaver — Mon, 01 May 2017 20:48:55 +0000

Vicki Bier is Professor Emerita in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Department of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she directed the Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis (formerly the Center for Human Performance in Complex Systems) from 1995 until 2021. She has over 30 years of experience in risk analysis for the nuclear power, chemical, petrochemical, and aerospace industries. Dr. Bier’s research focuses on applications of risk analysis and related methods to problems of security, critical infrastructure protection, climate change, and pandemic response. Dr. Bier was elected a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis in 1996, from which she received the Distinguished Achievement Award in 2007. She served as the engineering editor for Risk Analysis from 1997 through 2001, and is currently the Editor in Chief of Decision Analysis.