Kira McCoy spent two weeks in July bicycling the length and breadth of Madison, getting plenty of sun and exercise and a good look at a community where she may attend college. But those were the perks, not the mission. Her job was to collect data about bike racks and to help UW-Madison researchers demonstrate how geographic information systems (GIS) can be deployed in efforts to build a healthier urban environment.

Fall at the Union Terrace means crisp blue skies and crimson leaves scattered among the brightly colored tables and chairs–and, for a short while on Oct. 4–the chance to see a flash of orange bobbing in Lake Mendota as the UW-Madison’s Fourth annual Giant Pumpkin Regatta alongside the Memorial Union Terrace.

As the southern pine beetle moves through the forest boring tunnels inside the bark of trees, it brings with it both a helper and a competitor. The helper is a fungus that the insect plants inside the tunnels as food for its young. But also riding along is a tiny, hitchhiking mite, which likewise carries a fungus for feeding its own larvae.

Ted Halbach, outreach specialist and dairy judging coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy science department, has been appointed as the new director of the university”s Farm and Industry Short Course, a 17-week educational program that prepares students for careers in agriculture and related fields.

CALS will present its Honorary Recognition Award to James Behnke, Linda Bochert, Peter Giacomini, and Richard Renk. Robert Cropp will receive the Distinguished Service Award.

On the day before World Food Day, a group of agricultural leaders will gather to discuss how technology can be harnessed to meet the world’s need for food, fiber and fuel while reducing their industry’s carbon footprint.

To help advance that science – and train the next generation of fermentation experts – MillerCoors has donated a complete set of pilot-scale brewing equipment to the University of Wisconsin-Madison bacteriology department

Susan Paskewitz aims to find out how many of the mosquitoes that plague us spring through fall are of the genus that carryies the West Nile Virus

Incoming Chancellor Carolyn A.

Perhaps the only good news in the Aug. 4 announcement that emerald ash borers have been found in southeastern Wisconsin is that the invasive pest took its time getting here. In the six years since the wood-boring beetle was first spotted in Michigan, several new tools have emerged for wiping out the insect and sparing the ash trees it feasts upon.