Being a Wisconsin native and as a 'walk-on' to the University of Wisconsin, it was a privilege to graduate in pharmacy and play Big Ten basketball in the 1950s. Our contribution to University Athletics, the Athletic Training Education Program and the sports medicine facilities is very important to me.

Curt Mueller (’57 BS Pharm)

Bascom Hill Society Showcase Series

The Bascom Hill Society Showcase Series offers dining, conversation and stimulating presentations by UW faculty and staff. Held throughout the year, the showcase series offers interesting, entertaining and even controversial topics to members in an intimate and friendly setting.

Summaries of upcoming and past presentation can be found below. Audio recordings of many of the recent presentations are also available for download.


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Why Are We So Touchy?

	Speaker: Joann Peck
	Date: November 10, 2009
	Location: Tripp Commons, Memorial Union
	Description: Just in time for winter gift-giving holidays, we welcome Professor Joann Peck whose research specialty is how we literally handle our purchases. Peck has distinguished herself in the field of haptics, or the study of touch, and is a valued advisor to retailers and savvy consumers everywhere. She earned her MBA from the Wisconsin School of Business in 1993 and joined the faculty 1999. Peck has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Retailing and the Journal of Applied Psychology.
	Downloads:

The Amazing Plastic Brain and How It Grew a Business

	Speakers: Kurt Kaczmarek, Mitchell Tyler and Yuri Danilov
	Date:July 28 , 2009
	Location: UW Arboretum
	Description: UW-Madison professor Paul Bach-y-Rita was a physician, scientist and lover of wild ideas. Inspired by his father’s struggles after a stroke, Bach-y-Rita explored the concept of the “plastic” brain, or the idea that the brain can reorganize its functions. For example, could a blind person learn to interpret visual images through the sense of touch? Could someone regain a sense of balance using the tongue, years after injury or disease? The TCNL scientists talk about the trials and triumphs of bringing a new technology and new company to life as well as exciting possibilities for the future. What our brains currently do for us is amazing. Can we dare to imagine what they are capable of doing if we give them the tools?
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (1:04, 58.5 MB)

American English Dialects are Alive and Well

	Speaker: Joan Houston Hall
	Date:June 23 , 2009
	Location: UW Arboretum
	Description: If you are nebby about words and language, you’ll have a larruping good time as Joan Houston Hall talks about the colorful language that unites and sometimes confuses Americans. Despite dire predictions that media and mobility are “homogenizing” American English, there is plenty of evidence that our language retains its regional richness. Hall, DARE’s chief editor since 2000, describes how this project has proved valuable to librarians, teachers and researchers—the expected audiences—but also to forensic linguists, dialect coaches, physicians and psychiatrists and readers who simply delight in the variety, wit and wisdom of our language.
	Downloads:

House Prices, the Credit Crunch and the Macroeconomy

	Speaker: Morris Davis
	Date: March 17, 2009
	Location: Monona Terrace
	Description: Prior to joining the Wisconsin School of Business in 2006, Davis was an economist for the Federal Reserve Board and advisor to Chairman Alan Greenspan on land price issues. He has been quoted in Reuters News and other highly respected financial publications and he has testified before the Senate finance committee regarding house prices. He discusses “overvalued” housing, the decline in house prices and how it led to the collapse of some of this country’s largest financial intermediaries, as well as the impact this has all had on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
	Downloads:

Forgiveness: The Missing Piece of the Peace Puzzle

	Speaker: Robert Enright
	Date: February 24, 2009
	Location: Monona Terrace
	Description: Professor Enright is one of the world’s authorities on forgiveness. He has studied forgiveness for 24 years and examined how cultivating foregiveness, even in environments steeped in violence, poverty, depression and anger, can be a healing, strengthening force. He has received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the Wisconsin Student Association Teaching Award. Professor Enright focuses on his forgiveness education work with children in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (1:01, 56.3 MB) Handout PDF (344 Kb)

After the Contests are Over: Post-Election Analysis and Discussion

	Speakers: Barry Burden and John Coleman
	Date: November 18, 2008
	Location: Memorial Union
	Description: John Coleman is chair of the University’s Department of Political Science, where his teaching and research focus is on political parties, the politics of economic policy and changes in American politics across time. Barry Burden is associate chair of the department and his areas of specialization include electoral politics and representation. Together, Professors Burden and Coleman analyze the November election and offer their perspectives on the 2008 election cycle.
	Downloads:

The Art of Cell Division: How Science and Art Convey the Mysteries of our Biology

	Speaker: Ahna Skop
	Date: July 22, 2008
	Location: UW Arboretum
	Description: Ahna Skop is known for her innovative research into the molecular mechanisms involved in cell division and for identifying links between the ways in which animal and plant cells divide. She encourages people to see the beauty in biology and has prepared a display of enlarged scientific images for the entry of her building on campus. Her research is visual—she captures live, florescent images of dividing cells, whose dynamic, colorful lines catch her artistic eye. Join us as Professor Skop shares the secrets of cell division, and helps us understand the mysteries of cytokinesis and how her research may one day improve treatments for diseases like cancer.
	Downloads:

2020: A Vision for Personalized Cardiovascular Medicine

	Speakers: Amish N. Raval, MD and Matthew Wolff, MD
	Date: June 17, 2008
	Location: UW Arboretum
	Description: Professors Raval and Wolff will discuss the latest approaches to prevention and treatment of diseases of the heart and blood vessels. Through changes in lifestyle and aggressive preventive measures, we are now seeing dramatic reductions in the number of heart attacks each year. Despite the encouraging numbers, researchers know that some individuals do not respond optimally to these interventions and still others are in need of new approaches to treatment of their disease. Raval and Wolff will discuss the individual nature of cardiovascular diseases and focus on new strategies that are being developed at the UW to optimize and personalize the prevention and treatment of disease.
	Downloads:

Beyond the Embryo—Wisconsin and the Future of Stem Cell Research

	Speaker: R. Alta Charo
	Date: March 11, 2008
	Location: Pyle Center
	Description: Can stem cell research proceed without cloning? Yes and no, says Alta Charo, JD, UW-Madison professor of law and medical ethics. Scientific research into human stem cells may yield cures and therapies for humanity’s most intractable diseases. Clinical outcomes of stem cell therapy, called regenerative medicine, are touted as the future of biomedicine. But new science often provokes a redefinition of ethical, societal and legal standards. Stem cells have reignited the debate about the moral status of the embryo. How, as a society, do we balance our responsibilities to the unborn and the sick? Professor Charo addresses this and other important questions.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (1:05:34, 60.0 MB)

Superpower China

	Speaker: Edward Friedman
	Date: February 12, 2008
	Location: Pyle Center
	Description: Edward Friedman who holds the Hawkins Chair of Political Science, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an expert on Chinese politics. He has written several books on the subject including “Revolution, Resistance and Reform in Village China” and “What If China Doesn’t Democratize?” Friedman answers questions about one of the most dynamic and contested regions of the world. How will the rise of China change the world? How do the Chinese people imagine the answer? How do international analysts see it? How do neighboring governments see the impact of China’s rise on the world stage? In projecting possible futures, Professor Friedman discusses how most view the global impact of an economically dynamic, globally involved, authoritarian China as a world power.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (1:01:05, 55.9 MB)

Henry Kissinger and the American Century

	Speaker: Jeremi Suri
	Date: November 6, 2007
	Location: Memorial Union
	Description: What made Henry Kissinger the kind of diplomat he was? What experiences and influences shaped his worldview and provided the framework for his approach to international relations? Professor Suri offers a thought-provoking, interpretive study of one of the most influential and controversial political figures of the 20th century. He is author of the prize-winning book, “Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Detente” and the recently published “Henry Kissinger and the American Century.” He also is the author of numerous scholarly articles published in International Security, Diplomatic History, Reviews in American History, Cold War History, the Journal of Cold War Studies and other journals. Professor Suri's research focuses on the cross-national connections between domestic social change and foreign policy-making. He is particularly interested in the role of ideas and institutions in shaping international manifestations of power and influence.
	Downloads: At speaker's request, MP3 recording not posted for download.

Vitamin D: The Wonder Drug of Tomorrow

	Speaker: Hector Deluca
	Date: August 14, 2007
	Location: UW Arboretum
	Description: Learn how just 15 minutes of sunlight a day can change your life. Learn too how it may reduce the risk of getting various cancers, the flu, diabetes, heart disease and autoimmune diseases. Hector DeLuca is the Harry Steenbock Research Professor in the UW-Madison Department of Biochemistry and an internationally recognized pioneer in vitamin D research. He is putting vitamin D in the forefront of the state of Wisconsin’s biotech sector, churning out papers and patents to combat a long list of illnesses. Professor DeLuca is a founder of Deltanoid Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is developing drugs based on vitamin D compounds to treat osteoporosis and other ailments.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (1:02:10, 56.9 MB) Presentation Slides (6.3 MB)

The Educational Power of Computer Games

	Speaker: David Williamson Shaffer
	Date: July 10, 2007
	Location: UW Arboretum
	Description: Don’t take away your child’s or grandchild’s video or computer games just yet. They are actually learning how to be successful in tomorrow’s work force, says Professor David Shaffer. Education must move beyond its “skill and drill” curriculum and embrace creative learning technologies, such as computer and video games, to prepare young people for the world of global competition, he says. Shaffer is exploring the educational potential of games and technology as alternative ways to engage children. At UW-Madison, Shaffer joined with several faculty colleagues, representing three School of Education departments, to form the Games and Professional Practice Simulations Group. This group is part of the Advanced Digital Learning Initiative to study and build learning systems that use digital game technologies to immerse students in worlds where they use the skills and values of professionals to solve complex problems.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (0:59:10, 54.1 MB)

Preventing Eye Disease Through Research

	Speaker: Dr. Daniel M. Albert
	Date: April 17, 2007
	Location: Fluno Center
	Description: Most of us know someone who has experienced blindness or visual impairment. And the number of people with age-related eye diseases such as macular degeneration is rising as our life expectancy increases. Dr. Albert discusses common vision problems in the context of known science and future treatment possibilities. His research focuses on ocular tumors, specifically melanoma and retinoblastoma. Dr. Albert’s work with retinoblastoma utilizes transgenic mouse models of the tumor to investigate the molecular biology of the disease and whether vitamin D analogs produce tumor regression in these animal models. He also studies melanoma in a transgenic mouse model. The UW Eye Research Institute is unique among vision research centers in its philosophy of bringing together scientists and scholars from widely different disciplines—ranging from engineering to art to biochemistry—to stimulate fresh collaborative approaches to curing blindness and preventing vision loss.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (0:57:40, 52.7 MB)

Building a Staff, Building a Team, Building a Season

	Speaker: Bret Bielema
	Date: March 20, 2007
	Location: Fluno Center
	Description: Bret Bielema is the third rookie head football coach in NCAA Division I history to guide his team to 12 wins. He holds the record for most wins by a first-year coach at Wisconsin. Hear how Coach Bielema built his staff and led the Badgers to a Capital One Bowl win. Bielema played college football at the University of Iowa from 1989-92. He went on to play for the Milwaukee Mustangs, a team in the Arena Football League. An assistant coach at the University of Iowa from 1993-2001, he served as the co-defensive coordinator for Kansas State University from 2002-03 before taking the same position at the University of Wisconsin in 2004. He was named head coach in 2006 replacing Barry Alvarez.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (1:03:25, 58.0 MB)

Election Wrap-Up- 2006

	Speakers:David Canon and Virginia Sapiro
	Date: November 14, 2006
	Location: Memorial Union
	Description: Join political science Professor David Canon and Professor Virginia Sapiro as they discuss the 10 most interesting things about the 2006 election, then answer the audience's political questions. Professor Canon is an expert in American political institutions, especially Congress, and in race, representation and congressional reform. He also is a co-author of the award-winning 1999 book ""Race, Redistricting and Representation."" Professor Sapiro’s teaching and research interests include political behavior and political psychology, gender politics, and political and feminist theory. She is the author of The Political Integration of Women: Roles, Socialization and Politics (1983), Women in American Society (3rd edition 2003) and A Vindication of Political Virtue: The Political Theory of Mary Wollstonecraft among many other books and articles.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (0:58:04, 53.1 MB)

Transforming the Mind by Changing Your Brain

	Speaker: Richard Davidson
	Date: August 22, 2006
	Location: Monona Terrace
	Description: World-renowned UW psychology professor Richard Davidson is searching for the source of happiness, and he has used Buddhist monks in his lab as a model group. Learn what he has discovered about the secrets and brain science of happiness. Professor Davidson was named in Time magazine’s “Time 100, The People Who Shape Our World.” He earned his PhD in 1976 from Harvard University, is a Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and director of both the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience.
	Downloads: MP3 Recording (0:55:43, 51.0 MB)


For More Information
Timeka Rumph Stewardship Coordinator 608-262-3020 Susan Teskey Director of Stewardship 608-262-4296