2023 CALS Year in Review
The end of the year is a great time to look back and reflect on the milestones and accomplishments of the CALS community. Here are some of the stories that made 2023 a memorable year for the college.
A grand celebration for Babcock Hall’s remodeled dairy plant and new CDR addition
In April, CALS celebrated the completion of a major construction project for Babcock Hall, a project that involved the full renovation of the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant as well as a new, three-story addition for the Center for Dairy Research. The festivities included a grand opening celebration to recognize donors to the project, as well as a public open house (pictured above) to introduce campus and community members to the new and improved facilities. The dairy plant’s renovation was the first major upgrade to the plant since it was built in 1951. The CDR addition gave the center the space and equipment needed to support — and expand — its work helping dairy processors.
In August at the Marshfield Agricultural Research Station, Senator Tammy Baldwin spoke about four projects that aim to support rural communities and tribal nations in Wisconsin that were selected to receive funding through the Wisconsin Rural Partnership initiative at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The initiative, announced in December 2022, was established with $9.3 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and involves numerous CALS partners including Dean Glenda Gillaspy (PI); Tessa Conroy, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics; Chris Kucharik, Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences; and Erin Silva, Department of Plant Pathology.
Animal and veterinary biosciences major launches
The Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences launched the animal and veterinary biosciences major for the fall 2023 semester. Students flocked to it for its flexibility and variety of coursework. The major is for students who care about animals’ health, well-being, and their relationships to humans and the environment — from the smallest companion and service animals to the largest livestock. Students can tailor their studies to prepare themselves for veterinary school or a multitude of other animal-related careers.
One Civet Coffee, Please — Hold the Poop
Thailand produces some of the most expensive coffee in the world, and the premium price stems from its unique origins: Between harvest and roasting, its beans pass through the guts of wild, catlike mammals called civets. Due to digestive processes in the civet’s gut, this coffee is lower in acid and has a chocolatey caramel flavor, with hints of musk. But thanks to an international collaboration between Thai researchers and scientists in the CALS Department of Bacteriology, there’s a new bioengineered version of civet coffee that takes the civet out of the process.
CALS helps celebrate UW–Madison’s 175th anniversary
In summer, UW–Madison launched a year-long celebration of the university’s 175th anniversary. CALS contributed to the important occasion, including highlighting aspects of the college’s rich history in Grow magazine, in news releases about our ARS field days, and at various college events. Babcock Hall Dairy Plant created two tasty products for the festivities: “Cranniverscherry” cheese as well as “175 S’More Years” ice cream, which Chancellor Mnookin announced at a campus community picnic. Mnookin also visited CALS this fall, attending an undergraduate poster session, listening to graduate student flash talks, and enjoyed lunch with faculty members.
Grow feature: Gather and Connect. Experience and Serve. Learn and Grow.
The fall 2023 issue of Grow highlighted F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture (now The People’s Farm), Food Science Club, Science Communication Club, Badger Crops Club and CALS Health and Research Society, which are just a handful of the nearly 40 student organizations at CALS that help undergraduates socialize and gain valuable professional skills while benefiting the communities around them.
Judith Simcox and her lab aim to discover how different markers of metabolic disease perform for different populations throughout the world, including Black populations, Native American populations, people with type 1 diabetes, and people with disabilities. Her curiosity about the field grew from personal experience growing up in a rural town next to the Crow Reservation in Montana. Simcox, an assistant professor of biochemistry, cultivates a diverse community of researchers who engage with members of the broader community around them. She aims to diversify the pool of researchers, the questions they’re asking and the answers they’re finding to address health care disparities.
The spring issue of Grow told the story of a team from CALS and the UW–Madison Division of Extension cultivating communities to contend with farm stress. John Shutske, a professor and extension specialist in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, and Joy Kirkpatrick, a farm succession outreach specialist with UW–Madison Extension, adapted the WeCOPE program for the agricultural community.
Can farms pull carbon from sky to soil?
The summer issue of Grow explored the work CALS agronomists are doing in partnership with farmers on a 10-year study, to find out if improved agricultural practices can really sequester carbon and help fight climate change. Gregg Sanford and Randy Jackson of the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences led a rapid response to get baseline sampling for the SOCnet collaboration, in search of a better understanding of soil organic carbon.
Marshfield ARS to get new headquarters building
At the very beginning of the year, there was great news for Marshfield Agricultural Research Station. The station received $6M in funding through federal appropriations legislation to build a headquarters facility at the north station. In summer, Senator Tammy Baldwin visited the station to celebrate this good news – and also announce funding for the Wisconsin Rural Partnership institute (mentioned above).
Bacteria may protect against heart disease
New research by bacteriology professor Federico Rey and collaborators around the world have found microbes in the guts of humans and mice may help control the buildup of plaque in arteries, the leading cause of cardiovascular disease, by gobbling up a group of inflammatory chemicals before they can circulate in the body. This work explores a new way in which gut microbes may influence our health and a potential avenue to treat gout or prevent heart disease.
Popular on social media: CDR hires cheese tasters
In June, the Center for Dairy Research posted a job description for a “descriptive sensory panelist” to taste cheeses, pizzas and other dairy products for product development and research. After M. Molly Backes shared the job description on X, formerly known as Twitter, the posting went viral on social media and also received mainstream media coverage on major national outlets such as CNN and The Today Show. Over 250 people applied, but only 5 ended up joining CDR’s team of expert taste tasters.
CALS personnel share their expertise with the media
This year, CALS experts were quoted in more than 6,000 media stories in publications from 60+ countries. All told, stories mentioning CALS experts reached an estimated 10.2 billion audience members, as reported by the media monitoring service Meltwater.
A small sample of stories on popular topics that reached the largest audiences include David Drake commenting on the rare sighting of a roseate spoonbill in Wisconsin in U.S. News & World Report, Heather White setting the record straight about cannulas in USA Today, and Bret Payseur explaining the evolutionary science related to the movie Godzilla vs. Kong in msn.com.
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