The dual mission of the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy
is to promote literacy in science, mathematics and technology
among the general public and to attract future generations
to careers in research, teaching and public service.
At the March 5, 2010 UW-Madison Chemistry Department Colloquium, Prof. Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, the director of the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy (WISL), encouraged all UW-Madison chemistry Ph.D. candidates to include a chapter in their Ph.D. thesis communicating their research to non-specialists. The goal is to explain the candidate’s scholarly research and its significance to a wider audience that includes family members, friends, civic groups, newspaper reporters, program officers at appropriate funding agencies, state legislators, and members of the U.S. Congress.
Ten Ph.D. degree recipients have successfully completed their theses and included such a chapter, less than a year after the program was first announced; each was awarded $500.
WISL encourages the inclusion of such chapters in all Ph.D. theses everywhere through the cooperation of Ph.D. candidates and their mentors. WISL is now seeking funding for additional awards for UW-Madison chemistry Ph.D. candidates.
For the Fall 2011 semester, a weekly seminar on Communicating Chemistry to the General Public has been developed by Prof. Shakhashiri and Ron Seely, award-winning science journalist and longtime UW-Madison lecturer.
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“Investigation of Proton Exchange Reactions between Acidic Gases |
Benjamin P. Bratton, Ph.D. 2011 "Dynamics of RNA Polymerase and DNA Foci in Live Escherichia coli" |
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"Formaldehyde as a Probe of Rural Volatile Organic Compound Oxidation" |
Melissa M. Galloway, Ph.D. 2011 "Mechanisms of VOC Oxidation and Aerosol Formation: |
“Measurements and Modeling of Glyoxal: Insights into Rural Photochemistry |
Suzanne Elizabeth Kulevich, Ph.D. 2010 “Hydrophobic Modification of Peptides to Enhance |
Elizabeth C. Landis, Ph.D. 2010 “Molecular Monolayers for Attaching Electroactive Molecules |
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“New Diruthenium Nitrido Compounds |
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“Interrupting Bacterial Conversations: Designing Chemicals to Control |
Jessica Lynn Menke, Ph.D. 2010 “Computational and Matrix-Isolation Spectroscopy Studies of Cyanocyclobutadienes” |
Beth M. Moscato-Goodpaster, Ph.D. 2010 “Information-Rich Investigations into Catalytic Olefin Polymerization: |
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"Spectroscopy and vibrational dynamics of Methoxy and D-Methoxy radicals" |
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"Mechanistic Investigations on Hsp70 Chaperone-Mediated Protein Folding and Photo-CIDNP Enhancements in Heteronuclear Correlation NMR Spectroscopy" |
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“Synthetic and Mechanistic Studies of Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric |
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"Development of a ß-Peptide Retroaldolase and Efforts |