McKellar took data collected by Wisconet and rounded data values to wholenotes on the C-major scale, then used a programming language called Python to translate these notes into a compositional score that could be understood by musicians. “It was a little bit of a learning curve because I honestly wasn’t all that familiar with sonification,” says McKellar. “Our main goal was to be able to communicate weather to the public. We knew we should include cold fronts, but we felt it was important to talk about rain, sunlight and wind as well.”

Wisconsin Energy Institute investigator Holly Gibbs is among five University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty members elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. As a geographer, she studies how and why people use land around the world and what these changes mean for the future of our planet.

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering recognized Brian Pfleger for his pioneering contribution to the metabolic engineering of microorganisms for sustainable chemical production and outstanding leadership to the biotechnology community.

Sahana Upadhya is a graduate researcher working on her PhD in Mike Wagner’s lab, where she studies how lithium ion batteries behave and degrade with the goal of optimizing use on the power grid.

Fong Liew is a graduate student in Brian Fox’s biochemistry lab, where she works in collaboration with Tim Donohue’s bacteriology lab on converting lignin, one of the main components of plant cell walls, into valuable industrial chemicals.

Mike Wagner and Allison Mahvi, both assistant professors of mechanical engineering, will serve as co-directors of UW–Madison's Solar Energy Laboratory, which has been conducting research on solar energy since 1954.

Developed by a multi-institutional team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers, a new methodology for evaluating diffusion welds offers a unique way for manufacturers, regulators and vendors to “view” the material bonds integral to the exchanger to ensure they are strong.