Researchers tested a bioreactor system to process aromatics from poplar trees with a modified strain of Novosphingobium aromaticivorans that releases a chemical known as PDC while accumulating two other products inside the cells: a natural pigment and a vitamin-like substance found in most human cells. PDC can be used to make plastics, while the other products are used in nutritional supplements, cosmetics, and animal feed.

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.

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.

This May, WiscWind students will travel to California Polytechnic State University in hopes of bringing home another victory. Watch now to learn how these students are blowing away the competition.