Using machine learning, UW–Madison scientists have identified more than 30 million acres of U.S. farmland abandoned between 1986 and 2018, creating a field-level map of lands that could be used to mitigate climate change.

The award, established in 2019, honors those who demonstrate a spirit of generosity in sharing science with the public. Winners may coordinate outreach programming, dedicate time to support services, or share expertise with public audiences.

Enright, a doctoral candidate in genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was awarded the 2024 Jennifer L. Reed Bioenergy Science Award, given annually to recognize early-career women with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center for outstanding research and leadership. 

Winds on the Great Lakes could provide more than enough clean energy to meet the needs of the eight bordering states, yet logistical, social, and environmental challenges have stymied development of offshore wind turbines. 

Direct air capture with carbon storage (DACCS) could help remove nearly five gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) by midcentury if the emerging technology, which uses chemicals to capture the heat-trapping gas directly from the air, develops at a rate similar to other technologies that grew quickly in the past.

Madeline Hayes is a fifth-year graduate student in the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program (MDTP) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a member of the Venturelli Lab, where she studies microbial communities and how humans can leverage those systems to turn leftover plant materials into valuable chemicals. 

In a landmark study based on one of the most comprehensive genomic datasets ever assembled, a team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Vanderbilt University offer a possible answer to one of the oldest questions about evolution: why some species are generalists and others