| Ben Golden

This year’s Wisconsin Energy and Sustainability Challenge (WESC) proved that University of Wisconsin–Madison students promise to be at the forefront of sustainable innovations for years to come.

Energy & Society, Education & Outreach

| Leslie Shown & Krista Eastman

Sporting a broad smile and stepping lively, Bruce Beihoff seems far from his demise ­– and yet he’s already planning his epitaph. “Once I’m in the ground,” says Beihoff, “just make sure the rock reads ‘He fought the good fight!’”

Industry

| Gary Radloff | Power Points

Electric vehicles (EV) and other next generation transportation technologies have an important role to play in transitioning the U.S. to a clean energy economy.

Transportation & Fuels, Electricity Systems, Storage, Energy & Society, Economics

| Sam Million-Weaver

University of Wisconsin–Madison chemical engineers have developed a new way to create inexpensive chemical sensors for detecting explosives, industrial pollutants or even the chemical markers of disease in a patient’s breath.

Electricity Systems, Materials

| Leslie Shown

In the childhood home of Emily Blase, when the toaster refused to toast or the blender refused to blend, a shiny new replacement did not suddenly appear on the kitchen counter. Instead, Emily’s dad would round up her and her brother, grab a toolbox, and everyone got to work.

Electricity Systems, Wind, Education & Outreach

| Will Cushman

Flooring can be made from any number of sustainable materials, making it, generally, an eco-friendly feature in homes and businesses alike.

Electricity Systems, Building Efficiency, Materials

| Mark E. Griffin

MADISON – Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a commonly used industrial yeast strain, converts plant sugars to biofuel.

Transportation & Fuels, Conversion