Faculty Kudos
- Dr. Jennifer Gutzman was named one of our Notable Leaders in STEM BizTimes Milwaukee!
- Dr. Ching-Hong received the promotion as Distinguished Professor.
- Dr. Alita Burmeister received notification of funding on August 29, 2025, for her R15 grant proposal: Evolution of pleiotropic consequences via mucoid phage resistance in Escherichia coli populations.
Faculty Publications
- The Gutzman Lab has a publication on myh9b, a critical non-muscle myosin II encoding gene that interacts with myh9a and myh10 during zebrafish development in both compensatory and redundant pathways.
- Dr. Ching-Hong’s recent articles highlighting his USDA-funded work on fire blight biocontrol. The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) recently published an article highlighting organic research in Wisconsin. Our USDA NIFA Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI)-funded project—focused on boosting the efficacy of a biocontrol bacterium to manage fire blight in organic apple and pear production—was featured. The article, “Organic Research in the Balance: What’s Happening in Wisconsin,” highlights our work and is featured on OFRF’s blog, as well as in the latest edition of Organic Broadcaster published by Marbleseed. View the following links for more information:
Employee Excellence Awardees
Biological Sciences Department is proud and excited to celebrate two awardees as they received the 2025 UWM Employee Excellence Awards ceremony on October 15th in the UWM Ballroom. Dr. Emily Latch, Professor, received the Office of Research/Senior Faculty award and Dorothy Kidwell, Undergraduate Student Coordinator, received the University Staff Outstanding Service to the Community on behalf of UWM award.
Greenhouse
During the last weekend in September, the UWM Biological Sciences Greenhouse participated in the city-wide Door’s Open Milwaukee Event, a two-day public celebration of Milwaukee’s art, architecture, culture and history. This event brought people from around the country to Milwaukee for the weekend, to explore spaces normally not open to the public.
Our event was well attended, with a 2-day total of 979 guests that visited our facility! Visitors ranged from families with young children to prospective college students, to current students, to previous UWM alumni and retired employees, our neighbors, retired community members and several employees of the previous building occupant, Columbia Hospital. Other attendees included residents outside of the Milwaukee metro area, and people from out state, coming from as far away as New York and Denver. The greenhouse has come a long way since our inaugural participation in Doors Open in 2017, when only 412 visitors came to see us!
As y
ou can imagine, the preparations for the event were varied and many. Besides the usual ‘get the plants and greenhouses looking as good as can be’, we included research posters with QR codes to faculty websites, a mini-movie studio showcasing exceptional native pollinator videos filmed and produced by Dr. Jeff Karron, and lots of microscopes and interactive displays for interested folks of all ages.
Collectively, UWM Bio Sci students and staff volunteers contributed over 160 volunteer hours to help make this event a success. In addition to supporting over 1900 students in 2024 and facilitating $6 million in cutting-edge, funded research, the Greenhouse continues to expand its public outreach, holding educational workshops and Open House events on a regular basis, allowing both the UWM community and the public an opportunity to glimpse at our unique instructional plant collection and the Department’s amazing research capabilities and achievements.