Volume 16, Number 8
- New UWM Star celebrates Panther pride and astronomy researchMove over, Pounce. UW-Milwaukee just adopted a new symbol of campus pride, naming a recently discovered binary star the UWM Star and hosting a talk by the researcher who first identified it. Known as Gaia …
- UWM Italian Program welcomes Italian Ambassador to campusThe UWM Italian Program welcomed two distinguished guests to campus in September. Marco Peronaci, the Italian Ambassador to the United States, and Mario Bartoli, the Consul General at the Italian Consulate in Chicago, visited faculty, …
- Three STEM students pursued their passions at UWM by always dreaming biggerThese stories are part of the "Always Dream Bigger" series, written to celebrate the inauguration of UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Thomas Gibson. Gibson’s own path in life exceeded his earliest expectations, and he encourages students to seek …
- Biology Department opens Mini Museum Lapham Hall(way)Any student who has ever taken classes in Lapham Hall will recall – perhaps with a shudder – the hallway off the main entrance lined with display cases crowded with old taxidermy animals. “This was …
- UWM English prof tells the story of Milwaukee’s forgotten pilot, with student helpPractically everyone has heard of Charles Lindbergh and his famous flight across the Atlantic, but practically no one has heard of Milwaukee’s own Lester Maitland, who was the first person to fly an airplane from …
- UWM Researchers honored with Governor’s Archive AwardAfter years of hard work, dedicated research, building partnerships, community meetings, and writing reports, two UWM researchers were recognized for their incredible efforts by the Wisconsin Governor’s office. Geography Professor Anne Bonds and Associate Professor …
- WUWM 89.7 celebrates the legacy of Bob ReitmanWUWM 89.7 announced that the station will host 12th House in Twilight, an event to celebrate the life and legacy of Milwaukee radio legend, Bob Reitman. The event will be held at The Pabst Theater …
- How UW-Milwaukee’s Pre-Pharmacy Program Helped Ireoluwa Fast-Track His CareerHow can you become a pharmacist faster while saving time and money? Ireoluwa Adams earned his Bachelor of Science in biological sciences on the pre-pharmacy track from UW-Milwaukee in May. Through UW-Milwaukee's 3+3 Pre-Pharmacy Program, …
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Alumni Accomplishments
Kenira Thompson García (’98, MS Psychology; ’01, PhD Psychology) was appointed president of Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico in September. Thompson García has been with the university for over two decades serving in various capacities, including as president of Ponce Research Institute. She currently holds faculty appointments in PHSU’s departments of Basic Sciences, Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology.
Gladys Manzanet (‘95, BA Journalism, Advertising, & Media Studies) was named as one of Madison 365’s 23 Most Influential Latino Leaders for 2026. Manzanet is the senior director of belonging and impact at Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee, and she has also been recognized as a Milwaukee Business Journal Woman of Influence.
William Tarman-Ramcheck (‘78, MA Sociology; ‘82, PhD Urban Studies) is the co-author of the new book, Everyday Evolution: Your Daily Choices Create BIG Changes, which was released in September through Barnes and Noble Press. Everyday Evolution is a small workbook covering six areas of everyone’s daily choices in consumption, banking, investing, using power in the home, selecting where to work, and deciding what to pay attention to to help readers begin a daily journey to improve their lives. The book complements the authors’ 2025 book, The EcoSociology Action Guide. More information about both books is on the EcoSociology website Ecosociology Books – Change the World, One Choice at a Time.
Kathy Bauernfeind (’93, BA Political Science) published Don’t Give In! (You’re Not Just Getting Old) with Koehler Books, an engaging and humorful account of how an average 55-year-old woman took back her health. The book is available for purchase on Amazon.
Laurels & Accolades
Assistant Professor Jeffrey Lopez-Rojas (Psychological & Brain Sciences) has been awarded a 3-year grant from the Whitehall Foundation for his project, “Social Memory Mechanisms in Entorhinal Cortex.”
Distinguished Professor Stuart Moulthrop (English) has won the 2026 Open Access Book Prize from the American Council of Learned Societies, as co-author of Twining: Critical and Creative Approaches to Hypertext Narratives, published by Amherst College Press. The Press has won the Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award for two of its titles. The awards recognize innovation and excellence in scholarly publishing for open access distribution. They will be presented at the New York Public Library on Nov. 4. A collaboration between Moulthrop and Anastasia Salter of the University of Central Florida, Twining was the winner in the Literary/Media Studies category. It is based on Twine, the free software tool created by Chris Klimas, which supports the making of multi-branching stories, textual games, and other kinds of writing. The book combines critical reflection on the work of Twine creators with practical explorations of the software’s affordances. Twining has had more than 10,000 downloads since its release in 2021.
Distinguished Professor Karyn Frick (Psychological & Brain Sciences) is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Estrigenix Therapeutics, which has recently entered into a licensing agreement with the UWM Research Foundation and raised $1 million for a Series Seed Financing round. The financing provides the resources to advance its proprietary selective estrogen receptor-beta (ERβ) platform through translational preclinical development.
Assistant Professor Srishti Meera Sardana (Psychological & Brain Sciences) was named a 2026–27 Laura Bassi Scholar and appointed to the Advisory Board of Bassi Foundation Press. Selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants, Sardana received the award in support of her scholarship advancing new theoretical directions in global mental health and psychotherapy. The Laura Bassi Scholarship recognizes early-career scholars pursuing innovative and interdisciplinary research that challenges established disciplinary boundaries.
Professor Emerita Carol Hirschmugl (Physics) is the co-founder of COnovate, a startup that produces a novel eCOphite material, a more sustainable alternative to graphite-based anodes in lithium ion batteries. In September, COnovate announced that the company has received a two-year, $1.25 million federal contract to scale up production of its material, which reduces American dependence on foreign graphite. Lithium ion batteries are used everywhere from electric car batteries to cell phones.
Graduate student Ryan Krakowiak (Geosciences) was selected to participate in the ExxonMobil Subsurface Fluid Flow Short Course, a national, highly-competitive training program with ExxonMobil. The company also covered all of Krakowiak’s expenses for the two-day course that will take place in Arizona in mid-October. Krakowiak is studying under Associate Professor Charlie Paradis (Geosciences).
In the Media and around the Community
The Garage, a bar on Brady Street in Milwaukee, announced on a ban on rap music in August. WTMJ Radio consulted Professor Derrick Harriell (English), who recently co-authored rapper 2 Chainz’s autobiography, about the development.
We all know that UWM is a star university, and now the university has a star named after it. CBS 58 News, WISN 12 News, and Urban Milwaukee reported the news with comments from Professor David Kaplan (Physics & Astronomy) and Professor Dawn Erb (Physics & Astronomy).
Professor Jeffrey Sommers (African & African Diaspora Studies and Global Studies program) published this commentary on Federal job cuts and consumer safety in The Cap Times in September. The article was republished by the international outlet CounterPunch. Sommers also gave an invited presentation to the Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, on the economic dimensions of current U.S. foreign policy on Sept. 8.
Russians headed to the polls for national elections in September, but their choices were stifled by an authoritarian government, Professor Ora John Reuter (Political Science) told the publication Europe Says.
Professor Rebecca Neumann (Economics) remarked on a new billboard advertising campaign humorously targeting tariffs on WISN 12 News. She also spoke about the potential impact of tariffs on the Harley Davidson Company on CBS 58 News.
Vinyl records and other physical media are making a comeback. Senior Teaching Faculty Marc Tasman (Digital Arts & Culture) talked about the reasons why on WUWM Radio.
Does estrogen protect against dementia? Distinguished Professor Karyn Frick (Psychological & Brain Sciences) helped address that question in an article published by Live Science.
Spooky season is upon us. Mark the occasion by listening to Senior Teaching Faculty Drago Momcilovic (Global Studies and Comparative Literature) talk about zombies in pop culture on WUWM Radio’s Lake Effect show.
Professor Anne Bonds (Geography) and Associate Professor Derek Handley (English) presented results of their project, “Mapping Racism and Resistance,” to the Milwaukee community at a public talk in September.
Spurred on by his father’s passing from an antibiotic-resistant disease, Professor Ching-Hong Yang (Biological Sciences) has built a career – and a new startup – by researching methods to treat crop-diseases that are resistant to traditional antibiotics. His research was featured by AUTM.
Catch up with the programming at the UWM Planetarium by listening to Director Jean Creighton (Planetarium) discuss upcoming events on WUWM Radio.
Associate Professor Kay Wells (Art History) will speak about Colonial Revival design at the Newport Symposium in Newport, Rhode Island in November.
Why do leaves change color in the fall? Professor Erica Young (Biological Sciences) explained the reason on WUWM Radio’s Lake Effect show.
Graduate student Benjamin Neumann (History) provided some historical background for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an article detailing Milwaukee’s forgotten Indian boarding school.
Professor Elana Levine (English) was interviewed in a Forbes article titled, “Meet The Family That Turned Soap Operas into A $2 Billion Fortune.” The article also drew on Levine’s book, Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History.
People in Print
Assistant Professor Srishti Meera Sardana (Psychological & Brain Sciences), Sydney Timmer-Murillo, Professor Christine Larson (Psychological & Brain Sciences), and Terri A. deRoon-Cassini. 2026. Integrating Evidence-Based Health Approaches in U.S. Healthcare Settings: Addressing the Syndemics of Poverty, Health, and Violence. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 17.
Distinguished Professor Uk Heo (Political Science) and Associate Professor Sooho Song (World Languages and Cultures). 2026. South Korea’s Soft Power: The Korean Wave (Cambridge University Press).
Kenneth Fjell, Distinguished Professor John Heywood (Economics), and Debashis Pal. 2026. Common ownership with a location leader. Economics Letters, 68(113214).
Lecturer Michael Robert Gonzales (History). 2026. A Spirit of Revolt: Conrado Alvillar and the Rank-and-File Wobblies of the 1927-1928 Colorado Coal Strike. AK Press.
Ashley R. Smith (‘17, PhD Biological Sciences), researcher Jian Huang (Biological Sciences), graduate student Uyiosasere D. Aigbe (Biological Sciences), researcher Xia Wan (Biological Sciences), Junping Chen, Zhanguo Xin, and Professor Dazhong Zhao (Biological Sciences). 2026. The SbTDR gene is required for anther development and male fertility in Sorghum bicolor. Plant Reproduction, 39(3-4): 12.
Professor Dazhong Zhao (Biological Sciences), Weimin Ni, and Hong Ma. 2026. Reproductive meristems and regulatory genes. In Regulation of Plant Development (eds. Chang, F., Wang, Y. and Ma, H.). Springer: 203-239.
Graduate student Kennedi Jones (Art History). 2026. Framing the Shot: Painting, Cinema, and British Cultural Memory of the First World War. Film Matters, 17(3).
Passings
Professor Lawrence A. “Larry” Baldassaro passed away on Sept. 8, 2026. Larry was a professor of Italian at UWM from 1972 to 2009, a Dante scholar, the director of the Honors Program, a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award, and the author of many books on Italian Americans and baseball. He was 83.
The grandson of Italian immigrants, Larry earned his PhD in Italian at Indiana University in 1972 and joined UWM that same year. He played a vital role across several programs in the next 37 years, most notably in Italian and the Honors Program, before retiring in 2009. As Director of the Honors Program (and later Honors College), he was an important advocate for expanding Honors offerings, bringing the Honors College into contact with a much wider array of departments across campus. He received the Ernest Spaights Plaza Award in 2019 in recognition of his significant contributions to UWM.
He became a contributing writer to the Milwaukee Brewers Game Day magazine in 1990, and was well-known to many in the Brewers’ organization. One could often see him at County Stadium, and later at Miller Park, exchanging stories with other baseball writers in the press room. In addition to his scholarship on Dante, he wrote several baseball-related books, including Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in Baseball; Baseball Italian Style: Great Stories Told by Italian American Major Leaguers from Crosetti to Piazza; and Tony Lazzeri: Yankees Legend and Baseball Pioneer. He also co-edited The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity, and edited Ted Williams: Reflections on a Splendid Life.
Larry also maintained close relationships with many Milwaukee-area Italian institutions and businesses, including the Italian Community Center and Carini’s La Conca D’Oro, and he was a great promoter of events like Festa Italiana.
His obituary contains more information about memorial donations.
Wayne A. Youngquist (‘61, BS Philosophy), a UWM alumnus whose enjoyed a long career as an educator, journalist, political analyst, and broadcaster, passed away on Aug. 30, 2026. He was 87.
Youngquist studied philosophy at UWM, served as student body president, and earned recognition as a state AAU track champion. After earning a master’s degree in sociology from Rutgers University and receiving fellowships at Princeton Theological Seminary and Cornell University, Youngquist returned to higher education as a sociology instructor. He later taught at UWM as part of an academic career that also included appointments at Marquette University, Ithaca College, Northern Illinois University, and UW–Whitewater.
At WISN-TV, Youngquist became known for pioneering the use of exit polling and voter analysis in Wisconsin election coverage. He also served a stint as president of the Milwaukee Press Club. His legacy lives on through the thousands of students he taught, the viewers he informed, and the many journalists, educators, and civic leaders whose lives he touched.
Youngquist’s obituary is available online.