WN@tL: “Wisconsin’s Landgrant U at 175: Outlooks for Science Outreach”

Speaker: Tom Zinnen, UW Biotech Center & UW Extension Description: WN@TL emcee Tom Zinnen will return for his annual sojourn at the lectern with a talk on the outlooks for science outreach at Wisconsin’s two-time land-grant university as we commemorate the 175^th anniversary of the founding in 1848 of what today is the University of Wisconsin–Madison.  He’ll share some historical perspectives from the Wayback Machine, then focus on changes in places & programs in science outreach since the U’s sesquicentennial celebrations in 1998-99, and provide examples of initiatives & investments in science outreach at some other leading US universities that UW–Madison may want to emulate. He’ll also be happy to hear your view of what his science-outreach colleagues & he might want to do new in the next year or two or few.

Bio: Zinnen leads the BioTrek Public Outreach program of the UW–Madison Biotechnology Center and is also a state specialist with Wisconsin 4-H, the statewide youth development program of UW–Madison’s Division of Extension. He was born and raised in Dixon, IL; studied biology at UW-Platteville; earned his MS in Plant Pathology at the University of Illinois; and completed his doctorate in plant pathology at UW–Madison. After post-docking at Agrigenetics Corporation, he was on the faculty of the Plant Molecular Biology Center at Northern Illinois University before returning in 1991 to UW–Madison. In 2000-01 he was a AAAS Congressional Science Fellow serving on the staff of the House Committee on Agriculture, and in 2008-2010 he served as a speechwriter for the director of the National Science Foundation. With Sarah Schutt of the Wisconsin Alumni Association he co-launched Wednesday Nite @ The Lab in 2006 and has been the emcee since then, except for his rotations in Washington DC.

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http://www.science.wisc.edu http://www.175.wisc.edu