44° FFeatured Alumni
Henry Ahlgren
Extension Program Reformer Agriculture feeds the world. Henry Ahlgren BS1931, MS1933, PhD1935 saw the need for farmers to change as the world was changing, to improve their livelihoods by welcoming the scientific methods they once... Read more »
Henry Ahlgren
My Land, My Home, My Wisconsin The Wisconsin Idea inspires alumni to carry the beneficent influence of the university to every home in the state — and the UW–Extension has long been one of the... Read more »
Herb Kohl
A Humble Man with a Big Impact The titles on Herb Kohl BS1956’s resume — ex-U.S. senator, successful businessman, former Milwaukee Bucks owner, and philanthropist — don’t seem to square with the quiet man who... Read more »
Iajuddin Ahmed
Ahmed’s Turbulent Political Reign Iajuddin Ahmed MS1958, PhD1962 led a Bangladeshi government mired in painful political tension, turmoil, and collapse. His rise to the presidency of the South Asian nation of 140 million people came... Read more »
Jake Wood
A Voice for Veterans Jake Wood BBA 2005 once described his time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as “a stepping stone to an opportunity to impact the world around me and make it a better place for... Read more »
James “Chief” Graaskamp
If You Know Real Estate, You Know James Graaskamp To students, James Graaskamp PhD1965 was The Chief. A brilliant scholar who defied his quadriplegia, he espoused an ethical approach to real estate development that put... Read more »
James Thomson
Biomedical Breakthroughs In November 1998, the journal Science published a paper on one of the most important medical discoveries of our time: led by UW–Madison professor James Thomson, a team of scientists had successfully isolated human embryonic stem cells.... Read more »
James Watrous
Serious Satire By the time the “Octy” folded for good in 1959, it had served as an incubator for four decades of talented Badger artists and writers. The Octy’s most famous contributor was James Watrous BA1931, MA1933,... Read more »
Jarius King
Pop-culture ambassador Jarius King BA2009 is an English teacher and creative arts instructor at Foundation Global Education as well as a dance instructor at Ananta in Hong Kong. But that’s just the latest in his... Read more »
Jay Blasi
Golf-Course Mastermind Jay Blasi BS2000 has been fascinated by golf for as long as he can remember. Even as a toddler, he played on the putting green that his father built in the family’s backyard.... Read more »
Jean Wilkowski
From Bottom of the Barrel to Top of the World In 1943, life was going smoothly for 23-year-old Jean Wilkowski MA1944. As a staff member at Barry College in Miami (now Barry University), she was... Read more »
Jensine Larsen
Creating Citizen Activists Jensine Larsen BA1999 believes that the creative human potential of women and girls is the greatest untapped resource on earth. As a young freelance journalist working in Southeast Asia and South America,... Read more »
Jerry Zucker
Hollywood Writer, Director & Producer Love it or leave it, Airplane! is often cited as the funniest movie of all time, and surely, Jerry Zucker BS1972 can be held responsible. Zucker — writer, director, and producer of more... Read more »
Jessica Sack
Art for All Jessica Sack BA1996 believes that the arts are an indispensable part of life that everyone should experience. After graduating from UW–Madison with a triple major (and earning honors in each one), she... Read more »
Jesus Salas
From fellow migrant workers, Jesús Salas MA1985 learned that perseverance is the key to success.... Read more »
Jill Carey
Creating Confidence Jill Carey BA2008 chose to attend UW–Madison so that she could become editor-in-chief of the Daily Cardinal, and by her senior year, she had achieved that goal. But Carey knows that not every... Read more »
Jim Doyle
JFK Visit a Game Changer As 14-year-old Jim Doyle BA1967 listened to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy from the balcony of the Wisconsin Union Theater in 1960, a Secret Service agent asked him to step... Read more »
Jim Lovell
Apollo 13’s Commander Though often misquoted, Jim Lovell’s actual words — “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” — have become the quintessential understatement in American lore. At that moment, Lovell (attended 1946 to 1948), as commander... Read more »
Jim Sensenbrenner
Elected 21 times, Jim Sensenbrenner JD1968 is Wisconsin’s longest-serving member of Congress.... Read more »
John & Tashia Morgridge
The power of love and philanthropy Climbing Bascom Hill on one fall day in 1951, Tashia Frankfurth had a startling encounter. “Imagine my surprise when, walking toward Bascom Hall on the first day of classes,... Read more »
John Atanasoff
ABC: The Atanasoff-Berry Computer The early days of the computer age stretch back into the 1930s, when John Atanasoff PhD 1930 and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, first created a machine to help them solve... Read more »
John Atanasoff
Creativity unlocked in a wild winter ride Faced with performing a ton of time-consuming equations for his doctoral thesis at UW-Madison in 1930, John Atanasoff used a clunky analog computing machine, but he felt there... Read more »
John Bardeen
Two-Time Nobelist The soft-spoken man who skipped so many grades that he became an eighth-grader at age nine went on to win two Nobel Prizes for work that enriches our daily lives. Madison native John... Read more »
John Curtis
The Original Restoration Ecologist Bring up conservation in Wisconsin and you’ll often hear the name John Curtis MS1935, PhD1937 along with such innovators as Aldo Leopold. A professor of botany, Curtis was a pioneer of... Read more »
John Curtis
Curtis and the Leopold Legacy UW professor Aldo Leopold left a long legacy, both through his own work and through the work of those he taught. One of these was John Curtis MS 1935, PhD... Read more »