46° FFeatured Alumni
John Muir
Nature’s Evangelist Beneath a black locust tree on the brow of Bascom Hill, near North Hall, UW student Milton Griswold BA1863, MA1866 gave a classmate an impromptu botany lesson on a spring day in 1863.... Read more »
John Van Vleck, Alan MacDiarmid, Jack St. Clair Kilby
Ushering in the Digital Revolution The smartphone technology in your pocket and the electronic gizmos and digital devices in your home or workplace are possible because of the work of four UW–Madison graduates. All four... Read more »
Jonny Hunter
The Artisanal Chef Jonny Hunter BA2005, MPA2011 went from five years as a vegetarian to raising pigs with a farmer friend. But being vegetarian made him more conscious of consumption and waste, he says, and... Read more »
Joseph Hickey
Distinguished Ornithologist Joseph Hickey MS1943 was so drawn to our feathered friends that he did everything possible to save them when their populations were in danger. As UW–Madison’s second professor of wildlife management — recruited... Read more »
Justin Beck and Forrest Woolworth
Game-Changers Before Pokémon Go, there was Parallel Kingdom — a location-based, augmented-reality game that preceded the Pokémon phenomenon by eight years. It’s the first game that Justin Beck BS2009 and Forrest Woolworth BS2009 created at... Read more »
Justine Nagan
Justine Nagan BA2000 is the executive director at American Documentary and the executive producer on its two signature series: POV (Point of View), its award-winning documentary series on PBS, and America ReFramed (World Channel). After... Read more »
Juston Johnson
By Popular Demand There was little to be outraged about when the new Gordon Dining and Event Center opened in the fall of 2012, replacing the decades-old Ed’s Express and Pop’s Club that made up... Read more »
Kathryn Clarenbach
Wisconsin’s Foremost Feminist Betty Friedan. Gloria Steinem. Bella Abzug. Their names are top of mind in the history of the modern women’s movement. But what about Kathryn Frederick Clarenbach BA1941, MA1942, PhD1946? She lived her... Read more »
Kay Koplovitz
Satellite Cable Television Entrepreneur Geosynchronous orbiting satellites. In 1966, satellites were the stuff of science fiction. But to Kay Smith Koplovitz BS 1967, they were a good place to start. Visiting London during a summer break,... Read more »
Kiana Beaudin
Kiana Beaudin BS2010, MPAS2015 has devoted her career to health, first for her own patients and then for the entire Ho-Chunk Nation.... Read more »
Laura Klunder
Social Change Leader On January 14, 1985, Laura Klunder was recorded as K85-160 — the 160th Korean child her agency had put up for adoption that year. She was one year old when a couple... Read more »
Laurel Clark
Columbia Astronaut She died doing something she loved. We often console ourselves with that thought when someone perishes tragically. And so it was with the adventure-loving Laurel Salton Clark BS1983, MD1987. Clark had come to... Read more »
Lawrence Eagleburger
Diplomat’s Skill Changed the World One day while Lawrence Eagleburger BS1952, MS1957 was working on a master’s degree in political science, he spied a poster on a campus bulletin board promoting the Foreign Service Examination.... Read more »
Lee Dreyfus
30 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality As the drafty bus rumbled out of Badger Village, the university’s married-veterans’ housing complex at the Badger Ordnance Works near Baraboo, Lee Dreyfus Sr. BA1949, MA1952, PhD1958 was focused... Read more »
Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Inspired by Southern cooking, Linda Thomas-Greenfield MA1975 approaches diplomacy with a blend of personal connection and improvisation.... Read more »
Lorraine Hansberry
Barrier-Breaking Playwright The play that brought fame to Lorraine Hansberry (attended 1948 to 1950) during her much-too-brief life came from a place within. When she wrote A Raisin in the Sun, she was evoking... Read more »
Luxme Hariharan
An estimated 39 million people around the world are blind. Yet as many as four out of five of these cases are preventable or treatable, mainly through cataract surgery or vitamin A supplements.... Read more »
Lynne Cheney
An Outspoken Voice, a Respected Author Near the woods that overlook Lake Mendota, Lynne Cheney PhD1970 and her husband lived in an unassuming Eagle Heights apartment in the late 1960s while she studied 19th-century British... Read more »
Lynsey Addario
Pictures of pain open a world’s eyes Lynsey Addario BA1995 goes to work in places where war and deprivation rip at the seams of humanity, carrying a camera and a rare outlook to make it... Read more »
Maggie Rodgers Morrison
Nurse to the Forgotten Having grown up less than a mile from Camp Randall Stadium, Maggie Rodgers Morrison BS2009 realizes that she started out with a skewed view of the world. In Wisconsin’s capital, clean... Read more »
Marcy Kaptur
Marcy Kaptur BA1968 continually applies her Wisconsin education to her work in Congress.... Read more »
Margaret H’Doubler
Trailblazing Dance Educator Women most certainly weren’t encouraged to nurture their physical selves during the early 20th century. Moving their bodies around freely was considered scandalous — until Margaret H’Doubler BS1910, MA1924 came along, that... Read more »
Margaret Turnbull
The Planet Hunter It’s not uncommon to see a lot of stars in the night sky over tiny Antigo, Wisconsin. But when Margaret Turnbull BS1998 looks up from her back porch, she sees something that... Read more »
Mary Lasker
Champion of Medical Research A combination of experiences — painful ear infections during a Wisconsin childhood, a family laundress undergoing a double mastectomy, her husband’s death from cancer, and more — impelled Mary Lasker’s notable... Read more »
Melissa Holds the Enemy
Justice on the Reservation As a child in the Crow Nation in southern Montana, Melissa Holds the Enemy JD2010 wrestled with her ambitions. “The notion of attending a world-class university like [UW–Madison] seemed to be... Read more »