Featured Alumni
Gene Amdahl
Amdahl Helped Launch the Computer Age Gene Amdahl MS1949, PhD1952’s childhood lessons came in a one-room South Dakota school that lacked electricity. From that beginning to an eye-catching UW graduate school stint and a fabled... Read more »
George Schaller
Ecological Missionary The world’s top field biologist has spent most of his life in the wild, studying and helping us all fall in love with animals that need protection. George Schaller MS1957, PhD1962 has slept... Read more »
Graduation
Halloween isn’t the only Badger tradition that has funny costumes. Commencement is the time when Badgers don their caps and gowns and join the community of more than 400,000 living alumni of the University of... Read more »
Grandparents University
A Grand Time They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Grandparents University® (GPU) — an annual program that the Wisconsin Alumni Association created and rolled out in 2001 — would have... Read more »
Grateful Red
Friend of the Badger UW–Madison students have been called many things. Some epithets are applied by rival schools, and some are insults that they hurl at each other. But the student section at the Kohl... Read more »
Great Pumpkin Regata
It’s the Great Pumpkin (Regatta) There are no rules. There are no prizes. There is also no chance of staying dry in the Giant Pumpkin Regatta, held by the Hoofer Sailing Club every September. The... Read more »
Halloween
Badgers have been celebrating Halloween with a party on State Street since 1977, when about 5,000 costumed revelers crowded the area and used cardboard boxes to start a bonfire. In 1979, UW–Madison students made the... Read more »
Harley-Davidson and William Harley
Hog Wild Engineer When three Milwaukee friends first put together a motorized bicycle, it needed a name. Since the motorbike was originally his idea, William Harley BA1907 got top billing. They called it a Harley-Davidson.... Read more »
Harley-Davidson Motorcycle
Break-Out Bike The Harley-Davidson model that appears in this sculptural tribute is an accurate representation of the 1936 EL model — one of William Harley BS 1907’s last great innovations. In 1936 Harley introduced the... Read more »
Harry Waisman
PKU Pioneer Find out early on. Harry Waisman BS 1935, MS 1937, PhD 1939, MD 1947 spread that message. He understood that early detection could change the trajectory of a child’s life, and today states... Read more »
Heidi Allstop
Online Empathy Heidi Allstop BA2010 desperately needed to “spill.” By her junior year, she felt stressed, lonely, and depressed, and she yearned to connect with peers who could empathize. So she created Spill, an anonymous... Read more »
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 »
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 »
Homecoming
Welcome Home When the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) first promoted Homecoming, we said: “Remember when you get here you will be an alumnus returned, a sort of prodigal son along with 7,000 others.” Groups of... Read more »
Hoofers
Exploring Wisconsin’s Outdoors Wisconsin Hoofers is UW–Madison’s oldest and largest student-led organization. More than 2,500 Badgers — students, faculty, staff, and community members — belong to Hoofers’ six clubs, and for nearly a century, recreational adventurers just like... Read more »
Hoofers Figure Skating
The UW’s Skating Tradition The UW campus has always been eager to embrace winter, regarding cold temperatures, ice, and snow as an open invitation to socialize and have fun. What better way to do so... Read more »
Humorology
Art with a Heart Badgers bursting into song and dance while flying over one another isn’t something you’d expect to remain under the campus radar. But UW’s Humorology is full of surprises — though at... 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 »
Ice Fishing
Lake Mendota has been a popular ice-fishing spot since before there was a University of Wisconsin. And the UW has been tracking ice cover on the lake since 1855, just a few years after the... Read more »
Ice Hockey
Ice hockey has been a varsity sport at UW–Madison since 1921–22 — but not consistently. In its early days, the UW didn’t have an indoor skating rink, and hockey players suffered the whims of nature... Read more »
IceCube Neutrino Observatory
The Ghost Hunters Sometimes, the best way to study the stars is to look … under the ice. Since 2002, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has helped researchers to look for evidence of neutrinos, the elusive subatomic particles... Read more »
In It for the Duration
From fellow migrant workers, Jesús Salas MA1985 learned that perseverance is the key to success.... Read more »
International Alumni Chapters
If at First You Don’t Succeed, Throw Another Party Badgers are a far-flung bunch: there are 13 active international Wisconsin Alumni Association chapters, six of which are located in Southeast Asia. That region has long... 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 »