Featured Alumni
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 »
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 »
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
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 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 »
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 »
Lady Liberty
On a February morning in 1979, UW–Madison students awoke in amazement to the sight of the Statue of Liberty peeking out of the ice on Lake Mendota. The replica (no: it was not the original... Read more »
Lake Mendota
The Most Studied Lake in the World While you read: Listen to a song by UW limnologist Paul Hanson (PhD 2003), inspired by his research on Lake Mendota’s algae blooms. Mendota is a French misinterpretation of a Dakota... Read more »
Lasker Award
The Lasker Award Mary Lasker (attended 1918 to 1920) couldn’t stand a moment in the lab. But she knew how important lab work could be. “I couldn’t cut up a frog,” she once said. “And... Read more »