Featured Alumni
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 »
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 »
Making History
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 »
Memorial Union
Memorial Union Pier After a long, frozen winter, it doesn’t take much more than 45 degrees to get students into shorts and sandals. And once Lake Mendota thaws, they trade their textbooks for towels and... Read more »
Mildred Fish Harnack
Mildred Fish-Harnack: Secrets & Sacrifice Mildred Fish Harnack BA1925, MA1926’s final words were: “And I have loved Germany so much.“ Young Mildred Fish, known as Mili to friends, appreciated the German culture in her hometown... Read more »
Minnesota Rivalry
Fighting Tooth and Tail A team of plucky upstarts. A domineering rival. A hero with an axe to grind. Bacon. The story behind the Wisconsin-Minnesota football rivalry has all the makings of a modern sports... Read more »
MODIS Antenna: Space Sciences and Engineering
Meet the MODIS: the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer — or at least one of its antennas. The globe-shaped tower is actually a protective radome that covers an antenna that tracks two NASA satellites (Terra, launched... Read more »
Morgridge Center for Public Service
Learning the lessons of service Craig Kohn BS2008 packed up the lessons he learned through the Morgridge Center for Public Service and put them to work making a difference in the lives of high school... Read more »
Movietime, 1974
For Moviegoers and Film Buffs Alike During the “golden age” of film appreciation at the University of Wisconsin, students lined up for Movietime. This wildly popular series of the 1960s and 70s screened hundreds of... Read more »
Moving Day
Movin’ Out (Bucky’s Song) Moving Day is a curious Madison tradition that has been around for decades. Many campus-adjacent apartments end their leases on August 14 and begin new ones on August 15, resulting in... Read more »
Multimedia Raconteur
Allee Willis BA1969 defied classification and celebrated creativity in myriad ways.... Read more »
Murat Kalayoglu
Medicine, Business a Recipe for Success Skilled in medical science, ophthalmologist Murat Kalayoglu BS1994, PhD1998, MD2000 comes at life with an entrepreneur’s vigor — bringing an energy that is changing the face of both medicine... Read more »
NAACP Megaphone
Speak Truth to Power: Vel Phillips In August 1967, Milwaukee roiled with racial tension. Civil Rights activists argued that the city’s housing was segregated, and Vel Phillips LLB1951 — the first woman and first African-American... Read more »
Natasha Ali
Newsroom Leader As a producer for HLN (formerly CNN Headline News), Natasha Ali MA1997 has worked on developing and launching new programming for the 24-hour news network. She was previously a producer for the network’s... Read more »