Faculty & Staff | UW-Madison Division of International Studies

‘Seed funding’ available to support international collaborations

February 02, 2012 Division of International Studies No comments

A competition for seed funding grants to support new areas of international collaboration between University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers and researchers affiliated with the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) has been announced by the Division of International Studies, with support from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and the Graduate School.

Projects are to begin on or after May 1, 2012 and to be completed by December 31, 2012.

The Worldwide Universities Network is an international alliance of leading higher education institutions. WUN builds on its partners’ commitment to quality and innovation in research and teaching by developing collaborations in interdisciplinary areas of global significance.

Workshop to help teachers make a stronger case for French language

December 15, 2011 Division of International Studies No comments

They teach what Bloomberg Rankings has identified as the third-most-important business language in the world, after English and Mandarin. Yet, as budgets for public education continue to tighten, teachers of French are struggling to keep their programs off the chopping block in Wisconsin and across the United States.

An upcoming workshop at the University of Wisconsin–Madison aims to bring teachers of French in Wisconsin together to talk about these challenges and prepare them to be more effective advocates for French instruction.

While pointing out that Spanish remains the most popular world language taught in U.S. schools, the Bloomberg Rankings rates French a couple of notches higher in importance for business, according to a report published August 30, 2011. The measures used to calculate the business importance of a language included number of speakers, number of countries using it officially, “financial power” and education and literacy rates.

“French continues to be an important language in international business and communication, diplomacy, scientific discovery and achievement,” says Gilles Bousquet, dean of the UW–Madison Division of International Studies, vice provost for globalization, and Pickard-Bascom Professor of French.

UW-Madison delegation finds optimism and opportunities in Asia

November 28, 2011 Division of International Studies No comments

“Cautious optimism” is the economic outlook from Asia, according to a survey conducted at MIPIM Asia last week by the Wisconsin School of Business in cooperation with HKUST Business School.

“The strong sense of optimism that we’ve seen in the last two years in Asia has been justified,” says François Ortalo-Magné, Albert O. Nicholas Dean of Wisconsin School of Business. Ortalo-Magné presented the survey findings at the annual real estate and investment conference in Hong Kong, which is attended by 1,800 senior real estate executives, retailers, government officials and city administrators from 41 countries. This is the third annual investor survey he has led at this conference.

An obvious reflection of this optimism is the fact that more than half of the participants surveyed at the conference reported improved or at least the same level of business activity in the current quarter compared to the same quarter last year.

“China is the unavoidable market because of the scale and the performance of the economy,” says Ortalo-Magné.

Ortalo-Magné’s visit is part of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s broader efforts at deepening relationships with government, business and education leaders in China. He accompanied Gilles Bousquet, dean of the Division of International Studies and vice provost for globalization, and Laurie Dennis, associate director of the Wisconsin China Initiative (WCI), to meetings in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Official trip aimed at advancing goal of UW-Madison presence in China

November 14, 2011 Division of International Studies No comments

Representatives of the University of Wisconsin–Madison have returned to China this week, where they are seeking to expand the university’s engagement and move toward the goal of creating a physical UW–Madison presence there.

“On this trip, we are exploring exciting opportunities to establish a distinctive UW-Madison footprint in China,” says Gilles Bousquet, dean of the Division of International Studies and vice provost for globalization.

Bousquet and Laurie Dennis, associate director of the Wisconsin China Initiative (WCI), are scheduled to visit Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai, where they will meet with government, business and education leaders, including many who are UW–Madison alumni. They are being joined for meetings in Hong Kong and Shanghai by François Ortalo-Magné, Albert O. Nicholas Dean of Wisconsin School of Business.

“We have developed an understanding with our partners in Shanghai—the Minhang District government and Shanghai Jiao Tong University,” Bousquet says. “Together, we are seeking to create a unique UW presence that is consistent with the Wisconsin Idea and highlights the strengths of our world-class university, matched to the needs in China.”

Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana, whose UW work earned the Nobel Prize, dies

November 12, 2011 Division of International Studies No comments

UW News

Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana, who received the Nobel Prize for research he conducted while at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died Wednesday, Nov. 9 in Concord, Mass. at age 89.

“He revolutionized biotechnology with his pioneering work in DNA chemistry,” says Aseem Ansari, UW-Madison professor of biochemistry. “The work that he did in Wisconsin from 1960 to 1970 continues to propel new scientific discoveries and major advances.”

Khorana came to Madison in 1960 to serve as co-director of the UW Institute for Enzyme Research and a member of the Department of Biochemistry.

It was at Wisconsin that he and colleagues discovered the mechanisms by which RNA codes for the synthesis of proteins. This work led to the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1968, which he shared with Robert Holley of Cornell University and Marshall Nirenberg of the National Institutes of Health.

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Category Archives: Faculty & Staff

‘Seed funding’ available to support international collaborations

Workshop to help teachers make a stronger case for French language

UW-Madison delegation finds optimism and opportunities in Asia

Official trip aimed at advancing goal of UW-Madison presence in China

Biochemist Har Gobind Khorana, whose UW work earned the Nobel Prize, dies

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