We welcomed Professor Daijiang Li to the Botany Department in Fall 2025. We asked him to answer a few questions to help us get to know him. Below are his answers. Please describe your research. My research focuses on understanding how environmental changes have and will affect plant communities and ecosystems. I use observational studies, …
Ives, awarded the Steenbock Professorship in the Biological Sciences, is a member of the Department of Integrative Biology. He joined the faculty in 1990 as a theoretical ecologist, and his work bridges between mathematical theory and ecological experiments to understand complex ecosystems. Ives received bachelor’s degrees in biology and mathematics from Rochester University and his …
Ellen Damschen, professor of conservation biology and ecology, an ecologist and professor of integrative biology, studies what determines plant community diversity and how global change affects plant communities. She is interested in how local and regional ecological processes affect species diversity with a particular emphasis on how human-induced global changes affect their relative importance. Her …
It’s not easy to look at a sea spider and see an animal so representative of its kind that it may help scientists sort out the evolution of almost everything with eight legs. But that’s the potential a new study finds in these spindly, strikingly strange bottom-dwellers. Read more here: https://news.wisc.edu/meet-the-weird-sea-spider-thats-mapping-the-evolution-of-eight-legged-creatures/
Biology Department Faculty members Emily Stanley and Monica Turner are both featured in this College of Letters and Science Magazine article for their work with water and fire. Read on to learn more.
Two graduate students just returned from an epic — albeit frigid — ecological study in Antarctica. Here’s what they learned from their time on the ice. Read more: https://lsmagazine.wisc.edu/issues/spring-2025/explorediscover/ice-cold-research/
We are incredibly proud to announce that Botany Professor Anne Pringle has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is being recognized for her distinguished contributions to mycology, especially fungal spore dispersal and the effects of invasive fungi on ecosystems worldwide. Congratulations, Anne! Read more about Anne and …
Professor Kenneth J. Sytsma joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Botany in summer 1985 and has served the department and university tirelessly ever since, including two stints as department chair. As a result, his upcoming retirement at the end of this semester marks a major transition for the department, worthy of many gifts, …
On April 11, 2025, the Honors Program hosted the 2025 Senior Honors Thesis Symposium—a hallmark event recognizing the culmination of years of research by undergraduate Honors scholars at UW–Madison. Held at Union South, the day-long symposium featured student presentations spanning disciplines from astrophysics to art history, spotlighting the intellectual curiosity and dedication that define Honors …
Congrats to Emily Stanley, a faculty member in our department, for being one of this year’s Hilldale Award winners. Read the full article here.