Prof. Clark Landis becomes UW-Madison Department of Chemistry chair

Clark Landis, who has been with the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry for 30 years, will take over as department chair on July 1, 2021, to begin a three-year term. His goals as department chair are to attract outstanding faculty and students, improve departmental infrastructure for research and education, and to complete our ongoing Departmental reorganization. These goals support the department in its mission to conduct world-class, groundbreaking research in the chemical sciences while offering the highest quality of education to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates.

Bertram and Bain Receive James W. Taylor Excellence Teaching Awards

The Department of Chemistry has chosen two recipients for the James W. Taylor Excellence Teaching Award – Professor Timothy Bertram and senior instructional technology specialist Dr. Rachel Bain. Like many events in the past year, the departmental gathering to present the award looked quite different. Rather than holding a large gathering on campus, the award ceremony was held over Zoom.

Instructors, students find benefits in virtual learning

This year’s pandemic-induced online instruction did not stop students from enrolling in chemistry courses, but it did give instructors and teaching assistants (TAs) experience using a different instructional medium. “Teaching CHEM 344 online was definitely a unique experience,” said TA Maggie McEwan. “Teaching online requires a different set of skills compared to teaching in a classroom or lab, so I think I learned a lot this summer right along with the students.”

UW–Madison establishes free, campus-wide COVID-19 testing to support campus reopening

In the early days of the pandemic, when labs across the country were struggling to meet the demand for testing supplies and materials, the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory immediately took action. The state’s leading animal health lab provided COVID-19 test kits, scarce materials, equipment and training to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, which performs COVID-19 testing for high-priority patients statewide.