SEE Biotech
	From The University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension
	Sponsored by a grant from USDA/CSREES/IFAFS

	Click on name to go to speaker Sandra Austin-Phillips | Michael Bechner | Mary Ellen Bell | Fred Buttel | Mohammad Douglah | Walter Fehr | Al Gunther |  Rebecca Joy | Alex Lim | Robert Streiffer | Micheal Sussman | Tom Zinnen
		Sandra Austin-Phillips is a Senior Scientist and Director of the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Center. The Plant Biotechnology Laboratory provides services to UW researchers and other scientists in the area of plant molecular biology. The laboratory specializes in producing genetically engineered tobacco, potato and alfalfa. In addition, the laboratory houses the Arabidopsis Knockout Facility, a NSF supported service to provide Arabidopsis "knockouts" to plant researchers worldwide. The main research interest of lab personnel is the use of transgenic alfalfa as a bioreactor for the production of novel proteins. Current emphasis is on animal feed enzymes such as phytase and cellulases for use in biomass conversion. See contacts
		Michael Bechner is an associate research specialist in the David Schwartz lab at the UW Biotechnology Center. Michael received his BS degree in Biology and Chemistry at Marian College, Fond du Lac, WI in May of 1999. He was employed as a scientist at Covance Laboratories in Madison until May 2000, when he joined the Schwartz lab. See contacts
		Mary Ellen Bell is a communications and public information specialist with University of Wisconsin-Extension. As a professional communicator and writer, she works with Extension specialists and community-based faculty to develop and maintain effective local public information programs. She offers services, training and consultation about marketing, communications, media relations and writing skills. Before coming to the University of Wisconsin, she worked as a reporter for dairy newspapers and television and radio news and wrote feature columns from the Washington, D.C., bureau of Newspaper Enterprise Association, the Scripps-Howard national feature syndicate. The author of thousands of news and feature articles about science, research, and other stories from Academe, she is also writes fiction and essays and plays the Celtic harp both as a solo performer and as a member of the Madison-based trio Triskelle. See contacts
		Fred Buttel is professor of rural sociology and professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also co-director of the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at UW-Madison and a senior fellow at the Center on World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE). Buttel has had a long-standing interest in environmental sociology, rural sociology and the sociology of the environmental and agricultural sciences. He is particularly active in research on the social implications of agricultural biotechnology in the U.S. and across the world. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1987. He is past president of the Rural Sociological Society, past president of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society, former chair of the Section on Environment and Technology of the American Sociological Association, and past president of the Environment and Society Research Committee (RC 24) of the International Sociological Association (1998-2002). Buttel is co-editor of Society and Natural Resources, and editor of Research in Rural Sociology and Development. He is author or editor of 14 books, including Of Frankenfoods and Golden Rice: Risks, Rewards, and Realities of Genetically Modified Foods (2001). He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency for the registration of Bt crops. See contacts
		Mohmmad Douglah received his PhD degree in Extension Education from UW- Madison in 1965. After graduation he accepted a position as Assistant Professor with the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education,UW-Madison. In 1973 he served as Professor and Chair of that Department. He taught courses in Program Evaluation, Comparative Extension Systems and Methods and Principles of Adult Education and learning. In 1974 he returned to his original homeland, Iraq, where he became Professor at the University of Baghdad. He returned to UW- Madison in 1990 and accepted a position of Faculty Associate in the Continuing and Vocational Education Graduate Program. His academic home is the Department of Life Sciences Communication. He presently teaches courses in Adult Leaning and Evaluation of Adult Education Programs. Douglah serves as evaluation coordinator for the SEE Biotechnology Project. His current research interest is in the area of evaluating the outcome of adult education programs designed to help audiences deal with controversial issues. See contacts
		Walter Fehr is a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University where he teaches and conducts research in plant breeding, specializing in soybean breeding and genetics. He also is the director of the Office of Biotechnology that assists departments with the hiring of new biotechnology faculty, provides graduate fellowships for outstanding students, operates state-of-the-art instrumentation facilities for research, conducts an innovative education program for K-12 teachers and extension personnel, coordinates technology transfer with industry, and supports an active bioethics program. Walter Fehr obtained a B.S. degree in agronomy and an M.S. degree in plant breeding and genetics from the University of Minnesota. After completion of his studies, he worked in the Republic of Congo where he taught agronomy at the Congo Polytechnic Institute. When he returned to the United States, Dr. Fehr completed a Ph.D. degree in plant breeding and cytogenetics at Iowa State University and became a faculty member. See contacts
		Al Gunther is a professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gunther, who received his PhD from Stanford University in 1987, studies mass media and public opinion, with a focus on how people interpret and evaluate media coverage of controversial issues. His interests include perceptual biases and how these biases can shape partisansÕ assessments of mass media. Gunther has studied these phenomena in many contexts, including debates over genetically modified foods, global warming, rBST, physician-assisted suicide, Maori fishing rights in New Zealand, and whether extra-terrestrials have visited the earth. Gunther also works on theoretical models concerning individualÕs perceptions of media influence on others, and the consequences of those perceptions. He is campus coordinator for the MasterÕs International Program, a joint graduate degree between the U.S. Peace Corps and seven UW departments. Gunther is also an associate of the UW Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center. See contacts
		Rebecca Joy Rebecca Joy obtained her PhD in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, completing her thesis research in the area of plant developmental genetics, using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism. She is currently Executive Secretary and Coordinator for the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee (MASC). Among the goals of the MASC is to foster communication and cooperation among the world-wide Arabidopsis functional genomics community and to aid the community in reaching the ultimate goal of full understanding of plant biology. Dr. Joy's role within the MASC is ensuring a high level of communication within the community, both through travel to centers around the world undertaking Arabidopsis functional genomics research and by establishing mechanisms of information dispersal. These mechanisms include the publication of an annual report (2002 report can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?bio0202) and the design and maintenance of a website for the Functional Genomics community (URL: http://www.arabidopsis.org/info/2010_projects/). See contacts
		Alex Lim is a doctoral candidate in the Laboratory of Dr. David Schwartz, at the UW Biotechnology Center. Shwartz is a Professor of Chemistry and Genetics. Lim received a BA in Biochemistry in 1996 from New York University and an MS in Biophysical Chemistry in 1999, also from NYU. See contacts
		Robert Streiffer is an assistant professor of philosophy and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds an affiliate appointment with the Department of Medical Sciences in UW-Madison's School of Veterinary Sciences. He developed a new course on the ethics of agricultural biotechnology. His research ranges from traditional philosophical issues such as moral relativism to issues in applied ethics and public policy arising from agricultural biotechnology. He is currently working on articles on academic freedom and the regulation of academic biotechnology research; on the implications of principles of liberal neutrality for the regulation of genetically engineered food; on the political and ethical relevance of public opinion polls about genetically engineered food; and on mandatory labeling proposals. He received his Ph.D. in ethics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See contacts
		Michael Sussman is a Professor at UW-Madison, with an academic appointment in the Department of Biochemistry in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and a half-time appointment with the Graduate School, as Director of the UW Biotechnology Center. Prof. SussmanÕs research awards have included a Fulbright research fellowship, a McKnight Foundation award and recently, a UW-Madison WARF Mid-Career Award. In 1996 Prof. Sussman was appointed Interim Director of the UW Biotechnology Center and in 1997, he was appointed as Director. Professor Sussman first arrived in Madison in 1983, after a three-year postdoctoral stint with Professor Carolyn Slayman in the Department of Human Genetics at the Yale School of Medicine. For the past two decades, Prof. SussmanÕs research interests have focused on using the model higher plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, for understanding the role of plasma membrane proteins in signal transduction and solute transport. His laboratory was the first to report on unique calcium sensitive protein kinases found only in plants and protists. To help understand the in situ role played by this protein kinase, as well as that for several other families of important plasma membrane proteins, his laboratory has pioneered the development of genome-wide reverse genetics techniques. Specifically, they have utilized an insertional mutagenesis scheme to isolate ÔknockoutÕ plants, starting with the sequence for any one of the 25,000 genes in Arabidopsis. For example, results from his lab demonstrate that the plant homologue for a brain potassium channel is performing a nutritional role in plants, i.e. the uptake of potassium from soil. In addition to basic knowledge in functional genomics with Arabidopsis, his research has provided some interesting applied Ôspin-offsÕ, including the invention of a bench top machine that creates high-density DNA chips. Current research involves the development and application of high throughput mass spectrometric techniques for proteomic analysis of tissues extracts. See contacts
		Tom Zinnen is a biotechnology policy and outreach specialist with the University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Center and UW-Extension. He also serves as a food science communicator for the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), a professional organization with 28,000 members. He provides materials and training on the technical and social impacts of biotechnology. Zinnen studied biology at UW-Platteville and plant pathology at the University of Illinois. He received a Ph.D. for work in plant virology at UW-Madison in 1985. After a year as a post doctoral fellow at Agrigenetics in Madison, Zinnen taught and did research at the Plant Molecular Biology Center of Northern Illinois University at DeKalb. In 1991 he took his current position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension. From September 2000 through August 2001 he served as IFT's Congressional Science Fellow with the House Committee on Agriculture in Washington D.C. See contacts

From The University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension

Sponsored by a grant from USDA/CSREES/IFAFS

Copyright © 2003 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. /Extension Last updated November 13, 2002 Hosted by the UWBC Web server