2018 Guest Panels
Panel 1: 10/26 - Jacee Cho (S. Korea), Aurélie Rakotondrafara (Madagascar), and Izabela Szlufarska (USA)
More about our panel members:Aurelie Rakotondrafara is originally from Madagascar. I am an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Pathology. I have been in charge here of a biology class from non-majors with about 145 students, my niche for innovative teaching by transforming the traditional format of the course into a blended version (lectures online, in class discussion and lab) to a fully online version including with labs. I had the chance to teach few times in Japan, where more than a language barrier, there was a cultural block in bringing in active learning in the classroom.
Jacee Cho is an assistant professor of English Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. She is originally from Seoul, Korea and has taught in three different countries, Korea, Russia, and the US. Her research focuses on second language acquisition from linguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives. She is the founding director of the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Lab located in Helen C. White Hall.
Izabela Szlufarska is a professor in the College of Engineering (Material Sci. & Engineering). Izabela is originally from Poland. In 2015 she received the Vilas Research Investigator Award for outstanding mentoring of graduate students. Izabela will share with us her experience as an international woman faculty in a field still largely dominated by men.
Panel 2: 11/02 - Yang Wang (China), Tony Ives (Canada), and Susan Gold (USA)
More about our panel members:Yang Wang is an Assistant Professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs here at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is originally from China. Before joining UW-Madison in 2016, she worked as an assistant professor at Lafayette College (a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania) for seven years. She is a health economist by training, and has taught undergraduate- and master-level classes in economics and public affairs. .
Susan Gold is Registered Nurse (RN) who has experience in pediatric and adolescent medicine both in the United States and internationally. Since 2012 she has been taking UW students to Kenya to help teach her curriculum on reproductive health, train trainers to talk to kids and teens about sexuality, and other reproductive-related health education. Learn more about her work in Kenya and how she has changed the life of young people on both continent because of her dedication. she was awarded recently the Nelson Mandela Fellowship, the first clinical RN to receive the honor.
Tony Ives studies ecology and evolution. He has a decade-long association with the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, an institute in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has visited XTBG to teach workshops and collaborate on research projects. Faculty and students from XTBG have had extended visits to his lab, including one student who received PhDs from both XTBG and UW-Madison..
Panel 3: 11/09 - James Ntambi (Uganda), Amaya Atucha (Chile), and Adrien Couet
More about our panel members:Hasan Khatib is a professor in the department of Animal Sciences (College of Agriculture and Life Science). When Hasan started his faculty position, he had little time to prepare for his first undergraduate class. He was trained in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but had never taken a course in a US institution, let alone have any shared experience with his first class of undergraduates.
Amaya Atucha is an assistant professor and Gottschalk Chair for cranberry research in the department of Horticulture. She earned a B.S. in horticulture from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile) and a Ph.D. in horticulture from Cornell University. Her research program focuses on fruit crop production and she teaches two courses in fruit and wine appreciation. Amaya is a recent graduate of MTLE (Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence).
Adrien Couet is Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and is leading the Environmental Degradation of Nuclear Materials Laboratory at the University. Previously, he worked as a nuclear materials research engineer at EDF (Electricité de France) in France for a year and a half, the largest nuclear utility in the world. He joined EDF after getting his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at Penn State University in 2014. His main expertise focuses on degradation of nuclear materials and development of innovative materials for current and advanced nuclear reactors. He has worked on nuclear materials degradation processes in-reactor conditions for almost nine years. He is a graduate of the Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence (MTLE) program at UW-Madison, and has taught multiple classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Panel 4: 11/16 - Hasan Khatib (Israel), Valentin Picasso (Uruguay), Emilia Tjernström (Sweden), and Craig Johnston (Canada)
More about our panel members:
James Ntambi is Katherine Berns Von Donk Steenbock Professor in Biochemistry (and also Nutritional Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He has a strong interest and commitment to helping undergraduate (and graduate students) learn biochemistry. James has a very successful research program. He has received many awards and recognition, but he also has dedicated substantial efforts to improve a large enrollment (service) course : Biochemistry 501. James will share his personal story going back to the challenges he met in his early days as an undergraduate instructor. James will also likely share his experience taking students for a two-week field program in Uganda.
Craig Johnston is from Ottawa, Canada, and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Ecology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Victoria, Canada in the Department of Economics while concurrently working for the Canadian Forest Service with the Forest Industry, Trade and Economics Research group. His recent work investigates the impact of risk and uncertainty on forest planning decisions for joint economic and ecological benefits, issues related to the international trade of forest products, and the carbon sequestration potential of forests under different future climate change and climate change policy storylines. He is a recent MTLE fellow, and currently teaches a course focused on the optimal management of natural resources, and another course aimed at the role of forests in global climate policy.
Emilia Tjernström is an assistant professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department. She is also an affiliate with the Center for Demography and Ecology, the Center for Financial Security, and the African Studies Program. She teaches at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and taught at an international high school in Costa Rica in 2007-2008. Her graduate teaching mostly focuses on methods (econometrics, cost-benefit analysis) but her undergraduate course on African economic development also brings in case studies from various sub-Saharan African countries. Dr. Tjernström is Swedish, and has studied in Sweden, Belgium, France, Norway, Morocco, and the US -- and has lived in another half dozen or so countries (often for research-related reasons).
Valentin Picasso is originally from Uruguay, did his PhD in Iowa State, and joined the Agronomy Department at UW Madison as assistant professor in 2015. He is an MTLE fellow, and teaches international agriculture, forages, agroecology, and study abroad courses.