The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery announced UW-Madison alumna Jo Handelsman as its new director Tuesday.
Handelsman is currently a professor at Yale University as well as the associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The position will turn over Feb. 1 and Handelsman will work under Marsha Mailick, the vice chancellor for research and graduate education at UW-Madison.
Handelsman received her Ph.D. at UW-Madison and went on to become a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the university.
“Jo brings an exceptional wealth of accomplishments in research, modern teaching methods and science policy from her diverse experience spanning academia to the White House,” said Paul Ahlquist, a professor at UW-Madison, in a university release.
Handelsman has received several awards, including the American Society for Microbiology Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award in 2012 and the Presidential Award for Science Mentoring, which was awarded by President Barack Obama.
“I am thrilled to be returning to UW-Madison, one of the nation’s great public universities,” Handelsman said in the release. “The high quality of the faculty, staff and students—as well as the extraordinary commitment of the university to the State of Wisconsin through the Wisconsin Idea—make UW a truly singular institution.”
