UW-Madison Biology

07/10/2026

Congratulations to Department of Biology graduate students Hannah, Jillian and Shaneya on their research fellowships with the UW-Madison Arboretum!

We are pleased to announce the 2026 Arboretum Research Fellows! Congratulations to Hannah Ashe, Wyatt Cummings, Jasmine Groves, Jillian Neece, and Shaneya Miriyagalla (pictured from left to right).

These UW–Madison graduate students received fellowships for projects investigating topics such as Lyme disease risk, wildlife dynamics, freshwater biodiversity, milkweed seed production, and soil microfungal diversity.

Learn more about the Fellows and their research: arboretum.wisc.edu/news/arboretum-news/announcing-the-2026-arboretum-research-fellows/

(Photo by Maddie Smith / UW–Madison Arboretum)

07/10/2026

Evelyn Williams (Botany PhD ‘12) is a restoration ecologist with Adaptive Restoration LLC, a job that has her traveling across Wisconsin restoring prairies and other lands that have been altered by human intervention.
She spoke with the Letters and Science Magazine about how her graduate experience at UW–Madison helped set her up for success after graduation.

Read the full article: https://lsmagazine.wisc.edu/issues/spring-2026/green-lights/

07/01/2026

Today is our birthday! 🥳
Department Chair Mary Halloran had a few thoughts to kick off a new era:
"In the past 178 years, the botany and integrative biology (formerly zoology) departments have grown and contributed immensely to the field of biology and to the student experience at UW–Madison. Bringing [them together] creates new opportunities for us to deepen our understanding of the interconnectedness of life."

UW-Madison College of Letters & Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison

A message from Mary Halloran, Chair of the Department of Biology. Hello all, Today, July 1, 2026, marks the first day of the Department of Biology in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Bringing together botany and integrative biology (formerly zoology), two ...

07/01/2026

🫙🌿 🐟Look at this stuff, isn't it neat? Our biological collections will never be complete... but we sure do have a lot of specimens!

When the regents founded the University of Wisconsin, they deemed it immediately necessary to begin a natural history cabinet that documented flora and fauna found in Wisconsin, the Midwest and beyond.

That natural history cabinet has evolved into the living and preserved collections we now call the Botany Garden and Greenhouse, UW Zoological Museum and Wisconsin State Herbarium.

Faculty, staff, and students across the department and campus continue to use these collections to document natural history while also learning about and protecting the planet's biodiversity.

06/30/2026

🔬 World-class research with a purpose 🥾
Whether they're in the lab or in the field, researchers in the Department of Biology are hard at work studying organisms big and small to better understand how life works and discover innovations for the world.

Curious about the range of research we take on? Here's a sampling:
✅ send plants to space
✅ track long-term changes to forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
✅ collect specimen of flora from bogs across Wisconsin
✅ investigate the genetic mechanisms that allow plants to detect light
✅ trace the evolutionary history of eyes in daddy long leg spiders
And so much more!

06/29/2026

Want to learn about life across all kingdoms and scales? Check out the 11 academic programs in the Department of Biology to see which one is right for you! 🌱🦡🍄🌎