On April 25th, CALS Global hosted the first annual Global Day. This was a campus wide event that brought together over 100 faculty, staff, post-docs, and students to celebrate and practice the theme of “Connect!”. After many years of limited travel, in-person interactions, and international activities it was a great way to bring campus together to celebrate and share our international expertise and communicate our collective impact towards addressing global challenges. There was a poster contest, a photo contest, and a display contest at the event. Read on for more information on the winners.
Poster Contest
UW faculty, staff, post-docs, and students were invited to present a poster focused on describing activities that contribute to solving a global grand challenge. For the purposes of this event, global grand challenges will be based on the seventeen United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The winners were:
Alfonso Del Rio – Promoting agriculture and food sustainability in the Andean and Altiplano regions by deploying genetic diversity to create new frost tolerant potato varieties
Abstract: Climate change is a major challenge in global agriculture because of the dependence of agriculture on climate and the role agriculture plays in social and economic progress. Frost has an important economic impact in many regions of the world. In the Andes and the Altiplano of South America, frosts are quite common and damage potato fields with partial or total loss of the crop. The consequences are significant as the loss of crops threatens livelihoods and food security in places where farmers live in conditions of poverty or extreme poverty. Therefore, breeding for climate-resilient crops for frost tolerance is critical and needed. One strategy is incorporating genes for stress tolerance found in potato diversity to make new resilient varieties. Solanum commersonii, a wild potato species endemic to Uruguay has extreme cold hardiness and acclimation capacity making it an excellent option in breeding for frost tolerance. Our multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional, international project used this species and native Peruvian potatoes to generate breeding families expressing cold hardiness. They were generated in Wisconsin and then, sent to Peru for field evaluations and selection. Evaluations found several breeding lines with excellent frost tolerance and productivity, outperforming many current varieties there. The breeding efforts resulted in two new potato varieties for Peru, Wiñay released in 2018 and Llapanchispaq in 2022. This project was also a model of benefit sharing in the utilization of genetic resources originated in the Andean region in a fair and equitable way that benefits smallholders in the region.
Amelia Weidemann – Be in School Every Day, Menstrual Hygiene Management Project, Ghana 2017-2022
Abstract: Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) refers to access to knowledge, menstrual products, and proper sanitation to handle menstruation confidently and hygienically. In Ghana, women and girls’ MHM is impeded by a lack of accessible and adequate menstrual hygiene supplies. This is compounded by cultural taboos that limit formal education, and perpetuate stigma and inaccurate knowledge about menstruation. Without proper menstrual products and education, girls experience increased primary school and junior high absenteeism and withdrawal. Absenteeism and withdrawal threaten girls’ access to formal salaried employment and may lead to early marriage and/or pregnancy. In partnership with Rotary International and Days for Girls Ghana, 4W sought to increase girls’ school success with free, reusable menstrual product kits and comprehensive education for girls and boys. About 19,000 junior high school girls in Ghana received free product kits and MHM education to increase knowledge on hygiene, reproductive health, and menstruation. Education also addressed the stigma surrounding sexual and reproductive health. Reusable menstrual products allowed girls to fully participate in various activities. The kits were accepted more in rural and lower-income areas than affluent and urban areas. This project’s distribution of locally-made menstrual products and education models a practical and sustainable way to reduce MHM barriers globally. Our project’s provision of menstrual products and education combats the health challenges, shame, and school and work absenteeism associated with lacking MHM. This project promotes health and well-being of school-aged girls with cascading effects for all livelihoods, ending cycles of poverty and gender inequity that accompany inadequate MHM.
Taylor Weary – Healthy Children, Healthy Chimps: Reducing respiratory disease transmission from humans to chimpanzees in Uganda
Abstract: Respiratory disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among people in the developing world and also threatens great apes across Sub-Saharan Africa. Our studies of wild chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, have identified the causative agents of respiratory disease outbreaks as “common cold” pediatric human pathogens, but reverse zoonotic transmission pathways have remained unclear. Between May 2019 and July 2022, we collected approximately 2,000 paired respiratory symptoms surveys and nasopharyngeal swabs from 264 people (local children and forest workers) and over 700 fecal samples from 141 chimpanzees as part of a prospective cohort study. We characterized respiratory pathogens using a multiplex PCR panel and metagenomic DNA sequencing and examined the transmission risk of various pathogen types, seasons, social factors, and the individual characteristics of humans and chimpanzees. Children exhibited high incidence rates and symptom severities, whereas adults were largely asymptomatic. COVID-19 lockdown in 2020-2021 significantly decreased respiratory disease incidence. Human symptoms peaked in February. In chimpanzees, the most common month for respiratory disease outbreaks was March. Rhinovirus, which caused a 2013 outbreak that killed 10% of chimpanzees in a Kibale community, was the most prevalent human pathogen throughout the study. Rhinovirus was also most prevalent during February and was the pathogen most likely to be carried asymptomatically by people. Our data suggest that respiratory pathogens circulate in children living near Kibale, and that adults in the same communities become asymptomatically infected and may carry the pathogens into the forest and infect chimpanzees. The “Healthy Children, Healthy Chimps” program reflects our hope that reverse zoonotic disease transmission to chimpanzees can be mitigated through a One Health approach that considers the health of chimpanzees and local people to be linked.
Photo Contest
UW faculty, staff, administrators, post-docs, and students were invited to submit a photo from their UW-Madison sponsored program, work, or initiative that exemplifies a global connection. This can be a connection to nature, culture, people, architecture, etc. The winners of the photo contest as voted on by the attendees are below:
Brenen Skalitzky – Eyes of the Connection
While participating in the UW Signature Program ‘UW Banking Animal Biodiversity in Costa Rica’ earlier this year, I captured a photo of student Emily Olvey curiously observing the iconic red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas). This photo was taken at a nature reserve in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, and demonstrates the excitement and focus of our trip, which aimed to promote the conservation of these precious species and the maintenance of biodiversity in the region.
Emma Dahl – The Roots of Agriculture: Connecting to Our Past to Sustainably Provide for Our Future
Ancient agricultural practices in the Alps show the circular connection between humans, food, and environment: each drastically affecting the others.
Maj Fischer – Sharing Badger Pride
When hosting a WAA trip to India in 2019, a group of women near one of the archeological sites we visited saw the alumni “flashing the W” when being photographed. I thought they were just beautiful with their flowers and asked (via sign language, mostly) if I could photograph them. They agreed, and mimicked the alumni with the ubiquitous Badger hand gesture when I snapped them.
Browse the other submissions:
Display Contest
The Global Day 2023 Display Contest accepted visual representations of an international project affiliated with UW-Madison that contributes to solving a grand challenge. For the purposes of this event, global grand challenges were based on the seventeen United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Visual representations ranged from videos, storybooks, webpages, and works of art. Below are the three finalists.
Display Title: The Importance of Medicinal Plants in Chiquimula, Guatemala (Video 1) and Soil Conservation Practices in Chiquimula, Guatemala (Video 2)
Name: Meg Baker
Collaborators: Calderón, Claudia I.
Description: During the summer of 2023 in the Ch’orti’ region of Chiquimula, Guatemala, Agroecology master’s student Meg Baker and Horticulture Teaching Faculty II, Dr. Claudia I. Calderón, collaborated with a Guatemalan artist and videographer, Claudio Vásquez Bianchi, to create two videos highlighting themes identified as important by community members: the cultural significance of medicinal plants and soil conservation. Through interviews with community members, Encarnación Gutiérrez Esquivel, Vicenta Romero de García, and José María Gutiérrez, their aim is to demonstrate the breadth of knowledge in the region on these topics and provide others in Latin America, the U.S. and elsewhere an idea of the challenges and opportunities of agroecological practices in the region.
Display Title: Finding our voice through storytelling
Name: Claudia Irene Calderón
Collaborators: Khokhar, Hassan; Terterman, Katerina; Mae, Leslie; Peskar, Tressa; Winkler, Ryan; Zaman, Isaac; Mechelke, Emma; Webber, Sophia; Lampe, Lindsey; Dable, Jessica; Harrod, Lauren; Perry, Molly; Mueller, Sybil; Faber, Tabitha
Description: The University of Wisconsin – UW – Tropical Horticulture field experience took a different approach the winter intersession if 2022 in light of ongoing Covid-19 pandemic complications. Our cohort, comprised of fourteen UW undergraduate students, tuned into the tropics from afar. Though we may not have suntans and souvenirs to prove our experience, we do have newfound knowledge, perspectives, and friendships to show for all we’ve gained on this virtually immersive trip. From the Irazú Volcano outside of San José to the lush rainforests home to the Boruca indigenous people of Costa Rica, our senses were certainly alive with the sights and sounds of Central America. Each day we were joined by speakers of different backgrounds and disciplines to explore their topics of study and/or places of work. With such a diversity of interactions during our synchronous hours, we were able to harness these presentations and apply our transdisciplinary skills in collaborative discussions outside of class. Tasty little bits of the tropics were shipped to Wisconsin to allow interactive activities in class. Cacao (cacao nibs, chocolate liquor, and chocolate bars), specialty coffee, and masa/empanada cooking kits were all provided to create an organoleptic experience as means of experiential learning, which left us with lingering cravings for these culinary delights. We share our virtual journey through the stories that remained with each of us in each of the “virtual visits” . Join our 2022 cohort through this immersive story map and discover the economic, political, environmental, and social qualities unique to tropical horticulture systems!
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a5bcc024efd54520add38d18424dd270
Display Title: ASGM Amazon Impacts
Name: Geoffrey Siemering
Collaborators: Sunde, Abby
Description: The artwork displayed here is inspired by a National Geographic funded Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition to determine the impact of deforestation and artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) on aquatic ecosystems in the Tambopata National Park area of the Peruvian Amazon Madre de Dios region. Multiple collaborators deployed as a single team in the summer of 2022 to investigate mercury dynamics in mining pond sediment (University of Southern California, Columbia University & University of Arizona), water column (Duke University & UW Madison) and aquatic biota (Centro de Innovación Científica Amazónica). Ponds of varying ages were sampled to show how mercury behavior differs as the aquatic ecosystems mature and organic carbon increases. The artwork, developed with artist and environmental scientist Abby Sunde, represents water, normally crystal clear, contaminated with mercury and resting on a bed of sediment. In this region and many others around the world, unauthorized mining operations clear cut forests, sluice suction-dredged river and stream sediment to separate small gold particles, amalgamate the gold particles with mercury, and then burn it off to produce solid gold. ASGM is a worldwide problem leaving behind highly contaminated soil and water, typically in low-resource countries ill-equipped to deal with the problem. ASGM is also a major source of mercury release to the atmosphere. The UW Madison Global Health Institute funded UW Madison participation and soil and water mercury analysis is being conducted at the USGS mercury lab located on the UW Madison campus.
