Biography Sydney Bradley is a Ph.D. candidate in the Cellular and Molecular Biology program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research investigates how bacteria adapt to environmental and chemical stresses, aiming to enhance sustainable aviation fuel production. She uses experimental evolution and genomics to study microbial resilience for bioenergy applications, driven by a strong interest in how …
Biography Indigo Conat-Naar is an interdisciplinary artist whose work highlights the fleeting intersections of being, memory, and place that arise from encountering objects in the world. Conat-Naar’s practice begins with rigorous observation and reflection, pushing against the limits of perception to better understand the internal worlds of other people and objects. She grew up in St. Petersburg, …
Biography Xinning He is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests lie in Human-Computer Interaction and Robotics, especially in how design and human engagement can navigate the intertwined technical and societal constraints of social robots to foster socially-fluent human-robot coexistence. Outside of research, she spends …
Biography A Madison native, Kyra is a second-year PhD student in Chemical and Biological Engineering at UW studying plant-associated microbial communities for their application in agricultural systems. She is passionate about the intersection of environmental conservation and space exploration – the primary goal of her research is to bolster crop production in poor soils and …
Biography Claudia is a filmmaker, digital media artist and researcher who creates experimental narrative short films. Her work is designed to invite and challenge viewers to reconsider how we view our desires, fears and connections to each other. Claudia holds a BA in Video Production from Indiana University and a PhD in Technology from Purdue University where she …
Biography Mengmeng Luo is a third-year Ph.D. Candidate in Soil Science at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Her research explores how subsequent fires and post-fire translocation influence soil pyrogenic carbon stocks and properties across soil depths under different fire regimes in Wisconsin. Her work integrates soil biogeochemical analyses, laboratory and field-based heat flux measurements, and …
Biography R.J. Maupin is a PhD student in Design History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on American glass production during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with a particular interest in how glassblowing has been publicly enacted through demonstrations—both in industrial and studio contexts. Her research is grounded in her experiences working at a glass …
Biography Abegael Uffelman is a glass and mixed media artist, who connects optical illusions to societal disparities within identity, politics, and social interaction. Uffelman earned her BFA with a minor in art history from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in 2019. She has a passion for bridging communities with the arts and recently worked at …