Department News

Pollan's book is being critiqued by students and faculty in an ongoing series of formal and informal discussions. Examples include a "Tuesday Noon" seminar (September 15), learning activities in NS 621 and NS 626, and a book discussion by the Dietetics and Nutrition club.
UW-Madison's Go Big Read
Professor Susan Nitzke and Dean Irwin Goldman's interview for the show called "Office Hours" that was taped for the Big Ten Network and iTunes U.

(Click here for a full .pdf copy of the 2009 Nutritional Sciences Department News Letter.)

Greetings to all our Nutritional Sciences graduates, faculty/staff alumni and friends! We are pleased to give you an update regarding some of the exciting events that are going on in our Department.

Trisha Weiland, one of our 2009 dietetics graduates, has been awarded on of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ six Outstanding Senior Awards for 2009. Congratulations, Trisha! (Further details can be seen here: http://www.cals.wisc.edu/alumni/ecals/?p=2008)

The Department of Nutritional Sciences hosted an open house on Saturday, May 9, 2009. Alumni and friends visited with Nutritional Sciences faculty and staff and gave best wishes to Cheri Bill-Mohoney who recently retired after 35 years with the Department. There were also displays, demonstrations, and refreshments. Pictures from the event can be seen here!

In November of 2008, our Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) completed an accreditation process that included an extensive self-study and a 2-day site visit from representatives of the American Dietetic Association’s Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education (CADE). We are pleased to report that we passed with flying colors. We are grateful to Lynette Karls who took the lead in assembling our self-study document, HuiChuan Lai, the current director of our Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD), Denise Ney, the immediate past director of the DPD, our DPD instructors (Julie Thurlow and Michelle Johnson from our Department and Monica Theis from Food Science) and to all the faculty, staff, administrators, advisors, current students, and graduates who contributed to this important project.

The newsletter brings you the bitter/sweet news that Cheri Bill-Mohoney is retiring after 35 years with our department. Cheri has touched all our lives and she will be greatly missed. Please check other articles in this newsletter for information about how you can wish Cheri well in person (especially our reception that will take place during the campus Alumni weekend in May of 2009) or via cards/letters and emails.

We have 287 undergraduate majors in 3 degree programs; 233 in Dietetics, 48 in Natural Sciences and 6 in International Agriculture and Natural Resources. Our enrollment has been increasing over time, roughly 10% in the last year. Our Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences (IGPNS) has 45 faculty members, 4 Masters students, and 26 PhD students in 3 emphasis groups -- Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition, Human Nutrition, and Animal Nutrition. Our NIH-funded Molecular and Applied Nutrition Training Program has 4 pre-docs, 4 post-docs, and18 faculty researchers from 7 departments. For more information, please see our website at http://www.nutrisci.wisc.edu.

It’s our 40th (and 30th and 20th) anniversary! In 1968, Alf Harper worked with Glenn Pound and Bob Bray from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) to establish the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Our first faculty members (Dorothy Pringle, Charles Elson, Annette Gormican and Hellen Linkswiler) came from the School of Home Economics, and others had joint appointments with Biochemistry (Alf Harper and Bill Hoekstra), Medicine (Earl Shrago), and Animal Sciences (N.J. Benevenga). It has been almost 30 years since the Children’s Hospital building remodeling project was begun under Howard Ganther’s leadership (1979) so that our Department could have its own building. Twenty years ago (1988), the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences (IGPNS) was formed under the leadership of John Suttie.
Our Department couldn’t function without our helpful offi ce staff: Bill Omdahl, our Administrator; Liz Pickens, our I.T. guru; Lisa Voss, our financial specialist; Ethel Drengberg our University services associate, and Danielle Devereaux-Weber who will soon be handling Cheri’s former duties.

We hope you will pass this newsletter along to other alumni and friends who may not be on our mailing list. We also appreciate hearing from you as changes occur in your career status or your contact information. Please send your updates to Ethel Drengberg, our University Services Associate, at dreng@nutrisci.wisc.edu or 608-262-2727.

Susan Nitzke, Chair