Thirty-two UW–Madison faculty have been awarded fellowships from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research for 2025-2026. The awardees span the four research divisions on campus: arts and humanities, physical sciences, social sciences and biological sciences.
“At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, our researchers push the boundaries of discovery with unwavering curiosity and impact—these awards are not just recognitions, but reflections of their tireless pursuit of knowledge that shapes our world,” says Dorota Brzezinska, vice chancellor for research. “This year’s awardees have demonstrated a commitment to the Wisconsin Idea and are inspiring future generations of researchers.”
The awards are possible due to the research efforts of UW–Madison faculty and staff. Technology that arises from these efforts is licensed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the income from successful licenses is returned to the OVCR, where it’s used to fund research activities and awards throughout the divisions on campus.
Martha Wagner Alibali is one of ten faculty who have been awarded WARF Named Professorships, which come with $100,000 and honor faculty who have made major contributions to the advancement of knowledge, primarily through their research endeavors, but also because of their teaching and service activities. Award recipients choose the names associated with their professorships.
Alibali is the Susan Goldin-Meadow Professor of Psychology, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Psychology and Educational Psychology, and an affiliate of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and served on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon before joining the faculty at UW–Madison in 1999. Alibali conducts research at the interface of developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and STEM education. Her work investigates how people learn mathematical and biological concepts and skills, with a primary focus on the roles of perception, action, and gesture in learning. She also studies instructional communication, including communication with gestures and other visual representations. Alibali is Director of the UW–Madison Interdisciplinary Training Program for Predoctoral Research in the Education Sciences and has served as Chair of the Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society and as a panel member for the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Alibali’s research has been funded by the NSF and the U.S. Department of Education. She is a past recipient of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and she is the 2025 recipient of the American Psychological Association Mentor Award in Developmental Psychology.
Kate Walsh is one of eleven faculty have been honored with the H.I. Romnes Fellowships to recognize faculty with exceptional research contributions within their first six years from promotion to a tenured position. The award is named in recognition of the late WARF trustees president H.I. Romnes and comes with $60,000 that may be spent over five years.
Walsh is a clinical psychologist, professor in Psychology and Gender & Women’s Studies, and director of the UW-Madison Sexual Violence Research Initiative. Her intervention research, which has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Justice-Office for Victims of Crime, and Wisconsin Department of Children & Families, aims to improve recovery and well-being among sexual and relationship violence survivors.
Congratulations to Professors Alibali and Walsh!