The University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences is one of the colleges of the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. Founded in 1889, CALS fulfills UW–Madison's mission as a land grant university. The college has more than 3,700 undergraduates working towards majors, and over 900 graduate students. CALS has a robust research enterprise, covering everything from fundamental aspects of biological sciences to the immediate problems and opportunities facing Wisconsin farms and businesses. It operates a system of agricultural research stations across the state.

Undergraduate programs

The college offers more than 20 undergraduate majors, which are grouped into five areas of study: * Health and Nutrition * Food and Agriculture * Biological Sciences * Sustainability, Natural Resources and Environment * Business, Communication and Society

Academic departments

CALS has 15 academic departments that instruct students and carry out research in areas such as food systems; ecosystems; climate change; bioenergy and bioproducts; economic and community development; and health and wellness. * Agricultural and Applied Economics * Animal and Dairy Sciences * Bacteriology * Biochemistry * Biological Systems Engineering * Community and Environmental Sociology * Entomology * Food Science * Forest and Wildlife Ecology * Genetics * Life Sciences Communication * Nutritional Sciences * Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences * Plant Pathology * Soil and Environmental Sciences

History

In 1885 the university began offering a winter course for farmers, called the Agriculture Short Course. In 1889 the university put all of their agricultural offerings under a new College of Agriculture, with W.A. Henry as dean.History , College of Agricultural and Life Sciences – University of Wisconsin–Madison
. Cals.wisc.edu. Retrieved on 2013-08-17. Agricultural Hall, known as "Ag Hall" for short, has been the home of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences since 1903.

Early Vitamin Research

UW biochemist Elmer McCollum and researcher Marguerite Davis isolated the very first vitamin in 1913. They called it “fat-soluble A,” and it was later renamed vitamin A. In 1923, biochemistry professor Harry Steenbock devised a way to fortify foods with vitamin D through exposure to ultraviolet light. The innovation helped nearly eliminate rickets by the mid-1940s. Biochemistry professor Conrad Elvehjem’s work on vitamin B-3 in the 1930s contributed to a cure for pellagra, a deadly, nutrition-related disease that reached epidemic proportions in the United States in the first half of the 20th century.

Rural Art Program

The college has a unique legacy of celebrating the arts and humanities in agriculture. In 1936, CALS Dean Chris L. Christensen, along with rural sociologist John Rector Barton, established the Wisconsin Rural Art Program, which later became the Wisconsin Regional Art Program. The college hosts a WRAP exhibition each year. The Rural Art Program included an Artist-in-Residence position. The first artist-in-residence was

John Steuart Curry John Steuart Curry (November 14, 1897 – August 29, 1946) was an American painter whose career spanned the years from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting rural life in his home state, Kansas. Along with Thomas Hart B ...

, an American Regionalist painter, who arrived at the university in the fall of 1936.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wisconsin Madison Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, College of Universities and colleges established in 1889

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...