Tom Zinnen
Alex Wiedenhoeft, Forest Products Lab, US Forest Service from his May 24, 2023 talk for Wednesday Nite @ the Lab.
In a May 2023 presentation, "Wood Nerds vs. Organized Crime," Alex Wiedenhoeft of Forest Products Lab talks about how open-source, DIY forensic tools can help combat illegal logging.
The tagline for Wednesday Nite @ the Lab emphasized its constancy: “WN@TL runs every Wednesday night, 50 times a year.” But after 17 years and 869 talks, the UW’s weekly science speaker series that aired on PBS Wisconsin has ended with the retirement of founder Tom Zinnen, due to the apparent loss of funding.
One-quarter of Zinnen’s position as a biotechnology extension specialist was funded by the Biotechnology Center, while UW Extension picked up 75%. His work producing and emceeing Wednesday Nite @ the Lab was just one piece of the science outreach he did.
Charles Konsitzke, associate director of the Biotechnology Center, says that when Zinnen retired, UW Extension revoked the funding for his position so the center does not have the funds to hire a replacement. “Losing that support is significantly hindering our outreach and we're adjusting too because this came onto us pretty quickly,” Konsitzke says.
When asked about the loss of UW Extension funding, communications director Matthew Call says in an email to Isthmus that when someone retires, their position is reviewed to determine whether “it’s [the] best fit for serving our Extension mission of engaging communities in educational opportunities across the state.”
Call says the UW Extension has “just begun” this review process for Zinnen’s position. He notes that Wednesday Nite @ the Lab is a Biotechnology Center project, and “as one of the funding partners involved, we have been discussing our role with the Center for continued collaboration and future opportunities.”
The weekly science talks were held at the Biotechnology Center, airing live on PBS Wisconsin and available for streaming as well. When Zinnen announced on Twitter that the final talk would be held Nov. 15, people sent some love his way. “End of a wonderful era!” responded Sarah Perdue, director of communications for UW-Madison’s physics departments. “This makes me sad!” wrote John Shutske, a UW-Madison professor in biological systems engineering. “Thanks for so much work and passion @tmzinnen and for inviting me twice! Both were great opportunities!”
Zinnen founded Wednesday Nite @ the Lab in 2006, in collaboration with Sarah Schutt from the Wisconsin Alumni Association. At the time he noticed that there were plenty of events on campus focused on athletics and the arts, but no regular science-focused events.
He says the science series was important, both for providing a platform to researchers and because it was a way for UW and its researchers to connect with residents of the state.
It “gave us a way to give researchers the stage on campus. It's also an act of hospitality. Hospitality is reciprocal. And if we as researchers know researchers want to be welcomed into the communities around Wisconsin, we in turn need to be able to welcome people,” Zinnen says.
Scott Barker started regularly attending Wednesday Nite @ the Lab in 2018 after he retired from his position as engineering director at a senior living community.
He says he was interested in learning opportunities and enjoyed the breadth of subjects the speakers would cover, everything from anthropology to botany to nuclear fusion. He might not follow all of the science, but there was always time for questions at the end, and something called “linger at the lectern,” where audience members could ask the speaker questions on an entirely different topic if they wanted.
“I don't know that there's anything else specifically that does this,” Barker says.
Schutt says the science talks made “the research happening at UW Madison more accessible to the public, more understandable.” She mostly worked on the marketing side of things, getting the word out to alumni about the event. She says the series brought together a diverse group including alumni, community members and students, and provided a good opportunity for people to hear about UW research and the positive impact it is having on everyday lives.
“It really was a great expression of the Wisconsin idea and how every single week you can see, ‘Here's how UW-Madison is taking its resources and extending them out to the world to benefit the world,’” Schutt says.
Konsitzke says that Zinnen did a great job of recruiting speakers to campus. And the talks had a wide reach given the program's partnership with PBS Wisconsin, which in 2007 started broadcasting the program live and making them available online.
In order to continue the talks, the program would need consistent funding from outside sources, as well as a committed individual to organize events.
Schutt says there will definitely be a void without Zinnen’s work — both in terms of Wednesday Nite @ the Lab and science outreach in general.
Zinnen says he is happy he got to do this work as long as he did and to be such a huge part of Wednesday Nite @ the Lab. Bringing speakers in was a gift to him personally, he adds, allowing him to "share so many great stories with lifelong learners here on campus."
