4 UW scholars honored with Vilas Research Professorships

“4 UW scholars honored with Vilas Research Professorships New Vilas Research Professors include leaders in study of cells, public opinion, sustainable chemistry and computational optimization ​By Chris Barncard ​ May 4, 2026 ​ Share this article University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers Anjon Audhya, Katherine Cramer, Shannon Stahl and Stephen Wright have been named Vilas Research Professors. Created for the advancement of learning and supported by the estate of professor, U.S. senator and UW Regent William F. Vilas (1840-1908), Vilas Research Professorships are granted to UW–Madison faculty with proven research ability and unusual qualifications and promise. The recipients of the award have contributed significantly to the research mission of the university and are recognized both nationally and internationally among the leaders in their field. Anjon Audhya Audhya, professor of biomolecular chemistry and the inaugural vice dean for research in the School of Medicine and Public Health , focuses his research on how cells use membranes to organize their parts and move large molecules like proteins, fats and vitamins. His laboratory uses a variety of experimental systems to reproduce and study the steps in membrane transport, while also working beyond the basic biology to understand how problems with these processes can lead to diseases including neurodegeneration, cancer and diabetes. A member of the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry faculty since 2008, Audhya serves as director of UW–Madison’s Center for Training in Pharmacology and Drug Development and co-leads the university’s National Institutes of Health-funded graduate training program in molecular and cellular pharmacology. He is a fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Kathy Cramer Cramer is the Natalie C. Holton Chair of Letters & Science and Virginia Sapiro Professor of Political Science . She is known for her innovative approach to the study of public opinion, often securing invitations into group conversations to listen to the way people understand their connections to politics and government, and to each other. An undergraduate alum of UW–Madison’s Department of Political Science and a member of the faculty since 2000, Cramer has written six books, including “The Politics of Resentment” (2016), which delved into rural resentment toward cities and its implications for contemporary politics. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. Shannon Stahl Stahl, Steenbock Professor of Chemical Sciences and McNall Professor of Chemistry , and his research group study redox catalysis, with an emphasis on aerobic oxidation and electrochemical reactions that have important implications for a sustainable chemical economy and applications in chemical synthesis, biomass conversion and energy storage and conversion. A member of the Department of Chemistry since 1999, Stahl’s work has been recognized with awards including the Environmental Protection Agency’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, the American Chemical Society Award in Organometallic Chemistry, the Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award and the ACS Award in Affordable Green Chemistry. Stahl has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Stephen Wright Wright, George B. Dantzig Professor and Sheldon B. Lubar Chair of Computer Sciences , works in computational optimization, an area key to advancements in artificial intelligence. He studies and designs algorithms that solve problems in fields including machine learning, data science and many other areas of science and engineering. Wright, who joined the Department of Computer Sciences in 2001 and is a Discovery Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, co-authored “Numerical Optimization,” a textbook used widely in education, research and practice. He served as chair of the Mathematical Optimization Society, is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024. Vilas Research Professorships include additional salary and $50,000 in flexible research funding.

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