The University of Wisconsin - Madison has a long tradition in logic and the foundations of mathematics, starting with Stephen Kleene in 1936. Currently, there are five faculty members in logic and foundations: H. Jerome Keisler, Kenneth Kunen, Steffen Lempp, Terrence Millar, and Arnold Miller; as well as Mary Ellen Rudin, who works in set-theoretical topology. Together they supervise the theses of more than a dozen graduate students, and their logic colloquium has an average attendance of over twenty, not only faculty and graduate students from the University of Wisconsin but also logicians from nearby universities and colleges, including Paul Bankston, Wim Ruitenburg, and John Simms from Marquette University, Milwaukee; Donna Carr from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside; and Philip Steitz from Beloit College. The purpose of the logic colloquium is threefold: to allow the logic faculty of the University of Wisconsin and of nearby universities and colleges to present their work to their colleagues and students; to give graduate students at the University of Wisconsin a chance to talk about their thesis work in logic and foundations; and to provide a forum for outside visitors to speak. It currently meets every other week for two one hour talks, with additional times scheduled for outside speakers, who last year included: Menachem Magidor of Hebrew University , Jerusalem; Chris Laskowski of the University of Maryland-College Park; Sergio Fajardo of the University of the Andes, Bogota; and Ali Enayat of American University, Washington D.C. In each case, the outside speakers happened to pass through Madison or Chicago and agreed to speak. In order for the organizers to function more effectively, NSF funds are being provided to invite one speaker a month for each of the nine months of the next three academic years.
