We are thrilled to announce our 2024 Outstanding Senior Award Winner – Brenen Skalitzky! Each year, there is a highly competitive pool of graduating seniors who are considered for this award based on their academic and extracurricular achievements. Brenen is a stand-out student in the Genetics & Genomics program, and we are proud to highlight his impressive college journey. Congrats Brenen, and good luck in all your future endevours!
Brenen Skalitzky is from Waterloo, Wisconsin and is an exemplary student in all he has done at UW. He conducted research in the lab of Dr. Philip Townsend where he studied the chemical interactions of fungi and plants through remote sensing and reflectance spectral analysis. He earned numerous awards including the Hilldale Research Fellowship (2023-2024) and the Wisconsin Rural Youth Scholarship (2023-2024). Brenen attended the UW Banking Animal Biodiversity study abroad program in Costa Rica where he took photographs that later won the UW-Madison Cool Science Image Contest and CALS Global Day Photo Competition.

Outside of academics, Brenen was involved in the Global Health Alliance, Phi Kappa Phi, SACNAS, and the Genetics & Genomics Peer Mentor Program. He also served as a Congressional Intern for Representative Mark Pocan. Following his graduation from UW, Brenen plans to attend Medical School at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health where he is the recipient of the Paul R. Ebling Pre-Medicine Scholarship.