Portal to the Public - Wisconsin gives researchers and the public a structured way to meet: scientists trained to share their work in person, paired with museums, festivals, and classrooms ready to host them. It isn't a one-off event series. It's a repeatable model that institutions can own - engagement built to keep running after any single program ends.
The result is a sustained, two-way exchange across the state: science made approachable, and scientists who hear directly from the people their work serves.
Wisconsin scientists who want their work to reach beyond the lab - and to practice translating it for a real audience.
Families, students, and museum and festival visitors - meeting working scientists and asking the questions that matter to them.
Bring your work to the public and sharpen how you communicate it.
Start a conversation →Host the Portal - museums, festivals, libraries, and schools welcome.
Partner with us →Travis Tangen was one of three founders of UW-Madison's Portal to the Public chapter - the Wisconsin Idea STEM Fellows - alongside Tom Zinnen and Megan Madsen, representing WARF. UW-Madison was the first land-grant research university to join what had been a national network of science museums and centers.
The Portal to the Public framework was created by Dennis Schatz at the Pacific Science Center, with support from the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Travis carries that work forward today through STEMsaic.
The national Portal to the Public Network is now hosted and stewarded by the Institute for Learning Innovation. This page describes STEMsaic's own Wisconsin work and lineage; it makes no claim of endorsement by the network or its host.
STEMsaic designs and runs public-engagement programs like this one with institutions and partners.