2024 Alumni Awards

Courtesy of Tara Yang

Generation Genius, Inc.

Jeffrey Vinokur ’12 CEO, Generation Genius UW Major: Biochemistry

Tara Yang ’13 Chair, Green Bay Equal Rights Commission UW Major: Life Sciences Communication As a teenager, Tara Yang watched her parents open an Asian grocery store in their Green Bay neighborhood. The store, Main Oriental Market, evolved into a de facto community center, where people could share information, opportunities, and various forms of support. Yang went on to attend UW–Madison, and after graduation, she worked at Simply Tera’s, a whey protein manufacturer, and later at Organic Valley. However, when she went home to visit, she realized that many families were still struggling with intergenerational poverty. That inspired her to pivot to work in nonprofit business development in Minneapolis, where she partnered with minority-owned “mom-and pop” businesses. By 2018, she was ready to bring those skills back to Green Bay. A year later, Eric Genrich ’02 was elected mayor of Green Bay, and Yang introduced herself. She encouraged Genrich to put the Asian-American community at the top of his agenda, and he appointed her to the city’s economic development authority committee. In 2021, Yang was appointed chair of Green Bay’s new Equal Rights Commission, making her the city’s first Asian-American commissioner. She’s involved in a wide range of initiatives, including the development of 25 acres on the city’s industrial east side into an urban farm, park, and high-quality family housing project that aims to uplift some of Green Bay’s most economically vulnerable populations. She’s also spearheading the development of an Asian American Resource Center to formalize some of the community services her family has long offered in an ad hoc way at Main Oriental Market.

As a UW sophomore, Jeff Vinokur donned a rhinestone lab coat and broke open a glow stick, explaining on video how chemical reactions can emit light. Then he danced with glowing hands, and the “Dancing Scientist” was born. Vinokur refined the act and submitted an audition tape to the 2010 season of America’s Got Talent . He was invited to perform in Las Vegas, marking the first of many TV appearances. At the same time, Vinokur was also performing more than 100 live-science demonstrations each year for school groups and events. Though Vinokur already had his own dance channel on YouTube, he learned the ropes of science demonstrations from James Maynard, the director of the chemistry department’s Demonstration Lab, and chemistry professor Bassam Shakhashiri, who wrote a textbook on science demos for teachers. At UCLA, Vinokur won a graduate fellowship to conduct enzyme research. Yet it wasn’t long before he regretted shelving his performances just as he’d been gaining momentum. So after completing his PhD, he found a business partner with close connections to the television industry. They launched Generation Genius, a media company that produces science and math videos for elementary students. In 2018, the company received a $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Generation Genius is now one of the fastest growing ed-tech startups in the nation, and Vinokur’s videos are currently shown in 30 percent of schools in the United States. These days, the “Dancing Scientist” is known among his young fans as Dr. Jeff, who reminds them in every video to “always question, always wonder.”

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WISCONSIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION