Tim Donohue never imagined that he would lead a multimillion-dollar energy research initiative when joined the university in 1986 as an assistant professor of bacteriology.

Research points to environmental, economic, social, and health benefits of shifting energy systems from fossil fuels to low-carbon sources including solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, and biofuels. 

In the past decade, downtown Madison has seen the installation of Free Little Libraries with solar-powered phone charging stations. A PhD student attended two COP conferences after publishing a policy analysis on the Paris Agreement. A group of students published their capstone work in an esteemed journal. All of this happened because of a flourishing Energy Analysis and Policy certificate program — which couldn’t have happened without Jeff Rudd’s support.

An expert on nuclear power plant safety, Wes Foell was appointed to the University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty in 1967, when proponents believed the technology wo

In the leadup to the second World War, scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison contributed to research on high-test aviation fuel as well as efforts to build the first atomic bomb. 

In a sense, the University of Wisconsin–Madison was built for energy research.

From finding the natural resources needed to enable industrialization to producing and storing clean electricity, society’s need for energy has both driven and been shaped by 175 years of research at the University of Wisconsin‒Madison.