Energy-related research has evolved over the past 175 years from departmentally segregated work focused largely on technologies to a more holistic and interdisciplinary approach that bridges technologies, environmental impacts, and policy.

Even in the days before energy was a topic of research interest, the quest to power an industrialized economy guided the university's mission.

From the Manhattan Project to fusion energy, UW–Madison scientists have been at the forefront of nuclear science and engineering

Starting in the 1970s, UW–Madison researchers began thinking more holistically about energy and the connections between supply, pollution, and policy.

UW–Madison scientists look to the tiniest lifeforms to solve some of the world's largest problems: namely, producing sustainable plant-based alternatives to fossil fuels and petrochemicals. 

For all the thousands of discoveries and patents UW–Madison has produced, perhaps the biggest contribution to energy research is the graduates who continue to push the field forward.