From Silos to Sunscreen: A Century of UW-Madison Inventions

Franklin H. King Develops the Round Silo (1881)

Born on June 8, 1848, on a farm in La Grange, Wisconsin, Franklin H. King (1848–1911) attended Whitewater State Normal School and later continued his education at Cornell University. King’s scientific work was largely carried out at the University of Wisconsin, where he led important studies on soil fertility. In January 1902, he left Wisconsin for Washington, D.C., to become chief of the Division of Soil Management at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Bureau of Soils. However, during this period, his research challenged existing views held by bureau chief Milton Whitney regarding soil chemistry and plant growth. These disagreements led King to resign after two years and return to Madison, where he spent the later years of his life conducting further research and finalizing earlier findings. This included work on the ventilation of farm buildings and advocating for the rapid adoption of the cylindrical silo by proving its strength and ability to reduce spoilage.

E.V. McCollum and Marguerite Davis Discovers Vitamin A (1913)

Elmer Verner McCollum (1879–1967) was an American biochemist whose research transformed the understanding of how diet influences health; he famously stated, “Eat what you want after you have eaten what you should.” His work at the University of Wisconsin’s College of Agriculture began in 1907 with a puzzling experiment: cows fed a carefully balanced wheat-based diet became blind, stunted, and unable to reproduce properly. Cows fed a similar diet derived from corn thrived. After six years of research, it was discovered that fats in certain foods, such as milk or eggs, contained growth-promoting substances, while others, such as olive oil, lacked them. This study led to the isolation of vitamin A from milk fat. A significant contribution to this experiment was McCollum’s establishment of the first rat colony in the United States specifically for nutrition research. Working in this lab was Marguerite Davis, a home economics graduate who played a critical role in caring for the animals and documenting results. In 1912, McCollum and Davis demonstrated that rats fed milk fat grew normally, while those fed olive oil or lard became sick and stunted. Confirming McCollum’s experimental findings was Polish scientist Casimir Funk, who was simultaneously researching nutrition from a medical perspective and proposing the “vitamine hypothesis” to explain diseases caused by dietary deficiencies.

Professor Harry Steenbock Discovers Vitamin D (1924)

Harry Steenbock was a professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who conducted research and made early contributions to nutrition science. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin in 1916, and during his graduate studies, he worked as an assistant in Elmer McCollum’s lab. When McCollum and Marguerite Davis published their discovery of what became known as vitamin A, Steenbock felt he deserved more credit than he received, leading to professional tension. Despite this, he soon established his own reputation by discovering that exposing the skin of animals and the surfaces of foods to ultraviolet light produces and stores vitamin D, a process which would eventually be patented. His efforts to commercialize this technology ultimately led to the creation of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which became a major driver of research innovation and funding at the university.

Charles Heidelberger Discovers a Cancer Treatment Drug (1957)

After earning a PhD in organic chemistry from Harvard University and completing postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley, Charles Heidelberger became a professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Heidelberger spent 27 years at the University of Wisconsin’s McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research. His pioneering work there led to the development of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), a drug that remains a standard treatment for stomach, colon, and breast cancers. Later serving as director of basic research at the University of Southern California’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, Heidelberger was internationally recognized for his impact on cancer treatment. He received the first $100,000 Athayde Prize from the International Union Against Cancer for the most outstanding contribution to the fight against cancer.

The Biotron Opens (1967)

The Biotron is a $5 million facility designed to simulate nearly every climate on Earth, except Antarctica. The facility features 45 individually ventilated and isolated interior rooms, all controlled by advanced building automation software. Temperature, humidity, lighting, and plant-watering schedules can be precisely programmed and continuously monitored, allowing for highly controlled experiments. Standard animal rooms support research involving both domestic and wild animals of all sizes. In 1996, a 30-foot-tall greenhouse was added to address the campus’s shortage of greenhouse space, enabling the cultivation of large plants and trees for research purposes.

The First Bone Marrow Transplant in the United States is performed (1968)

Fifty years ago, University of Wisconsin Professor Fritz Bach, along with University of Minnesota Professor Robert Good, helped pave the way for modern bone marrow transplantation through groundbreaking research. Bach performed the first successful matched human bone marrow transplant at the UW Children’s Hospital on a 22-month-old boy with an immunodeficiency disease. The boy’s sister donated the bone marrow, allowing him to survive into adulthood. Bach’s innovation was the development of the Mixed Leukocyte Culture (MLC) test, which combined the white blood cells of patients and donors to assess compatibility. While French researcher Jean Dausset, MD, had identified the HLA genes on chromosome 6, Bach demonstrated that matching these genes between donor and recipient could predict transplant success. Prior to this, bone marrow transplants were mostly limited to identical twins, whose genetic compatibility ensured minimal risk of immune rejection. Bach’s MLC test expanded the pool of viable donors and drastically reduced the risk of lethal rejection.

Derek Cripps Lays the Foundation for the SPF Scale (1974)

After completing his residency, Derek Cripps joined the UW Department of Dermatology in 1965 as a professor. As a research dermatologist, he conducted the pivotal work that led to the development of the Sun Protection Factor (SPF) ratings scale. In the early 1970s, Cripps began investigating why some sunscreens provided better protection than others, and his 1974 study ultimately established the SPF scale. This system was later adopted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the national standard, providing a clear measure of how much ultraviolet radiation it takes for protected skin to burn relative to unprotected skin.