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University of Wisconsin Foundation history
University of Wisconsin Foundation company history timeline
The City of Madison creates State Street Mall, completing the Library Mall envisioned by UW Foundation executive director William Hagenah Sr. in 1945.
By 1945, when Steenbock's patent expired, it had brought WARF some $8 million in net royalties.
1946 – The Beta Omicron Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated was the first Black Greek-letter organization (B.G.L.O.) at the University.
1947 – A student chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) was established on campus.
Warfarin was patented in 1950 and was a large source of royalties for WARF.
In 1951, WARF made a special grant of $2.8 million to the university, which went to build badly needed new housing.
1951 – Vel Phillips was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
1951 – UW researchers transfer a fertilized ovum from one cow to another, which gives birth, leading to a procedure called embryo transplant.
1951 – Professor Dean Meeker begins the nation’s first course in silk-screening as an art medium.
1963 – Professor Harvey Littleton initiates the nation’s first formal glass-working course.
1965 – John R. Cameron and Richard Mazess, emeriti professors of medical physics, along with other UW researchers, develop new techniques to measure osteoporosis, allowing better detection, prevention and treatment of bone diseases.
1965 – UW-Extension is created as a separate unit.
1966 – National Organization for Women, launched by Kathryn Clarenbach and Betty Friedan, is first housed in Clarenbach’s faculty office on the UW campus.
1967 – The Biotron opens as the first research building in which environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, airflow and length of day can be precisely controlled for experimental purposes.
1967 – A series of protests against the war in Vietnam begins with an Oct.
1968 – The School of Business launches the country’s first graduate program in arts administration.
1968 – The UW’s Space Astronomy Laboratory constructs the world’s first true observatory in space — the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory.
In 1969, WARF began building itself a huge new building on the University of Wisconsin campus.
1969 – The Black Peoples Alliance organized a strike.
1969 – The UW establishes world’s first research center on rheology, a branch of physics.
1969 – George Bryan, professor of human oncology, finds evidence that links cancer in laboratory animals with saccharine and cyclamates, artificial sweeteners used in soft drinks and other foods.
1970 – The Faculty Senate holds its first meeting, replacing meetings of the whole faculty.
1970 – The Institute for Environmental Studies is established.
1970 – Nobel Prize-winning biochemistry professor Har Gobind Khorana becomes the first to synthesize a gene.
But the University of Wisconsin unified into a larger state college system in 1971, sparking fears that WARF's money might have to be spread among the smaller, far-flung campuses as well.
1971 – The Legislature establishes the University of Wisconsin System, merging the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin State Universities.
1971 – Union South, a part of the Wisconsin Union, opens to serve the expanding campus.
1971 – Richard Hong, a professor of pediatrics and microbiology, develops a new thymus transplant technique for treating immune-system deficiencies in children and young adults.
1972: The IRS challenges WARF's nonprofit status.
1972 – The Business School launches the first graduate program in health-care fiscal administration.
Fred, E.B., The Role of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in the Support of Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison: Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, 1973.
1973 – Sapporo Gold, the country’s first artificially produced variety of elm resistant to Dutch Elm disease, is released.
1975 – UW oncology professor Howard Temin receives the Nobel Prize for his discovery of retroviruses, viruses that transmit genetic information in a way that is exactly opposite to what had been believed.
According to Forbes, "For the next 20 years, WARF was run like a stuffy investment portfolio." The foundation revealed in 1976 that it had assets of more than $1 million.
1979 – The 1.5-million-square-foot Clinical Science Center opens, providing facilities for UW Hospital and Clinics, UW Clinical Cancer Center, UW Children’s Hospital, and clinical programs for the medical and nursing schools.
In 1983, WARF changed the formula that it used to divide royalties with inventors.
1984 – University Research Park is founded to encourage technology transfer and create an endowment for research programs.
1986 – Richard Love, associate professor of human oncology, medicine, and family medicine and practice, studies the long-term effects of the drug tamoxifen on postmenopausal women who have had cancer.
1986 – The Center for Dairy Research is established.
1988 – Initiatives designed to increase racial and ethnic diversity on campus are introduced.
1990 – UW–Madison horticulturists announce the development of the world’s first genetically altered trees designed to withstand herbicides, holding great promise for the paper and lumber industries.
When Leazer became managing director in 1993, WARF issued only 21 licenses.
1993: An equity stake in the company is taken for the first time in lieu of a licensing fee.
1993 – The university’s Division of Information Technology initiates email accounts for students.
1994 – Hector F. DeLuca, discoverer of a “super vitamin-D” compound, and colleagues develop biochemical techniques to synthesize the vitamin, opening the way to advances in the treatment of diseases such as osteoporosis.
Over the 1996-97 academic year, that number increased to 61, and two years later WARF issued 92 licenses.
1996 – Regents approve the Campus Master Plan, a comprehensive blueprint for campus development — from facilities to bike circulation and more — into the 21st century.
1997 – UW–Madison becomes one of six universities to participate in an $8.6 million effort funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to curb binge drinking among students.
1997 – UW–Madison chemists Regina Murphy and Laura Kiessling discover how to disrupt the toxicity of proteins that form brain lesions in Alzheimer’s patients, potentially leading to treatment of the disease.
Thomson was the first to isolate these so-called master cells in 1998.
1998 – Researcher James A. Thomson announces the successful cultivation in the laboratory of human embryonic stem cells — primordial cells that have the capacity to develop into any tissue in the body.
Leazer retired in 1999, and was succeeded by WARF's former director of patents and licensing, Carl Gulbrandsen.
WARF set up Thomson's lab as a private foundation in 2000, and it began licensing one of its stem cell lines to other laboratories.
2000: Wisys and Wicell subsidiaries are formed.
2001 – The $45 million Rennebohm Hall opens, giving the School of Pharmacy a state-of-the-art facility.
WARF controlled his patents, not only to the cell lines he had derived, but also for the methods used in the laboratory to grow the cells. It sued Geron Corp., a California company that also had funded Thomson and claimed rights to some of his inventions, in 2001.
Then in 2002, WARF opened its first satellite office.
WARF had an enormous number of patents, owning rights to some 1,700 inventions by 2003.
WARF's endowment had grown to $1.3 billion by 2004, and its research grant to the university reached about $40 million annually.
2005 – A $20 million gift from alumni Jerome and Simona Chazen funds a major expansion of the Elvehjem Museum of Art, and the university renames the museum in honor of the Chazens.
2006 – Alumni John and Tashia Morgridge give UW–Madison its largest individual gift ever, paving the way for scientific collaboration at a new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
2007 – UW–Madison is named to lead the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a consortium of universities, the Department of the Energy and businesses launched to explore the vast potential of bioenergy.
2009 – The UW System Board of Regents adopts the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, a supplemental tuition charge designed to invest in the quality of the undergraduate experience while vastly expanding the pool of need-based financial aid.
2010 – Illuminate: UW–Madison Year of the Arts, designed to celebrate the breadth, depth, power and purpose of the arts on campus, offers some 300 performances, exhibits, symposia, public events, publications and distinguished visiting speakers.
2010 – Go Big Read, a common-reading program for the campus and community, is launched.
Then, in 2011 WAA celebrated its 150th anniversary and presented UW–Madison with new street signs to mark key intersections near academic buildings, laboratories, and libraries on campus.
2011 – The new Union South, a $94.8 million facility offering dining, recreation, meeting and lodging spaces, replaces an underused and awkwardly designed predecessor.
2011 – Three campuswide initiatives are begun to address strategic priorities: educational innovation, administrative excellence and human resources design.
2012 – UWRightNow, a real-time, multimedia project featuring 24 hours in the life of the university, attracts more than 14,000 visitors from all 50 states and 66 countries.
2012 – The Year of Innovation focuses on the UW’s relentless pursuit of new knowledge, and celebrates the past, present and future of innovation at the university.
2013 – Representatives of the provost’s office and the Office of Corporate Relations participate in a trade mission to China to explore academic and business partnership opportunities.
In 2014, WAA merged with the UW Foundation, and now both are divisions of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association.
2014 – Signe Skott Cooper Hall, featuring cutting-edge learning environments, opens as the new home of the School of Nursing.
Envisioned as a celebration of the university’s most hallowed tradition, the Wisconsin Idea, Alumni Park opened to the public in October of 2017.
© 2022 Wisconsin Foundation & Alumni Association.
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University of Wisconsin Foundation competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Illinois System | 1867 | $270.2M | 233 | 5 |
| University Of Oregon Foundation | 1951 | $203.5M | 42 | 1 |
| OSU Foundation | 1961 | $178.4M | 20 | 7 |
| University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire | 1916 | $10.9M | 2,638 | 791 |
| University of Wisconsin Oshkosh | 1871 | $37.0M | 2,300 | 1,082 |
| University of Wisconsin-Whitewater | 1868 | $32.0M | 2,306 | - |
| University of Wisconsin-Parkside | 1968 | $13.0M | 993 | - |
| Wisconsin Alumni | 1861 | $5.0M | 20 | 7 |
University of Wisconsin Foundation history FAQs
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