From medicine to ecology, engineering to computer science, the University of Wisconsin has for 175 years made valuable innovations that help people and communities across the state and beyond. And today, with one of the highest-ranked research programs in the country, the University of Wisconsin–Madison is well-known for making important scientific discoveries.

But what about some of the lesser-known scientists, often overlooked in their time, who helped make the key discoveries that gave rise to this reputation? Science is a team effort, even if that isn’t always reflected in the history books. While these scientists aren’t household names, the research they did and the training they received from UW–Madison helped advance their fields of science and improve the world.

In recent years, University Archives, the Public History Project and others have worked to highlight some of these people and make up for lost time.

Below are just a few of the scientists from UW–Madison who deserve to be recognized for the contributions they made to Wisconsin and the world.

While most people may not have heard the name Miyoshi Ikawa, they probably have heard of warfarin, the medicine commonly used as a blood thinner.

The story of warfarin, which was patented in 1947, began at UW–Madison in 1933, when a farmer sought the help of biochemistry professor Karl Paul Link. The farmer’s cows, who were eating sweet clover hay, began mysteriously dying from internal bleeding. The animals’ blood wasn’t clotting, so Link and his research team decided to find out why.

Once they discovered the chemical compound responsible for the cows’ thin blood, the researchers worked in the lab to create new variations of the substance, each with slight modifications to its chemical structure. Their goal was to maintain the compound’s blood-thinning effect.