On Apr. 3, 2006, UW Madison alumni John and Tashia Morgridge pledged $50 million – the largest individual gift in the university’s history – to support a public-private partnership to develop the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery. Morgridge was formerly chair of Cisco Systems.

The Morgridge donation was matched by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), together providing a $100 million boost to the building project, which brought together scientists from a broad spectrum of disciplines to attack the problems of disease, advance regenerative medicine and solve other important problems.