Hall of Honor
One of three documented Olympians in Caltech Track & Field history, Skoog, who emigrated to the United States in 1925, was a three-time SCIAC champion in track & field and claimed one cross country title before going on to represent his home country of Sweden in the 1932 Summer Olympics hosted in Los Angeles. He placed sixth in his heat of the 1500-meter run, missing out on fourth and a place in the Final by just 0.8 of a second, while his time of 3:59.6 would have placed second in either of the other two heats. During his collegiate career, Skoog set track & field program records in the 1-mile and 880-yard runs twice each, as well as the 3-mile record in cross country. As a rookie, he set both the 1- and 2-mile freshman records and led the Beavers to their first championship in team history. Skoog won his only cross country title and completed the 1- and 2-mile track & field double at SCIACs as a senior after finishing runner-up in the 2-mile and placing fourth in cross country the year before. Skoog also was a renowned skiier who led the 1931 Beavers to claim the first perpetual J.A. Meyers trophy with wins in the 100-yard dash and 1.5-mile cross country events.
Following his athletic career, Skoog pioneered a number of breakthroughs in plant physiology, namely the discovery of cytokinins and soon earned his PhD in biology from Caltech for his work with auxin, a plant hormone. He continued his career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught and eventually co-published one of the most-cited papers in plant tissue culture concerning a then-unknown plant growth regulator in tobacco juice. His extensive list of accolades includes a National Medal of Science, election as a foreign member to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
