Rockefeller University
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| File:Rockefeller University seal.gif | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Established | 1901 |
| Endowment | $1.53 billion[1] |
| President | Sir Paul Nurse |
| Location | , , |
| Website | Rockefeller.edu |
The Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. The Rockefeller University is located on Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, between 63rd and 68th Streets along York Avenue.
Its president is Sir Paul Nurse, who plans to leave Rockefeller University by the end of 2010. Marc Tessier-Lavigne—now executive vice president for research and chief scientific officer at Genentech—is planned to succeed Nurse.
History
What is now The Rockefeller University was founded in 1901 as The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research by oil baron and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, who had earlier founded the University of Chicago in 1889. Sometimes called simply The Rockefeller Institute (not to be confused with The Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic organization), its first director was Simon Flexner, former student of William Welch. Its focus throughout much of the 1900s was the development of both basic science and biomedical engineering. The institute changed its name to The Rockefeller University in 1965, after expanding its mission to include education.
Many scientific breakthroughs have emerged from The Rockefeller Institute or The Rockefeller University. Rockefeller scientists, for example, established that DNA is the chemical element of heredity, discovered blood groups, showed that viruses can trigger cancer, founded the modern field of cell biology, worked out the structure of antibodies, developed methadone maintenance for individuals addicted to heroin, devised the AIDS "cocktail" drug therapy, and identified the weight-regulating hormone leptin.[2]
Twenty-three Nobel Prize winners have been associated with the university. The Rockefeller family has maintained strong links with the institution throughout its history; David Rockefeller, for instance, is the Honorary Chairman and a Life Trustee.
At a glance
Rockefeller University community
- >70 heads of laboratories
- 190 research and clinical scientists
- 360 postdoctoral investigators
- 1,000 support staff
- 150 Ph.D. students
- 50 M.D.-Ph.D. students
- 890 alumni
(approximate numbers)
Areas of basic interdisciplinary research
- biochemistry, structural biology and chemistry
- molecular, cell and developmental biology
- immunology, virology and microbiology
- medical sciences and human genetics
- neuroscience
- physics and mathematical biology
Health conditions under study
- addiction
- aging
- AIDS
- Alzheimer’s disease
- antibiotic resistance
- arthritis
- cancer
- Chagas disease
- cystic fibrosis
- diabetes
- heart disease
- hepatitis C
- hereditary diseases
- memory loss with aging
- neurological disorders
- obesity
- psoriasis
- schizophrenia
- tuberculosis
Faculty awards
Nobel Prize recipients
- 2003 Roderick MacKinnon
- 2001 Paul Nurse
- 2000 Paul Greengard
- 1999 Günter Blobel
- 1984 R. Bruce Merrifield
- 1981 Torsten Wiesel
- 1975 David Baltimore
- 1974 Albert Claude
- 1974 Christian de Duve
- 1974 George E. Palade
- 1972 Stanford Moore
- 1972 William H. Stein
- 1972 Gerald M. Edelman
- 1967 H. Keffer Hartline
- 1966 Peyton Rous
- 1958 Joshua Lederberg
- 1958 Edward L. Tatum
- 1953 Fritz Lipmann
- 1946 John H. Northrop
- 1946 Wendell M. Stanley
- 1944 Herbert S. Gasser
- 1930 Karl Landsteiner
- 1912 Alexis Carrel
Faculty history
In the mid 1970's, Rockefeller succeeded in attracting a few prominent academics in the humanities, most notably Saul Kripke, a notable logician, philosopher of language, and expositor of the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. More recently, its faculty were winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999, 2000, and 2001, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003. Faculty are assigned to any of six different research areas defined by the university. However, due to the highly interdisciplinary culture that Rockefeller University fosters, many faculty are listed under several research areas.
Prominent alumni
- David Albert
- David Baltimore, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine in 1975 for the discovery of reverse transcriptase. Has served as president of both The Rockefeller University and the California Institute of Technology.
- Barbara Ehrenreich, social commentator and author of the 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America.
- Jonathan Lear, the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, who specializes in Aristotle and psychoanalysis.
- Seth Lloyd
- Robert Sapolsky, Stanford Professor, MacArthur Grant recipient, and writer of numerous books on stress and natural history.
- Richard Wolfenden, professor of chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
References
- ^ As of June 30, 2009. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2009 Endowment Market Value and Percentage Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2008 to FY 2009" (PDF). 2009 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. National Association of College and University Business Officers. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
- ^ Medical News Today
Further reading
- Chernow, Ron. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., London: Warner Books, 1998.
- Hanson, Elizabeth. The Rockefeller University Achievements: A Century of Science for the Benefit of Humankind, 1901-2001. New York: The Rockefeller University Press, 2000.
- Rockefeller, David. Memoirs, New York: Random House, 2002.
External links
- The Rockefeller University
- The Rockefeller University Newswire
- The Rockefeller University Hospital
- The Rockefeller University Press
- Natural Selections (an unofficial Rockefeller University newsletter)