Rockefeller University

From Freepedia

Rockefeller University is a private university focusing primarily on graduate education and research in the biomedical fields, located between 63rd and 68th street on York Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan island in New York City, New York. The original Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was founded in 1901 by John D. Rockefeller, who had earlier founded the University of Chicago. The Institute changed its name to Rockefeller University in 1965, after expanding its mission to include education.

Rockefeller University, though not widely recognized by the lay public, is one of the world leaders in biomedical research. Faculty members are generally recruited for their immense talents and already established research programs. Thus, faculty tend to be mid-level to established when hired, and cultivating young faculty has not been a strong point of the university. In turn, however, the hiring of only prominant or already upcoming scientists has led to its emergence as arguably the "pound for pound" greatest conglomeration of scientific talent in America.

Faculty history: In the mid 1970s, 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 co-winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999, 2000 and 2001.