Rockefeller University

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Founder's Hall

The Rockefeller University is a private university which focuses primarily on basic research in the biomedical fields and offers graduate and postgraduate education. It is located between 63rd and 68th Streets along York Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York. Its current president is Paul Nurse.

Twenty-three Nobel Prize winners have been associated with the university.

The university has been the site of many important scientific breakthroughs. Rockefeller scientists, for example, established that DNA is the chemical basis of heredity, discovered blood groups, showed that viruses can cause 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.^{[citation needed]}

See also: Education in New York City

[edit] History

The original Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was founded in 1901 by the oil baron and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, who had earlier founded the University of Chicago in 1889. The Rockefeller family has maintained strong links with the institution throughout its history–David Rockefeller, to give just one example, is the current Honorary Chairman and a Life Trustee. The Institute changed its name to The Rockefeller University in 1965, after expanding its mission to include education.

Upon its organization in 1901, Simon Flexner assumed the directorship.

[edit] At A Glance

[edit] The 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)

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] Faculty Awards

[edit] 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

[edit] Lasker Award Recipients

For Basic Medical Research

2007 Ralph M. Steinman

2003 Robert G. Roeder

1999 Roderick MacKinnon

1998 Paul Nurse

1993 Günter Blobel

1982 Hidesaburo Hanafusa

1975 Henry G. Kunkel

1969 R. Bruce Merrifield

1966 George E. Palade

1963 Lyman C. Craig

1958 Peyton Rous

1948 Rene Dubos

1947 Oswald T. Avery

For Clinical Research:

1988 Vincent Dole

1978 Emil C. Gotschlich

1957 Richard E. Shope

1946 Karl Landsteiner

1946 Philip Levine (physician)

For Special Achievement in Medical Science:

2002 James E. Darnell, Jr.

1994 Maclyn McCarty

[edit] National Medal of Science Recipients

2005 Torsten N. Wiesel

2003 James E. Darnell Jr.

1989 Joshua Lederberg

1986 George E. Palade

1979 Paul A. Weiss

1976 George E. Uhlenbeck

1974 James A. Shannon

1973 Frederick Seitz

1968 Detlev W. Bronk

1966 Fritz A. Lipmann

1965 Peyton Rous

1965 Donald D. Van Slyke

1964 Theodosius Dobzhansky

[edit] Members of the National Academy of Sciences

2007 Albert Libchaber

2007 Michael W. Young

2006 Titia de Lange^‡

2006 Charles D. Gilbert

2006 Michael E. O’Donnell

2006 Jeffrey V. Ravetch

2005 C. David Allis

2005 Charles M. Rice

2003 Cornelia I. Bargmann

2003 Barry S. Coller

2001 Jeffrey M. Friedman

2001 Ralph M. Steinman

2000 Roderick MacKinnon

1997 Joel E. Cohen

1997 Bruce S. McEwen

1996 Elaine Fuchs

1995 Jan L. Breslow

1995 Paul Nurse^‡

1994 Donald Pfaff

1991 A. James Hudspeth

1988 Mitchell J. Feigenbaum

1988 Fernando Nottebohm

1988 Robert G. Roeder

1987 Emil Gotschlich

1985 Hidesaburo Hanafusa^‡

1983 Günter Blobel

1980 Torsten Wiesel^‡

1978 Paul Greengard

1975 Christian de Duve^‡

1975 Philip Siekevitz

1973 James E. Darnell, Jr.

1972 R. Bruce Merrifield

1969 Norton D. Zinder

1959 Frank Brink

1957 Joshua Lederberg

1951 Frederick Seitz

^‡ Foreign Associates

[edit] Members of the Institute of Medicine

2005 Jeffrey M. Friedman

2002 Ralph M. Steinman

2000 Günter Blobel

1999 Barry S. Coller

1999 Paul Greengard

1998 Bruce S. McEwen

1997 Jan L. Breslow

1997 David D. Ho

1996 Torsten Wiesel

1994 Elaine Fuchs

1993 Jules Hirsch

1988 Emil C. Gotschlich

1971 Joshua Lederberg

[edit] Gairdner Foundation International Award Recipients

2007 C. David Allis

2005 Jeffrey M. Friedman

2003 Ralph M. Steinman

2001 Roderick MacKinnon

2000 Robert G. Roeder

1992 Paul Nurse

1986 James E. Darnell, Jr.

1982 Günter Blobel

1970 Vincent P. Dole

1970 R. Bruce Merrifield

1967 Christian de Duve

1967 George E. Palade

1964 Keith R. Porter

1962 Henry G. Kunkel

[edit] MacArthur "Genius Grant" Recipients

Robert Sapolsky

Joel Cohen

Mitchell Feigenbaum

Albert Libchaber

Robert Shapley

Jay Weiss

[edit] Current Faculty

Neuroscience:

Cornelia Bargmann

Robert Darnell

Jeff Friedman

Paul Greengard

Mary Beth Hatten

Nathaniel Heintz

Bruce McEwen

Tom W. Muir

Fernando Nottebohm

Donald Pfaff

Leslie Vosshall

A. James Hudspeth

[edit] 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.

Previous Faculty Members: Harry Frankfurt

[edit] Prominent alumni

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.

Robert Sapolsky, Stanford Professor, MacArthur Grant recipient, and writer of numerous books on stress and natural history.

[edit] 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.

[edit] References

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