The Rockefeller University

In January 1901 one of John D. Rockefeller’s grandsons died of scarlet fever, after which he formalized plans for a research center he had been discussing for three years with his adviser Frederick T. Gates and his son John D. Rockefeller Jr.John D. Rockefeller Jr.John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960) was an American philanthropist and the only son of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. He devoted most of his life to philanthropy and public affairs, giving away about $537 million in total; he led the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, built Rockefeller Center in New York and paid for the land for the United Nations headquarters in New York. In 1914 the Ludlow Massacre at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, controlled by his family, brought him nationwide criticism.Open the full entry At the time tuberculosis, diphtheria and typhoid fever were considered the greatest threats to human health, and the Koch and Pasteur Institutes in Europe were applying laboratory science to such diseases; following their lead, the Rockefeller Institute became the first biomedical research center in the United States, initially awarding grants to study public health problems such as bacterial contamination of New York City’s milk supply.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Pathologist Simon Flexner served as the first director from 1901 to 1935; he developed a novel delivery system for an anti-meningitis serum. Among early researchers, Hideyo Noguchi studied the syphilis microbe and searched for the cause of yellow fever, Louise Pearce developed a drug against African sleeping sickness, and Peyton Rous deduced that cancer can be caused by a virus.⁠[1][2][1]

After two years in temporary quarters, the institute opened laboratories in 1906 on the former Schermerhorn farm at York Avenue (then called Avenue A) and 66th Street, where it has remained ever since; its address today is 1230 York Avenue.⁠[1][1]

The Rockefeller Institute Hospital opened in 1910 as the first center for clinical research in the United States, allowing researchers to link laboratory investigations with bedside observations; early work covered polio, heart disease and diabetes, and the hospital model later served as a template for dozens of other clinical research centers.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Alexis Carrel of the institute received the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first Nobel laureate associated with the institution.⁠[3]

Oswald T. Avery came to the institute’s hospital in 1913 to study differences in virulence among strains of pneumococcus, work that led to the first vaccine for pneumococcal pneumonia; in 1944 he and Colin M. MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty discovered that DNA is the substance that transmits hereditary information, a finding that set the course of biological research for the rest of the century.⁠[1][1][1]

David RockefellerDavid RockefellerDavid Rockefeller (1915–2017) was an American banker and philanthropist and the youngest son of John D. Rockefeller Jr. He worked at Chase Manhattan Bank for 35 years, serving as chairman and chief executive officer from 1969 to 1981; he led institutions including The Rockefeller University and the Council on Foreign Relations for many years and co-founded the Trilateral Commission in 1973.Open the full entry, the founder’s grandson, joined the institute’s board in 1940 and in 1950 succeeded his father, John D. Rockefeller Jr., as chairman of the board, going on to lead the institute’s transformation into a university.⁠[4][4]

Using the newly developed electron microscope, the institute’s scientists were the first to see inside cells, showing that the fluid inside cells was not an undifferentiated chemical soup but contained distinct structures carrying out different functions, thereby bringing cell biology into the modern era.⁠[1][1][1]

In 1955 the institute added education to its mission and admitted its first class of graduate students; David Rockefeller worked with then-president Detlev Bronk (in office 1953–1968) to establish the graduate program and enlisted architect Wallace Harrison and landscape designer Dan Kiley to design the mid-century campus that remains today. The first convocation in 1959 conferred five doctorates, and as of October 2026 the university had granted more than 1,000 Ph.D. degrees.⁠[1][4][2][4][1]

In 1965 the Rockefeller Institute became The Rockefeller University, further broadening its research mandate; from the early 1960s it also brought in faculty with expertise in physics and mathematics.⁠[1][1]

In 1972 the university began collaborating with Cornell University to offer graduate students an M.D.-Ph.D. program; the Sloan-Kettering Institute later joined, forming what is now the Tri-Institutional Program.⁠[1]

David Rockefeller stepped down as chairman of the board in 1975 and chaired the executive committee for another 20 years; during the 1970s he secured air rights over the FDR Drive from the City of New York for the university, reserving space for later expansion. The university awarded him an honorary degree in 1980, and in 1995 he was elected honorary chairman and life trustee; the university established an award for extraordinary service named after him that year, and he was its first recipient.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

In 2005, to celebrate David Rockefeller’s 90th birthday, the university renamed its Ph.D. program the David Rockefeller Graduate Program to reflect his central role in its development. That same year he made a major gift to the university that helped create the Collaborative Research Center and restore north campus buildings that were in disrepair.⁠[4][4]

Neuroscientist and former Genentech chief scientific officer Marc Tessier-Lavigne took office as the tenth president, succeeding Paul Nurse, who left to become president of the Royal Society; he had been elected by the board on September 8, 2010.⁠[5][5]

Geneticist Richard P. Lifton was named the 11th president by the board on May 5, 2016, and took office on September 1; he previously chaired Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry’s Department of Genetics and is known for using genetics and genomics to study disease mechanisms, including hypertension and salt intake.⁠[6][6][6]

David Rockefeller died on March 20, 2017, at the age of 101. Board chair Russell L. Carson and President Lifton said that no single individual in the university’s long history had a more profound influence on it. In his later years he and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation made a joint gift to create the Stavros Niarchos Foundation–David Rockefeller River Campus, which uses the air rights over the FDR Drive to add two acres to the existing 14-acre campus and includes the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Research Building.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

The campus expansion was completed in 2019, adding two acres and 135,600 square feet of new research space.⁠[7]

Virologist Charles M. Rice received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research that led to a cure for hepatitis C. University researchers had earlier produced an infectious form of the hepatitis C virus in laboratory cultures of human cells, leading directly to three new classes of hepatitis C drugs.⁠[3][1]

Since its founding in 1901, 26 Nobel laureates have been associated with the university. Laureates among current faculty and emeriti include Torsten N. Wiesel (1981), Paul Nurse (2001), Roderick MacKinnon (Chemistry, 2003), Michael W. Young (2017) and Charles M. Rice (2020); laureates among past faculty also include Peyton Rous (1966), Joshua Lederberg (1958), Albert Claude, Christian de Duve and George E. Palade (1974), David Baltimore (1975), Gunter Blobel (1999), Paul Greengard (2000) and Ralph M. Steinman (2011).⁠[3][3][3][3][3][3][3][3][3][3][3][3]

The university’s heads have been Simon Flexner (1901–1935), Herbert S. Gasser (1935–1953), Detlev W. Bronk (1953–1968), Frederick Seitz (1968–1978), Joshua Lederberg (1978–1990), David Baltimore (1990–1991), Torsten N. Wiesel (1991–1998), Arnold J. Levine (1998–2002), Paul Nurse (2003–2011) and Marc Tessier-Lavigne (2011–2016); the current president is Richard P. Lifton.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2]

The graduate program offers research and education in the biomedical sciences, chemistry and biophysics, individualized to each student with close faculty mentoring; the university also runs an M.D./Ph.D. program and a chemical biology Ph.D. program with neighboring Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medicine. Graduate students receive full financial support, live in subsidized housing and pay no tuition. As of October 2026 the university had 72 heads of laboratories, 270 graduate students, 210 postdocs and 1,325 staff, with a research budget of $228 million.⁠[8][8][8][7]

The Rockefeller University: Official website: https://www.rockefeller.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

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YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/rockefelleruniv (opens in a new window)⁠[1]

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