Columbia and American Higher Learning
1754–76  |   1787–1857  |   1858–1901  |   1902–1945  |   1946–1964  |   1965–1969  |   1970–2004

1754–76

1754
The Reverend Samuel Johnson appointed president of the college to open in New York City, thereafter King's College; Johnson one of the three best-known American colonial scholars in Britain (Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin were the others), primarily for his polemical writings in defense of Anglicanism and his treatise, Elementa Philosophica (1752).

1757
Daniel Treadwell, a promising scientist, who studied with John Winthrop at Harvard, joined the King's College faculty as professor of natural philosophy; his scientific career cut short by smallpox, from which he died in 1760.

1763
The Reverend Myles Cooper, then a 28-year-old chaplain to an Oxford college, appointed second president of King's College; enjoys a modest reputation in England as a poet; remains at King's College until April 1775, when forced to flee a Revolutionary mob, which holds him responsible for anonymous pamphlets in defense of royal authority; he describes the circumstances of his flight in a poem.

1767
Several New York City physicians establish a medical school within King's College, the second such college in the colonies (University of Pennsylvania first) and the first to offer courses; one of the founding faculty, Dr. John Jones, later publishes the first surgical textbook in America, Plain Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures (1775).

1776
Spring–King's College suspends operations due to the disruptive effects of armed conflict between the Revolutionary forces and the British army; building becomes a British military hospital upon the departure of Washington and his troops in September 1776.

Of the 226 attendees of King's College (113 of whom graduate), John Jay (King's College 1764), Robert R. Livingston (King's College 1765), Gouverneur Morris (King's College 1766), and Alexander Hamilton (1773–75) go on to play prominent roles in creating the political institutions of the United States. Hamilton, one of the two principal authors of The Federalist Papers, numbers among the most intellectually acute if politically partisan of the Founding Fathers. John Stevens (King's College1768), a noted engineer and inventor, is one of the first Americans to attempt to construct a steam-propelled seagoing vessel. Among the 59 men who serve as governors of King's College, none is conspicuously engaged in intellectual matters or leaves behind publications of more than passing note.

1787–1857

1787
Three years after King's College is resurrected as Columbia College, its trustees elect the attorney William Samuel Johnson the college's third president. Johnson, the son of Samuel Johnson and a loyalist for much of the Revolution, plays a constructive role as a member of the 1787 constitutional convention in Philadelphia, serving as part of the Connecticut delegation and a member of the drafting committee. Gouverneur Morris and Alexander Hamilton are also among the signers of the Constitution.

1792
Samuel L. Mitchill appointed to the Columbia faculty as professor of natural history; teaches geology, chemistry, mineralogy, zoology, and botany until 1801, when he is elected to Congress. At Columbia he also begins editing the Medical Repository (1797–1824), the first medical journal published in the United States, and acquires a reputation as "perhaps the most versatile man of science in his time."

1795
James Kent appointed to the Columbia faculty to offer a set of lectures on American law; he does so for three years until the absence of student interest prompts him to resign. Kent later becomes one of the country's leading legal scholars and the author of Commentaries on American Law (1826–28, 1830). He returns to Columbia in 1824, but his lectures meet much the same fate and prompt his resignation in 1826.

1810
The Irishman Robert Adrain joins the Columbia faculty as professor of mathematics; although terminated in 1825, Adrian was by then recognized in Europe as perhaps America's leading mathematician.

1817
The Reverend John McVickar (Columbia College 1804) joins the Columbia faculty and remains a member until his retirement in 1864. His course in political economy and another on banking are among the first courses in economics offered at an American college. His books include Outlines of Political Economy (1825) and A National Bank: Its Necessity and Its Most Advisable Form (1841). He was a frequent contender for the Columbia presidency.

1820
Charles Anthon (Columbia College 1815) joins the Columbia faculty as adjunct professor of Latin and Greek; during his 37 years of teaching, he becomes, largely through his textbooks and translations published by the Harper brothers, the best-known American classicist of his time. His publications include a Dictionary of Greek & Roman Antiquities (1843) and The Aeneid (1853).

James Renwick (Columbia College 1807) joins the Columbia faculty as professor of chemistry and experimental philosophy. During his 33-year career he teaches virtually every science and engineering course Columbia offers. In addition to textbooks in chemistry, geology, and physics, Renwick writes his Treatise on Steam Engines (1830) and, later in life, several biographies of American scientific and political figures, among them A Life of De Witt Clinton (1859).

1857
The German-born scholar Francis Lieber appointed Columbia's first professor of political economy and history; already an internationally recognized scholar based on his Liberty and Self-Government (1853); solidifies his position with the publication of Code for the Government of Armies (1863); in 1865 he switches his affiliation to the law school, where he teaches until his death in 1872.

Between 1784 and 1857, some 42 men hold full-time positions as members of the Columbia faculty; of these, fewer than ten achieve more than local notoriety as scholars. Similarly, of the approximately 1,200 graduates of Columbia College during this period, only a handful achieve literary or intellectual prominence. Among them are the writer-editor Gulian Verplanck (Columbia College 1801), the travel writer John Lloyd Stephens (Columbia College 1822) and the distinguished Harvard chemist, Wolcott Gibbs (Columbia College 1841), whose rejection by the Columbia trustees for an appointment to the faculty 1854 makes him a local cause celebre. Columbia credits itself with two of the great early-nineteenth-century American diarists, Philip Hone, who serves as a Columbia trustee (1824–51) and George Templeton Strong (Columbia College 1839); trustee, 1853–75). An early comparative assessment of mid-nineteenth-century American colleges, by the Boston-based Christian Examiner (1854) rated Columbia College "Good in classics; weak in sciences; very few distinguished graduates."


1858–1901

1858
Columbia opens a law school under the direction of Theodore William Dwight, who goes on to become one of the great legal educators of the late nineteenth century.

1864
Columbia trustees elect Frederick A. P. Barnard, the tenth president of Columbia University, the first of Columbia's presidents since Samuel Johnson to enjoy standing as an accomplished scholar or scientist. Barnard is a founding member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1846 and its president in 1861; also elected to the National Academy of Sciences upon its founding in 1863. Barnard is an experienced educational administrator before coming to Columbia; previously president of the University of Alabama and chancellor of the University of Mississippi.

Charles Frederick Chandler appointed first dean of Columbia's new School of Mines; during the next forty years he becomes one of America's most highly regarded chemists and science administrators.

1875
The School of Mines awards three PhD degrees, making Columbia the third American university to do so (after Yale, Harvard and Cornell).

1876
John W. Burgess leaves Amherst College to join the Columbia faculty; soon becomes the country's leading political scientist.

Columbia chemist Charles Frederick Chandler takes lead in the organizing of the American Chemical Society; also assumes the founding editorship of Chemical News.

1881
Burgess, with the active support of President Barnard, persuades the Columbia trustees to establish a separate faculty of political science, which marks the organizational beginnings of advanced study of the social sciences in America.

1884
Columbia faculty member William A. Dunning (Columbia College 1882, PhD 1885) takes a leading part in the early affairs of the American Historical Association.

1885
Columbia faculty member Edwin R. A. Seligman (Columbia College 1880, PhD 1884) takes a leading role in the founding of the American Economics Association.

1886
Modern Language Association holds its founding meeting on the Columbia campus.

John W. Burgess and his colleagues in the faculty of political science begin the publication of the Political Science Quarterly, under the editorship of E. R. A. Seligman.

1888
American Mathematical Society holds its founding meeting at Columbia.

1891
Columbia faculty member Nicholas Murray Butler (Columbia College 1882, PhD 1884) becomes the founding editor of Educational Review.

Biologist Edmund B. Wilson recruited to Columbia from Bryn Mawr College; lays the foundation for Columbia's subsequent leadership in the fields of molecular biology and genetics.

James Brander Matthews appointed professor of English; quickly establishes himself as a leading commentator on American and English literature.

1892
Recently appointed Columbia psychologist James McKeen Cattell takes a leading role in the founding of the American Psychological Association.

1893
Columbia becomes the home of the Physical Review.

1894
The English sociologist Franklin Giddings appointed at Columbia, where he becomes one of the founding fathers of American academic sociology.

1895
James Harvey Robinson joins the Columbia history department; quickly makes it a center for "the new history," with its emphasis on the contemporaneously relevant past.

The Psychological Review is founded under the editorship of Columbia psychologist James McKeen Cattell.

1896
The German-born anthropologist Franz Boas joins the Columbia faculty; Columbia thereafter becomes the leading center for anthropological studies in America.

1899
Columbia becomes the founding home of Germanic Studies.

1900
By 1900, Columbia's faculty is larger than and as distinguished as that of any American university. Columbia is not only the acknowledged leader in the study of the social sciences, it offers the most comprehensive coverage of the humanities and is already beginning to consolidate its leadership in psychology and the biological sciences. Its principal competitor for academic preeminence as a research university is Harvard.


1902–1945

1902
The 40-year old philosopher Nicholas Murray Butler (Columbia College 1882, PhD 1884) becomes Columbia's 12th president; at his election he is already one of the country's most conspicuous scholarly political advisers. His confidants include President Theodore Roosevelt, who attends his inauguration. As the first dean of the faculty of philosophy in the 1890s, he recruits many of Columbia's faculty luminaries.

1904
The biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan joins an already distinguished cluster of Columbia biologists, further consolidating its position as the leading center for research in the then new field of genetics.

1905
The philosopher John Dewey resigns from the University of Chicago, where he had become one of America's preeminent philosophers, and accepts an appointment at Columbia. His arrival puts Columbia's philosophy department into direct competition with Harvard's for national preeminence.

1906
James McKeen Catell publishes "A Statistical Study of American Men of Science," in which Columbia ranks second (60) only to Harvard (66.5) in the number of distinguished scientists on its faculty. The next closest is Chicago (39).

President Theodore Roosevelt, who attends the Columbia Law School (1880–81), wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to mediate the Russo-Japanese War. He is the first Columbian to win a Nobel Prize.

1910
Columbia has become the nation's biggest producer of PhDs, well ahead of Harvard and the University of Chicago, its nearest competitors; it remain so into the 1940s.

Edwin Slosson's comparative study Great American Universities ranks Columbia second only to Harvard in academic eminence, arguing further that Columbia, "situated in the largest city, has the best chance to become the greatest of American universities—and it is improving the chance."

1913
Columbia historian Charles A. Beard published his controversial An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, in which he argues that the economic interests of the Founding Fathers help explain their politics at the constitutional convention of 1787.

1915
Columbia geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan coauthors The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity, an immediately recognized classic in the study of genetics.

1917
The war-related firing of the psychologist James McKeen Cattell and the resignation of the historian Charles A. Beard, followed shortly by that of the historian James Harvey Robinson, result in a marked diminution in the ranks of Columbia faculty notables.

1923
Columbia-trained physicist Robert A. Millikan (PhD 1895), then president of the California Institute of Technology, wins the Nobel Prize for Physics. He is only the second American—and the first Columbian—to receive a Nobel Prize in science.

1925
An institutional comparison of major American graduate schools conducted by Raymond Hughes and based on peer assessments ranks Columbia behind Chicago and Harvard, but well ahead of Wisconsin and Yale in terms of the perceived quality of their graduate programs.

1928
The geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan resigns from Columbia after 24 years to accept an appointment at the California Institute of Technology.

1929
Irving Langmuir, a research scientist for General Electric and a graduate of the Columbia School of Mines (1904), receives a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He is the second Columbian to be so honored.

1931
Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to secure world peace through international treaties. He is the second Columbian to win a Nobel Peace Prize, the fourth to win a Nobel Prize in any category.

1933
Thomas Hunt Morgan received a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work mostly done at Columbia University. He is the third Columbian to win a Nobel Prize in science, the fifth overall.

1934
An update of the Hughes 1925 comparative study again ranks Columbia in third place among American graduate schools, this time behind Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley.

Columbia chemist Harold C. Urey wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the first Columbia current faculty member to be so honored and the fourth Columbian to win a Nobel Prize in science, the sixth overall.

1935
An appraisal of American universities by Edwin R. Embree, which appeared in Atlantic Monthly, ranked Columbia third, behind Harvard and Chicago, but ahead of Berkeley, and Yale.

1938
The Italian physicist Enrico Fermi wins the Nobel Prize for Physics just after joining the Columbia faculty. He is the fifth Columbian to be so honored, the seventh overall.

1940
With the secret authorization of President Franklin Roosevelt, the Manhattan Project is launched on the Columbia University campus. Its purpose is to explore the military potential of nuclear energy, specifically the possibility of developing an atomic bomb. Professors Rabi, Fermi, Urey, and engineering professor John R. Dunning are among the prime movers.

1942
With American entry into the war, much of the Manhattan Project is relocated elsewhere in the country, while Rabi goes to MIT to work on the development of radar and Urey and Fermi are relocated to Chicago. Columbia continues to operate its radiation laboratory.

1944
Physicist I. I. Rabi (PhD 1927) wins a Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. He is the sixth Columbian to be so honored, the eighth overall.

1945
April—Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler announces his retirement after nearly 43 years as president, during much of which he was the country's most widely known and frequently quoted academic executive.


1946–1964

1946
The Columbia-trained Herman N. J. Muller (BA 1909; PhD 1912) wins a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of x-ray irradiation. He is the seventh Columbian scientist to be so honored, the ninth overall.

The Columbia-trained Rockefeller Institute chemist John H. Northrop (BS 1912; PhD 1915) wins a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the preparation of enzymes and proteins in their pure form. He is the eighth Columbian scientist to be so honored, the tenth overall.

1948
Columbia historian Richard Hofstadter publishes The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It. The book stresses the nonradical character of America's successful political leaders.

1949
Columbia faculty member Hideki Yukawa wins a Nobel Prize for Physics for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces. He is the ninth Columbian to be so honored, the eleventh overall.

Columbia sociologist Robert K. Merton publishes Social Theory and Social Structure.

1950
The Columbia-trained Edward C. Kendall (BS 1908; PhD 1910) wins a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex. He is the tenth Columbian to be so honored, the twelfth overall.

Professor of English Lionel Trilling publishes The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Politics and Literature, to critical acclaim.

1955
Columbia faculty member Polykarp Kusch wins a Nobel Prize for Physics for work in determining the magnetic moment of the electron. He is the eleventh Columbian to be so honored, the thirteenth overall.

Ex-Columbia faculty member and Stanford physicist Willis E. Lamb (1938–51) wins a Nobel Prize for Physics for work on the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum done at Columbia. He is the twelfth Columbian to be so honored, the forteenth overall.

Richard Hofstadter publishes The Age of Reform, for which he wins a Pulitzer Prize.

1956
Columbia faculty members Andre F. Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards share a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research on heart catheterization conducted at Columbia and Bellevue Hospital. They are the 13th and 14th Columbians to be so honored, the 15th and 16th overall.

Sociologist C. Wright Mills publishes The Power Elite, which garners praise in some quarters, criticism in others.

1957
Columbia faculty member Tsung-Dao Lee (1953–) wins a Nobel Prize for Physics for work done at Columbia. He is the 15th Columbian to be so honored, the 17th overall.

National ratings of graduate departments in the arts and sciences place Columbia third among the top American universities, behind Harvard and Berkeley.

1958
Columbia graduate Joshua Lederberg (BA 1944) wins a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events. He is the 16th Columbian to be so honored, the 18th overall.

1960
Political scientist Richard Neustadt publishes Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership on the eve of the Kennedy administration, which he joins. Columbia philosopher Charles Frankel is appointed to the State Department.

Sociologist Daniel Bell publishes The End of Ideology: The Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties at the time he joins the Columbia faculty.

1963
Ex-Columbia faculty member and Gottingen physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer (1939–40) wins a Nobel Prize for Physics for work in nuclear shell structure. She is the 17th Columbian to be so honored, the 19th overall.

1964
Columbia faculty member Charles H. Townes wins a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in quantum electronics and masers-lasers. He is the 18th Columbian to be so honored, the 20th overall.

Ex-Columbia faculty member Konrad E. Bloch (PhD 1938) wins a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism. He is the 19th Columbian to be so honored, the 21st overall.

1965–1969

1965
Columbia-trained Harvard physicist Julian S. Schwinger (CC 1936; PhD 1939) wins Nobel Prize for Physics for work in quantum electrodynamics. He is the 20th Columbian to be so honored, the 22nd overall.

1966
American Council on Education ratings of graduate departments, based on 1964 peer assessment, reports sharp drop in Columbia's standing; now ranked seventh among top universities.

1967
Columbia-trained Harvard biologist George Wald (PhD 1932) wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the chemistry of vision. He is the 21st Columbian to be so honored, the 23rd overall.

1968
Columbia historian and ex-provost Jacques Barzun writes The American University: How It Runs, Where It Is Going.

1969
American Council of Education ratings of graduate departments, based on 1967 peer assessments, shows Columbia's slide continuing, now with a composite rank of 12th.

Ex-Columbia faculty member and MIT professor Salvador E. Luria (1940–42) wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his research on viruses. He is the 22nd Columbian to be so honored, the 24th overall.

1970–2004

1971
Columbia-trained Harvard economist Simon S. Kuznets (BS 1923; PhD 1926) wins Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on economic growth. He is the first Columbian to receive a Nobel Prize for Economics and the 25th overall.

1972
Columbia-trained Rockefeller Institute biochemist William H. Stein (PhD 1937) wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work on the structure of the ribonuclease molecule. He is the 26th Columbian so honored.

Columbia-trained Brown University physicist Leon N. Cooper (AB 1951; AM 1953; PhD 1954) wins Nobel Prize for Physics for a theory of superconductivity. He is the 27th Columbian so honored.

Columbia-trained Harvard economist Kenneth J. Arrow (PhD 1948) wins Nobel Prize for Economics for work in general economic theory. He is the 28th Columbian so honored.

1973
Ex-Columbia College student Konrad Lorenz (1922–23) wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He is the 29th Columbian so honored.

1975
Columbia faculty member James Rainwater (PhD 1946) wins Nobel Prize for Physics for work done at Columbia. He is the 30th Columbian so honored.

Ex-faculty member Aage Bohr (1949–50) wins Nobel Prize for Physics. He is the 31st Columbian so honored.

1976
Columbia P & S–trained Baruch S. Blumberg (MD 1951) wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on infectious diseases. He is the 32nd Columbian so honored.

Ex-faculty member Samuel C.C. Ting (1964–67) wins Nobel Prize for Physics. He is the 33rd Columbian so honored.

Columbia-trained University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman (PhD 1940) wins Nobel Prize for Economics for his work in monetary history. He is the 34th Columbian so honored.

1978
Columbia-trained Arno Penzias (PhD 1961) wins Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation. He is the 35th Columbian so honored.

English professor Edward Said publishes Orientalism, a landmark book in the development of postcolonial theorizing.

1979
The Presidential Commission on Academic Priorities in the Arts and Sciences, chaired by professor of English Steven Marcus, acknowledges the relative and ongoing competitive standing of most Columbia graduate departments.

Ex-Columbia faculty member and Harvard physicist Steven Weinberg wins Nobel Prize for Physics for work predicting a weak neutral current. He is the 36th Columbian so honored.

Ranking of graduate departments, conducted by Seymour Martin Lipset and Everett Ladd Jr., place Columbia 11th among American universities overall.

1980
Ex-Columbia faculty member Val L. Fitch (PhD 1954) wins Nobel Prize for Physics. He is the 37th Columbian so honored.

Columbia-trained Baruj Benacerraf (BS 1942) wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on the discovery of certain immunological reactions. He is the 38th Columbian so honored.

1981
Columbia-trained Cornell chemist Roald Hoffmann (Columbia College 1958) wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his theories of chemical reactions. He is the 39th Columbian so honored.

Ex-faculty member Arthur Schawlow (1949–50, 1961) wins Nobel Prize for Physics. He is the 40th Columbian so honored.

1982
Ex-Columbia faculty member and University of Chicago economist George J. Stigler (1947–58) wins Nobel Prize for Economics for work on the effects of public regulation. He is the 4th economist and the 41st Columbian so honored.

National Research Council assessment of the quality of research programs ranks Columbia eleventh overall among American universities.

1985
Columbia-trained Herbert A. Hauptman (MA 1939) wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work on the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures. He is the 42nd Columbian so honored.

1987
Ex-faculty member Joseph Brodsky (1978–85) wins Nobel Prize for Literature. He is the first Columbian to be honored with a Nobel Prize for Literature and the 43rd Columbian to be so honored.

1988
Ex-Columbia faculty member Leon M. Lederman (PhD 1951) wins Nobel Prize for Physics just after leaving Columbia in 1978 to head the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is the 44th Columbian so honored.

Columbia faculty member Melvin Schwartz (CC 1953; PhD 1958) wins Nobel Prize for Physics for work developing the neutrino beam method. He is the 45th Columbian to be so honored.

Ex-faculty member Jack Steinberger (1950–1968) wins Nobel Prize for Physics for work developing the neutrino beam method. He is the 46th Columbian to be so honored.

1989
A former Columbia graduate student and Yale professor Sidney Altman wins Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discovering the catalytic properties of RNA. He is the 47th Columbian to be so honored.

Ex-faculty member and Harvard physicist Norman F. Ramsey Jr. (AB 1935; PhD 1940) wins Nobel Prize for Physics for work on the atomic clock. He is the 48th Columbian to be so honored.

Columbia P&S–trained Harold E. Varmus (MD 1965) wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. He is the 49th Columbian to be so honored.

1990
Ex-faculty member at Columbia affiliate Mary Imogene Basset Hospital in Cooperstown, New York, E. Donnal L. Thomas (1955–63), wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work in organ and cell transplantation. He is the 50th Columbian to be so honored.

1991
Ex-faculty member Nadine Gordimer (1971–72, 1976–78, 1983) wins Nobel Prize for Literature, the second in literature and the 51st overall.

1992
Ex-faculty member Derek Walcott (1979, 1981–83, 1984) wins Nobel Prize for Literature, the third in literature and the 52nd overall.

Ex-faculty member and University of Chicago economist Gary S. Becker (1957–70) wins Nobel Prize for Economics for microeconomic investigations into nonmarket behavior. He is the 5th economist and the 53rd Columbian overall to be so honored.

1993
Columbia-trained University of Chicago economist Robert W. Fogel (MA 1960) wins Nobel Prize for Economics for his work in American economic history. He is the 6th economist and the 54th Columbian overall to be so honored.

1995
National Research Council rankings of graduate department indicate a general improvement in the competitive standing of Columbia departments since last NRC ranking in 1982.

Columbia-trained Stanford physicist Martin Perl (CU PhD 1955) wins Nobel Prize for Physics for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics. He is the 55th Columbian to be so honored.

1996
Retired Columbia faculty member William Vickrey (1946–82; PhD 1948) wins Nobel Prize for Economics for theory of incentives under asymmetric information. He is the 7th economist and the 56th Columbian overall to be so honored.

1997
Columbia-trained Harvard economist Robert C. Merton wins Nobel Prize for Economics for a new method to determine the value of derivatives. He is the 8th economist and the 57th Columbian to be so honored.

1998
Soon-to-be Columbia professor Horst Stormer wins Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations. He is the 58th Columbian to be so honored.

Former Columbia faculty member Louis Ignarro wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. He is the 59th Columbian to be so honored.

1999
Faculty member Robert A. Mundell (1974–) wins Nobel Prize for Economics for work in monetary and fiscal policy. He is the 9th economist and 60th Columbian to be so honored.

2001
Columbia faculty member Eric R. Kandel (1974–) wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work in signal transduction in the nervous system. He is the 61st Columbian to be so honored.

Columbia faculty member Joseph Stiglitz wins Nobel Prize for Economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information. He is the 9th economist and the 62nd Columbian to be so honored.

2002
An internal review, The Natural Sciences at Columbia optimistic about prospects for an improved scientific environment at Columbia.

Last Edited: March 2004
For comments and corrections, contact Robert A. McCaughey

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