Caltech

Caltech at a Glance

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a world-renowned science and engineering research and education institution, where extraordinary faculty and students seek answers to complex questions, discover new knowledge, lead innovation, and transform our future.

Caltech's 124-acre campus is located in Pasadena, California.
Mission

The mission of the California Institute of Technology is to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education. We investigate the most challenging, fundamental problems in science and technology in a singularly collegial, interdisciplinary atmosphere, while educating outstanding students to become creative members of society.
History

Founded as Throop University in 1891 in Pasadena, California, and renamed the California Institute of Technology in 1920.

California Institute of Technology is a private institution that was founded in 1891. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 983, its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 124 acres. It utilizes a quarter-based academic calendar. California Institute of Technology's ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 10. Its tuition and fees are $45,390 (2015-16). 

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is a world-renowned science and engineering research and education institution, where extraordinary faculty and students seek answers to complex questions, discover new knowledge, lead innovation, and transform our future.

Caltech's 124-acre campus is located in Pasadena, California.

Since 2000, the Einstein Papers Project has been located at Caltech. The project was established in 1986 to assemble, preserve, translate, and publish papers selected from the literary estate of Albert Einstein and from other collections.

In fall 2008, the freshman class was 42% female, a record for Caltech's undergraduate enrollment. In the same year, the Institute concluded a six-year-long fund-raising campaign. The campaign raised more than $1.4 billion from about 16,000 donors. Nearly half of the funds went into the support of Caltech programs and projects.

In 2010, Caltech, in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and headed by Professor Nathan Lewis, established a DOE Energy Innovation Hub aimed at developing revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight. This hub, the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, will receive up to $122 million in federal funding over five years.

Since 2012, Caltech began to offer classes through MOOCs under Coursera, and from 2013, edX.

Jean-Lou Chameau, the eighth president, announced on February 19, 2013, that he would be stepping down to accept the presidency at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Thomas F. Rosenbaum was announced to be the ninth president of Caltech on October 24, 2013, and his term began on July 1, 2014.

Caltech is incorporated as a non-profit corporation and is governed by a privately appointed 46-member board of trustees who serve five-year terms of office and retire at the age of 72. The current board is chaired by David L. Lee, co-founder of Global Crossing Ltd. The Trustees elect a President to serve as the chief executive officer of the Institute and administer the affairs on the Institute on behalf of the board, a Provost who serves as the chief academic officer of the Institute below the President, and ten other vice presidential and other senior positions. Former Georgia Tech provost Jean-Lou Chameau became the eighth president of Caltech on September 1, 2006, replacing David Baltimore who had served since 1997. Dr. Chameau's compensation for 2008–2009 totaled $799,472. Chameau served until June 30, 2013. Thomas F. Rosenbaum was announced to be the ninth president of Caltech on October 24, 2013, and his term began on July 1, 2014. Caltech's endowment is governed by a permanent Trustee committee and administered by an Investment Office.

Academic Life

The student-faculty ratio at California Institute of Technology is 3:1, and the school has 64.9 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at California Institute of Technology include: Engineering; Physical Sciences; Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; and Mathematics and Statistics. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 97 percent.