Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a private, Ivy League, research university in New York City. It was first established in 1754 as King's College by royal charter under George II of Great Britain on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan.

The university was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolution, and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University. It is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest in the United States.

Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including three undergraduate schools and sixteen graduate schools. The university's research efforts include the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and accelerator laboratories with Big Tech firms such as Amazon and IBM. Columbia is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the MD degree. The university also administers and annually awards the Pulitzer Prize.

Columbia scientists and scholars have played a pivotal role in scientific breakthroughs including brain–computer interface; the laser and maser; nuclear magnetic resonance; the first nuclear pile; the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas; the first evidence for plate tectonics and continental drift; and much of the initial research and planning for the Manhattan Project during World War II.

As of December 2021^[update], its alumni, faculty, and staff have included 7 of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America; 4 U.S. presidents; 34 foreign heads of state or government; 2 secretaries-general of the United Nations; 10 justices of the United States Supreme Court; 103 Nobel laureates; 125 National Academy of Sciences members; 53 living billionaires; 23 Olympic medalists; 33 Academy Award winners; and 125 Pulitzer Prize recipients.

Discussions regarding the founding of a college in the Province of New York began as early as 1704.

Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the college's first president, Samuel Johnson who was an Anglican Priest. The college was officially founded on October 31, 1754, as King's College by royal charter of George II, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the State of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.

In 1763, Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queen's College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his chief opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777, Alexander Hamilton. The Irish anatomist, Samuel Clossy, was appointed professor of natural philosophy in October 1765 and later the college's first professor of anatomy in 1767.