Occidental beat out competition from several major research universities in the first year of the Packard Foundation's Interdisciplinary Science Program. The program is intended to assist scientists who see a need for an interdisciplinary approach to answer questions or solve problems in any area of natural science or engineering. This year 50 schools were invited to submit proposals and 11 were funded.
Occidental is the only liberal arts college to receive funding.
Located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, Occidental College was founded in 1887 and has long been considered one of the nation's leading liberal arts colleges.