Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is an American private university located in New York City in the United States , offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education . It conducts research mainly in biological sciences and medical science , and has produced or attracted many Nobel laureate s . The Rockefeller University is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan , between 63rd and 68th Streets along York Avenue . Marc Tessier - Lavigne — previously executive vice president of research and chief scientific officer at Genentech — became the university ' s tenth president on March 16 , 2011 . The Rockefeller University Press publishes the " Journal of Experimental Medicine " , the " Journal of Cell Biology " , and " The Journal of General Physiology " . History . The Rockefeller University was founded in June 1901 as The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research — often called simply The Rockefeller Institute — by John D . Rockefeller , who had founded the University of Chicago in 1889 , upon advice by his adviser Frederick T . Gates and action taken in March 1901 by his son , John D . Rockefeller Jr . Greatly elevating the prestige of American science and medicine , it was America ' s first biomedical institute , like France ' s Pasteur Institute ( 1888 ) and Germany ' s Robert Koch Institute ( 1891 ) . The first director of laboratories was Simon Flexner , former Johns Hopkins University student of the Institute ' s first scientific director , William H . Welch , first dean of Hopkins ' medical school and known as the dean of American medicine . Flexner retired in 1935 and was succeeded by Herbert Gasser , succeeded in 1953 by Detlev Bronk who broadened The Rockefeller Institute into a university that began awarding the PhD degree in 1954 . In 1965 The Rockefeller Institute ' s name was changed to The Rockefeller University . For its first six decades the Institute focused on basic research to develop basic science , on applied research as biomedical engineering , and , since 1910 — when The Rockefeller Hospital opened on its campus as America ' s first facility for clinical research — on clinical science . The Rockefeller Hospital ' s first director , Rufus Cole , retired in 1937 and was succeeded by Thomas Milton Rivers , who as director of The Rockefeller Institute ' s virology laboratory established virology as an independent field apart from bacteriology . Research breakthroughs . Rockefeller researchers were the first to culture the infectious agent associated with syphilis , showed that viruses can be oncogenic and enabled the field " tumor biology " , developed " tissue culture " techniques , developed the practice of " travel vaccination " , identified the phenomenon of autoimmune disease , developed virology as an independent field , developed the first antibiotic , obtained the first American isolation of influenzavirus A and first isolation of influenzavirus B , showed that genes are structurally composed of DNA , discovered blood groups , resolved that virus particles are protein crystals , helped develop the field " cell biology " , resolved antibody structure , developed methadone treatment of heroin addiction , devised the AIDS " drug cocktail " , and identified the appetite - regulating hormone leptin . Notable individuals . Notable figures to emerge from the Institution include Alexis Carrel , Peyton Rous , Hideyo Noguchi , Thomas Milton Rivers , Richard Shope , Thomas Francis Jr , Oswald T . Avery , Wendell Meredith Stanley , René Dubos , and Cornelius P . Rhoads . Others attained eminence before being drawn to the university . Joshua Lederberg , who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1958 , served as president of the university from 1978 to 1990 . Paul Nurse , who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001 , became President in 2003 . ( Before Nurse ' s tenure , Thomas Sakmar was acting - president from 2002 . ) In all , 24 Nobel Prize recipients have been associated with the University . In the mid - 1970s , the University attracted a few prominent academicians in the humanities , such as Saul Kripke . Urged by Rockefeller Jr , his only son , who was enthusiastic about the Institute , Rockefeller Sr visited but once , and remained otherwise uninterested . Rockefeller Jr ' s youngest son David would visit with his father . David Rockefeller joined the board of trustees in 1940 , was its chairman from 1950 to 1975 , chaired the board ' s executive committee from 1975 to 1995 , became honorary chairman and life trustee , and remained philanthropically active . At a glance . Fostering an interdisciplinary atmosphere among its 73 laboratories , a faculty member is assigned to one of only six interconnecting research areas .