The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
land-grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
in the
Twin Cities
Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...
of
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
and
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The Twin Cities campus comprises locations in Minneapolis and Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, approximately apart. The Twin Cities campus is the oldest and largest in the
University of Minnesota system
The University of Minnesota system is a public university system with five campuses spread across the U.S. state of Minnesota.
The university system has five campuses, in the Twin Cities, Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester. The universit ...
and has the ninth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,376 students at the start of the 2021–22 academic year. It is the
flagship institution
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...
of the
University of Minnesota System
The University of Minnesota system is a public university system with five campuses spread across the U.S. state of Minnesota.
The university system has five campuses, in the Twin Cities, Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester. The universit ...
, and is organized into 19 colleges, schools, and other major academic units.
The
Minnesota Territorial Legislature
The Minnesota Territorial Legislature was a Bicameralism, bicameral legislative body created by the United States Congress in 1849 as the legislative branch of the government of the Minnesota Territory, Territory of Minnesota. The upper chamber, t ...
drafted a charter for the U of M as a territorial university in 1851, seven years before Minnesota became a state. Today, the university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Minnesota is a member of the
Association of American Universities
The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 63 universities in the United States ( ...
and is ranked 20th in research activity, with $1.04 billion in research and development expenditures in the fiscal year 2020. In 2001, the University of Minnesota was included in a list of
Public Ivy
"Public Ivy" is a term that refers to prestigious Public university, public colleges and universities in the United States that provide a collegiate experience similar to those in the Ivy League.Richard Moll in his book ''Public Ivys: A Guide to ...
universities, which includes publicly funded universities thought to provide a quality of education comparable to that of the
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
.
University of Minnesota faculty,
alumni
Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...
, and researchers have won 26 Nobel Prizes and three
Pulitzer Prizes
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made hi ...
. Among its alumni, the university counts 25
Rhodes Scholars
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
, seven
Marshall Scholars
The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...
, 21
Truman Scholars
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for public service leadership. It is a federally funded scholarship granted to U.S. undergraduate students for demonstrated leadership potential, academic ...
, and 134
Fulbright
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
recipients. The university also has
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
,
Carnegie Fellowship
The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...
, and
MacArthur Fellowship
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...
holders, as well as past and present graduates and faculty belonging to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
,
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
,
National Academy of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...
, and
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...
. Notable University of Minnesota alumni include two vice presidents of the United States,
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
and
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota ...
, and
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, who received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The
Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...
compete in 21 intercollegiate sports in the
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
and have won 29 national championships. As of 2021, Minnesota's current and former students have won a total of 76 Olympic medals.
History
The University of Minnesota was founded in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
in 1851 as a
college preparatory school
A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...
, seven years prior to Minnesota's statehood. It struggled in its early years and relied on donations to stay open from donors including South Carolina Governor
William Aiken Jr.
William Aiken Jr. (January 28, 1806September 6, 1887) was the List of Governors of South Carolina, 61st governor of South Carolina, serving from 1844 to 1846. He also served in the state legislature and the United States House of Representative ...
In 1867, the university received land grant status through the
Morrill Act of 1862
The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally-owned land, often obtained from indigenous tribes through treaty, cession, or se ...
.
An 1876 donation from flour miller
John S. Pillsbury
John Sargent Pillsbury (July 29, 1827 – October 18, 1901) was an American politician, businessman, and philanthropist. A Republican, he served as the eighth Governor of Minnesota from 1876 to 1882. He was a co-founder of the Pillsbury Co ...
is generally credited with saving the school. Since then, Pillsbury has become known as "The Father of the University".
Pillsbury Hall
Pillsbury may refer to:
Business
* Pillsbury Company, a former producer of grain and other foodstuffs, a brand only after being bought in 2001
* Pillsbury Chemical and Oil, a defunct specialty chemical manufacturer
* Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittma ...
is named in his honor.
Academics
Organization and administration
The university is organized into 19 colleges, schools, and other major academic units:
Institutes and centers
Six university-wide interdisciplinary centers and institutes work across collegiate lines:
* Center for Cognitive Sciences
* Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment, and the Life Sciences
* Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota
* Institute for Engineering in Medicine
* Institute for Translational Neuroscience
*
Institute on the Environment
An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes can ...
*
Minnesota Population Center The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) is a university-wide interdisciplinary research center at the University of Minnesota. MPC was established in 2000, absorbing two earlier population research organizations. The primary goals of the center are to ...
Rankings
Global
In 2021, the University of Minnesota was ranked as the 40th best university in the world by the ''
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ...
(ARWU)'', which assesses academic and research performance. The same 2021 ranking by subject placed the University of Minnesota's ecology program as 2nd best in the world, management program as 10th best, biotechnology program as 11th best, mechanical engineering and medical technology programs as 14th best, law and psychology programs as 19th best, and veterinary sciences program as 20th best. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) for 2021-22 ranked Minnesota 46th in the world and 26th in the United States. The 2021 Nature Index, which assesses the institutions that dominate high-quality research output, ranked Minnesota 53rd in the world based on research publication data from 2020. '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked Minnesota as the 47th best global university for 2021. The 2022 ''
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli ...
'' placed Minnesota 86th worldwide, based primarily on teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook.
National
In 2021, Minnesota was ranked as the 24th best university in the United States by the ''
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ...
'', and 20th in the United States in ''
Washington Monthly
''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alternat ...
s 2021 National University Rankings. Minnesota's undergraduate program was ranked 68th among national universities by '' U.S. News & World Report'' for 2022, and 26th in the nation among public colleges and universities. The same publication ranked Minnesota's graduate ''
Carlson School of Management
The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduate degr ...
'' as 28th in the nation among business schools, and 6th in the nation for its information systems graduate program. Other graduate schools ranked highly by ''U.S. News & World Report'' for 2022 include the ''
University of Minnesota Law School
The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Patent Law ...
'' at 22nd, the ''
University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is the medical school of the University of Minnesota. It is a combination of two campuses situated in Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota.
The University of Minnesota Medical School is also part of one of ...
'', which was 4th for family medicine and 5th for primary care, the ''
University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy The University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy is the pharmacy school of the University of Minnesota. It has two campus locations: in Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota. The University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy is part of one of the largest A ...
'', which ranked 3rd, the ''
Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a public policy and planning school at the University of Minnesota, a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is named after Hubert ...
University of Minnesota School of Public Health
The University of Minnesota School of Public Health, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a professional school of the University of Minnesota. The school offers 16 masters programs and four doctoral programs, which culminate in one of the follo ...
'', which ranked 10th.
In 2020, the
Center for Measuring University Performance
The Center for Measuring University Performance is a research center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. ''The Center'' is best known for an annual report it produces, The Top American Research Universities, that ranks American univers ...
ranked Minnesota 16th in the nation in terms of total research, 30th in endowment assets, 24th in annual giving, 28th in the number of ''
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...
'' memberships, 9th in its number of faculty awards, and 14th in its number of '' National Merit Scholars''.
Minnesota is listed as a "
Public Ivy
"Public Ivy" is a term that refers to prestigious Public university, public colleges and universities in the United States that provide a collegiate experience similar to those in the Ivy League.Richard Moll in his book ''Public Ivys: A Guide to ...
" in 2001 Greenes' Guides ''The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities''.
Admissions
Undergraduate
The 2022 annual ranking of '' U.S. News & World Report'' categorizes Minnesota as "more selective". For the Class of 2025 (enrolled fall 2021), Minnesota received 35,905 applications and accepted 26,295 (73.2%). Of those accepted, 6,883 enrolled, a yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend the university) of 26.2%. Minnesota's freshman
retention rate
The term "retention rate" is used in a variety of fields, including marketing, investing, education, in the workplace and in clinical trials. Maintaining retention in each of these fields often results in a positive outcome for the overall organiza ...
is 92%, with 84% going on to graduate within six years.
The university started test-optional admissions with the Fall 2021 incoming class and has extended this through Fall 2025. Of the 41% of enrolled freshmen in 2021 who submitted ACT scores; the middle 50 percent Composite score was between 27 and 32. Of the 7% of the incoming freshman class who submitted
SAT
The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
scores; the middle 50 percent Composite scores were 1320-1470.
The University of Minnesota is a college sponsor of the National Merit Scholarship Program and sponsored 97 Merit Scholarship awards in 2020. In the 2020–2021 academic year, 112 freshman students were National Merit Scholars.
Discoveries and innovation
Inventions by University of Minnesota students and faculty have ranged from food science to health technologies. Most of the public research funding in Minnesota is funneled to the University of Minnesota as a result of long-standing advocacy by the university itself.
The university developed
Gopher
Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They are ...
, a precursor to the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
which used
hyperlinks
In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference to data that the user can follow or be guided by clicking or tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text wi ...
to connect documents across computers on the internet. However, the version produced by
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
was favored by the public since it was freely distributed and could more easily handle multimedia webpages. The university also houses the
Charles Babbage Institute
The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...
, a research and archive center specializing in computer history. The department has strong roots in the early days of supercomputing with Seymour Cray of Cray supercomputers.
The university also became a member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2007 and has led data analysis projects searching for gravitational waves – the existence of which was confirmed by scientists in February 2016.
Discoveries and innovation by faculty or (former) students include:
*Puffed rice – Alexander P. Anderson performed work leading to the discovery of "puffed rice", a starting point for a new breakfast cereal later advertised as "Food Shot From Guns".
*Transistorized cardiac pacemaker –
Earl Bakken
Earl Elmer Bakken (January 10, 1924 – October 21, 2018) was an American engineer, businessman and philanthropist of Dutch and Norwegian American ancestry. He founded Medtronic, where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transi ...
founded Medtronic, where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable artificial pacemaker in 1957.
*
Green Revolution
The Green Revolution, also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period of technology transfer initiatives that saw greatly increased crop yields and agricultural production. These changes in agriculture began in developed countrie ...
–
Norman Borlaug
Norman Ernest Borlaug (; March 25, 1914September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple ...
was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug, often called "the father of the Green Revolution", is credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation. Borlaug was awarded multiple honors for his work, including the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merito ...
, and the
Congressional Gold Medal
The Congressional Gold Medal is an award bestowed by the United States Congress. It is Congress's highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions. The congressional pract ...
.
*
ATP synthase
ATP synthase is a protein that catalyzes the formation of the energy storage molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) using adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi). It is classified under ligases as it changes ADP by the formation ...
–
Paul D. Boyer
Paul Delos Boyer (July 31, 1918 – June 2, 2018) was an American biochemist, analytical chemist, and a professor of chemistry at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research on the " enzy ...
elucidated the enzymatic mechanism for synthesis of the cellular "energy currency",
adenosine triphosphate
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is an organic compound that provides energy to drive many processes in living cells, such as muscle contraction, nerve impulse propagation, condensate dissolution, and chemical synthesis. Found in all known forms of ...
(ATP), leading to a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1997.
*
Point-contact transistor
The point-contact transistor was the first type of transistor to be successfully demonstrated. It was developed by research scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Laboratories in December 1947. They worked in a group led by physicis ...
–
Walter Houser Brattain
Walter Houser Brattain (; February 10, 1902 – October 13, 1987) was an American physicist at Bell Labs who, along with fellow scientists John Bardeen and William Shockley, invented the point-contact transistor in December 1947. They shared t ...
and
John Bardeen
John Bardeen (; May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American physicist and engineer. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the tran ...
, later joined by
William Shockley
William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American physicist and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly ...
, invented the point-contact transistor in December 1947. For their invention, the trio was awarded a
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
in 1956.
*
Infusion pump
An infusion pump Intravenous infusion, infuses fluids, medication or nutrients into a patient, patient's circulatory system. It is generally used intravenously, although Subcutaneous injection, subcutaneous, artery, arterial and epidural infusio ...
–
Henry Buchwald
Henry Buchwald (born June 21, 1932) is an Austrian-American surgeon and academic. He is the Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering and the Owen and Sarah Davidson Wangensteen Chair in Experimental Surgery Emeritus at the University of M ...
invented the world's first infusion port, peritoneovenous shunts, and specialty vascular catheters. He also invented the first implantable infusion pump, a precursor to implantable infusion pumps in use throughout the world today.
*
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...
–
Melvin Calvin
Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1912 – January 8, 1997) was an American biochemist known for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham, for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He spent most of hi ...
discovered the
Calvin cycle
The Calvin cycle, light-independent reactions, bio synthetic phase, dark reactions, or photosynthetic carbon reduction (PCR) cycle of photosynthesis is a series of chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen-carrier compounds into ...
along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham; for this, he won the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
*
Ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
–
Raymond Lindeman
Raymond Laurel Lindeman (1915 – June 29, 1942) was an ecologist whose graduate research is credited with being a seminal study in the field of ecosystem ecology, specifically on the topic of trophic dynamics.
Graduate research work
Lindeman ...
revolutionized ecology, primarily through his 1942 paper "Trophic Dynamic Aspect of Ecology", which described how energy and nutrients cycled through ecosystems.
*
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...
–
Seymour Cray
Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996 ) was an American
Taconite
Taconite () is a variety of iron formation, an iron-bearing (over 15% iron) sedimentary rock, in which the iron minerals are interlayered with quartz, chert, or carbonate. The name "taconyte" was coined by Horace Vaughn Winchell (1865–1923) †...
–
Edward Wilson Davis
Edward Wilson Davis (May 8, 1888 – December 3, 1973) was an American engineer and inventor famous for pioneering early research into taconite. As a researcher at the University of Minnesota, Davis developed an engineering process to economically ...
developed an engineering process to economically extract iron ore from hard taconite rocks, making taconite valuable as iron ore for the iron and steel industries.
*
Cosmic rays
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
–
Phyllis S. Freier
Phyllis S. Freier (19 January 1921, Minneapolis – 18 December 1992, St. Paul) was an American astrophysicist and a Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science and a
Fellow, American Physical Society''.'' Freier also served on NA ...
discovered the presence of heavy nuclei in cosmic rays, proving the similarity between our solar system and the rest of the galaxy.
*U.S. aviation –
Robert Rowe Gilruth
Robert Rowe Gilruth (October 8, 1913 – August 17, 2000) was an American aerospace engineer and an aviation/space pioneer who was the first director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
He worked ...
led the development of flying qualities for airplanes, the use of rockets to achieve data at supersonic speeds, and the establishment of many of the nation's leading flight research and human space flight operations facilities.
*
Bone marrow transplant
Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood in order to replicate inside of a patient and to produce ...
– Robert A. Good in 1968 performed the first successful human bone marrow transplant between persons who were not identical twins and is regarded as a founder of modern immunology. In 2018 Minnesota Gov.
Mark Dayton
Mark Brandt Dayton (born January 26, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Minnesota from 2011 to 2019. He was a United States Senator for Minnesota from 2001 to 2007, and the Minnesota State Auditor from 1991 to 1 ...
proclaimed August 24 as University of Minnesota Blood and Marrow Transplant Day.
*
Gore-Tex
Gore-Tex is a waterproof, breathable fabric membrane and registered trademark of W. L. Gore & Associates. Invented in 1969, Gore-Tex can repel liquid water while allowing water vapor to pass through and is designed to be a lightweight, waterpr ...
– Robert Gore invented Gore-Tex materials in 1969.
*
Disk drive
Disk storage (also sometimes called drive storage) is a general category of storage mechanisms where data is recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical changes to a surface layer of one or more rotating disks. A disk drive is ...
–
Reynold B. Johnson
Reynold B. Johnson (July 16, 1906September 15, 1998) was an American inventor and computer pioneer. A long-time employee of IBM, Johnson is said to be the "father" of the hard disk drive. Other inventions include automatic test scoring equipment ...
invented a method and machinery to score tests electronically.
*
K-rations
The K-ration was an individual daily combat food ration which was introduced by the United States Army during World War II. It was originally intended as an individually packaged daily ration for issue to airborne troops, tank crews, motorcycle co ...
–
Ancel Keys
Ancel Benjamin Keys (January 26, 1904 – November 20, 2004) was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduces card ...
developed the rations for the U.S. military and also conducted dietary studies: the Minnesota Starvation Study and the Seven Countries Study.
*
Synthetic rubber
A synthetic rubber is an artificial elastomer. They are polymers synthesized from petroleum byproducts. About 32-million metric tons of rubbers are produced annually in the United States, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic. Synthetic rubbe ...
–
Izaak Kolthoff
Izaak Maurits (Piet) Kolthoff (February 11, 1894 – March 4, 1993) was an analytical chemist and chemistry educator. He is widely considered the father of analytical chemistry for his large volume of published research in diverse fields of anal ...
developed the "cold process" for producing synthetic rubber, which he undertook under the U.S. synthetic rubber program during World War II.
*
Cyclotron
A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. Lawrence, Ernest O. ''Method and apparatus for the acceleration of ions'', filed: Janu ...
–
Ernest Lawrence
Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American nuclear physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation f ...
won the Nobel Prize for Physics 1939 for inventing and developing the cyclotron.
*''
Drosophila melanogaster
''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly" or "pomace fly". Starting with Ch ...
'' – Edward Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for his work on the ''Drosophila'' bithorax complex of homeotic genes.
*
Cardiac surgery
Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to corr ...
–
C. Walton Lillehei
Clarence Walton Lillehei (October 23, 1918 – July 5, 1999), was an American surgeon who pioneered open-heart surgery, as well as numerous techniques, equipment and prostheses for cardiothoracic surgery.
Background
Clarence (often called "W ...
pioneered open-heart surgery, as well as numerous techniques, equipment, and prostheses for cardiothoracic surgery.
*
POPmail
POPmail was an early e-mail client written at the University of Minnesota. The original version was a Hypercard stack that acted as a Post Office Protocol
In computing, the Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard p ...
–
Mark P. McCahill
Mark Perry McCahill (born February 7, 1956) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer. He has developed and popularized a number of Internet technologies since the late 1980s, including the Gopher protocol, Uniform Resource Locators ( ...
led the development of the Gopher protocol, the effective predecessor of the World Wide Web; was involved in creating and codifying the standard for Uniform Resource Locators (URLs); and led the development of POPmail, one of the first e-mail clients, which had a foundational influence on later e-mail clients and the popularization of graphical user interfaces in Internet technologies more broadly.
*
MMPI
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a standardized psychometric test of adult personality and psychopathology. Psychologists and other mental health professionals use various versions of the MMPI to help develop treatment ...
–
Starke R. Hathaway
Starke R. Hathaway (August 22, 1903 – July 4, 1984) was an American psychologist who co-authored the psychological assessment known as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). He was a longtime faculty member of the Department o ...
and J. C. McKinley created the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), which was first published in 1943.
*
Zatocoding
A superimposed code such as Zatocoding is a kind of hash code that was popular in marginal punched-card systems.
Marginal punched-card systems
Many names, some of them trademarked, have been used for marginal punched-card systems:
edge-notch ...
–
Calvin Mooers
Calvin Northrup Mooers (October 24, 1919 – December 1, 1994), was an American computer scientist known for his work in information retrieval and for the programming language TRAC.
Early life
Mooers was a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, atte ...
developed a mechanical system using superimposed codes of descriptors for information retrieval called Zatocoding, 1948.
*
Atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
– Edward P. Ney discovered cosmic ray heavy nuclei and solar proton events. After early work involving separating isotopes from uranium, he worked on the Manhattan Project.
*
Atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
–
Alfred O. C. Nier
Alfred Otto Carl Nier (May 28, 1911 – May 16, 1994) was an American physicist who pioneered the development of mass spectrometry. He was the first to use mass spectrometry to isolate uranium-235 which was used to demonstrate that 235U could unde ...
devised a method to isolate the isotopes of uranium, a critical discovery in the atomic age. Nier worked with
Kellex Corporation
The Kellex Corporation was a wholly owned subsidiary of M. W. Kellogg Company. Kellex was formed in 1942 so that Kellogg's operations relating to the Manhattan Project could be kept separate and secret. "Kell" stood for "Kellogg" and "X" for se ...
in New York City on the design and development of efficient and effective mass spectrographs for use in the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb in World War II. He designed most of the spectrographs used for monitoring uranium separations during the war.
*
Atomic bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
–
Frank Oppenheimer
Frank Friedman Oppenheimer (August 14, 1912 – February 3, 1985) was an American particle physicist, cattle rancher, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, and the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
A younger brother ...
worked on uranium isotope separation in 1945 and joined the Manhattan Project.
*
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...
– Ronald L. Phillips was the first to generate whole corn plants from cells grown in culture, which laid the foundation for, and sparked, a new industry using cell-culture methods to genetically modify corn plants and other cereals. The corn cell line most widely used for genetic modification of corn has greatly accelerated the improvement of corn as food, feed, and fuel.
*
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
–
Lanny D. Schmidt
Lanny D. Schmidt (May 6, 1938 – March 27, 2020) was an American chemist, inventor, author, and Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. He is well known for his extensive work in surfac ...
designed a reactor to extract hydrogen from ethanol, offering the first real hope hydrogen could be a source of inexpensive and renewable energy.
*
Biomimetics
Biomimetics or biomimicry is the emulation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. The terms "biomimetics" and "biomimicry" are derived from grc, βίος (''bios''), life, and μίμησ ...
–
Otto Schmitt
Otto Herbert Schmitt (April 6, 1913 – January 6, 1998) was an American inventor, engineer, and biophysicist known for his scientific contributions to biophysics and for establishing the field of biomedical engineering. Schmitt also coined ...
invented the Schmitt trigger, the cathode follower, the differential amplifier, and the chopper-stabilized amplifier.
*
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
–
Deke Slayton
Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton (March 1, 1924 – June 13, 1993) was a United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot who was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. He went on to become NASA's first ...
was one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts and became NASA's first chief of the Astronaut Office. He served as NASA's director of flight crew operations, making him responsible for crew assignments at NASA, from November 1963 until March 1972. At that time, he was granted medical clearance to fly and was assigned as the docking module pilot of the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, at age 51 becoming the oldest person to fly in space at the time.
*
Bathythermograph
The bathythermograph, or BT, also known as the Mechanical Bathythermograph, or MBT; is a device that holds a temperature sensor and a transducer to detect changes in water temperature versus depth down to a depth of approximately 285 meters (9 ...
–
Athelstan Spilhaus
Athelstan Frederick Spilhaus (November 25, 1911 – March 30, 1998) was a South African-American geophysicist and oceanographer. Among other accomplishments, Spilhaus is credited with proposing the establishment of Sea Grant Colleges at a meeting ...
fully developed the bathythermograph (BT) in 1938, an instrument he perfected that was of vital importance in World War II against the German U-boat. During the war, the BT became standard equipment on all U.S. Navy subs and vessels involved in antisubmarine warfare.
*
CDC 6600
The CDC 6600 was the flagship of the 6000 series of mainframe computer systems manufactured by Control Data Corporation. Generally considered to be the first successful supercomputer, it outperformed the industry's prior recordholder, the IBM ...
– James Thornton developed the CDC 6600, the world's first supercomputer, designed with Seymour Cray.
*
Ziagen
Abacavir, sold under the brand name Ziagen among others, is a medication used to treat HIV/AIDS. Similar to other nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), abacavir is used together with other HIV medications, and is not rec ...
–
Robert Vince
Robert Vince (born April 1, 1962) is a Canadians, Canadian director, producer, writer and screenwriter. He has been involved in movie production since the late 1980s and has been directing movies since 2000, such as ''MVP: Most Valuable Primate'' ...
worked on antiviral drug candidates at UMN, where he went on to develop carbocyclic nucleosides termed 'carbovirs.' This class of medicinal agents included the drug abacavir. Abacavir was commercialized by GlaxoSmithKline as Ziagen for the treatment of AIDS. US3D
Graham Candler pioneered the future of hypersonics research with the development of the US3D CFD code which builds off of NASA's DPLR code, but uses unstructured grids and has many advanced numerical capabilities and physical models for multi-physics, highly coupled problems.
Campuses
Demographics: Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) campus
''Note: The flagship University of Minnesota campus is the Twin Cities campus, which comprises grounds in St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latter divided into areas on both the east and west banks of the Mississippi River. Administratively, these are all one campus, but for purposes of simplicity, this article will apply "campus" to its component parts where necessary to avoid confusion with the names of cities.''
As the largest of five campuses across the University of Minnesota system, the Twin Cities campus has more than 50,000 students; this makes it the ninth-largest campus student body in the United States overall. It also has more than 300 research, education, and outreach centers and institutes, on everything from the life sciences to public policy and technology.
The university (system-wide) offers 154 undergraduate degree programs, 24 undergraduate certificates, 307 graduate degree programs, and 79 graduate certificates. The university offers the majority of these programs and certificates at its Twin Cities campus. The university has all three branches of the
Reserve Officer Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces.
Overview
While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...
(ROTC). The Twin Cities campus, as well as the campuses at Crookston,
Morris
Morris may refer to:
Places
Australia
*St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia
Canada
* Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry
* Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba
** Morris, Manitob ...
, and
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
, are accredited by the
Higher Learning Commission
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...
(HLC).
The racial/ethnic breakdown of the student population is: 65.3% White, 12.7% International Students (that are undesignated race/ethnicity), 9.2% Asian, 4.3% Black, 3.1% Hispanic/Latino, 1.2% American/Native American Indian, and 4.2% Unknown. Among matriculants to the university, 63% are considered Minnesota residents and 37% are considered out-of-state residents. According to the University Office of Institutional Research, as of fall 2019 there were 31,367 undergraduates at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. Of that number, 6,278 were first-time, degree-seeking freshmen. There were 12,100 graduate students.
Minneapolis campus
The original Minneapolis campus overlooked the
Saint Anthony Falls
Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony ( dak, italics=no, Owámniyomni, ) located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1 ...
on the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
, but it was later moved about a mile (1.6 km) downstream to its current location. The original site is now marked by a small park known as Chute Square at the intersection of and Central Avenues. The school shut down following a financial crisis during the American Civil War, but reopened in 1867 with considerable financial help from
John S. Pillsbury
John Sargent Pillsbury (July 29, 1827 – October 18, 1901) was an American politician, businessman, and philanthropist. A Republican, he served as the eighth Governor of Minnesota from 1876 to 1882. He was a co-founder of the Pillsbury Co ...
. It was upgraded from a preparatory school to a college in 1869. Today, the university's Minneapolis campus is divided by the Mississippi River into an East and West Bank. The East Bank, the main portion of the campus, covers . The West Bank is home to the
University of Minnesota Law School
The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Patent Law ...
, the
Humphrey School of Public Affairs
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a public policy and planning school at the University of Minnesota, a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is named after Hubert ...
, the
Carlson School of Management
The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduate degr ...
, various social science buildings, and the performing arts center.
The Minneapolis campus has several residence halls: 17th Avenue Hall, Centennial Hall, Frontier Hall, Territorial Hall, Pioneer Hall, Sanford Hall, Wilkins Hall, Middlebrook Hall, Yudof Hall, and Comstock Hall.
East Bank
To help ease navigation of the large campus, the university has divided the East Bank into several areas: the Knoll area, the Mall area, the Health area, the Athletic area, and the Gateway area.
The Knoll area, the oldest extant part of the university, is in the northwestern corner of the campus. Many buildings in this area are well over 100 years old, such as some of the 13 in the University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District, Old Campus Historic District. Today, most disciplines in this area relate to the humanities. Burton Hall is home to the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development, College of Education and Human Development. Folwell Hall and Jones Hall are primarily used by the language departments. A residence hall, Sanford Hall, and a student-apartment complex, Roy Wilkins Hall, are in this area. This area is just south of the Dinkytown neighborhood and business area.
Northrop Mall, or the Mall area, is arguably the center of the Minneapolis campus. The plan for the Mall was based on a design by Cass Gilbert, although his scheme was too extravagant to be fully implemented. Several of the campus's primary buildings surround the Mall area. Northrop Auditorium provides a northern anchor, with Coffman Memorial Union (CMU) to the south. Four of the larger buildings to the sides of the Mall are the primary mathematics, physics, and chemistry buildings (Vincent Hall, Tate Laboratory and Smith Hall, respectively) and Walter Library. The Mall area is home to the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, College of Liberal Arts, which is Minnesota's largest public or private college, and the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology, College of Science and Engineering. Behind CMU is another residence hall, Comstock Hall, and another student-apartment complex, Yudof Hall. The Northrop Mall Historic District was formally listed in the National Register of Historic Places in January 2018.
The Health area is to the southeast of the Mall area and focuses on undergraduate buildings for biological science students, as well as the homes of the College of Pharmacy, the School of Nursing, the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, School of Dentistry, the University of Minnesota Medical School, Medical School, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, School of Public Health, and M Health Fairview Hospitals and Clinics. This complex of buildings forms what is known as the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Part of the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences, College of Biological Sciences is housed in this area.
Across the street from the University of Minnesota Medical Center Fairview is an area known as the "Superblock", a four-city-block space comprising four residence halls (Pioneer, Frontier, Centennial and Territorial Halls). The Superblock is one of the most popular locations for on-campus housing because it has the largest concentration of students living on campus and has a multitude of social activities between the residence halls.
The Athletic area is directly north of the Superblock and includes four recreation/athletic facilities: the University Recreation Center, Cooke Hall, the University Fieldhouse, and the Memorial Stadium (University of Minnesota)#University Aquatic center, University Aquatic Center. These facilities are all connected by tunnels and skyways, allowing students to use one locker room facility. North of this complex is the Huntington Bank Stadium, Williams Arena, Mariucci Arena, Ridder Arena, and the Baseline Tennis Center.
The Gateway area, the easternmost section of campus, is primarily composed of office buildings instead of classrooms and lecture halls. The most prominent building is McNamara Alumni Center. The university is also heavily invested in a biomedical, biomedical research initiative and has built five biomedical research buildings that form a biomedical complex directly north of Huntington Bank Stadium.
=Notable architecture
=
University of Minnesota Armory, The Armory, northeast of the Mall area, is built like a Norman architecture, Norman castle. It features a sally port, sally-port entrance facing Church Street and a tower that was originally intended to be the professor of military science's residence. Since it originally held the athletics department, the Armory also features a gymnasium. Today it is home to military science classes and the university's Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
Several buildings in the University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District, Old Campus Historic District were designed by early Minnesota architect Leroy Buffington, LeRoy Buffington. One of the most notable is University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District#Pillsbury Hall, 1889, Pillsbury Hall, designed by Buffington and Harvey Ellis in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Pillsbury Hall's polychromatic facade incorporates several sandstone varieties that were available in Minnesota during the time of construction. Buffington also designed the exterior of University of Minnesota Old Campus Historic District#Burton Hall, 1894, Burton Hall, considered one of the strongest specimens of Greek Revival architecture in Minnesota.
Many of the buildings on the East Bank were designed by the prolific Minnesota architect Clarence H. Johnston, Sr., Clarence H. Johnston, including the Jacobean architecture, Jacobean Folwell Hall and the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts edifices of Northrop Auditorium and Walter Library, which he considered the heart of the university. Johnston's son, Clarence Johnston Jr, was also an architect and designed the original Bell Museum of Natural History, Bell Museum building and Coffman Memorial Union in the 1930s.
The Malcolm Moos Health Sciences Tower, which is the tallest building on the Twin Cities campus, is a noted example of brutalist architecture.
In more recent years, Frank Gehry designed the Weisman Art Museum, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum. Completed in 1993, the Weisman Art Museum is a typical example of his work with curving metallic structures. The abstract structure is considered highly significant because it was built prior to the widespread use of computer-aided design in architecture. It also ushered in a new era of architecture at the university, which continued with the completion of the McNamara Alumni Center in 2000 and Bruininks Hall (formerly STSS) in 2010.
Another notable structure is the addition to the Architecture building, designed by Steven Holl and completed in 2002. It won an American Institute of Architects award for its innovative design. The Architecture building was then renamed Rapson Hall after the local modernist architecture, modernist architect and School of Architecture Dean Ralph Rapson.
The university also has a "Greek row" of historic fraternities and sororities located north of campus on University Avenue SE.
West Bank
The West Bank covers . The West Bank Arts Quarter includes:
*Rarig Center (Theatre Arts & Dance)
*The Barbara Barker Center for Dance
*Ferguson Hall (School of Music)
*Ted Mann Concert Hall
*Regis Center for Art
The Quarter is home to several annual interdisciplinary arts festivals.
The Social Sciences are also on the West Bank and include the
Carlson School of Management
The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduate degr ...
, the University of Minnesota Law School, Law School, and the
Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs
The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs is a public policy and planning school at the University of Minnesota, a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is named after Hubert ...
.
Wilson Library, the largest library in the university system, is also on the West Bank, as is Middlebrook Hall, the largest residence hall on campus. Approximately 900 students reside in the building named in honor of William T. Middlebrook.
Getting around
The Washington Avenue Bridge (Minneapolis), Washington Avenue Bridge crossing the Mississippi River provides access between the East and West Banks, on foot and via designated bike lanes and a free shuttle service. The bridge has two separate deck (bridge), decks: the lower deck for vehicles and the newly constructed light rail, and the upper deck for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. An unheated enclosed walkway runs the length of the bridge and shelters pedestrians from the weather. Walking and riding bicycles are the most common modes of transportation among students. University Police occasionally cite individuals for jaywalking or riding bicycles on restricted sidewalks in areas surrounding the university, resulting in fines as high as $250. This is often done at the beginning of a school year or after pedestrians interfere with traffic.
Several pedestrian tunnels ease the passage from building to building during harsh weather; they are marked with signs reading "The Gopher Way".
The Minneapolis campus is near Interstate Highway System, Interstates Interstate 94, 94 and Interstate 35, 35W and is bordered by the Minneapolis neighborhoods of Dinkytown (on the north), Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, Cedar-Riverside (on the west), Stadium Village (on the southeast), and Prospect Park, Minneapolis, Prospect Park (on the east).
Three Light rail in Minnesota, light-rail stations serve the university along the Green Line (Minnesota), Green Line: Stadium Village (Metro Transit station), Stadium Village, East Bank (Metro Transit station), East Bank, and West Bank (Metro Transit station), West Bank. The university partnered with Metro (Minnesota), Metro to offer students, staff, and faculty members a Go-To card#Campus Zone Pass, Campus Zone Pass that enables free travel on the three stations that pass through campus, as well as a discounted unlimited pass for students.
St. Paul campus
The St. Paul campus is in the city of Falcon Heights, about from the Minneapolis campus. The default place name for the ZIP code serving the campus is "St. Paul", but "Falcon Heights" is also recognized for use in the street addresses of all campus buildings. The University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, including the University of Minnesota Food Industry Center and many other disciplines from social sciences to vocational education, are on this campus. It also includes the College of Continuing and Professional Studies, College of Veterinary Medicine, and College of Biological Sciences. The extensive lawns, flowers, trees, and surrounding University research farm plots create a greener and quieter campus. It has a grassy mall of its own and can be a bit of a retreat from the more urban Minneapolis campus. Prominent on this campus is Bailey Hall, the St. Paul campus' only residence hall. Campus Connector buses run every 5 minutes on weekdays when school is in session, and every 20 minutes on weekends, allowing students easy access to both campuses.
The Continuing Education and Conference Center, which serves over 20,000 conference attendees per year, is also on the St. Paul campus.
The St. Paul campus is home to the College of Design's Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel (DHA). Located in McNeal Hall, DHA includes the departmental disciplines of apparel design, graphic design, housing studies, interior design, and retail merchandising.
The St. Paul campus is known to University students and staff for the Meat and Dairy Salesroom, which sells animal food products (such as ice cream, cheese, and meat) produced in the university's state-certified pilot plant by students, faculty and staff.
The St. Paul campus borders the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, which hosts the largest state fair in the United States by daily attendance. The fair lasts 12 days, from late August through Labor Day. The grounds also serve a variety of functions during the rest of the year.
Although the Falcon Heights North American Numbering Plan, area code is 651, the university telephone system trunk lines use Minneapolis Telephone exchange, exchanges and its 612 area code.
Commuting between Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses
On regular weekdays during the school year, the Campus Connectors operate with schedule-less service as often as every five minutes during the busiest parts of the school day (between 7 am and 5:30 pm), slowing to once every 15 or 20 minutes during earlier or later hours. The estimated commute time between St. Paul and the East Bank is 15 minutes. In 2008, the system carried 3.55 million riders. Although the shuttle service is free, it is comparatively inexpensive to operate; with an operating cost of $4.55 million in 2008, the operating subsidy was only $1.28 per passenger. Even Metro Transit (Minnesota), Metro Transit's busy Metro (Minnesota), Metro Blue Line (Minnesota), Blue Line light rail required a subsidy of $1.44 that year, and that was with many riders paying $1.75 or more for a ride.
Campus safety
The Step Up campaign is a program that helps students prevent excessive drinking, as well as sexual assault and other crimes, by teaching them how to intervene and prevent in a positive way. This is done, in part, by explaining the bystander effect. The U of M also has a TXT-U emergency notification text messaging system that sends out a notification to all faculty, staff, and students in case of emergency. Other resources help students get home safely. Calling 624-WALK secures an escort for walks to adjacent campuses and neighborhoods, and Gopher Chauffeur, a van service, offers rides near and on campus. Both are free and open to all students, staff, and faculty.
In addition, the campus has nearly 200 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and 200 yellow phones for emergency-only calls. The University Police Station has 20 Code Blue phones around campus that immediately connect people to their office. There are also over 2,000 security cameras being monitored 24 hours a day.
Sexual assaults
Minnesota Gophers football player Dominic Jones was convicted of sexual assault in 2008. In July 2009, an appeals court upheld Jones' conviction, but reduced his four-year prison sentence to one year. More than 1,000 sexual assaults on campus were reported between 2010 and 2015. No prosecutions for rape occurred, according to Katie Eichele of the Aurora Center, until the conviction of 2014 University of Minnesota rape case, Daniel Drill-Mellum in 2016, for the rapes of two fellow students. Drill-Mellum received a six-year prison sentence.
It has been alleged that few sexual assaults on campus are reported to University police. Six resulted in arrest from 2010 to 2015; one was determined to be unfounded. In a study by campus police, in the years between 2005 and 2015, sexual assaults at the university remained the same or increased despite six sexual assault resources and many anti-crime programs on campus. In August 2020, the University of Minnesota agreed to pay $500,000 to a woman who in the fall of 2016, accused several Gophers football players of sexually assaulting her. In February 2017, a University of Minnesota panel cleared four of the 10 Gopher football players the woman accused, expelled four and suspended the other two for a year.
Student life and traditions
Greek life, professional and honor societies
The University of Minnesota has numerous fraternities and sororities. Including defunct branches, the Greek System numbers more than 200 organizations, approximately half of which operate today. The university's Greek societies include the residential Fraternities and sororities in North America, Academic and Social chapters, including non-residential multicultural groups. The Greek System includes some but not all Professional fraternities and sororities, Professional Fraternities, Honor society, Honor Societies, Religious and Service fraternities and sororities, Service Fraternities. Fraternities and sororities have built several historically significant "Fraternity Row" homes along University Ave. SE, 10th Ave. SE, 4th Street SE, and 5th Street SE, all in Minneapolis, or along Cleveland Ave. near the St. Paul campus.
As of June 2018, approximately 3,900 system members made up about 11% of the campus population. Minnesota hosts 38 academic fraternities, 20 academic sororities, 56 honors societies, 31 professional societies, and two service-focused chapters.The University of Minnesota / Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life annual report , accessed September 9, 2018
Media
Print
''Minnesota Daily, The Minnesota Daily'' has been published twice a week during the normal school season since the fall semester 2016. It is printed weekly during the summer. The ''Daily'' is operated by an autonomous organization run entirely by students. It was first published on May 1, 1900. Besides everyday news coverage, the paper has also published special issues, such as the Grapevine Awards, Ski-U-Mah, the Bar & Beer Guide, Sex-U-Mah, and others.
A long-defunct humor magazine, ''Ski-U-Mah (magazine), Ski-U-Mah'', was published from about 1930 to 1950. It launched the career of novelist and scriptwriter Max Shulman.
A relative newcomer to the university's print media community is ''The Wake Student Magazine'', a weekly that covers UMN-related stories and provides a forum for student expression. It was founded in November 2001 in an effort to diversify campus media and achieved student group status in February 2002. Students from many disciplines do all of the reporting, writing, editing, illustration, photography, layout, and business management for the publication. The magazine was founded by James DeLong and Chris Ruen. ''The Wake'' was named the nation's best campus publication (2006) by the Independent Press Association.
Additionally, the ''Wake'' publishes ''Liminal'', a literary journal begun in 2005. ''Liminal'' was created in the absence of an undergraduate literary journal and continues to bring poetry and prose to the university community.
''The Wake'' has faced a number of challenges during its existence, due in part to the reliance on student fees funding. In April 2004, after the Student Services Fees Committee had initially declined to fund it, the needed $60,000 in funding was restored, allowing the magazine to continue publishing. It faced further challenges in 2005, when its request for additional funding to publish weekly was denied and then partially restored.
In 2005 conservatives on campus began formulating a new monthly magazine named ''The'' ''Minnesota Republic''. The first issue was released in February 2006, and funding by student service fees started in September 2006.
Radio
The campus radio station, KUOM "Radio K", broadcasts an eclectic variety of independent music during the day on 770 kHz AM radio, AM. Its 5,000-watt signal has a range of , but shuts down at dusk because of Federal Communications Commission regulations. In 2003, the station added a low-power (8-watt) signal on 106.5 MHz FM radio, FM overnight and on weekends. In 2005, a 10-watt translator began broadcasting from Falcon Heights on 100.7 FM at all times. Radio K also Internet radio, streams its content at www.radiok.org. With roots in experimental transmissions that began before World War I, the station received the first AM broadcast license in the state on January 13, 1922, and began broadcasting as Radio K, WLB, changing to the KUOM radio call sign, call sign about two decades later. The station had an educational format until 1993, when it merged with a smaller campus-only music station to become what is now known as Radio K. A small group of full-time employees are joined by over 20 part-time student employees who oversee the station. Most of the on-air talent consists of student volunteers.
Television
Some television programs made on campus have been broadcast on local Public Broadcasting Service, PBS station KTCI channel 17. Several episodes of ''Great Conversations'' have been made since 2002, featuring one-on-one discussions between University faculty and experts brought in from around the world. ''Tech Talk'' was a show meant to help people who feel intimidated by modern technology, including cellular phones and computers.
Minnesota Student Association
The Minnesota Student Association (MSA) is the undergraduate student government at the University of Minnesota. It advocates for student interests on local, state, and federal levels, and focuses on efforts that directly benefit the student population.
"Gopher Chauffeur", originally titled the MSA Express, is a student-operated late-night ride service. Piloted by MSA, the 2007–2008 administration of Emma Olson and Ross Skattum began the process of transitioning the service to the university's Boynton Health Services. This was done to ensure its longevity. Student response was overwhelmingly positive, and the program was expanded in recent years due to campus safety concerns.
MSA was instrumental in passing legislation in the 2013 Minnesota Legislature for medical amnesty, and has focused more heavily on legislative advocacy in recent years.
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA) was responsible for graduate and professional student governance at the University of Minnesota. It is the largest and most comprehensive graduate/professional student governance organization in the United States. GAPSA serves students in the
Carlson School of Management
The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management is the business school of the University of Minnesota, a public research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Carlson School offers undergraduate and graduate degr ...
, the Dental School, the Graduate School, the University of Minnesota Law School, Law School, the University of Minnesota Medical School, Medical School, the School of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, the School of Public Health, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and the College of Education and Human Development. GAPSA is also a member of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students.
The University of Minnesota has the second-largest number of graduate and professional students in the United States at over 16,000. All registered graduate student, graduate and professional students at UMN are members of GAPSA. It was established in 1990 as a nonprofit (IRS 501 (c)(3)) confederation of independent college councils representing all graduate and professional students at the University of Minnesota to the Board of Regents, the president of the university, the University Senate, UMN at large and the wider community. GAPSA served as a resource for member councils, as the primary contact point for administrative units, as a graduate and professional student policy-making and policy-influencing body, and as a center of intercollegiate and intracollegiate interaction among students.
In 2014, GAPSA split into two organizations and ceased to exist as such due to an increasing separation between the needs of graduate and professional students. COGS (the Council of Graduate Students) broke off from the larger body, which then renamed to PSG (Professional Student Governance). Both units continue to fulfill the former functions of GAPSA for the respective student bodies each represents.
Student activism
Student activism has played an important role at the university, including campaigns to desegregate campus housing in the 1930s and 1940s, Black students' take over of Morrill Hall in 1969, which led to the creation of the Department of Afro-American Studies, now known as the Department of African-American and African Studies, the 1970 student strike against war, campaigns to keep the General College Truth Movement, General College open in the 2000s, campaigns against racism in 2014-2015 known as Whose Diversity?, and many graduate student unionization efforts. For example, recent labor coalition efforts in the 2021-2022 academic year have highlighted poor wage, poor stipend conditions, and administrative disrespect for graduate student workers.
Athletics
Minnesota's Twin Cities campus athletics teams are called the
Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...
and are members of the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of 2019, they have won 19 NCAA championships and claim nine national football championships.
Since the 2013–14 school year, the only Minnesota team that does not compete in the Big Ten is the Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey, women's ice hockey team, which competes in the WCHA. The Gophers Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey, men's ice hockey team was a longtime WCHA member, but left when the Big Ten began operating a Big Ten Conference (ice hockey), men's ice hockey league with six inaugural members. The current athletic director is Mark Coyle.
The Golden Gophers' most notable rivalry is the annual college football game against the Wisconsin Badgers (University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin) for Paul Bunyan's Axe. The two universities also compete in the Border Battle, a year-long athletic competition in which each sport season is worth 40 points divided by the number of times the teams play each other (i.e. football is worth 40 points because they play each other only once, while women's ice hockey is worth 10 points per game because they play four times a year). Conference and postseason playoffs do not count in the point standings.
Goldy Gopher is the mascot for the Twin Cities campus and the associated sports teams. The gopher (animal), gopher mascot is a tradition as old as the state, which was tabbed the "Gopher State" in 1857 after a political cartoon ridiculing the $5 million railroad loan that helped open up the West. The cartoon portrayed shifty railroad barons as striped gophers pulling a railroad car carrying the Territorial Legislature. Later, the university picked up the nickname with the first university yearbook, bearing the name "Gopher Annual", appearing in 1887.
The Minnesota Rouser is university's fight song. It is commonly played and sung by the 320-member University of Minnesota Marching Band, Minnesota Marching Band at events such as Graduation, commencement, convocation, and athletic games. Other songs associated with the university include the Minnesota March, which was composed for the university by John Philip Sousa, and Hail! Minnesota, the university's Alma mater (song), alma mater and state song of Minnesota.
Football
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are one of the oldest programs in college football history. They have won seven national championships and 18 List of Big Ten National Championships, Big Ten Conference Championships. The Golden Gophers played their first game on September 29, 1882, a 4–0 victory over Hamline University, St. Paul. In 1887, the Golden Gophers played host to the Wisconsin Badgers in a 63–0 victory. With the exception of 1906, the Golden Gophers and the Badgers have played each other every year since. The 128 games played against each other make this the most played rivalry in NCAA Division I FBS college football.
In 1981, the Golden Gophers played their last game in Memorial Stadium (University of Minnesota), Memorial Stadium. Between 1982 and 2008, the school played their home games in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. They moved back to campus on September 12, 2009, when their new home, TCF Bank Stadium, opened with a game against the 2009 Air Force Falcons football team, Air Force Falcons of the United States Air Force Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy. Often referred to as The Bank, the stadium was renamed Huntington Bank Stadium in June 2021 to reflect the acquisition of TCF Bank by Huntington Bank.
Basketball
The Golden Gophers men's basketball team has won two Helms Athletic Foundation#National titles, National Championships, two National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Championships, and eight Big Ten Regular Season Championships. They also have six NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Final Four appearance in 1997 and three NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, Sweet 16 appearances. However, because of University of Minnesota basketball scandal, NCAA sanctions for academic fraud, all postseason appearances from 1994 to 1998—in the NCAA Tournament in 1994, 1995, and 1997 and NIT in 1996 and 1998—were vacated. Most recently, in April 2014 the Golden Gophers defeated SMU to win the NIT championship at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The Golden Gophers women's basketball team has enjoyed success in recent years under Pam Borton, including a Final Four appearance in 2004. Overall, they have six NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, NCAA Tournament appearances and three NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, Sweet 16 appearances.
Men's hockey
The Golden Gophers men's hockey program has won 5 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship#NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Championship, Division I National Championships, and 24 conference championships (including 13 Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's champions, WCHA and 4 Big Ten men's ice hockey champions, Big Ten Hockey season championships. They have won 14 Western Collegiate Hockey Association men's champions, WCHA Tournament Championships and have 20 NCAA Frozen Four appearances. A former Golden Gophers hockey tradition was to fill a majority of the team roster with Minnesota natives. Home games are played at Mariucci Arena. The Golden Gophers' big rivals are the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of North Dakota.
Women's hockey
The Golden Gophers women's hockey team has won six NCAA National Championships, most recently in 2016, and nine WCHA Regular Season Championships. They have also won seven WCHA Tournament Championships and have eleven NCAA Frozen Four appearances. They play their home games in Ridder Arena. They were the first collegiate women's hockey team to play in an arena dedicated solely to women's ice hockey. In the 2012–2013 season they finished undefeated at 41–0, and are the first and only NCAA women's hockey team to do so. After winning the NCAA tournament their winning streak stood at 49 games, dating back to February 17, 2012, when they lost to North Dakota.
Women's rugby
The first Division I collegiate women's rugby club in the state, the Golden Gophers women's rugby club team won the Midwest conference championship in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Women's gymnastics
The Golden Gophers Women's Gymnastics team competes in the Maturi Pavilion. The team has won six Big Ten titles, the most recent in 2016, when they won the regular season championship with a 9–0 record.
Cross Country and Track and Field
The Cross Country and Track and Field programs have produced several professional runners, including Ben Blankenship and Gabriele Grunewald, Gabriele Grunwald. They also host the Roy Griak meet, a large collegiate cross country meet.
Notable people
File:Norman Borlaug.jpg,
Norman Borlaug
Norman Ernest Borlaug (; March 25, 1914September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple ...
(B.S, Forestry, 1937; M.S. (1939) and Ph.D. (1942), Plant Pathology), 1970 Nobel Prize in Peace
File:Herb Brooks 1983.JPG, Herb Brooks (B.A., 1962), Ice hockey at the Winter Olympics, Olympic ice hockey coach
File:Nick Clegg by the 2009 budget cropped.jpg, Nick Clegg (Fellow, 1989–90) Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
File:Bob Dylan - Azkena Rock Festival 2010 2.jpg,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
(Literature & Arts, 1959–1960) 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature
File:Hubert Humphrey crop.jpg,
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
(B.A., 1939) List of Vice Presidents of the United States, 38th Vice President of the United States
File:GKpress.jpg, Garrison Keillor (B.S, English, 1966), author
File:Walter Mondale 1977 vice presidential portrait.jpg,
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota ...
(B.A., Political Science, 1951), List of Vice Presidents of the United States, 42nd Vice President of the United States
File:Slayton.jpg,
Deke Slayton
Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton (March 1, 1924 – June 13, 1993) was a United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot who was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. He went on to become NASA's first ...
(B.S., Aeronautical Engineering, 1949), Mercury Seven astronaut
File:Sen William L Armstrong.jpg, William L. Armstrong, American Businessman and United States Senator from Colorado
See also
* List of colleges and universities in Minnesota
Notes
References
External links
*
University of Minnesota Athletics website *
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Twin Cities, University Of
University of Minnesota,
Educational institutions established in 1851
Flagship universities in the United States
Forestry education
Land-grant universities and colleges
Minneapolis–Saint Paul
Universities and colleges in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Public universities and colleges in Minnesota, University of Minnesota
Universities and colleges in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Minnesota populated places on the Mississippi River
1851 establishments in Minnesota Territory