The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

's biomedical research unit and medical school located in

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...

Weill Cornell Medical Center Weill Cornell Medical Center (previously known as New York Hospital or Old New York Hospital or City Hospital) is a research hospital in New York City. It is part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the teaching hospital for Cornell University. ...

Hospital for Special Surgery Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is a hospital in New York City that specializes in orthopedic surgery and the treatment of rheumatologic conditions. Founded in 1863 by James Knight, HSS is the oldest orthopedic hospital in the United States ...

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

, and Rockefeller University, all of which are located nearby on

York Avenue York Avenue and Sutton Place are the names of a relatively short north-south thoroughfare in the Yorkville, Lenox Hill, and Sutton Place neighborhoods of the East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. York Avenue runs from 59th to 92nd Streets ...

. Weill Cornell's clinical affiliates rank highly, with the

ranked #1 in the region and #4 in the nation, the Hospital for Special Surgery ranked #1 in the nation for orthopedics and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Center #2 for cancer. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University joined Weill Cornell to establish the

Tri-Institutional MD–PhD Program The Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program is an MD-PhD program based in New York City that was formed by combining earlier MD-PhD programs that had their inceptions in 1972. The current version of the program, which is operated by Weill Cornell Medicin ...

in 1991. In 2001, the school opened a campus in Qatar. Weill Cornell has also been affiliated with

Houston Methodist Hospital Houston Methodist Hospital is the flagship quaternary care hospital of Houston Methodist academic medical center. Located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, Houston Methodist Hospital was established in 1919 during the height of the ...

since 2004. On September 16, 2019, Weill Cornell Medicine announced students who qualify for financial aid would attend debt-free.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/us/weill-cornell-free.html NYT-'Cornell’s Medical School Offers Full Rides in Battle Over Student Debt' 16 Sept 2019https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2019/09/weill-cornell-medicine-eliminates-medical-education-debt-for-all-qualifying-students RRESS RELEASE-Weill Cornell Medicine Eliminates Medical Education Debt for All Qualifying Students 16 SEPTEMBER 2019 Weill Cornell Medicine enrolls approximately 100 students per class from a pool of over 6,000 applicants, interviewing 700-750 applicants. For the class of 2022, the average undergraduate

GPA Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurements for varying levels of achievements in a course. Grades can be assigned as letters (usually A through F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), as a percentage, or as a numbe ...

and

MCAT The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT; ) is a computer-based standardized examination for prospective medical students (both Allopathic M.D. and Ostepathic D.O.) in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Caribbean Islands. It is designe ...

scores for successful applicants were 3.85 and 518, respectively. The Weill Cornell Medical College is currently tied for 14th place on '' U.S. News & World Reports "Best Medical Schools: Research" ranking.

History

The school was founded on April 14, 1898, with an endowment by Col. Oliver H. Payne. It was established in New York because

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

, where the main campus is located, was deemed too small to offer adequate clinical training opportunities. James Ewing was the first professor of clinical pathology at the school, and for a while was the only full-time professor.James B. Murph
James Ewing Biographical Memoir
National Academy of Sciences Washington D.C., 1951. A branch of the school operated in Stimson Hall on the main campus. The two-year Ithaca course paralleled the first two years of the New York school. It closed in 1938 due to declining enrollment. Weill Cornell became affiliated with New York Hospital, now

NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...

, in 1913. The institutions opened a joint campus in Yorkville in 1932. In 1927,

William Payne Whitney William Payne Whitney (March 20, 1876 – May 25, 1927) was an American businessman and member of the influential Whitney family. He inherited a fortune and enlarged it through business dealings, then devoted much of his money and efforts to ...

's $27 million donation led to the building of the

Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic The Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic (PWC) was a hospital in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, which was founded by an endowment bestowed by Payne Whitney (March 20, 1876 – May 25, 1927) upon his death. Whitney was an American ...

, which became the name for Cornell's large psychiatric effort. Its Training School for Nurses became affiliated with the university in 1942, operating as the Cornell Nursing School until it closed in 1979. In 1936, the Swiss professor and psychiatrist Oskar Diethelm started to build up the Oskar Diethelm Historical Library, a collection of more than 10,000 titles related to the history of psychiatry and a project to which he donated his own library collection and mainly committed after the retirement, while visiting public libraries across America and Europe. In 1998, New York Hospital merged with Presbyterian Hospital, the affiliate hospital of

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) is the graduate medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Founded ...

. The combined institution operates today as

. Despite the clinical alliance, the faculty and instructional functions of the Cornell and Columbia units remain largely distinct and independent. Each hospital in the

NewYork–Presbyterian Healthcare System The NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System is a network of independent, cooperating, acute-care and community hospitals, continuum-of-care facilities, home-health agencies, ambulatory sites, and specialty institutes in the New York metropolitan a ...

is affiliated with one of the two colleges. Originally called Cornell University Medical College, the school was renamed the Weill Medical College of Cornell University after receiving a substantial endowment from then- Citigroup Chairman Sanford I. Weill in 1998. In 2015, the school renamed itself Weill Cornell Medicine to better reflect its mission. On September 16, 2019, Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi announced Weill Cornell Medicine would make the cost of attendance free for all students who qualify for financial aid, made possible by a $160 million gift from The Starr Foundation, directed by Weill Cornell Medicine Overseer

Maurice R. Greenberg Maurice Raymond “Hank” Greenberg (born May 4, 1925) is an American business executive and former chairman and chief executive officer of American International Group (AIG). Early life Greenberg was born into a Jewish family in Greenwich Vil ...

, in partnership with gifts from Joan and Board of Overseers Chairman Emeritus Sanford I. Weill. Weill Cornell Medical College founded the medical fraternity

Phi Delta Epsilon Phi Delta Epsilon () (commonly known as PhiDE) is a co-ed international medical fraternity and a member of the Professional Fraternity Association. History Phi Delta Epsilon was founded on October 13, 1904, at Cornell University Medical College. ...

on October 13, 1904.

Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights

Founded in 2010 in partnership with

Physicians for Human Rights Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a US-based not-for-profit human rights NGO that uses medicine and science to document and advocate against mass atrocities and severe human rights violations around the world. PHR headquarters are in New ...

, the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights (WCCHR) provides services to torture victims seeking asylum in the United States on grounds of racial, gendered, religious, sexual, or political persecution. Run by medical students, the WCCHR provides forensic medical evaluations for survivors of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

; clinicians provide clients to prepare an affidavit in support of a client's asylum application. It is the first U.S. medical school-based asylum clinic run by students.

Notable alumni

White House Coronavirus Update Briefing (49809803361)

* Iqbal Mahmoud Al Assad, pediatric cardiologist * Robert Atkins, creator of the

Atkins Diet The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Robert Atkins in the 1970s, marketed with claims that carbohydrate restriction is crucial to weight loss and that the diet offered "a high calorie way to stay thin forever". The diet be ...

Hilary Blumberg Hilary Patricia Blumberg is a medical doctor and the inaugural John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. She is also a professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, and works in the Child Study Center at Yale ...

, professor of psychiatric neuroscience *

Carlos Cordon-Cardo Carlos Cordon-Cardo (born February 25, 1957) is a Spanish-born American physician and scientist known for his research in experimental pathology and molecular oncology. He holds the "Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given" Chair in Pathology a ...

, physician and scientist * John P. Donohue, physician and testicular cancer researcher * Anthony Fauci, director of the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...

* John Gartner, psychotherapist; author; former Johns Hopkins University Medical School professor; founder or dutytowarn.org PAC *

Wilson Greatbatch Wilson Greatbatch (September 6, 1919 – September 27, 2011) was an American engineer and pioneering inventor. He held more than 325 patents and was a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Lemelson–MIT Prize ...

, inventor of the cardiac

artificial pacemaker An artificial cardiac pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the natural cardiac pacemaker) or pacemaker is a medical device that generates electrical impulses delivered by electrodes to the chambers of the heart eit ...

Nan Hayworth Nan Alison Hayworth (née Sutter; born December 14, 1959) is an American ophthalmologist and former Congresswoman for . A Republican, she was elected in 2010. In 2012, after redistricting, Hayworth ran for reelection in the new 18th district ...

, physician and former U.S. Representative *

Henry Heimlich Henry Judah Heimlich (February 3, 1920 – December 17, 2016) was an American thoracic surgeon and medical researcher. He is widely credited as the inventor of the Heimlich maneuver, a technique of abdominal thrusts for stopping choking, first ...

, physician and namesake of the

Heimlich maneuver Abdominal thrusts, also known as the Heimlich maneuver or Heimlich manoeuvre, is a first aid procedure used to treat upper airway obstructions (or choking) by foreign objects. American doctor Henry Heimlich is often credited for its creation. ...

* Roy S. Herbst, oncologist, lung cancer researcher, and academic,

Yale Cancer Center Yale Cancer Center (YCC) was founded in 1974 as a result of an act of Congress in 1971, which declared the nation's "war on cancer". It is one of a network of 51 Comprehensive Cancer Centers designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).Curr ...

and

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...

Richard Hooker Richard Hooker (25 March 1554 – 2 November 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian.The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford University ...

, surgeon and writer *

John Howland John Howland (February 23, 1673) accompanied the English Separatists and other passengers when they left England on the to settle in Plymouth Colony. He was an indentured servant and in later years an executive assistant and personal secretary ...

, pediatrician * Mae C. Jemison, former astronaut *

C. Everett Koop Charles Everett Koop (October 14, 1916 – February 25, 2013) was an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as the 13th Surgeon Ge ...

, former Surgeon General *

Bonnie Mathieson Bonnie Jean Mathieson (May 10, 1945 – January 8, 2018) was an American biomedical scientist and pioneer in HIV vaccine research. Mathieson worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 43 years. She played a fundamental role in NIH HI ...

, scientist and

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

researcher * Alton Meister, scientist and HIV/AIDS researcher * Elizabeth Nabel, president of Brigham and Women's Hospital * James Peake, former

United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs The United States secretary of veterans affairs is the head of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the department concerned with veterans' benefits, health care, and national veterans' memorials and cemeteries. The secretary is a me ...

* Jacob Robbins, endocrinologist at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

* Ida S. Scudder, medical missionary in India *

Ruth Westheimer Karola Ruth Westheimer ( Siegel; born June 4, 1928), better known as Dr. Ruth, is a German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, professor, Holocaust survivor, and former Haganah sniper. Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish fam ...

(see below)

Notable faculty

* Lewis C. Cantley, Meyer Director and Professor of Cancer Biology at the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine *

Amos Grunebaum Amos Grunebaum (born January 27, 1950) is an American obstetrician and gynecologist. He serves as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Zucker School of Medicine, as Professor Emeritus at the medical school Weill Cornell Medicine, and as ...

(born 1950), obstetrician and gynecologist * David Hajjar, Professor of Pathology and Biochemistry; Frank Rhodes Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Biology and Genetics *

Ben Kean Benjamin H. Kean ( – 1993) was an American physician, author, researcher and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, widely known for his treatment of the Shah of Iran. Kean was born in Valparaiso, Indiana, and grew up in West Orange, Ne ...

, Professor of Medicine, founder of the Tropical Medicine Unit (1962) and chief of the Parasitology Laboratory, New York Hospital; personal physician to the Shah of Iran, his treatment of whom led to the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979-1981.
Benjamin H. Kean Papers, Weill Cornell Medical College * Otto F. Kernberg, psychiatrist * Bruce Lerman, cardiologist; the Hilda Altschul Master Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, Chief of the Division of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory at Weill Cornell Medicine and the

New York Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...

Fabrizio Michelassi Fabrizio Michelassi, M.D., F.A.C.S. is the Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor, and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and Surgeon-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center . Education Michelassi re ...

, the Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor, and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine * John P. Moore, virologist and professor at Weill Cornell Medicine * Rajiv Ratan, professor, administrator, and scientist; the Burke Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine * Douglas Scherr, surgeon, medical researcher and Clinical Director of Urologic Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine *

Harold E. Varmus Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center. He was ...

, Nobel Prize-winning scientist; the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine *

David Kissane Professor David William Kissane, Order of Australia, AC (born 1951) is an Australian psychiatrist specialising in psychiatric oncology and palliative care. Since 2018, he has been the inaugural Chair in Palliative Medicine Research at the Universi ...

, Professor of Psychiatry (2003–2012); concurrently Chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and inaugural Jimmie C. Holland Chair in Psychiatric Oncology at

* Radu Lucian Sulica, Professor and Chief, Laryngology and Voice Disorders *

(born Karola Siegel, 1928; known as "Dr. Ruth"), German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, professor, Holocaust survivor, and former Haganah sniper.

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control NewYork–Presbyterian Healthcare System Academic health science centres Colleges and schools of Cornell University NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital Schools of medicine in New York City Universities and colleges in Manhattan Educational institutions established in 1898 1898 establishments in New York City * Ivy League medical schools Cornell University campuses Satellite campuses Cornell University