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The Caltech History FAQ.

The Caltech History FAQ.

Frequently Asked Questions about Caltech

1. When was Caltech founded?

Caltech was founded in 1891 as Throop University by Amos Gager Throop (pronounced T-R-O-O-P).

2. When did Caltech receive its present name?

Caltech became the California Institute of Technology on February 10, 1920.

3. What were Caltech’s previous names?

Caltech began as Throop University (1891-1892); the name was changed to Throop Polytechnic Institute (1893-1912) and then to Throop College of Technology (1913-1919).

4. Who were Caltech’s presidents?

In the early years, the chief executive officers were Millard M. Parker, Vice President (1891); Charles H. Keyes, President (1892-1896); Walter A. Edwards, President (1897-1907); Arthur Henry Chamberlain, Acting President (1908); and James A. B. Scherer, President (1908-1920). After the school became the California Institute of Technology, the presidents were: Robert A. Millikan, Chairman of the Executive Council (1921-1945—Millikan never held the title of President); Lee A. DuBridge, President (1946-1969); Harold Brown, President (1969-1977); Robert F. Christy, Acting President (1977-1978); Marvin L. Goldberger, President (1978-1987); Thomas E. Everhart, President (1987-1997); David Baltimore, President (1997-2006); Jean-Lou Chameau, President (2006- ).

5. Who received Caltech’s first doctoral degree?

Caltech’s first PhD was awarded to Roscoe Dickinson in chemistry in 1920.

6. Who was the first woman to receive a PhD from Caltech?

The first female recipient of a Caltech PhD was Dorothy Ann Semenov in 1955. Her degree was awarded in chemistry and biology.

7. When did Caltech first admit women undergraduates?

Women undergraduates were admitted in the fall of 1970. Four of these received bachelor’s degrees in 1973.

8. Who was Caltech’s first Nobel laureate?

Robert A. Millikan was Caltech’s first Nobel laureate. He won the prize for physics in 1923.

9. Where was Caltech’s first campus?

In its first year, 1891, the school occupied rented quarters in the Wooster Block. This building still stands on the southeast corner of the intersection of Fair Oaks and Green Street. In 1892 the campus was moved to a site bordered by Raymond Avenue to the west and Chestnut Street to the south. This location today is across Raymond Avenue from St. Andrew's Church and bordered on the north by the 210 Freeway. In 1910, with the building of Throop Hall by the architects Elmer Grey and Myron Hunt on the present site, the old campus buildings were leased and then finally demolished in the 1920s.

10. Did Einstein teach at Caltech?

Einstein was a visiting professor at Caltech for three winter terms only, in the years 1931 to 1933. When Einstein decided to settle in the United States permanently, he accepted an appointment at Princeton University.

11. Where did Einstein live in Pasadena?

During his first winter of residence in 1931, Einstein lived in a bungalow at 707 South Oakland Avenue. During the following two winters, he resided at Caltech’s faculty club, the Athenaeum.

12. When did Charles Richter invent the earthquake magnitude scale at Caltech?

Charles Richter was a research assistant at the Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena when he published his paper, "An Instrumental Earthquake Magnitude Scale," in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 25 (January 1935). The lab was operated jointly by Caltech and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He was named professor of seismology at Caltech in 1937.

13. Are the Richard Feynman lectures on physics available on videotape?

No. The Feynman lectures, which were given in 1961 through 1964, were not filmed. The lectures are presently marketed in book form and on audio tape by Addison Wesley/Perseus Books.

14. What does GALCIT stand for?

Originally it stood for Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology, since the first building in 1929 was constructed with funds provided by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. In 1962 the name was changed when two new laboratories, the Firestone Flight Sciences Laboratory and the Karman Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Jet Propulsion were established, thus creating the new GALCIT—Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology. The new title also underscored the fact that aeronautics, as taught at Caltech, is primarily a graduate-school subject.