The Biomedical Sciences at Rutgers University
1766 - Today*
1766 - Queen's College receives first Charter. Instruction begins 1771. William Franklin, the last Colonial governor of New Jersey (and Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son), signed the 1766 charter creating Queen's College, named after Charlotte of Mecklenberg, consort of King George III. In May 1771, the Board of Trustees voted 10-7 to establish Queen's College in New Brunswick. The first classes were taught by Frederick Frelinghuysen, the 18-year old stepson of the first college president, starting November 1771 in a downtown tavern named the Sign of the Red Lion on the corner of Albany and Neilson streets. Queen’s College had its first commencement in 1774. Nineteen year old Matthew Leydt was the entire graduating class. http://www.rutgers.edu/timeline/
1792-3 Queens College, New Brunswick, awards its first degrees of Doctor of Medicine to Henry Van Solingen, Jonas Addoms, and Abraham Cornelison for dissertations "On Worms of the Human Intestines", "On Malignant Fever" and "Pertussis or Whooping Cough". Solingen, Addoms, and Cornelison were private practice students of Dr. Nicholas Romayne, Professor on the Medical faculty of Columbia College (Kings College) who sought to have his students sanctioned by Queens College after being refused by the Kings College of Physicians and Surgeons (now Columbia University, Physicians and Surgeons).1
1776 -92 John Taylor was the "college tutor" of Queen's College when he joined the Revolutionary Army in 1776. While the British General Howe chased George Washington's army through New Jersey, classes were held sporadically at private homes around the New Brunswick area. He became the first Professor of Natural History and Philosophy and Mathematics of Queen’s College from 1786 to 1792.
1793-1825 In 1793, the school had financial difficulties, narrowly averting merging with Princeton and closed in 1795, reopening in 1808 when the Trustees raised $12,000. The cornerstone of Old Queen's building was laid by President Ira Condict but the building took 14 years to build. A depressed economy and the War of 1812 forced the college to close for a second time, reopening in 1825 for good.
1813 -1816 Queens College offers about 20 medical degrees to Romayne's private medical students (all of whom are trained at his Medical Institution of New York on Duane street in New York City).1
1809-27 Robert Adrain became Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers from 1809 to 1813, moved to Columbia College as Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy from 1813-1825, returned to Rutgers as Professor of Mathematics from 1826 to 1827, moved to the University of Pennsylvania http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Adrain.html where he was Professor of Mathematics from 1827 to 1834. He "revived interest in science" at Rutgers but there is no evidence that he taught any biological subjects.
1825 Trustees renamed Queen's College Rutgers College, in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers, a war hero, member of the President Phillip Milledoler's parish, and wealthy bachelor known for his philanthropy. He donated a bell and the interest on a $5000 bond in 1826. Unfortunately, when Colonel Rutgers died in 1830, he left a third of his estate to charity but nary a penny for Rutgers College.
1826-35 Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons faculty revolt in opposition to "self learning" and the College's deductions from fees earned by the faculty. Dr. David Hosack, Dr. Valentine Seamen and Sir Astley Cooper resign from Columbia P&S and open Rutgers Medical College at 68 Duane Street in New York City.1 The college closes in 1835.
1830-55 Lewis Caleb Beck. Dr. Beck practiced as a physician in St. Louis in 1819 and “botanized” extensively in Missouri and Illinois. In 1820, he moved back to New York where he amassed the nucleus of the mineral collection housed in the New York State Museum. An associate of Amos Eaton (pioneer botanist, chemist geologist and founder of Renssalaer Institute), Beck was well-known botanist, chemist, mineralogist, lecturer, Albany Medical School and member of New York branch of the Paris Linnaean Society by 1831 when he joined Rutgers as Professor of Chemistry and Natural History ($200 salary). He found “little apparatus and poor preparation of my students which made it difficult for me to satisfy myself or the class, but my services seemed acceptable to my colleagues.” He included botany in the curriculum and published a textbook on botany. In 1847, Van Nest Hall was constructed including the Beck Museum and Laboratory. In 1850, the first course catalog shows Natural Philosophy for seniors listing courses in Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, and Mineralogy. http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~ecogsa/history.html
1853 Dr. George Hammel Cook (a student of Amos Eaton) became Professor and Chair of Chemistry and Natural Sciences. Sciences flourished under his leadership. In 1854-55, the catalog listed courses in botany and physiology. The Natural History Society of Rutgers College announced regular meetings for reading of papers. In 1859, blaming declining student enrollment, inadequate funds, and an “unruly faculty”. President Theodore Frelinghuysen fires all Rutgers faculty except George Cook. http://www.lib.rpi.edu/dept/library/html/Archives/history/academic_heads/cook,%20gh.html
1863-1886 The “Rutgers Scientific School” started in 1863. The state legislature picked the Rutgers Scientific School over Princeton to be the state land-grant college, a feat almost wholly attributable to George H. Cook who lobbied ferociously for the funds. The funds established a “large chemical laboratory”, an astronomical observatory, rooms for engineering, and a Museum for Geology, Mineralogy, Zoology and Botany. By 1868, freshman courses included physiology, zoology, and botany. Physiology and zoology combined in 1869. Vegetable physiology and animal physiology courses were added in 1870 for juniors and seniors. In 1872 the Museum and natural sciences moved to the new Geology Hall while freshman courses were reduced to natural history-zoology and Gray’s Botany and seniors lost the animal physiology course. The zoology courses were dropped in 1883 for one year. In 1886, the name “Natural History” was dropped but physiology, zoology, and botany remained. From 1864-1889, Dr. Cook was Vice President of Rutgers and State Geologist of New Jersey, published “The Geology of New Jersey”, and directed the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station founded in 1880.
1888 Dr. Julius Nelson (Johns Hopkins, Ph.D.) came to Rutgers (salary $1500/yr) as the biologist for New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and formed what is now know as the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, the oldest experiment station of its kind in the country. He felt that the practices of the oyster industry were much like those of a farmer and persuaded the Experiment Station to establish a Department of Oyster Culture, the first of its kind. http://vertigo.hsrl.rutgers.edu/history.html. Starting in 1893, Dr. Nelson made important contributions in the diagnosis and control of bovine tuberculosis in New Jersey dairy herds. For those accomplishments he was appointed to the New Jersey Tuberculosis Commission. In 1901 he was named the "State Biologist of New Jersey " by an act of the New Jersey legislature, a position he held until his death in 1916.
1889 The Agricultural college acquires Byron D. Halsted (botany) and John B. Smith (entomology). Teach courses with Nelson in Rutgers College and the New Scientific School. Professor Nelson offers first series of courses that could be called a biology major. Richard Swan permitted to become a “major” in biology. As Rutgers first graduate biological major, he goes on to become a distinguished paleontologist at Yale University.
1890-1899 James A. Kelsey became the first graduate student in biology at Rutgers and received the first Master of Science degree from Rutgers in 1899. Isaac E. Titsworth was listed as an assistant in biology.
1901-1907 Professor of Physics Francis C. Van Dyck (RC 1865) was appointed the first Dean in 1901. Jacob G. Lipman (later Dean of Agriculture) was appointed to develop the new department of Soil Chemistry and Bacteriology in 1901, while still working on his Ph.D. in Agricultural Chemistry from Cornell (1903). Edward Voorhees and J.B. Street clarified the role of soil bacteria in denitrification in 1902 for which Voorhees received the first Nichols Gold Medal for original chemical research from the New York Section of the American Chemical Society in 1903. The first Bacteriology Course was offered in 1907. The Catalog listed courses in neural physiology, veterinary science, physiology of nutrition, and biochemistry.
1909-1916 The Biology Major had become firmly established at Rutgers by 1909. The course catalog included 14 different one-semester courses from Sophomore to Senior year. Ph.D. instructors William Dana Hoyt (bacteriology and botany), William T.M. Forbes (zoology), Eldon L. Loblein (veterinarian) joined the faculty in 1910. In addition, Floyd E. Chidester (zoology), Melville T. Cook (botany), Thomas J. Headley (entomology), George W. Martin (botany), Arthur Russell Moore (physiology and biochemistry) and John Wesley Shive (plant physiology) joined the Biology faculty at Rutgers in 1910. Selman Waksman entered Rutgers College on a State Scholarship in 1911 and received a B.Sc. degree in Agriculture in 1915. Department Chair J.G. Lipman becomes the founding editor of the Journal of Soil Science. The initial volume contains five papers authored by Selman Waksman, research assistant in soil bacteriology under Dr. J.G. Lipman, Waksman obtained an M.Sc. degree from Rutgers in 1916 .
1916 Julius Nelson dies. The New Jersey legislature passes special legislation noting the accomplishments of the “State Biologist of New Jersey” as a distinguished educator and researcher of marine bivalve mollusks and bovine tuberculosis.
1918 The New Jersey College for Women (later renamed Douglass College) was founded in 1918. Professors Melville Cook and Moore were “borrowed” from Rutgers and Miss Jessie G. Fiske was appointed as instructor in botany. The “Course” in biology included premedical biology, sanitary science and economic entomology. Eleven courses were offered for Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors, including a thesis for second semester seniors.
1919 Thurlow Christian Nelson (son of Julius Nelson) joined the staff at Rutgers. The Fall Rutgers catalog in 1919 offered 37 courses in biology, including 8 for graduate students. Born in Highland Park on September 27,1890, Thurlow Nelson obtained his bachelor of Science from Rutgers College in 1913 and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He served with the U.S. Army Medical Department and Surgeon General’s Office 1917-1919. He became Professor of Zoology in 1926, chaired the Department of Zoology from 1925-1954, and served in the leadership of regional fishery and national zoology organizations. Nelson Biological Laboratories. Selman Waksman joins the faculty of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1918.
1920-21 William John Crozier (zoology), Thomas J. Murray (bacteriology), Selman A. Waksman (soil microbiology), Conrad M. Haenseler (botany), and Willem Rudolfs (zoology) joined Rutgers in 1920-21. The course catalog lists a student assistant in physiology and biochemistry. In 1921, Rutgers College recognized four departments of biological science: Bacteriology, Botany, Physiology and Biochemistry, and Zoology. The College of Agriculture was renamed in honor of George H. Cook in 1921.
1922-28 Leon Augustus Hausman (zoology), Arthur P. Kelley (botany), Minton Asbury Chrysler (botany) joined the Rutgers faculty in 1922-23. In 1925, Alan Boyden (Zoology) joined the faculty, Thurlow C. Nelson becomes Professor of Zoology, and Sumner Cushing Brooks replaced Moore as Professor of Physiology and Biochemistry. James Boyd Allison (Instructor in Biochemistry), Earle Bryant Perkins (zoology), William Harder Cole (Professor of Physiology and Biochemistry) joined Rutgers staff in 1927-28. Marion Alvin Johnson, appointed Assistant Professor of Botany in 1930. In 1938-39, Ralph De Falco and Douglass Gemeroy were appointed Assistants in Zoology. Rutgers College listed 10 “curricula” or courses of study; premedical and Biological was No. 9.
1927 Selman Waksman publishes "Principles of Soil Microbiology", an 897 page text on "The Soil Population. Occurrence and Abundance of Microorganisms in the Soil; Methods for Isolating, Identifying and Cultivation of Soil Microorganisms; Chemical Activities of Microorganisms, and Soil Microbiological Processes and Soil Fertility" a revised 2nd edition is published in 1932.
1936 The Bureau of Biological Research was established by members of the Departments of Bacteriology, Botany, Zoology, and Physiology and Biochemistry “to promote biological research through the cooperative efforts of its members”. It is the first organization at Rutgers dedicated to the promotion of collaborative, interdisciplinary research.
1939 - 1942 Selman Waksman establishes a novel and systematic soil screening program for "microorganisms that inhibit disease causing bacteria" Waksman and students develop methods for growing microorganisms from soil extracts for agar plates using bacteria as a carbon source and testing filtrate of cultured soil microbe on bacterial lawns. Starting with the discovery of Actinomycin in 1940 by Waksman and Boyd Woodruff.Waksman and students identify over 20 microbial produced compounds that inhibit the growth of bacteria by 1942.
1940- 1948 Selman Waksman became chair of the newly organized Department of Microbiology in 1940. By this time, he was already a well-known microbiologist. In 1931, he was invited to organize a division of Marine Bacteriology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, appointed marine biologist, and served as a Trustee for that institution until 1942. At Rutgers, he began extensive screening program of thousands of soil microbes. With the help of over 50 graduate students and other scientists who visited his laboratory, he isolated several new antibiotics including actinomycin (1940), clavacin, sterptothricin (1942), streptomycin (1943), grisein (1946), neomycin (1948), candicidin, candidin, and others.
1943 Graduate student Albert Schatz and mentor, Selman Waksman isolate a strain of Streptomyces griseus , a soil Actinomycete that produces the antibiotic, streptomycin, used in the treatment of tuberculosis and other devastating diseases.
1945 Waksman and Schatz made joint application for patent as co-discoverers of streptomycin. Patent No. 2,448,866 entitled “Streptomycin and Process of Preparation” is granted to Selman Waksman and Albert Schatz and assigned to Rutgers Research and Endowment Foundation in 1948.
1949 Hubert Lechevalier and Selman Waksman publish the discovery of neomycin, an antibiotic against streptomycin resistant bacteria, including tuberculosis organisms.
1949 Rutgers Trustees established an Institute of Microbiology and named Professor Waksman as its first Director. The larger portion of the funds derived from the royalties obtained from streptomycin and neomycin were assigned for the building and support of the Institute. Out of the small portion of the royalties assigned to him personally, Dr. and Mrs. Waksman established the Foundation for Microbiology, for the support of research and publications in the field of microbiology. His wife Deborah B. Mitnik also established a scholarship for immigrant students or son or daughter of an immigrant, as well as a music scholarship at Douglass College.
1952 Selman Waksman received Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research methods leading to the discovery of streptomycin, the first effective treatment of tuberculosis. He retired in 1958 but continued to maintain a laboratory and an office at the Waksman Institute for many years. He died in 1973.
1956 Thurlow Christian Nelson retires. An expert in marine bivalve mollusks, parasitology, ecology, and limnology, he was the State Biologist of the Division of Shell Fisheries (1921 -1961), member of the state’s Water Quality Commission and the Council of the Division of Water Policy and Control. He received the Rutgers Trustee’s University Award and Medal, the Doctor of Science degree honoris causa, and Alumni’s Federation Award,
1956 Rutgers officially becomes the State University of New Jersey in 1956 with the formation of the Board of Governors. In 1958, 700 students marched on Trenton to protest the lack of state support for the university. In 1959, New Jersey voters approved the first of three higher education bonds, that gave the University over $200 million for an unprecedented expansion, including the biological sciences.
1960 The Nelson Biology Laboratories was erected in 1960. Named after Julius and Thurlow C. Nelson, the building was dedicated at the Eighteenth Annual Bureau of Biological Research Conference in 1962. James B. Allison, Director, James H. Leathem, Assistant Director, Bureau of Biological Research, Wayne W. Umbreit, Chair, Department of Bacteriology, Leslie A. Stauber, Chair, Department of Zoology, Walter W. Wainio, Chair, Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, James E. Gunkel, Chair, Department of Botany.
1962 Rutgers University Medical School chartered as New Jersey's first public medical school
1964 The federal government gives Rutgers 640 acres that served as the Army’s Camp Kilmer. This site becomes Livingston College in 1969. The Livingston College Department of Biology formed with Joanna Burger, Robert Jenkins, Ronald Barfield, Bertram Murray as founding faculty members. Dr. Charlotte J. Avers joins the Douglass College faculty as Professor of Biology. Bill Davis joins the Douglass College faculty of Biological Sciences.
1966 Rutgers Medical School opens on the Piscataway campus as a basic science institution offering the master of medical science degree.
1970 The Medical and Dental Education Act of 1970 creates the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (CMDNJ) by merging the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry with the medical school of Rutgers University.
1971 Dr. Evelyn Witkin, distinguished E. coli geneticist and pioneer in the field of DNA repair, joins the Douglass Biology Faculty in 1971. Wealthy investor Charles L. Busch dies and unexpectedly leaves Rutgers $10 million for biological research. In return, the University Heights campus is renamed in Busch’s honor.
1972 The CMDNJ-Rutgers Medical School matriculates its first third-year class of M.D. candidates.
1974 The CMDNJ-Rutgers Medical school graduates its first class of M.D.'s
1977-78 Dr. Evelyn Witkin elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and is appointed as the Barbara McClintock Professor of Biology.
1975 Bureau of Biological Research members Frank Davis (Biochemistry), Theo van Es (Biochemistry) and Nicholas C. Palczuk (Zoology) file patent on polyethylene glycol (PEG) modified enzymes for therapeutic use.
1981 Professor of Biochemistry, Frank Davis and Dr. Abraham Abuchowski found Enzon Corporation based on PEG-enzyme technology developed in the Bureau of Biological Research.
1980-1985 Rutgers University reorganizes in 1980, merging the different New Brunswick faculties into a unified Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In 1981, the Board of Governors approved a blueprint for developing Rutgers into a major public research university. In 1984, Douglass Biology, Livingston Biology, Botany, Microbiology, Physiology, and Zoology Departments form the Nelson Laboratories Department of Biological Sciences. Professor David Fairbrothers became Chair of the combined departments. In 1985, Professor John Bird assumes Chair of Department of Biological Sciences. Professor Joachim Messing becomes Director of the Waksman Institute
1981 CMDNJ is established as the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ, becoming the largest independent public health sciences university in the United States.
1986 The Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, a joint facility of UMDNJ and Rutgers University, was established. UMDNJ-Rutgers Medical School officially adopts UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as its name and Middlesex General University Hospital became Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
1986 The Bureau of Biological Research celebrates its 50th Anniversary.
1987 Dr. David Denhardt assumes Chair of Department of Biological Sciences. Professor Denhardt and Associate Chair, Professor William Foster spearhead Campaign for Biological Sciences and the renovation of Nelson Laboratories. The renovation adds modern 1st floor B-wing undergraduate teaching laboratories and 2nd and 3rd floor B-wing laboratory space.
1988 Joachim Messing, director of the Waksman Institute, named most frequently cited author under 45 years old.
1989 Department of Biochemistry is reorganized and renamed Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; Joachim Messing, director of the Waksman Institute, founding acting Chair
1990 Discovery of plastid transformation of higher plants by Dr. Pal Maliga, member of the Waksman Institute
1990 The Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, directed by National Academy member Aaron Shatkin, dedicates its new building on September 26 on the Piscataway campus.
1991 Joachim Messing, Director of the Waksman Institute, named most frequently cited author in all sciences for the last decade (1981-1990)
1994 Dr. Francine Essien, pioneer in mouse genetics and Director of Minority Undergraduate Science Programs (OMUSP), was named U.S. Professor of the Year for Research and Doctoral Universities by the Carnegie Foundation.
1996 Rutgers forms the FAS Division of Life Sciences under direction of Dean Kenneth Breslauer. Department of Biological Sciences is reorganized to form the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience (Richard Triemer, Chair) and Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (Robert Krug, Chair). Department of Microbiology and Genetics formed; Joachim Messing, director of the Waksman Institute, founding acting Chair. Nine Biology faculty members move to Cook Campus to form the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources.
1997 Preeminent neuroscientist Wise Young joins the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, and becomes Director of the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience. The Center for Collaborative Neuroscience in Nelson Laboratories was dedicated in 1998 and opened in 1999.
1997 Richard Ebright, member of the Waksman Institute and Department of Chemistry, and Eileen White, member of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry become Rutgers first members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
1998 Rutgers becomes the site of the National Science Foundation Protein Structural Database under the direction of Professor Helen Berman (Department of Chemistry and the Waksman Institute), including the Protein Data Bank and the Nucleic Acid Database.
1998-2000 Jay Tischfield becomes the Chair of the Department of Genetics and the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Professor of Genetics. He establishes the Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository (RUCDR), in Nelson Laboratories, for the study of the genetics of complex human diseases. In 2003, the Department of Genetics receives a $22.6 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to establish the Center for Collaborative Genetic Studies on Mental Disorders, as well as $9.3 million 5-year contract from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to establish the NIDDK Genetics Repository. The RUCDR becomes the Genetics Studies Center Repository for four NIH institutes (NIMH, NIDA, NIAAA, and NIDDK), the largest such facility in the United States by a factor of 5x.
2000 Ken Irvine, member of Waksman Institute and the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, becomes a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, bringing the total number of Rutgers faculty to three.
2002 Construction of the Susan Lehman Cullen Laboratory for Cancer Research, under the direction of National Academy member Alan Conney is completed
2002 A consortium of international research laboratories, including those of the Waksman Institute Plant Genome Initiative announce the first map-based DNA sequence of a major crop, rice, receiving congratulatory notes from heads of states, including Prime Minister Koizumi, Presidents Bush and Chirac.
2003 Construction begins of the new Life Sciences Building, housing the Center for Human Genetics and the Center for Biomaterials Research. Evelyn Witkin receives the National Medal of Science from President Bush.
2005 June 2, 2005 Dedication of the new Life Sciences Building
2006 Professor Karl Herrup eminent developmental neurobiologist hired to chair the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience
Professor Mellitta Schachner, distinguished neurobiologist and former chair of the Institute for Synthesis of Neural Structures at the University of Hamberg joins the Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience and the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience as the New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury Professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience.
Prof. Wise Young is awarded the Richard H. Shindell Chair in Neuroscience for the continuance of his work in the field of spinal cord injury research.
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*This chronology was initiated from an address entitled "Biology At Rutgers" which was read at the dedication of the Nelson Biological Laboratories by William H. Cole on April 28, 1962 We want to thank Ms. Virginia Marano for transcribing the text of this document so that it could be linked to this web site.