California Institute of Technology

Caltech operates the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA.

Caltech's school teams are called the Beavers. They participate in the NCAA's Division III Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Student (undergraduate) life

During the early 20th century, a Caltech committee visited several universities and decided to transform the undergraduate housing system from regular fraternities to a unique House System, combining the qualities of regular university dormitory and the college system similar to that of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Four (south) houses (or hovses, so named for the inscription on the gates thereof) were built: Blacker House, Dabney House, Fleming House, and Ricketts House. In the late 20th century, three north houses were built: Lloyd House, Page House, and Ruddock House. During the 1990s, an additional house, Avery House, was built to accommodate those who feel the original seven houses were not suitable for them. Some students jocularly refer to the Undergraduate Computer Science Laboratory as another house, as a few spend most of their time there.

Another unique feature of the Caltech community is the Honor Code, which states simply: "No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community." This is enforced by a Board of Control, consisting of members of the community.

Well-known Caltech alumni

• Frank Capra, BS 1918 - Filmmaker of such classics as It's a Wonderful Life
• Carl D. Anderson, 1927, PhD 1930 - Nobel laureate (1936, Physics)
• Edwin Mattison McMillan, 1928, MS 1929 - Nobel laureate (1951, Chemistry)
• Linus Pauling, PhD 1925 - Nobel laureate (1954 Chemistry, 1962 Peace)
• William Shockley, 1932 - Nobel laureate (1956, Physics )
• William A. Fowler, PhD 1936 - Nobel laureate (1983, Physics)
• Charles H. Townes, PhD 1939 - Nobel laureate (1964, Physics)
• Leo James Rainwater, BS 1939 - Nobel laureate (1975, Physics)
• Edward B. Lewis, PhD 1942 - Nobel laureate (1995, Physiology or Medicine)
• William Lipscomb, PhD 1946 - Nobel laureate (1976, Chemistry)
• John McCarthy, 1948 - Computer scientist, inventor of the Lisp programming language and recipient of the 1971 Turing Award
• Vernon L. Smith, BS 1949 - Nobel laureate (2002, Economics)
• Fernando J. Corbató, BS 1950 - Computer scientist, recipient of the 1990 Turing Award
• Donald A. Glaser, PhD 1950 - Nobel laureate (1960, Physics)
• Gordon E. Moore PhD, 1954 - co-founder of Intel Corp.
• Howard M. Temin, PhD 1960 - Nobel laureate (1975, Physiology or Medicine)
• Leland H. Hartwell, BS 1961 - Nobel laureate (2001, Physiology or Medicine)
• Kenneth G. Wilson, PhD 1961 - Nobel laureate (1982, Physics)
• Robert W. Wilson, PhD 1962 - Nobel laureate (1978, Physics)
• Donald Knuth, PhD 1963 - Computer scientist, creator of TeX typesetting language, and author of The Art of Computer Programming
• Robert C. Merton, MS 1967 - Nobel laureate (1997, Economics)
• Douglas D. Osheroff, BS 1967 - Nobel laureate (1996, Physics)
• Robert Tarjan, BS 1969 - Computer scientist, recipient of the 1986 Turing Award
• Stephen Wolfram, PhD 1979 - Creator of Mathematica
• Sabeer Bhatia, BS 1991 - Co-founder of Hotmail.

Well-known Caltech faculty

• David Baltimore
• Richard Feynman
• Linus Pauling
• Kip Thorne
• Ahmed H. Zewail

External link

• Official site
• Crippling Depression, satirical comic strip serialized in the Caltech student newspaper the California Tech
• Undergraduate Computer Science Laboratory
• Honor Code

Referenced By