# Northwestern University

> Northwestern University is a private nonprofit research institution spanning 12 schools and three campuses, serving roughly 23,000 undergraduate and graduate students while running a large research, clinical, professional education and technology-transfer enterprise. Its unusual advantage is density: medicine, engineering, journalism, law, business and the arts are close enough to produce joint programs, research centers and commercial inventions. The model is funded by tuition, grants, gifts, endowment distributions and services, and it faces the same central tension as elite higher education: a published annual undergraduate cost near six figures alongside a promise to meet demonstrated financial need.

- **Founded:** 1851
- **Headquarters:** Evanston, United States
- **Founders:** John Evans (Co-founder and longtime Board of Trustees chair), Orrington Lunt (Co-founder, funder and Evanston site advocate), Grant Goodrich (Co-founder and charter drafter), Henry W. Clark (Co-founder), Andrew Brown (Co-founder), Jabez Botsford (Co-founder), Richard Haney (Co-founder), Richard H. Blanchard (Co-founder), Zodoc Hall (Co-founder)
- **Team size:** Approximately 17,000 employees reported in the supplied company data; Northwestern separately reports more than 3,300 full-time faculty.
- **Products:** Undergraduate degree programs, Graduate and doctoral education, Professional education, Research and shared scientific infrastructure, Innovation and technology transfer
- **Notable:** Reached $1.05 billion in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2024, up 5% year over year and more than 75% over a decade., Reported 250 invention disclosures, 639 patent applications, 331 executed agreements and 15 startups launched in fiscal year 2024., Built an intellectual-property portfolio associated with $2.6 billion in cumulative patent and licensing revenue and therapeutics said to have reached more than 10 million patients.

## Products & services

- **Undergraduate degree programs** — More than 75 majors across six undergraduate schools, with flexible cross-school study and extensive research, internship and experiential-learning options.
- **Graduate and doctoral education** — Research-focused master's and doctoral training across the arts, sciences, engineering, education, communication and other disciplines.
- **Professional education** — Degree, executive and continuing education through schools including Kellogg, Feinberg, Pritzker Law, Medill and the School of Professional Studies.
- **Research and shared scientific infrastructure** — Faculty-led laboratories, more than 90 school-based centers and about 20 university research centers spanning fields such as synthetic biology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, sustainability and AI.
- **Innovation and technology transfer** — Patent, licensing, startup-incubation and industry-partnership services through INVO, The Garage, Querrey InQbation Lab and related programs.
- **Global and online learning** — Programs delivered through the Evanston, Chicago and Doha campuses plus online and professional-learning formats.

## Achievements

- Reached $1.05 billion in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2024, up 5% year over year and more than 75% over a decade.
- Reported 250 invention disclosures, 639 patent applications, 331 executed agreements and 15 startups launched in fiscal year 2024.
- Built an intellectual-property portfolio associated with $2.6 billion in cumulative patent and licensing revenue and therapeutics said to have reached more than 10 million patients.
- Northwestern-affiliated Medill alumni have won more than 30 Pulitzer Prizes.
- The university has been named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for 22 consecutive years.
- Northwestern reported that more than 96% of the Class of 2024 were employed, continuing education or serving within six months.
- The Garage incubated more than 1,500 student startups during its first decade.
- Northwestern researchers developed a temporary pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice that dissolves after use.
- The Center for Synthetic Biology reported eight startups, more than 300 graduate students and postdocs supported, and more than $53 million in research funding during its first decade.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Mung Chiang began serving as Northwestern's 18th president on July 1, 2026.
- **2026-07** — The National Science Foundation awarded $20 million for DREAM, an open, AI-directed cloud laboratory expected to synthesize and characterize more than 300,000 proteins over four years.
- **2026-05** — The Center for Synthetic Biology marked its tenth anniversary, reporting 24 faculty collaborators, more than 85 joint publications and eight startups.
- **2025-12** — Northwestern's FY2025 report disclosed $3.459 billion in operating revenue, a $147.9 million operating deficit, $20.8 billion in assets and $16.2 billion in net assets.
- **2025-11** — A freeze affecting most federal research funding ended after Northwestern reached an agreement with the U.S. government.
- **2025-05** — The Trienens Institute announced an Industry Affiliates Program with four founding corporate members focused on energy-transition research.

## Links

- Website: https://www.northwestern.edu/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/northwestern-university/
- Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/northwesternu
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/NorthwesternU
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/northwesternu
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthwesternU
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@northwestern.u

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/northwestern-university
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Last updated: 2026-08-22