In the THE World University Rankings 2020 California Institute of Technology, USA is ranked No.2. Moreover 31 Caltech alumni/faculty have won the Nobel prize and 66 the US National Medal of Science/technology A private research university, California Institute of Technology, USA offers its small contingent of students — 978 undergraduates and 1,253 graduate students mentored by 322 faculty — arguably the world’s most well-equipped laboratories and research centres including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory which it maintains for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the Jorgensen Laboratory and Beckman Institute. Its compact size enables an enviable teacher-student ratio and opportunities for high-quality interaction with faculty and research. Caltech’s six academic divisions — biology; chemistry and chemical engineering; engineering and applied science; geological and planetary sciences; humanities and social sciences; and physics, mathematics and astronomy — offer rigorous and research-intensive undergraduate (26 majors), graduate and doctoral programmes. “What makes Caltech unique is our focus on education, science and engineering. But most of all, on giving everyone at the institute the means and flexibility to pursue his or her best ideas,” says Jean-Lou Chameau, president. California Institute of Technology, USA is particularly reputed for its demanding and rigorous undergrad core curriculum with students required not just to study a major, but also acquire knowledge of the basic sciences, humanities, and social sciences. All undergrad students must take the core curriculum which comprises three terms each of mathematics and physics, two terms of chemistry, one of biology, a freshman elective ‘menu’ course, two terms of introductory lab courses, one term of science writing, 12 terms of humanities, and three terms of physical education. Sited on a 124-acre campus, California Institute of Technology traces its origin to a vocational school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was successively known as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute and Throop College of Technology, before acquiring its current nomenclature in 1920. Pasadena. Located in Los Angeles county at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, Pasadena (pop. 141,000) hosts a plethora of science and cultural institutions. They include the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Norton Simon Museum of Art (one of the world’s finest collections of European, American, and Asian art); Pacific Asia Museum (rare artworks and artefacts from Asia); Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens (150 acres of breathtaking gardens, world-class rare-book libraries, art galleries, etc), and the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Gardens (127 acres of gardens replete with fauna including peacocks, ducks, etc). Pasadena has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate and year-round sunshine. Campus facilities. Caltech’s 124-acre campus offers state-of-the-art academic, research and sports facilities. The campus hosts a plethora of labs and research facilities which offer unmatched technological tools and resources for students and faculty. Comments the university’s website: “It’s a bit difficult to describe the facilities and other ‘physical resources’ Caltech has to offer students… that information would likely be outdated by the time you read it.” Significant among the research centres are its seismological laboratory, one of the world’s foremost centres…
