Washington University in St. Louis, also known as "WashU", is a private research university named after George Washington. "Washington University in St. Louis’ mission is to discover and disseminate knowledge, and protect the freedom of inquiry through research, teaching and learning". Fast facts about the university can be found here. Funded in 1853, it was named "Washington Institute" in 1854 and then amended to "Washington University in 1856. In 1976, "in St. Louis" was added to the university name to prevent confusion over its location. As of 2024, 26 Nobel laureates in economics, physiology and medicine, chemistry, and physics have been affiliated with Washington University, nine having done the major part of their pioneering research at the university.
James McKelvey School of Engineering, established in 1857, was named in 2019 after its distinguished alumnus Jim McKelvey Jr. (co-founder of Square), who has made a tremendous investment in the school. It has 5 academic departments and more 2,000 undergradaute and graduate students. In 2006, WashU created a Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering (EECE) by bringing together faculty involved in the interdisciplinary environment engineering science graduate program and the Department of Chemical Engineering. EECE has four major areas, Aerosol Science and Engineering, Engineering Aquatic Processes, Synthetic Biology and Bioproduct Engineering, and Multi-scale Engineering.
St. Louis metropolitan area has nearly 3 million people and is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri (Wikipedia). The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 and named after Louis IX of France. The city hosted the 1904 World's Fair and the 1904 Summer Olympics, becoming the first non-European city to host the Olympics. In 1967, a 630-foot (192 m) Gateway Arch was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States and open to the public two years later. The metro area is home to major corporations, including Anheuser-Busch, Boeing Defense, Emerson, Energizer, Panera, Enterprise, Monsanto, Edward Jones, and Sigma-Aldrich. St. Louis has two professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball and the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League.
