Case Western Reserve University (also known as
Case Western Reserve,
Case Western,
Case,
Reserve, and
CWRU) is a private research university in
Cleveland,
Ohio,
USA. The university was created in 1967 by the federation of Case Institute of Technology (founded in 1881 by
Leonard Case Jr.) and Western Reserve University (founded in 1826 in the area that was once the
Connecticut Western Reserve).
TIME magazine described the merger as the creation of "Cleveland's Big-Leaguer" university.
In
U.S. News & World Report's 2013 rankings, Case Western Reserve's undergraduate program ranked 37th among national universities. The University is associated with 16 Nobel Laureates. Other notable alumni include
Paul Buchheit, creator and lead developer of
Gmail;
Craig Newmark, founder of
craigslist.org; and Peter Tippett, who developed the first anti-virus software, Vaccine, which
Symantec purchased and turned into the popular
Norton AntiVirus. Case Western Reserve is particularly well known for its
medical school,
dental school,
law school, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Department of Biomedical Engineering and its biomedical teaching and research capabilities. Case Western is a member of the Association of American Universities.
The university is approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland in
University Circle. It is contained within a 550-acre (220
ha) area containing numerous educational, medical, and cultural institutions. Case Western Reserve has a number of programs taught in conjunction with nearby institutions, including the
Cleveland Clinic, the
University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veteran's Affairs Medical Center,
Cleveland Institute of Music, the
Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center, the
Cleveland Museum of Art, the
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and the
Cleveland Play House.
Case Western Reserve was the site of the famous
Michelson-Morley interferometer experiment, conducted in 1887 by
A. A. Michelson of Case School of Applied Science and
E. W. Morley of Western Reserve University. This experiment proved the non-existence of the
luminiferous ether and was later cited as convincing evidence in support of
special relativity as proposed by
Albert Einstein in 1905. Michelson became the first American to win a Nobel Prize in science. The commemorative
Michelson-Morley Memorial Fountain is located on campus, near where the actual experiment was performed.