On Mar. 15, 1953, the day following his 74th birthday, Albert Einstein formally agreed to permit his name to be used for the first medical school to be built in New York City since 1897.

As early as 1945, Yeshiva University President Dr. Samuel Belkin envisioned the creation of a new medical school. Within five years, he had secured state approval and planning began in earnest for the first U.S. medical school within a Jewish university.

In 1951, renowned physicist and humanitarian Dr. Albert Einstein wrote a letter to Dr. Belkin, supporting the endeavor because the new school “…will welcome students of all creeds and races.”  He became an honorary chairman for the medical school fundraising campaign, alongside former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, New York Governor Thomas Dewey, and future president Richard Nixon.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine welcomed its first class of 53 men and three women on September 12, 1955. Shortly after, an editorial in the New York Times stated, “The new medical school’s distinguished and talented faculty assured the institution of a place in the ranks of the great medical schools in the world.”

Einstein quickly expanded. In 1957, the College of Medicine opened its graduate program and began to offer Ph.D. degrees. In 1958, Einstein established one of the nation’s first Medical Scientist Training Program, which offers a combined M.D./Ph.D. degree. The program has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1964.