California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology, known as Caltech, is a private research university in Pasadena, California, devoted chiefly to the natural sciences and engineering.加州理工学院（California Institute of Technology），简称 Caltech，是一所位于美国加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳的私立研究型大学，以自然科学与工程学见长。

Founded in 1891 by the businessman Amos G. Throop and small in scale, it teaches fewer than three thousand students and ranks seventh in the 2027 QS World University Rankings.学校由商人阿莫斯·史路普于 1891 年创办，办学规模不大，在校学生不足三千人，在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中位列全球第七。

History

• Caltech began in 1891 as a vocational school founded by Amos G. Throop under the name Throop University, and it passed through the names Throop Polytechnic Institute and Throop College of Technology before taking its present name in 1920.加州理工的前身是阿莫斯·史路普于 1891 年创办的职业学校，初名史路普大学，其后相继改称史路普理工学院与史路普技术学院，1920 年定名为加州理工学院。

• The astronomer George Ellery Hale, who joined the board of trustees in 1907, was the driving force that turned a small arts and crafts school into a centre of science.天文学家乔治·埃勒里·海尔于 1907 年加入校董会，正是他把一所小型的工艺学校推动成为科学重镇。

• Hale attracted land and private funds, built well-equipped laboratories and persuaded the experimental physicist Robert Millikan to join, laying the basis for the institute's rise.海尔募集到土地与私人资金，兴建设备精良的实验室，并说服实验物理学家罗伯特·密立根加入，为学校的崛起奠定基础。

• In 1917 the architect Bertram Goodhue drew up a master plan for a 22-acre campus, designing the physics building and Dabney Hall in a style influenced by the Spanish mission architecture of southern California.1917 年，建筑师伯特伦·古德西为占地 22 英亩的校园绘制总体规划，设计了物理楼与达布尼厅，风格受南加州西班牙传教站建筑影响。

• The institute's reputation grew rapidly in the 1920s, and Robert Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923.学校声誉在二十世纪二十年代迅速提升，罗伯特·密立根于 1923 年获得诺贝尔物理学奖。

• A department of geology was created in 1925, the humanities and social sciences division followed with William Bennett Munro, and in 1928 a biology department was founded under Thomas Hunt Morgan.1925 年设立地质学系，其后由威廉·贝内特·蒙罗创立人文与社会科学部，1928 年又在托马斯·亨特·摩尔根主持下成立生物学系。

• Graduate study in aeronautics began in 1926 and drew Theodore von Karman, whose work helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and established Caltech as a centre of rocket science.航空研究生教育始于 1926 年，吸引了西奥多·冯·卡门，他的工作促成了喷气推进实验室的创建，并使加州理工成为火箭科学的前沿重镇。

• During the 1950s and 1960s the institute was known for two of the era's leading theoretical particle physicists, Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman, both of whom won Nobel Prizes.在二十世纪五十至六十年代，学校以两位当时最杰出的理论粒子物理学家默里·盖尔曼与理查德·费曼著称，二人均获得诺贝尔奖。

Academics

• Teaching and research are organised into six academic divisions, biology and biological engineering, chemistry and chemical engineering, engineering and applied science, geological and planetary sciences, humanities and social sciences, and physics, mathematics and astronomy.教学与研究分属六个学术部：生物与生物工程、化学与化学工程、工程与应用科学、地质与行星科学、人文与社会科学、物理数学与天文学。

• The institute is deliberately small, with about 300 professorial faculty and some 2,430 students, of whom 987 are undergraduates and 1,443 are graduate students.学校规模刻意保持精小，约有 300 名教授，在校学生约 2430 人，其中本科生 987 人、研究生 1443 人。

• It is known particularly for physics, planetary science and earth science, fields in which it has long been regarded as among the strongest in the United States.学校尤以物理学、行星科学与地球科学著称，这些领域长期被视为全美最强之一。

• The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the federally funded research centre that builds and operates many of NASA's planetary missions, is managed by Caltech.喷气推进实验室是为美国国家航空航天局建造并运营众多行星探测任务的联邦资助研究中心，由加州理工学院管理。

• Caltech operates a number of major observatories, including the Palomar Observatory, whose construction began in 1928, and shares in the Keck telescopes in Hawaii.学校运营多座重要天文台，其中包括 1928 年动工的帕洛马天文台，并与他人共用夏威夷的凯克望远镜。

• The student body is highly international, with international students making up a large share of graduate enrolment, and about 45 per cent of undergraduates are women.学生构成高度国际化，国际学生在研究生中占很大比例，本科生中约 45% 为女性。

• Caltech is a member of the Association of American Universities and holds accreditation from the WASC Senior College and University Commission.学校是美国大学协会成员，并通过西部院校协会高等院校委员会的认证。

• Its research income and endowment support work across the physical sciences and engineering, and its graduates go on to academic and industrial research at a high rate.其科研经费与捐赠基金支撑着物理科学与工程领域的各项工作，毕业生继续从事学术与产业研究的比例很高。

Campus

• The campus covers 124 acres in Pasadena, at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains about ten miles north-east of central Los Angeles.校园位于帕萨迪纳，占地 124 英亩，坐落在圣加布里埃尔山麓，距洛杉矶市中心东北约十英里。

• The buildings are laid out on the Goodhue plan around courtyards, with the Beckman Institute and the Beckman Auditorium among its best-known structures.校内建筑沿古德西的规划布置，围合成庭院，其中贝克曼研究所与贝克曼礼堂是最知名的建筑之一。

• The campus newspaper is The California Tech, and the institute's colours are orange and white.校报名为 The California Tech，学校的代表色为橙色与白色。

• Students, alumni and staff are known as Beavers, and the mascot is Bernoulli the Beaver, a reference to the animal's engineering habits.学生、校友与教职员被称为「河狸」，吉祥物是河狸伯努利，取意于这种动物善于筑造的天性。

• Much of the surrounding area forms a research and technology cluster, and the campus is served by local bus lines of Pasadena Transit and LA Metro.校园周边形成了科研与科技集群，交通由帕萨迪纳公交与洛杉矶郡都会运输局的本地巴士线路服务。

• The campus's compact size means most teaching buildings, laboratories and residences lie within a short walk of one another.校园规模紧凑，多数教学楼、实验室与宿舍彼此相距仅数分钟步行路程。

Reputation

• Caltech ranks seventh in the 2027 QS World University Rankings, seventh in the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, tenth in the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities and 23rd in the 2026-2027 U.S. News Best Global Universities.加州理工在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中位列全球第七，2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名第七，2026 年软科世界大学学术排名第十，2026 至 2027 年度 US News 全球最佳大学排名第 23。^[1]

• Although small, it is consistently placed among the world's leading universities, and it has topped the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in earlier editions.尽管规模不大，学校却长期稳居世界顶尖大学之列，并曾在早年的泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名中位居第一。

• Its alumni, faculty and researchers include 46 people awarded 47 Nobel Prizes, four Fields medallists and six Turing Award winners.其校友、教师与研究人员中共有 46 人获得 47 项诺贝尔奖，另有 4 位菲尔兹奖得主与 6 位图灵奖得主。

• Seventy alumni have received the United States National Medal of Science or the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.有 70 位校友获得美国国家科学奖章或国家技术与创新奖章。

• Linus Pauling, an alumnus and faculty member, is the only person to have won two unshared Nobel Prizes, in chemistry and in peace.校友兼教师莱纳斯·鲍林是唯一一位两次独得诺贝尔奖的人，分别获得化学奖与和平奖。

• The institute's endowment stood at 4.32 billion dollars in 2025, which is large relative to its very small student body.2025 年学校捐赠基金规模为 43.2 亿美元，相对于其极小的学生规模而言相当可观。

• Physics and astronomy remain its signature strengths, and the campus has been associated with figures such as Albert Einstein and Edward Witten as visitors.物理与天文学仍是其标志性强项，爱因斯坦与爱德华·威滕等人都曾以访问学者身份与学校结缘。

Student life

• With only a few hundred undergraduates in each year, Caltech has an unusually small and close-knit student community.由于每年本科新生只有数百人，加州理工的学生群体规模极小，彼此联系紧密。

• The undergraduate houses, named for the institute's benefactors and history, run their own traditions and social activities.本科生宿舍以学校的捐助者与历史命名，各自保有传统与社交活动。

• Ditch Day, on which students leave campus for the day after seniors set elaborate challenges, is one of the institute's best-known traditions.高年级学生设置复杂关卡后全体学生离校一天，这一「逃课日」是学校最负盛名的传统之一。

• Students run theatrical productions and musical groups, and the institute has a long tradition of pranks and elaborate practical jokes.学生自行组织戏剧演出与音乐团体，学校还长期流行恶作剧与精心设计的玩笑。

• The annual inter-house athletic competitions and the rivalry with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are features of student life.一年一度的宿舍间体育竞赛，以及与麻省理工学院之间的较量，都是学生生活的一部分。

• The surrounding city of Pasadena and the wider Los Angeles area offer cultural and recreational opportunities within easy reach of the campus.校园周边的帕萨迪纳市与更广阔的洛杉矶地区，为师生提供了便利的文化与休闲去处。

Notable people

• Among the physicists associated with Caltech are Robert Millikan, Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann, whose work shaped the standard model of particle physics.与加州理工相关的物理学家包括罗伯特·密立根、理查德·费曼与默里·盖尔曼，他们的工作塑造了粒子物理的标准模型。

• The astronomer George Ellery Hale, the biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan and the engineer Theodore von Karman each built major research traditions at the institute.天文学家乔治·埃勒里·海尔、生物学家托马斯·亨特·摩尔根与工程师西奥多·冯·卡门，都在学校开创了重要的研究传统。

• Linus Pauling, an alumnus and long-serving faculty member, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962.校友兼长期任教的莱纳斯·鲍林于 1954 年获诺贝尔化学奖，1962 年获诺贝尔和平奖。

• Several figures connected with the institute, including the geneticist Barbara McClintock and the physicist Sheldon Glashow, worked there as postdoctoral researchers.与学校有关的多位人物，包括遗传学家芭芭拉·麦克林托克与物理学家谢尔登·格拉肖，都曾在此从事博士后研究。

• The computer scientist Donald Knuth, the pioneer of algorithms and typesetting, and the physicist James Watson are also linked to the institute.计算机科学家、算法与排版技术的先驱高德纳，以及物理学家詹姆斯·沃森，也与学校有关联。

• Caltech's small size has not limited its influence, and its alumni hold prominent positions in universities, national laboratories and technology firms.加州理工规模虽小，影响力却不受限，其校友在大学、国家实验室与科技企业中担任重要职位。