Albert Einstein College of Medicine Archives
Sixty years ago, on May 7, 1961, Albert Einstein College of Medicine welcomed a special guest: Hans Albert Einstein, Ph.D., a son of the school’s namesake. Dr. Einstein, a professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, had come to the Bronx to represent his father (who had died six years earlier) at the groundbreaking for the Ullmann Research Center for Health Sciences.
Dr. Einstein, center, joined Samuel D. Belkin, Ph.D., president of Yeshiva University, left, and Dean Marcus D. Kogel of Einstein to initiate construction of the 10-story, 12-sided biomedical research tower.
Siegfried Ullmann, a noted industrialist and philanthropist, and his wife, Irma, donated $2 million to help build the facility, which was intended to attract top-notch molecular biologists, cell biologists, and geneticists. The National Institutes of Health provided an additional $2 million toward construction of the $8.5 million building. Its circular design was meant to allow natural light to illuminate all laboratories and to encourage collaboration among scientists.
