Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

390 results found

White, Andrew Dickson

(Encyclopedia)White, Andrew Dickson, 1832–1918, American educator and diplomat, b. Homer, N.Y., briefly attended Geneva (now Hobart) College, grad. Yale, 1853. He studied in France and Germany, served (1854–55)...

community college

(Encyclopedia)community college, public institution of higher education. Community colleges are characterized by a two-year curriculum that leads to either the associate degree or transfer to a four-year college. T...

Dale, Sir Henry Hallett

(Encyclopedia)Dale, Sir Henry Hallett, 1875–1968, English scientist. For his study of acetylcholine as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses he shared with Otto Loewi the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physio...

Colgate, William

(Encyclopedia)Colgate, William kōlˈgāt [key], 1783–1857, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. England. Arriving (1795) as a youth in the United States, Colgate learned candlemaking in Baltimore and New...

Clements, Frederic Edward

(Encyclopedia)Clements, Frederic Edward, 1874–1945, American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of succession (see ecology), b. Lincoln, Nebr., grad. Univ. of Nebraska, 1894. From 1917 to 1941 he was in cha...

La Jolla

(Encyclopedia)La Jolla lə hoiˈyə [key], on the Pacific Ocean, S Calif., an uninc. district within the confines of San Diego; founded 1869. The beautiful ocean beaches, in particular La Jolla shores and Black's B...

borstal system

(Encyclopedia)borstal system bôrˈstəl [key], rehabilitation method formerly used in Great Britain for delinquent boys aged 16 to 21. The idea originated (1895) with the Gladstone Committee as an attempt to refor...

Sloan Foundation

(Encyclopedia)Sloan Foundation, fund established (1934) by automobile executive Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. as a philanthropic institution supporting research in various areas. In its early years it stressed support of U....

Washington, D.C.

(Encyclopedia)Washington, D.C., capital of the United States, coextensive (since 1878, when Georgetown became a part of Washington) with the District of ...

Dewar, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Dewar, Sir James dyo͞oˈər [key], 1842–1923, British chemist and physicist, b. Scotland. He was professor of chemistry (from 1877) at the Royal Institution, London, and later was director of the D...