Timeline: The Bienen Years
  • June 13, 1994 - Henry S. Bienen is elected president of Northwestern University by the University's Board of Trustees.
  • January 1, 1995 - President Bienen takes office.
  • June 1995 - President Bienen presides over his first commencement.
  • Fall 1995 - Northwestern's football team captures the Big Ten championship for the first time in nearly 50 years.
  • January 1, 1996 - Northwestern plays in the Rose Bowl.
  • Fall 1996 - Northwestern's football team takes a second straight Big Ten championship.
  • Fall 1996 - Undergraduate applications for admission top 15,000 for the first time in the University's history.
  • Fall 1996 - Diana, Princess of Wales, visits campus at the invitation of President Bienen to help raise funds and awareness for cancer research.
  • January 1, 1997 - Northwestern plays in the Citrus Bowl.
  • September 13, 1997 - Ryan Field, the newly renovated football stadium, opens with a win over Duke University.
  • March 1998 - The College of Arts and Sciences is renamed the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences in honor of the Weinberg family's many contributions to Northwestern.
  • May 13, 1998 - Northwestern announces Campaign Northwestern, a $1 billion fundraising campaign.
  • October 13, 1998 - John Pople, Board of Trustees Chair of Chemistry, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
  • Fall 1998 - Mary Zimmerman, professor of performance studies, receives a MacArthur Fellowship.
  • Fall 1999 - Kemper Hall opens, the first new undergraduate residence hall built on campus since the 1980s.
  • December 1999 - Sarah Fraser, professor of art history, receives a Mellon Foundation award to archive and distribute electronic images of cave paintings in Dunhuang, China.
  • May 2000 - Campaign Northwestern's goal is raised to $1.4 billion.
  • 2000-01 - Northwestern celebrates its Sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the University's founding, with a series of events on campus and in cities around the country.
  • Fall 2000 - Northwestern's football team wins its third Big Ten championship in six years.
  • Fall 2001 - The materials and life sciences building is named William A. and Gayle Cook Hall in honor of a $10 million gift from the Cooks to support initiatives in the life sciences.
  • February 2002 - Northwestern renames the medical school the Feinberg School of Medicine after receiving gifts totaling more than $100 million from the Feinberg Foundation.
  • June 2002 - Mary Zimmerman, professor of performance studies, receives a Tony Award for direction for her play Metamorphoses, originally staged in 1996 at Northwestern.
  • October 2002 - McCormick Tribune Center is dedicated.
  • Fall 2002 - Slivka Hall opens.
  • Fall 2002 - Kellogg School of Management is named the top graduate business school by Business Week.
  • 2002 - Research funding tops $300 million for the first time.
  • January 11, 2003 - Citing the work of Northwestern Law School's Center on Wrongful Convictions, Illinois Governor George Ryan grants clemency to more than 160 men and women on the state's death row and declares a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois.
  • Fall 2003 - Law School applications top 5,000 for the first time.
  • Fall 2003 - Amy Rosenzweig, professor of biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology, receives a MacArthur Fellowship.
  • October 2003 - 2003 Campaign Northwestern concludes after raising a total of $1.55 billion.
  • November 24, 2003 - Cristina Bejan, a Northwestern senior, is named a Rhodes Scholar.
  • 2003 - University endowment tops $3 billion.
  • Fall 2004 - Aleksandar Hemon, lecturer in creative writing, is awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
  • March 2005 - President Bienen is one of the first three university presidents awarded the Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership award for innovative leadership in higher education.
  • March 2005 - Jan Achenbach, Walter P. Murphy Professor and Distinguished McCormick School Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, is awarded the 2003 National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor for technological innovation.
  • April 1, 2005 - The Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center is dedicated.
  • October 6, 2005 - The Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center is dedicated.
  • Fall 2005 - Mean SAT score for entering freshmen tops 1400.
  • Fall 2006 - Undergraduate applications reach 22,000.
  • November 2006 - Patrick G. Ryan, chairman of the Board of Trustees, his wife, Shirley Welsh Ryan, and their family make a gift to provide undergraduate scholarships for low-income students and student athletes; graduate fellowships in chemistry, the life sciences, the nanosciences and engineering; and support for medical research facilities. In honor of the Ryans' gift, the building that houses the nanofabrication laboratories is named Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Hall.
  • Fall 2006 - Jennifer Richeson, associate professor of psychology, receives a MacArthur Fellowship.
  • 2006 - Technology transfer revenues top $30 million.
  • March 2007 - Groundbreaking takes place for the Richard and Barbara Silverman Hall for Molecular Therapeutics and Diagnostics.
  • July 2007 - Jan Achenbach, Walter P. Murphy Professor and Distinguished McCormick School Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, and Tobin J. Marks, Vladimir N. Ipatieff Research Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of materials science and engineering, receive the 2005 National Medal of Science.
  • Fall 2007 - Mean SAT score for entering freshmen hits 1422.
  • Fall 2007 - Undergraduate applications reach 25,000.
  • Fall 2007 - Stuart Dybek, distinguished writer in residence at Northwestern, receives a MacArthur Fellowship.
  • December 2007 - University endowment tops $7 billion, boosted by the sale of a portion of the royalties due to the University from the drug Lyrica, which was created at Northwestern.
  • 2007 - Technology transfer revenues top $500 million.
  • March 3, 2008 - President Bienen announces his plans to retire, effective August 31, 2009.
  • Fall 2008 - Northwestern opens a branch campus in Qatar with programs in communication and journalism.