2000 & Beyond
International Pre-Eminence
As medical and scientific opportunities expand and needs grow in the 21st century, UT Southwestern Medical Center continues its rise to the pinnacle of medical institutions worldwide.
In 2000, UT Southwestern acquired the land and facilities of St. Paul Medical Center, and Zale Lipshy University Hospital assumed responsibility for its management. In 2005, the two hospitals were donated to UT Southwestern, which now operates them as the UT Southwestern University Hospitals.
In 2002, the medical center launched a $500 million capital campaign, "Innovations in Medicine," By 2001, the goal had been exceeded, including three commitments of over $50 million, from an anonymous donor, the Perot Foundation and the T. Boone Pickens Foundation, and donations of over $125 million from Annette and Harold C. Simmons.
In 2004, Dr. Linda Buck was awarded the Nobel Prize, becoming the first graduate of the UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences to receive that honor.
In 2005, UT Southwestern occupied its newest biomedical research tower, the largest in the nation. Legislators approved the largest increase in the institution's state support in over two decades.
In 2006, special federal funding established a Gulf War Syndrome research center. A new outpatient building opened on the West Campus—the first of six clinical towers that will replace the 40-year-old St. Paul buildings.
In 2007, philanthropic gifts were at their highest level in the medical center's history. State funding continued to increase, surpassing $150 million per year. Space at UT Southwestern totaled more than 8 million square feet; the annual operating budget was $1.3 billion; research grants exceeded $360 million per year; clinical revenues were greater than $600 million; and total endowment funds were valued at more than $1.4 billion.
"The goal of UT Southwestern is to identify, recruit, and retain the top educators, physicians, and researchers in the world; provide them with an environment that will enable them to flourish; and encourage them to think boldly and build programs that will be the best of their kind anywhere. That philosophy, coupled with the support of community philanthropists and Texas political leaders, has created an institution that is the envy of our peers around the world. "
-Kern Wildenthal, MD, PhD
In 2011, Dr. Bruce Beutler, director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UT Southwestern, shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two other scientists for their immune system investigations. Dr. Beutler was honored for the discovery of receptor proteins that recognize disease-causing agents and activate innate immunity, the first step in the body's immune response.
UT Southwestern Medical Center now ranks among the top academic medical centers in the world. As a premier educational, clinical and research institution, UT Southwestern is home to 2,006 distinguished scientists, physicians and allied health professionals, 4,000 outstanding trainees, and more than 11,000 talented and dedicated employees. With more active Nobel Prize winners than any other medical school in the world and over half of the medical members of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine in the Southwest region of the United States, UT Southwestern will lead the way in a new era of medical care and discovery in the 21st century.
From its humble beginnings in makeshift quarters to a top-tier medical center of unique distinction, UT Southwestern's remarkable story is only beginning.