Columbia University (Columbia; officially Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. It has been ranked by numerous major education publications as among the top ten universities in the world.Columbia was established as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain in reaction to the founding of Princeton University in New Jersey. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the Revolutionary War and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University.Columbia scientists and scholars have played an important role in the development of notable scientific fields and breakthroughs including: brain-computer interface; the laser and maser; nuclear magnetic resonance; the first nuclear pile; the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas; Thomas Hunt Morgan's drosophila experiment – considered the origin of modern genetics; the first evidence for plate tectonics and continental drift; and much of the initial research and planning of the Manhattan Project during World War II. The Columbia University Physics Department has been affiliated with 33 Nobel Prize winners as alumni, faculty or research staff, the third most of any American institution behind MIT and Harvard. In addition, 22 Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine have been affiliated with Columbia, the third most of any American institution.