In 1950, John David Rockefeller, Jr. stepped down as president of the Board of Trustees, and his son David succeeded him. Over the next decade, new leaders would bring students to Rockefeller, renovate the campus and begin new traditions.

On the question of how the Institute should maintain its vitality, the trustees consulted the leading scientific administrators and educators of the day and some suggested that the Institute should close its doors and put its endowment toward establishing research professorships at various universities. But Detlev W. Bronk, the chairman of the subcommittee, persuaded the Board of Trustees that the Institute should become a graduate university, brining young scientists to campus and formalizing a long tradition of postgraduate education in its laboratories.

In 1953, Bronk was appointed to the new title of president; next year the Institute received its new charter as a degree-training organization. In 1965, the Institute’s name was changed to The Rockefeller University.