Keck Graduate Institute

Keck Graduate Institute

Keck Graduate Institute logo
Type	Private
Established	1997
Endowment	$62.3 million (2016)
President	Sheldon Schuster
Students	429
Location	Claremont, CA, U.S.
Campus	Suburban
Colors	Teal and White
Affiliations	Claremont Colleges
Website	www.kgi.edu

Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) is a private graduate school in Claremont, California. Founded by Henry Riggs in 1997, it is the seventh and newest member of the Claremont Consortium.

Henry Riggs, then president of Harvey Mudd College, established the institute in 1997 to address what he perceived as a lack of scientists trained to convert new scientific discoveries into practical uses. He also became the institute's first president, serving until 2003.

The decision to establish Keck Graduate Institute as a seventh Claremont College met with some opposition, particularly from faculty of the other Claremont Colleges who objected to its lack of tenure, and environmentalists who opposed its plans to build a campus next to the Bernard Field Station, an area of undeveloped scrubland. The environmental issue was largely settled when KGI decided to establish its campus at a different location, and other opposition gradually faded.

The institute received a $50 million endowment from the W. M. Keck Foundation, after which it was named. It awarded its first Master of Bioscience degree in 2002.

In 2003, Sheldon Schuster became the second president in the institute's history. He took over from Riggs, who became chairman of the school's board of trustees. Schuster is a biochemist who previously served as director of the University of Florida's biotechnology research program.

Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The School of Pharmacy has been granted Candidate status by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).