Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, Johns Hopkins is considered to be the first research university in the U.S. The university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and Quaker philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Hopkins's $7 million bequest (equivalent to $166 million in 2024) to establish the university and the affiliated Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore was the largest philanthropic gift in U.S. history up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as Johns Hopkins's first president on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by inte...