The Rockefeller University is a center for scientific research, primarily in the biological and medical sciences, providing doctoral and postdoctoral education. Rockefeller is one of the most prestigious institutes for biomedical research in the world, and it is the oldest such institute in the United States. Of a 78 person faculty (tenured and tenure-track, as of 2016), 38 are members of the National Academy of Sciences, 18 are members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 are Lasker Award recipients, and 5 are Nobel laureates.

Rockefeller is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, between 63rd and 68th Streets along York Avenue.
Richard P. Lifton—previously the executive director of the Center for Human Genetics and Genomics at Yale University—became the university's eleventh president on September 1, 2016.

The Rockefeller University Press publishes the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the Journal of Cell Biology, and The Journal of General Physiology.