The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering. Its 124 acre (50 ha) primary campus is located approximately 11 mi (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Although founded as a preparatory and vocational school by Amos G. Throop in 1891, the eponymous college attracted influential scientists such as George Ellery Hale, Arthur Amos Noyes, and Robert Andrews Millikan in the early 20th century. The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910, and the college assumed its present name in 1921. In 1934, Caltech was elected to the Association of American Universities, and the antecedents of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech continues to manage and operate, were established between 1936 and 1943 under Theodore von Karman. Caltech enrolls approximately 950 undergraduate and 1200 graduate students and employs about 300 professorial faculty.