The medical tradition dates back long before the foundation of the university, with the foundation of the first hospital in the nearby silver-mining city Schwaz in 1307. A medical faculty was included in the initial university, established in 1669 by emperor Leopold I.
The ceremonial mace currently used by the Medical University of Innsbruck was given by Olomouc bishop Stanislav Pavlovský to the University of Olomouc in ca. 1588. It is 163 centimeters high, it is made of silver and has gold plating. It bears inscription S. P. E. O. (Stanislaus Pawlowski Episcopus Olomucii) and other ornaments.[2]
Within the framework of the University Act of 2002, the medical faculty was separated from the Leopold-Franzens University, and the Medical University of Innsbruck was established as a university in its own right. Today, the Med-Uni has some 3,000 students and 1,800 employees. It is the most important medical research and training facility in western Austria and the home university of many Tyroleans, South Tyroleans and students from the Province of Vorarlberg.
Nobel Prize laureates
Fritz Pregl, 1923 (chemistry - for his contributions to quantitative organic microanalysis)
