As a public research institution, the University of Edinburgh opened in 1583. It boasts of being the English-speaking world’s sixth-oldest university in continuous operation. When Edinburgh was nicked named “Athens of the North,” the university significantly contributed to the city being a prominent intellectual center during the Scottish Enlightenment. Alexander Graham Bell (telephone), Charles Darwin (evolution), David Hume, Sir J. M. Barrie (Peter Pan), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), and Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy) were among luminaries that either studied at or graduated from the University of Edinburgh.