In the 1950s, the Soviet Government directed that a center for scientific research to be built in Novosibirsk, and in 1957 the multi-facility scientific research complex of Akademgorodok was constructed about south of the city center. The Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (formerly the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union) has its headquarters in Akademgorodok, and the town hosts more than 35 research institutes and universities, among them Novosibirsk State University, one of the top Russian schools in Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Although it possesses a fully autonomous infrastructure, Akademgorodok is administered by Novosibirsk.