William Payne Whitney was an American businessman and member of the influential Whitney family. He inherited a fortune and enlarged it through business dealings, then devoted much of his money and efforts to a wide variety of philanthropic purposes. His will included funds to expand the New York Hospital, now called NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic was established.

The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school in New York City.