University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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THE UNIVERSITY After almost two centuries of development, the University of Pittsburgh has become a major institution of higher education serving the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the nation. Private, state-related, and non sectarian. Pitt today is a complex of 16 schools. 97 departments. 34 special centers, and four regional campuses serving outlying regions of Pennsylvania at Greensourg. Johnstown. Bradford, and Titusville. The Pittsburgh campus consists of 53 buildings on 135 acres of land, dominated by the Cathedral of Learning, a historic landmark and. at 43 stories, the tallest school building in the country. Under the leadership of Wesley Wentz Posvar. who became the University's 15th Chancellor in I967. Pitt has experienced a period of extraordinary growth in the past fO years. In that period. University enrollment has more than doubled to its present 35. XO students. Full- and part-time faculty numbering 3.900 leach more than 836.000 credit-hours each year. While striving to conserve traditional values of scholarship through outstanding teaching and research, the University has also oriented its efforts towards public service and solutions to the problems of an urban environment and an international society. New schools and programs added in the past 10 years reflect these added dimensions the School of Health Related Professionsi new research centers such as the University Center for Urban Research, and the University Center for International Studies) special centers such as the Center for Arms Control and International Security Studies, and the Pennsylvania Ethnic Heritage Studies Center and the develop ment of interdisciplinary studies and programs, such as the consoli 12

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rial ion of biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and microbiology into the Department of Life Sciences, and the formation of the Council on Early Childhood Development. At the heart of these efforts is the new Hillman library, center of a library system housing more than 2.9CO.OCO volumes. Other new major buildings constructed during the past ten years include new homes for the Schools of Law. Engineering, and Nursing, the awardwinning Chemistry Building, the Learning Research and Development Center, and the nearly completed Forbes Building which will house the School of Education, the Graduate School of Public ami International Affairs, and the social sciences. In 1977 the University awarded 6.30 undergraduate and graduate degrees. Pitt now has more than 111.000 alumni scattered throughout all 50 states and in 95 countries abroad. The University has continued to increase in national and international stature, annually attracting more than $10million in externally-sponsored research programs. In 1974 Put was elected to membership m the Association of American Universities, a select organ •zation of the nation's most respected graduate and research universities. Put has been the site of many significant scientific accomplishments. The Salk polio vaccine was developed and tested here by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1953. the Ivormone ACTH was synthesized by Dr. Klaus Hofmann in 1961. and synthetic insulin was developed by Dr. Panayotis Katsoyanms in 1964. In 1975 Pitt anthropologist Dr. James Adovasio began an archeological dig just south of Pittsburgh which has since been confirmed as the oldest verified sue of continuous human occupation in the Western Hemisphere. 13