Pitt Chronicle

School to be renamed the John A. Swanson School of Engineering

Acclaimed inventor, business founder, and University of Pittsburgh engineering alumnus and trustee John A. Swanson has been honored for the greatest generosity by an individual donor in Pitt’s 220-year history—$41.3 million to the University’s School of Engineering as part of the $2 billion Building Our Future Together Campaign. In recognition of this extraordinary generosity, the University will rename the school the John A. Swanson School of Engineering.

“We are exceedingly fortunate that John Swanson—who not only is recognized as one of the world’s leading engineers but also is one of our most loyal and generous supporters—has chosen to make an extraordinary investment in the future of engineering education at Pitt,” said Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg.

The start of a yearlong series about the University of Pittsburgh’s programs in graduate and professional education

As one of the nation’s best public research universities, the University of Pittsburgh takes very seriously its mission to offer educational programs that will prepare the leadership for a broad range of the nation’s institutions and for the practice of its professions, to provide high-quality undergraduate programs and to run research programs that will drive the development of human understanding and the economy.

In all of these endeavors, graduate—and graduate-level professional—education plays a very important role. The complexity of graduate education makes it difficult to talk about this critical endeavor in easy sound bites.

In its early years, beginning more than 160 years ago, Pitt’s engineering school played an integral role in bolstering the industry that built Pittsburgh, trained American soldiers, and was a font for technology—from the radio to the airplane—that changed the world.

Today’s John A. Swanson School of Engineering builds on that historic tradition through a wide range of research, from breakthroughs in biomedical procedures to becoming a trailblazer in the emerging field of nanotechnology. Below are highlights from the school’s distinguished history.