University of Utah

University of Utah

<tr><th>Motto</th><td>(none)</td></tr>

Established February 28, 1850
Type Public Flagship

<tr><th>Staff</th><td>3,971</td></tr><tr><th>President</th><tdstyle="padding-left: 1.25em;">Michael K. Young</td></tr><tr><th>Undergraduates</th><td>22,661</td></tr><tr><th>Postgraduates</th><td>6,531</td></tr>

Location Salt Lake City, UT USA

<tr><th>Campus</th><td>Urban</td></tr><tr><th>Team Name</th><td>Utes</td></tr><tr><th>Colors</th><td>Red (crimson) and white</td></tr><tr><th>Mascot</th><td>Red-Tailed Hawk</td></tr>

Website www.utah.edu

The University of Utah (also The U or the U of U) is a public university in Salt Lake City, Utah. Originally established February 28, 1850 by Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young; it was initially named "University of Deseret." The school closed two years later for financial reasons. It reopened as a commercial school in 1867 in the old Council House in what is now downtown Salt Lake City under the direction of David O. Calder, a prominent Salt Lake City businessman and associate of Mormon leader Brigham Young. The University was renamed University of Utah in 1894 and classes were first held on the present campus approximately two miles directly east of downtown Salt Lake City in 1900. It currently enrolls 22,661 undergraduate and 6,531 graduate students and has 3,971 faculty members.

The state-owned University is referred to colloquially as "the U," and shares a ferocious athletic and (some might say) cultural rivalry with its neighbor to the south, Brigham Young University (aka "the Y"), which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the LDS Church). The University of Utah is the flagship public research institution in the state of Utah, and is one of 10 institutions that make up the Utah System of Higher Education.

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Campus History

The present campus is located on the grounds of the former Fort Douglas, previously Camp Douglas. Camp Douglas was established in 1862 in order to protect the Overland Trail and was garrisoned by the Third California Infantry of volunteers. Regular army troops replaced the volunteers in 1866 and in 1875 the camp was rebuilt with more substantial buildings and renamed Fort Douglas. The fort was a base for Indian campaigns during the 1870s, and was later used as an internment camp during both the First and Second World Wars. The Fort was officially closed on October 26, 1991.

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Programs

The University has a number of excellent programs for undergraduates, as well as many fine graduate and professional programs.

The University's School of Computing has made several important contributions to the field. ARPANET, the world's first electronic computer network, was established on October 29, 1969 between nodes at UCLA and at Stanford Research Institute, in Menlo Park, CA. [1].

In addition to SRI and UCLA, UCSB, and the University of Utah were part of the original four network nodes. By December 5, 1969, the entire 4-node network was connected.

Other accomplishments include the first method for representing surface textures in graphical images, the Gouraud smooth shading model for computer graphics, invention of magnetic ink printing technology, the Johnson counter logic circuit, development of the oldest algebraic mathematics package (REDUCE) still in use, and the Phong lighting model for shading with highlights. The school has pioneered work in asynchronous circuits, computer animation, computer art, digital music recording (for which university alumni were awarded Academy Awards), graphical user interfaces, and stack machine architectures. Notable alumni include James Blinn, Nolan Bushnell, Ed Catmull, Jim Clark, Alan Kay, Shane Robison and John Warnock. Companies founded by faculty and alumni include Adobe Systems, Ashlar, Atari, CAE Systems, Centillium Technology, Cirrus Logic, WordPerfect, Evans and Sutherland, Myricom, NeoMagic, Netscape Communications Corporation, Pixar, Pixal Plane, PlanetWeb, and Silicon Graphics.

The University of Utah's School of Medicine is respected as one of the region's finest, with several notable achievements, and the University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics has consistently had some of its programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report. In 1970, the school established the first Cerebrovascular Disease Unit west of the Mississippi River. In 1982, Barney Clark received the world's first permanently implanted artificial heart, the Jarvik-7, during an operation performed by William C. Devries, M.D. Clark survived 112 days with the device. The campus houses both the Huntsman Cancer Institute [2], and the Moran Eye Center, an ophthalmic clinical care and research facility. Areas for which the school is often praised include cardiology, geriatrics, gynecology, rheumatology, pulmonology, oncology, orthopedics, and ophthalmology.

Also of note at the University is its economics department. Despite its location in one of the most conservative states in the entire U.S., the U's economics department is notably left-leaning. The University of Utah's Political Science department hosts one of nation's leading schools of politics and government. Aside from regular course work, the college provides its students the opportunity to volunteer as interns in state and federal government offices. The college is often visited by local and national leaders.

The University is well known in the field of biology for its unique contributions to the study of genetics. This is due in part to long-term genealogy efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS or Mormon church) which is headquartered about four miles from the University. LDS members are an asset to researchers who are able to use family records to trace genetic disorders through several generations. Additionally, the relative homogeneity of Utah's population makes it an ideal laboratory for studies of population genetics.<ref name="genetics">Sussingham, Robin; Stephanie Watson, Jennifer Logan (2006). Utah: A Gold Mine for Genetic Research. The University of Utah. URL accessed on 2006-03-09.</ref> The population tends to volunteer for genetic testing in high numbers. The University is home to the Genetic Science Learning Center, a unique resource which educates the public about genetics through its website. In addition, University of Utah faculty member Mario Capecchi has made significant contributions to the field by developing a gene knockout technique that functions even in higher organisms.

In 1989, the university was the focus of a short-lived but nonetheless intense "development" in the scientific community when its then-chair of chemistry (Stanley Pons) and visiting professor Martin Fleischmann purportedly discovered a chemical reaction process to be known as "cold fusion". The theory has since been discredited by the nuclear physics academic community.

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Olympics

In 2002, the University hosted some Winter Olympic events, including the opening and closing ceremonies. Prior to the events, the University received a facelift that included extensive renovations to Rice-Eccles Stadium, a light rail track leading to downtown Salt Lake City and an array of new student housing (used by the Olympic athletes) at nearby Fort Douglas.

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Athletics

The school's sports teams are called the Utes. There are many "nicknames" for the teams too, as, for instance, the basketball team known as the "Runnin' Utes"; in former days, the football team was known as "Runnin' Redskins", and the gymnastics team is known as "the Red Rocks". Utah participates in the NCAA's Division I (Division I-A for football) as part of the Mountain West Conference. Each football season the Utes meet their chief rivals, the BYU Cougars, for the last game of the regular season in a contest which for one week seems to divide the entire state. This traditional season finale has been called a "holy war" and is one of the fierciest, most bitter rivalries in all college football.

The men's basketball team won the NCAA title in 1944 and the NIT Crown in 1947. Arnie Ferrin, the only four-time All-American in Utah basketball history, played for both the 1944 and 1947 teams. He also went on to help the Minneapolis Lakers win NBA Championships in 1949 and 1951. Wat Misaka, the first person of Asian descent to play in the NBA, also played for Utah during this era.

Utah basketball rose again to national prominence under the leadership of head coach Rick Majerus, who with the versatile playing of guard Andre Miller, combo forward Hanno Möttölä and post player Michael Doleac, took Utah to the NCAA Final Four in 1998. Then, after eliminating North Carolina to advance to the final round, Utah lost the championship game to Kentucky, 78-69.

Of more recent note was the 2004-2005 Utah football team. Coached by Urban Meyer and quarterbacked by Alex Smith, the Utes went 11-0 during the regular season and became the first team from a non-BCS (Bowl Championship Series) league to go to a BCS Bowl Game, finishing the regular season #6 in the BCS rankings. The Utes defeated Pittsburgh 35 - 7 in the Fiesta Bowl on January 1, 2005 and ended its perfect 12-0 season ranked fourth in AP polling.

In 2005, Utah became the first school to produce #1 overall draft picks in both the NFL and NBA Drafts for the same year. Alex Smith was picked first overall by the San Francisco 49ers in April, 2005, followed by Andrew Bogut, who was taken first overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.

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Broadcasting

The University of Utah has several public broadcasting affiliations. They include:

  1. KUED, TV Channel 7 (digital 42), the state's main PBS member station and producer of local documentaries;
  2. KUER-FM, FM 90.1, an NPR member station.
  3. KUEN, TV Channel 9 (digital 36), a resource for teachers and lifelong learners is operated from the U. campus by the Utah Education Network, a statewide partnership of public and higher education.
  4. KUTE, Student campus radio
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The Daily Utah Chronicle

The Daily Utah Chronicle is the U's student-run paper. It publishes daily on most school days during fall and spring semesters, and tri-weekly during summer semester. "The Chrony" typically runs about eight pages, with longer editions for weekend game-guide editions. The paper is a broadsheet and usually features full-color printing on the front by arrangement to use Newspaper Agency Corporation printing facilities, a deal brokered by The Salt Lake Tribune and intended to inspire journalism mentoring.

The Daily Utah Chronicle was recently selected as the top newspaper in its region by the Society of Professional Journalists.

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Famous alumni

The school is famous in Utah for the extreme competition it has with B.Y.U.

Notes

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References

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External links


Mountain West Conference
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