Rich History

The University of Pittsburgh is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in America.  It was founded in 1787, the same year as the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

From that historic moment more than 250 years ago, the University has built a legacy of first-class education and discovery.  Pitt boasts the inventor of CPR and the Pentium Pro chip as well as alumni who have won an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize.  Members of the University of Pittsburgh community have made a lasting impact.

Arts and Entertainment

Bebe Moore Campbell (EDUC ’71), author of three New York Times bestsellers

Michael Chabon (A&S ’84), Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist

Gene Kelly (A&S ‘33), Academy Award-winning dancer, actor, singer, film director, producer and choreographer perhaps best known today for his performance in Singin' in the Rain

Lorin Maazel (A&S ‘54), conductor, violinist, and composer, New York Philharmonic.

Business and Entrepreneurship

Bibiana Boerio (KGSB ’76), finance and strategy director for Ford's International Operations and former managing director of Jaguar Cars Ltd.

Xiaowei Chen, PhD (MED ‘94), Former CEO, The9 Computer Technology Consulting, (Shangha) Co. Ltd. 

Robert Colwell (ENGR ’77), chief architect of four generations of the Pentium chip

William S. Dietrich II (A&S ’80 MA, ’84 PhD), business leader, investor, author, and philanthropist who gave Pitt the largest individual gift in its history, a $125 million fund.  The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences is named after Mr. Dietrich’s father.

Ning Gaoning (MBA ‘87), chairman, China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO)

Thomas A. Mellon (A&S ’37), founder of the Mellon banking dynasty, and his sons Andrew W. and Richard B. Mellon, bankers, industrialists, and philanthropists who served Pitt as trustees and donors.  Andrew Mellon also served as US Secretary of the Treasury and US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

John Swanson (ENGR ’66), engineer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder of ANSYS Inc.  The Swanson School of Engineering is named after Mr. Swanson

Li Yinhe (PhD,‘88), sociologist, sexologist, and an activist for LGBT rights in People's Republic of China.

Tung Chao Yung, Chinese shipping magnate, founder of the Orient Overseas Line (now OOCL), and owner of the largest ship ever built

Wang Xiaobo (MS) - one of the most influential Chinese thinkers since the 1980s.

Education

Steven C. Beering (BS ‘54, MD ‘59), President Emeritus, Purdue University

Ambrose ‘Yeo-Chi’ King (GSPIA ‘70), former Vice Chancellor, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Zuo Xuejin (PhD ‘89), Vice President of the Shanghai academy of social sciences and director of Shanhai institute of Economics

Community Service and Human Rights

C. Scott Harrison (A&S ’59 BUN, MED ’59 MD), orthopaedic surgeon who cofounded CURE International to treat disabled children

Abul Hussam (A&S ’82), inventor of a simple, inexpensive filter that removes arsenic from drinking water and is saving lives in developing countries

Wangari Maathai (A&S ’65), Kenyan environmentalist, political activist, and Nobel Peace Prize winner

Holmes Rolston III (A&S ’68), "father of environmental ethics" and winner of the Templeton Prize for advancing peace, social justice, and human knowledge

Journalism

Frank Bolden (EDUC ’34), pioneering African American newspaper reporter

Lynette Clemetson, director of StateImpact (a reporting project between NPR and member stations) and a former reporter for The New York Times and Newsweek

Myron Cope (A&S ’51), award-winning sportswriter and broadcast voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers

Al Primo (A&S ’58), broadcast journalist who created the "Eyewitness News" format.

Law, Politics & the Military

Ralph J. Cappy (A&S ’65 BS, LAW ’68 JD), Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Orrin Hatch (LAW ’62), senior US Senator for Utah

K. Leroy Irvis (LAW ’54), Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Mahmoud Jibril (A&S ’80 MA, ’85 PhD), who served as acting prime minister of the Libyan rebel government during the 2011 civil war that drove Moammar Gadhafi from power

Roscoe Robinson Jr. (GSPIA ’64), first African American four-star Army general

Dick Thornburgh, Pennsylvania Governor and US Attorney General

Literature

Leonard S. Baker (A&S ‘52), 1979 Pulitzer Prize winning biographer

Michael Chabon (A&S ‘84), 2001 Pulitzer Prize winning author who has written a number of books set in Pittsburgh

August Wilson (Honorary, Board of Trustees member), 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who wrote about the African-American experience in the 20th century

Science & Health

Herbert Boyer (PhD ‘63), biochemist. 1990 National Medal of Science, genetic engineer whose research on the DNA molecule launched the biotechnology industry; co-founded Genentech.

Kevin Guskiewicz (EDUC ’92), a sports medicine scholar and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow who was among the first to identify the long-term threats to athletes of multiple concussions 

Philip Showalter Hench (PhD ‘20), 1950 Nobel Prize co-winner in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the hormone cortisone and its effectiveness in treating rheumatoid arthritis

Norman Horowitz (A&S ’36), biochemical evolutionist who devised NASA experiments searching for signs of life on Mars

Paul C Lauterbur (PhD ‘62), 2003 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine for research that made magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) possible

Bert W. O'Malley (A&S ‘59, MED ‘63), "father of molecular endocrinology" and 2008 National Medal of Science winner

James Theodore (A&S ’58 BS, MED ’62 MD), pioneer in heart-lung and lung transplantation

Vladimir Zworykin, Russian-American inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology

Sports

Tony Dorsett, the first player to win a college football national championship and the Super Bowl in back-to-back years

Roger Kingdom (CGS ‘02), sprinter and hurdler, two-time Olympic gold medalist, former 110m high hurdles world record holder

Dan Marino (A&S ’83), NFL Hall of Fame quarterback and CBS-TV analyst

Art Rooney II (A&S ’78), President of the Pittsburgh Steelers

Trecia-Kaye Smith (EDUC ’99 BS, SHRS ’02 MPT), triple jump world champion

John Woodruff (Col. ‘39), Gold medal winner in 800-meters at 1936 Berlin Olympics

Technology

Thomas Saaty (faculty member), inventor, architect, and primary theoretician of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Vladimir Zworykin (A&S ‘26), Inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology, sometimes call the "Father of Television".