University of Southern California

The **University of Southern California** (also called **USC**, **SC**, and **Southern California**) is a private, research university in the Exposition Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, and it is California's oldest private research university.

## Students

USC has 16,384 undergraduate and 17,024 graduate students and gave 4,676 bachelor's and 5,380 advanced degrees in 2007. USC students come from all 50 states in the United States as well as over 115 countries.

## Notable alumni

- LeVar Burton - actor
- Anna Shay, socialite and television personality
- George Lucas - filmmaker

## Staff

USC employed 3,127 full-time faculty, 1,363 part-time faculty, and about 8,200 staff members in 2007. The university has a "very high" level of research activity, and it got $484.6 million in sponsored research in 2007. The Integrated Media Systems Center and the Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems are at USC.

## Sports

USC has 19 sports teams that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I-A Pacific-10 Conference. Their nickname is the Trojans. The Trojans have won 89 NCAA team championships, third in the nation (behind UCLA and Stanford), and 347 Individual NCAA Championships, second in the nation. 362 Trojan athletes have been in the Olympic games winning 112 gold, 66 silver, and 58 bronze medals.  Their basketball team plays in the Galen Center and is coached by Kevin O'Neill.  Their football team plays in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and is coached by Lane Kiffin. The football team has won several national championships and 23 Rose Bowls, a game played between two of the top football teams in the country.  In sports, USC has a strong rivalry with UCLA, the other big school in Los Angeles, in all sports and a strong rivalry with Notre Dame in football.

## Astronauts

- Neil Armstrong (1960s and 1970, graduate studies) (M.S. Aerospace Engineering) – astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon, NASA X-15 pilot
- Charles A. Bassett, II (1960s, graduate studies) – Air Force test pilot, was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1963 but died in an airplane crash during training for his first spaceflight
- Karol J. Bobko (1970, M.S. Aerospace Engineering) – engineer, Air Force officer and USAF and NASA astronaut
- Charles F. Bolden, Jr. (1977, M.S. Systems Management) – Space Shuttle commander; Administrator of NASA
- Gerald P. Carr (1954, B.S. Mechanical Engineering) – colonel in the Marine Corps and NASA astronaut
- Nancy J. Currie (1985, M.S. Systems Management) – engineer, Army officer and NASA astronaut
- William H. Dana (1958, M.S. Aerospace Engineering) – NASA test pilot and astronaut
- Brian Duffy (1981, M.S. Systems Management) – U.S. Air Force colonel and NASA astronaut
- Henry C. Gordon (1966, M.B.A.) – X-20 Dyna-Soar astronaut and a colonel in the Air Force
- Nathan J. Lindsay (1976, M.S. Systems Management) – major general in the Air Force
- Jerry M. Linenger (1988, M.S. Systems Management) – captain in the Navy Medical Corps, and NASA astronaut
- James A. Lovell (1961, Aviation Safety School) – NASA astronaut and captain in the Navy, most famous as commander of Apollo 13 mission
- Carlos I. Noriega (1981, B.S. Computer Science) – NASA astronaut and Marine Corps lieutenant colonel
- Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr. (1984, M.S. Systems Management) – NASA astronaut
- Walter M. Schirra (1969, Honorary Doctorate in Science) – test pilot, Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury
- Pierre J. Thuot (1985, M.S. Systems Management) – Navy captain and NASA astronaut

## Other websites

- Official website
- Official USC athletics website