page_title: University of Pittsburgh
section_title: Faculty
hierarchical_section_title: University of Pittsburgh / People / Faculty
caption_attribution_description: English: Alumni Hall at the University of Pittsburgh. Home to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, Alumni Relations, and many more.
context_page_description: The University of Pittsburgh is a state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pitt was founded by Hugh Henry Brackenridge in 1787 as the Pittsburgh Academy. While the city was still on the edge of the American frontier at the time, Pittsburgh's rapid growth meant that a proper university was soon needed, and Pitt's charter was altered in 1819 to confer university status on it as the Western University of Pennsylvania. After surviving two devastating fires and several relocations, the university moved to its current location in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood, and by act of the state legislature was renamed the University of Pittsburgh in 1908. Pitt was a private institution until 1966, when it became part of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.
  The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the university's central administration and 28,391 undergraduate and graduate students. The 132-acre Pittsburgh campus includes various historic buildings that are part of the Schenley Farms Historic District, most notably its 42-story Gothic revival centerpiece, the Cathedral of Learning.
context_section_description: University faculty have been pioneers in such fields as virology (Jonas Salk), astronomy (John Brashear), aviation (Samuel Pierpont Langley), and psychology (Benjamin Spock). The university has been home to faculty members deemed the "fathers" of various fields, such as the "father of radio broadcasting" (Reginald Fessenden), the "father of project management" (David I. Cleland), the "father of CPR" (Peter Safar), and the "father of organ transplantation" (Thomas Starzl). 
  The university is also notable for its faculty in philosophy. The university is the namesake of the Pittsburgh School, which was founded by Wilfrid Sellars, a significant figure in analytic philosophy. Current notable faculty in the philosophy department include John McDowell, Robert Brandom, and Nicholas Rescher.
  There have been 31 university heads for the University of Pittsburgh. Beginning in the institution's academy days, the head of the school was referred to as Principal, a title that was retained until 1872 when it was changed to Chancellor by an alteration to the university's charter. This title of Chancellor has lasted except for a brief change during Wesley Posvar's administration when it was transiently switched to President.
caption: Alumni Hall, home to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, and Alumni Relations
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