University of Utah

The University of Utah was established as the University of Deseret in 1850. Like all “Deseret” (the original name for Utah) institutions, it was originally closely associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons”).

Eighteen-fifty was the same year the Utah Territory was established by the US Congress as a part of the Compromise of 1850 on slavery in the new territories acquired by the US as a result of the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848.

During the first two decades, there were no funds for building a proper campus, and classes were held in private homes, in the Council House (or State House), or wherever space could be found. The Territorial Legislature had trouble paying faculty salaries, and class offerings were spotty.

Finally, beginning in 1869, the financial situation of Utah Territory stabilized and the University of Deseret began to function on a more secure basis. The school’s president traveled to Europe to study the best academic practices of the day.

In 1876, the university was finally able to move to a permanent campus of its own. The school granted its first degree in 1886.

In 1892, the school’s name was changed to the University of Utah, and in 1900 it was relocated to a roomier site in East Bench, a neighborhood on the northern edge of Salt Lake City.

Today, the University of Utah is a secular institution with 100 undergraduate programs and 92 graduate degree programs. The student body numbers about 33,000 souls.

Utah is associated with four Nobel laureates, to wit,

• Cosmologist, Kip Thorne
• Particle physicist, James Cronin
• Geneticist, Mario Capecchi
• Structural biologist, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

There are also three Turing Award–winners connected to Utah, namely,

• Alan Kay
• Edwin Catmull
• Ivan Sutherland

Other prominent Utah-linked individuals include the following:

• Mathematicians, Alessio Corti, James Keener, Christopher Hacon, Graeme Milton, Richard Eliot Chamberlin & John Emory Dennis, Jr.
• Computer scientists, Henry Fuchs, David C. Evans, John Warnock, James H. Clark, Alexei Efros, Bui Tuong Phong, Christopher Ray Johnson & Jim Waldo
• Philosophers, Elijah Millgram, Leslie P. Francis, Stephen Downes & Lex Newman
• Novelist, Wallace Stegner
• Conservationist and non-fiction author, Terry Tempest Williams
• Science fiction author, Orson Scott Card
• Screenwriter and blogger, Tracy McMillan
• Actor, Matthew Davis
• Inspirational author and speaker, Stephen Covey
• Physicists, Thomas Ypsilantis, Stanley Pons & Martin Fleischmann
• Ballistic missile pioneer, Simon Ramo
• Electrical engineers, Mac Van Valkenburg & Calvin Quate
• Electrical engineer and entrepreneur, Thomas Stockham
• Electronics and information theory pioneer, Ralph Hartley
• Chemists, Henry Ehring & Peter John Stang
• Pharmaceutical engineers, Jindřich Kopeček & Sung Wan Kim
• Hemodialysis pioneer, Willem Johan Kolff
• Cardiothoracic surgeon, William DeVries
• Artificial heart pioneer, Robert Jarvik
• Cognitive scientist, Jeffrey Bradshaw
• Evolutionary ecologist, Jon Seger
• Historian, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
• Iranologist, Richard Foltz
• TV journalist, Martha Raddatz
• Non-fiction author and political commentator, Shelby Steele
• Marriott hotel chain founder, John Willard Marriott, Sr.
• Former President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley
• Current President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson
• Political strategist and senior advisor in the George W. Bush administration, Karl Rove
• US diplomat, Jon Huntsman, Jr.
• Former US Senators Frank Moss, Jake Garn & Bob Bennett