University of Utah

The University of Utah opened under the name "University of Deseret" in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 28, 1850, only to be closed two years later for financial reasons. It reopened as a business school in 1867 and became a full university once again in 1869. The University was renamed University of Utah in 1894 and classes were first held on the present campus in 1900.

The University's School of Computing has made several important contributions to the field. In 1968, the University joined with the University of California, Los Angeles, SRI (at Stanford University) and the University of California, Santa Barbara to form the first four nodes of the ARPANET, direct ancestor to today's Internet. Other accomplishments include the first method for representing surface textures in graphical images, the Gouraud 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, graphical user interfaces, and stack machine architectures. Companies founded by faculty and alumni include Adobe, Ashlar, Cirrus Logic, Netscape, Word Perfect, Evans & Sutherland, Pixal Plane, Pixar, Silicon Graphics, and Myricom.

The University of Utah's School of Medicine is respected as one of the region's finest, with several notable acheivements. 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. Areas for which the school is often praised include cardiology, geriatrics, gynecology, rheumatology, pulmonology, orthopedics, and ophthalmology.

The University is well known in the field of biology for its unique contributions to the study of genetics. This is in part due to the heavy emphasis placed on genealogy by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is headquartered in Salt Lake City. Local members of the Church are an asset to researchers who are able to use family records to trace genetic disorders through several generations.

The University suffered some embarrassment in 1989 as the result of Pons and Fleischmann's cold fusion announcement.

In 2002, the University hosted some Winter Olympic events, including the opening and closing ceremonies.

The school's sports teams are called the Utes. They participate in the NCAA's Division I and in the Mountain West Conference.