John A. Swanson School of Engineering

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Dean's Message

What an exciting time of progress it’s been for the School of Engineering. For starters, we have a new name, the Swanson School of Engineering. We became the Swanson School after an historic event: John A. Swanson (PhD ’66) made the largest individual philanthropic commitment in the history of the University of Pittsburgh. As a result of his remarkable generosity, which now exceeds $41 million, the Board of Trustees presented a formal resolution on February 29, 2008, announcing the changing of our name to the John A. Swanson School of Engineering. If you missed the announcement of the gift last December, visit www.engr.pitt.edu for news coverage and an extensive photo gallery.

Benedum Hall is also getting a makeover through the $100 million Benedum Hall Transformation Plan. In spring 2008, we broke ground and began constructing the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, a three-story building that will connect Benedum Hall across the plaza to the auditorium. Read Pitt Engineer, our alumni magazine, online to learn more details about the plan, and watch highlights in the Benedum Hall Transformation video. Additional details about the Transformation Plan will become available online soon; please check back soon for the link.

This time of great change for the Swanson School can only bring about further opportunity and growth. Already, our faculty have been receiving an increasing number of national—and international—awards, such as bioengineering faculty members Michael Sacks and William Wagner who were named to the Scientific American 50; our students are receiving prestigious national awards more than ever, such as the sixth Goldwater Scholarship in a row, and the first ever Rhodes Scholarship in 2007; and our alumni will continue to make us proud and prove us successful with all their personal and professional accomplishments.

I invite you to peruse the Swanson School Web site where you can read the stories of what’s made us so successful in any of our award-winning publications.

Gerald D. Holder
U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering

Overview of the Swanson School

When the University of Pittsburgh’s Discover a World of Possibilities fundraising campaign approached its $1 billion goal a year ahead of schedule, Pitt resolved to push on to $2 billion. Each academic unit is working to reach its own goal that was set after extensive strategic assessments identified critical needs and the resources necessary to meet them.

The Swanson School of Engineering’s component in this effort, Foundations for Greatness: The Campaign for Engineering, has led to establishing four critical priorities that the Swanson School of Engineering must address to continue moving forward among an elite peer group of top engineering schools.

Swanson School of Engineering
Campaign Priorities

Enhance Our Facilities

Strengthen Faculty Resources

Provide Greater Student Support

Increase Discretionary Resources

 

For more information about the giving to the Swanson School of Engineering,
go online to giveto.pitt.edu or call 1-800-817-8943.

The Swanson School's 5th Goldwater Scholar:
Todd Moyle

Todd Moyle

Chemical engineering sophomore Todd Moyle understands the innovation required behind engineering. For his independent research on the potential use of vegetable oil as an alternative fuel, Moyle has joined the ranks of his high-profile University of Pittsburgh predecessors as a 2008 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship recipient.

Moyle’s research focuses on developing a blend of vegetable oil and other additives that would power standard diesel automobiles without alterations. His results have been presented at the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research and the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education.

With a prime interest in pharmaceutical development and production research, Moyle has big plans for his post-undergraduate education. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Then, Moyle hopes to earn either a Doctor of Medicine degree in clinical research of pharmaceuticals, or a doctorate in biomedical engineering, concentrating on drug-delivery systems and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Moyle is the fifth consecutive Pitt engineering student to earn a Goldwater Scholarship. This elite national scholarship was established in 1986 by the U.S. Congress to encourage students to pursue careers in mathematics, national sciences, and engineering fields. The Goldwater Scholarship is the most highly esteemed undergraduate award for students in these fields and can be awarded during a student’s sophomore or junior year. The scholarship covers tuition, room and board, fees, and books and may total $7,500 per year.

Moyle was one of 321 recipients in 2008, only 52 of whom were engineering majors. Past awardees from Pitt have gone on to receive even higher accolades, among them engineering graduate students at Pitt and Yale University, a doctorate engineering student at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and a Truman and Rhodes scholar currently studying at the University of Oxford. As evidenced by Moyle’s aspirations after graduation, he is destined to achieve the same greatness.

ExxonMobil Executive Establishes Legacy Fund
in the Swanson School of Engineering

Roberta Luxbacher

Roberta Luxbacher loves to travel the world, and her 30-year career with ExxonMobil has taken her far and wide. However, without her education from the University of Pittsburgh, she may not have achieved such success in her career, and now she gives back to the University to further educational opportunities for young people.

Luxbacher originally came to Pitt to study physical therapy. Because of her outstanding grades in higher-level math and science classes, her advisors recommended that she reevaluate her strengths and study engineering instead. A chemical engineering major at Pitt, Luxbacher graduated in 1978 and immediately began working for Exxon, now ExxonMobil. Luxbacher says she saw it as a company with an exciting and important business, providing energy to the world, and a lot of opportunity and has stayed for those same reasons.  

Luxbacher worked her way up the corporate ladder, becoming vice president of U.S. Natural Gas in 1998, and later vice president of the Americas Natural Gas for ExxonMobil. When she became the director of Europe Gas and Power Marketing in 2002, Luxbacher and her family moved to London. She returned to the United States in 2007, when she was promoted to General Manager, Corporate Planning for the world’s largest publicly held integrated oil company.

As a former engineering student, Luxbacher says she now has a personal interest in encouraging students to study math and science in higher education. “Education fuels this country’s growth and leadership,” she says, and she feels rewarded to contribute to Pitt’s continued excellence. Luxbacher is impressed with Pitt’s use of resources to increase its stature as one of the nation’s most distinguished universities, and she has been excited to be part of that.

Thus, Luxbacher created the Roberta A. Luxbacher Engineering Legacy Fund in 2005, which provides annual funds to the Swanson School of Engineering that can be distributed among projects and scholarships according to the School’s needs. She believes that legacy funds “will enable the School to build its endowment and therefore ensure that it has the funds it needs for the future.” This long-term financial support is an example of “good, prudent planning,” Luxbacher says. Luxbacher is on the Swanson School of Engineering’s Board of Visitors.

Although Luxbacher sees much of the world meeting with business partners and representing ExxonMobil externally, she still enjoys traveling with her husband and two children. “I love to see new places,” she says, and plans to revisit Asia, South America and Africa with her family.

Contact Us

Matt Weinstein

Senior Executive Director of Development
Phone: 412-624-9812
E-mail: mattwein@pitt.edu