Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Founded in 1900, the university is a merger of the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.
The university was established by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools, the university became the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912 and began granting four-year degrees.
In 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, formerly a part of the University of Pittsburgh.
Since then, the university has operated as a single institution.
The university has seven colleges and independent schools, including the College of Engineering, College of Fine Arts, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mellon College of Science, Tepper School of Business, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, and the School of Computer Science.
The university has its main campus located 3 miles (5 km) from Downtown Pittsburgh, and the university also has over a dozen degree-granting locations in six continents, including degree-granting campuses in Qatar and Silicon Valley.
Past and present faculty and alumni include 20 Nobel Prize laureates, 13 Turing Award winners, 23 Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 22 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 79 Members of the National Academies, 124 Emmy Award winners, 47 Tony Award laureates, and 10 Academy Award winners.
Carnegie Mellon enrolls 14,799 students from 117 countries and employs 1,400 faculty members.
The Carnegie Technical Schools were founded in 1900 in Pittsburgh by the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who wrote “My heart is in the work”, when he donated the funds to create the institution.
Carnegie's vision was to open a vocational training school for the sons and daughters of working-class Pittsburghers (many of whom worked in his mills).
Carnegie was inspired for the design of his school by the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, founded by industrialist Charles Pratt in 1887.
In 1912, the institution changed its name to Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT) and began offering four-year degrees.
During this time, CIT consisted of four constituent schools: the School of Fine and Applied Arts, the School of Apprentices and Journeymen, the School of Science and Technology, and the Margaret Morrison Carnegie School for Women.
The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research was founded in 1913 by banker and industrialist brothers Andrew Mellon (who went on to become U.S. Treasury Secretary) and Richard B. Mellon in honor of their father, Thomas Mellon, patriarch of the Mellon family.
The Institute began as a research organization which performed work for government and industry on a contract and was initially established as a department within the University of Pittsburgh.
In 1927, the Mellon Institute incorporated as an independent nonprofit.
In 1937, the Mellon Institute's iconic building was completed and it moved to its new, and current, location on Fifth Avenue.
In 1967, with support from Paul Mellon, Carnegie Tech merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to become Carnegie Mellon University.
Carnegie Mellon's coordinate women's college, the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, closed in 1973 and merged its academic programs with the rest of the university.
The industrial research mission of the Mellon Institute survived the merger as the Carnegie Mellon Research Institute (CMRI) and continued doing work on contract to industry and government.
CMRI closed in 2001 and its programs were subsumed by other parts of the university or spun off into autonomous entities.
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