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Profile
Chancellor Nordenberg came to the University in 1977, when he joined the Pitt law faculty. He served as dean of the School of Law from 1985 until 1993 and as interim provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1993 to 1994. In 1994, he was elevated to the special faculty rank of Distinguished Service Professor. The University’s Board of Trustees elected him interim chancellor in 1995 and chancellor a year later. In a surprise announcement at the annual meeting of the University’s Board of Trustees in June 2005, then-Board Chair Ralph J. Cappy (who died May 1, 2009) announced the establishment of the endowed Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg University Chair to honor the chancellor’s 10 years of leadership. The chair, the first of its kind at Pitt, is supported by a $2.5 million endowment made possible by the generous donations of Pitt trustees, board members of the Pitt Alumni Association, and other Pitt alumni and friends and will exist in perpetuity to advance faculty excellence at the University. Chancellor Nordenberg is an award-winning teacher. He was the first recipient of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s Excellence-in-Teaching Award, an award now presented annually by the Student Bar Association and the 1984 graduating class of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. In 1985, he was among the first recipients of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, recognizing teaching excellence University-wide. His area of scholarly specialty can be described broadly as civil litigation. He has published books, articles, and reports in that area and also has served as a member of both the U.S. Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and the Pennsylvania Civil Procedural Rules Committee. Wide Range of Civic ActivitiesThe chancellor is involved in a wide range of civic activities, including service on a number of boards, among them:
In 1997, Chancellor Nordenberg was honored as Person of the Year in Education by Vectors Pittsburgh. A year later, that same group selected him as Pittsburgh’s overall Person of the Year. In 1999, he was named as a Pittsburgh magazine Pittsburgher of the Year for his role as a policymaker and “champion of regionalism.” Chancellor Nordenberg shared Pittsburgh magazine’s Pittsburgher of the Year award with Carnegie Mellon University President Jared Cohon in 2001. The award recognized the cooperative accomplishments of Nordenberg and Cohon in regional development initiatives. In 2003, Chancellor Nordenberg and President Cohon shared honors again when they received the Person of Vision award, which is presented to outstanding community leaders by Pittsburgh Vision Services. Chancellor Nordenberg also has consistently been named one of the region’s top 10 business leaders by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Among Chancellor Nordenberg’s more recent awards are the Chief Executive Leadership Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, District II; the Nellie Leadership Award from Three Rivers Youth; the Kesher Award from the Edward and Rose Berman Hillel Jewish University Center, an award that he shared with Carnegie Mellon University President Cohon; the Bnai Zion Humanitarian Award from the Bnai Zion Foundation; the Homer S. Brown Law Association Spirit Award; the Senator John Heinz History Center's History Makers Award (Education); and the Presidential Leadership Award from the Gordie Foundation and Outside the Classroom. The chancellor chaired a Citizens Advisory Committee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of City-County Government, which issued a report of its findings in April 2008, and he was selected to cochair a search committee for the current commissioner of the Big East Conference. Born in Duluth, Minn., Chancellor Nordenberg was educated at Thiel College (BA ’70) and the University of Wisconsin Law School (JD ’73). He has been married for more than 30 years to Nikki Pirillo Nordenberg, PhD, who maintains a counseling practice. The Nordenbergs have three adult children—Erin, Carl, and Michael. Distinguished, Diverse AlumniFounded as the Pittsburgh Academy in 1787, and private through much of its history, Pitt became a state-related university in 1966. Today, the University of Pittsburgh system consists of its 132-acre campus located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh and regional campuses in Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, and Titusville. Its more than 12,000 employees, including more than 5,000 faculty members, serve more than 31,000 students through the programs of 16 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. Pitt’s more than 250,000 living alumni have distinguished themselves in virtually every field of human endeavor, close to home and in more distant parts of the world. In recent years, Pitt graduates have received some of the world’s most prestigious awards, including Wangari Muta Maathai (FAS ’65), who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote women’s rights and environmentalism in Kenya; the late Paul C. Lauterbur (FAS ’62), who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in developing the science that made magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) possible; Herb Boyer (FAS ’60, ’63), who won both the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine and the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for his work in unlocking the secrets of recombinant DNA; and University Trustee John Swanson (ENGR ’66), who was elected a distinguished member of the National Academy of Engineering and who won the John Fritz Medal, widely regarded as the world’s most prestigious engineering award. Through the work of its alumni and as a result of the quality of its programs in disciplines as diverse as philosophy and transplantation surgery, Pitt has gained international recognition. It is a member of the Association of American Universities, an organization composed of the top 62 research universities in North America. The University is home to a number of major research centers and from FY 1995 to the current time, research funds have grown from $230 million to more than $654 million annually, placing Pitt among the country's top universities in the size and quality of its research program. These are the funds that support much of Pitt’s pathbreaking research, that help generate jobs throughout the region, and that have enabled the University to increase its own employment base by more than 25 percent since 1995. Pitt’s progress on this important front is reflected in the most recent statistics released by the National Science Foundation ranking Pitt among the top 10 U.S. universities in terms of total federal science and engineering research and development obligations. Pitt’s historic strength in medicine is based in such early achievements as the development of the Salk polio vaccine. In 2005, the University celebrated the 50th anniversary of the announcement—made on April 12, 1955—that the polio vaccine was “safe, effective, and potent.” The world drew a collective sigh of relief then, and now—a half century later—the development of the vaccine is a proud and memorable moment in the region’s history. Today, Pitt is home to the world’s largest and busiest organ transplant program and ranks fifth in the nation in terms of annual research support awarded by the National Institutes of Health. Pioneering in International Education, ResearchThe University of Pittsburgh has a proud tradition of pioneering work in international education and research. Its University Center for International Studies (UCIS) is cited as one of the exemplary international programs in the country by the Council on Learning. It is home to four area studies centers—focusing on Asian, Latin American, Russian and East European, and European studies—all of which have won competitive redesignation, and renewed federal funding, as National Resource Centers from the U.S. Department of Education, as has Pitt’s International Business Center, which is jointly sponsored by the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and UCIS. UCIS also houses a European Union Center of Excellence, one of only 11 so designated in the United States and partially funded by the European Union. Under Chancellor Nordenberg’s leadership, the University has awarded more than 107,000 diplomas, undergraduate applications have increased dramatically, and the academic credentials of enrolled undergraduates have soared. Once enrolled, these students are performing at the highest levels. For example, Pitt is the only public institution in Pennsylvania to have a Rhodes Scholar chosen for 2010. In addition, Pitt was one of only five public universities to have a Rhodes Scholar chosen for 2007 and was the only Pennsylvania school—public or private—to claim that distinction in 2007. Pitt also was the only public university in the nation to win in both 2006 and 2007. Similarly, a Pitt undergraduate was named a 2007 Marshall Scholar, making Pitt the only public university in the country able to claim both Rhodes and Marshall Scholars for 2007. Two Pitt undergraduates were awarded the 2009 Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate award in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. Also in 2009, a Pitt undergraduate was named a Gates Cambridge Scholar—one of only 37 U.S. students selected by the Gates Cambridge Trust to receive this prestigious award. Another Pitt undergraduate was one of only 65 students nationally to be named a 2008 Truman Scholar, selected for superior academic and leadership abilities. Pitt’s position as one of this country’s most consistent producers of high-achieving students has become a defining institutional quality. The durable nature of that quality is most clearly evidenced by Pitt’s record, since 1995, of claiming three Rhodes Scholars, six Marshall Scholars, five Truman Scholars, four Udall Scholars, one Churchill Scholar (in the first year Pitt was eligible), three Mellon Humanities Fellows, one Gates Cambridge Scholar, and 33 Goldwater Scholars. In October 2003, Prince Andrew of Great Britain visited Pittsburgh to personally designate the University a Marshall Center of Excellence. Reflecting the high levels of success earned by our Honors College students in the prestigious Marshall competition, the prince remarked, “in the Marshall competition [Pitt’s] candidates have regularly outperformed students from some of America’s most famous universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania.” Clearly, the presence of such a significant number of high-achieving students in each entering class enhances the learning environment for everyone. The following year, Chancellor Nordenberg was appointed the British Honorary Consul in Pittsburgh by British Consul General Sir Philip Thomas. The chancellor’s role is to help strengthen the ties between the United Kingdom and businesses, educators, and researchers in Western Pennsylvania. Largest Capital Campaign in HistoryIn October 2000, the University launched the public phase of the largest capital campaign in its history, with the goal of raising $500 million by June 2003. In June 2002, Chancellor Nordenberg announced that the campaign had raced past that goal to raise $510 million fully one year early, achieving the largest capital campaign in the history of Western Pennsylvania. Based on the enthusiasm for, and success of, that phase of the campaign, the Board of Trustees voted to extend the campaign by an additional four years and increase its goal to $1 billion. When the fundraising campaign began approaching its $1 billion goal about a year before its scheduled conclusion, Pitt’s Board of Trustees passed a resolution authorizing the University to extend the campaign, doubling its goal to $2 billion. The capital campaign passed the $1.25 billion mark in June 2008 and is on its way to reaching more fundraising milestones. The University of Pittsburgh is widely known as an institution of strong performance and high ambition. Its Board of Trustees has publicly proclaimed, “By aggressively supporting the advancement of Pitt’s academic mission, we will clearly establish that this is one of the finest and most productive universities in the world.” Since Chancellor Nordenberg assumed office in 1995, the University has made remarkable progress toward that goal. And yet, with so many successes—Chancellor Nordenberg often observes—as far as Pitt has come, the University’s brightest days still lie ahead. Working together, the many people of Pitt are building an even stronger future for the University of Pittsburgh.
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Did You Know?As chief executive officer of the University of Pittsburgh, Chancellor Nordenberg heads one of the country's leading research centers, with annual research expenditures exceeding $654 million. These expenditures support more than 23,000 jobs in the Pittsburgh area. More |
Mark A. Nordenberg is chancellor and chief executive officer of the University of Pittsburgh. In this role, he heads one of the nation’s leading public research universities and one of the oldest institutions of higher learning west of the Allegheny Mountains. Chancellor Nordenberg is the University’s 17th chancellor, and summer 2010 will mark the 15th anniversary of his move into the chancellor’s office.