University of Glasgow
Founded 1451. Fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world, alma mater of Adam Smith.
Overview
A papal bull from Nicholas V founded the university in 1451, making it the second oldest in Scotland and the fourth oldest in the English-speaking world. Adam Smith studied and later taught moral philosophy there, and James Watt worked out his separate condenser while serving as the university's instrument maker. Lord Kelvin spent his career as professor of natural philosophy, lending his name to the absolute temperature scale. In 1870 the university left the High Street for Gilmorehill, where George Gilbert Scott's neo-Gothic main building and tower overlook Kelvingrove Park. Today it teaches tens of thousands of students.
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