The University of Pittsburgh Applied Research Center (U-PARC) is a one-million-square foot (93,000 m2), high-security research park campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Comprising 53 buildings situated on over , U-PARC is located from Downtown Pittsburgh in Harmar Township, Pennsylvania adjacent to the Route 28 expressway and Interstate 76, the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It was founded as the research laboratories of Gulf Oil in 1933 and moved to Harmar Township in 1935. It served many decades as one of the leading industrial research centers in the world, with labs engaging in petroleum, chemical, polymer, refining, and nuclear research. At its peak, it employed over 2,000 scientists and engineers and had an annual budget of $100 million ($ in dollars). Upon Gulf Oil's acquisition by Chevron Oil in 1985, the research park was donated to the University of Pittsburgh in order to keep the center open for the benefit of the region. U-PARC is home to more than 100 different companies from around the world, including several Fortune 500 Companies. In addition, the university's Swanson School of Engineering maintains laboratories and its Manufacturing Assistance Center at the site. It also serves as the home to the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences' Masters of Science program in Physician Assistant Studies. History U-PARC was founded as the research labs of Gulf Oil in 1933 in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Work began on its current Harmar Township location in August 1934 with the opening of the first three buildings in 1935. For many decades it was one of the leading industrial research centers in the world, with labs encompassing research ranging from petroleum, chemical, polymers, refining to even nuclear applications thanks to a three million volt Van de Graaff particle accelerator. It also served for a time as the site of geophysics research by John Bardeen, before he turned to solid state physics and won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice. Products developed in its labs included the airborne magnetometer, the marsh buggy, No-Nox gasoline, Gulf Spray pesticide, and processes for the hydrodesulfurization of sour crude oil and shale oil extraction. For at least the first 20 years of its existence it was the "most highly integrated of all the petroleum research laboratories in the world". By 1955, it employed over 1,200, and by the late 1970s, it employed 1,500. General Matthew Ridgway keynoted the dedication of three new research laboratories at the