Since its founding in 1867, the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
has earned a reputation as a world-class leader in research, teaching,
and public engagement.
U of I alumni have won 11 Nobel Prizes and 18 Pulitzer Prizes. Nine
faculty are Nobel laureates, and two have won Pulitzers, as well as other
esteemed awards in numerous disciplines. Many faculty are recognized for
exceptional scholarship with memberships in such organizations as the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences,
and the National Academy of Engineering.
Academic resources on campus are among the finest in the world. The
University Library is the largest public university collection in the world,
housing 22 million items in the main library and in the more than 40
departmental libraries and units.
Students and scholars find the University an ideal place to conduct research.
The Beckman Institute for Advanced
Science and Technology is a model for
interdisciplinary research, where 18 research groups from 16 University
departments work within and across three broadly defined themes: biological
intelligence, human-computer intelligent interaction, and molecular and
electronic nanostructures. The University is also home to the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
In addition to nearly 28,000 undergraduate students, the University enrolls
over 9,000 graduate and professional students in more than 100 disciplines.
It is among the top five universities in number of earned doctorates
awarded annually in the United States.
A major center for the arts, the campus attracts dozens of nationally
and internationally renowned artists each year to its widely acclaimed
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The University also supports
two major museums: the Krannert
Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion; and the
Spurlock Museum of world history and culture.
Other major facilities include two golf courses; the multipurpose
Assembly Hall; the indoor Atkins Tennis Center, home to the U of I's national
championship tennis team; Memorial Stadium, site of Big Ten Conference football
games; and the Intramural-Physical Education Building, one of the largest
recreational facilities for students on a university campus.
Located in east central Illinois in the twin cities of Urbana and
Champaign (combined population 100,000), the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign is the state's flagship public university.
