- published: 26 Apr 2013
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Illinois (i/ˌɪlᵻˈnɔɪ/ IL-i-NOY) is a state in the midwestern region of the United States. It is the 5th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base and is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics.
Although today the state's largest population center is around Chicago in the northern part of the state, the state's European population grew first in the west, with French Canadians who settled along the Mississippi River, and gave the area the name, Illinois. After the American Revolutionary War established the United States, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s via the Ohio River, and the population grew from south to north. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. After construction of the Erie Canal increased traffic and trade through the Great Lakes, Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, at one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan.John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. Railroads carried immigrants to new homes, as well as being used to ship their commodity crops out to markets.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, (commonly abbreviated SIUE or The "e"), is a coeducational, public Master's college and university in Edwardsville, Illinois, United States about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and is the younger and smaller of the two major institutions of Southern Illinois University system. The University offers graduate programs through its Graduate School.
In fiscal year 2014, SIUE faculty and staff received 185 grants and contracts for research, teaching, and service initiatives worth more than $34 million— which ranked 8th among more than 680 comparable public and private universities in the country. The grants awarded were from agencies that included the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts , the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.