|
|
|
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University System. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and money from Lafayette businessman John Purdue to establish a college of science, technology, and agriculture in his name. The first classes were held on September 16, 1874, with three buildings, six instructors, and 39 students. Today, Purdue enrolls the second largest student body of any university in Indiana as well as the second largest international student population of any public university in the United States.
Purdue offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in over 210 major areas of study. Purdue has produced multiple Nobel Prize winners, Fortune 500 executives, Super Bowl MVPs, Grammy Award nominees, and Pulitzer Prize winners, and the university's alumni pool collectively holds over 15,000 United States patents. In 2011, Purdue was internationally ranked 85th in the QS World University Rankings. Purdue University is world renowned for its competitive engineering curriculum. The university has also been highly influential in America's history of aviation, and Purdue's aviation technology and aeronautical engineering programs remain among the highest rated and most competitive in the world. Purdue established the first college credit offered in flight training, the first four-year bachelor's degree in aviation, and the first university airport (Purdue University Airport). In the mid-20th century, Purdue's aviation program expanded to encompass advanced spaceflight technology giving rise to Purdue's nickname, Cradle of Astronauts. Twenty-two Purdue graduates have gone on to become astronauts, including Gus Grissom (one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts), Neil Armstrong (the first person to walk on the moon), and Eugene Cernan (the last person to walk on the moon). The 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, served on the Board of Trustees of Purdue University from July 1895 to March 1901. Harrison Hall, a campus dormitory, is named in his honor.
|
|
|
RSS