University of Illinois at Chicago

By James A. Barham, PhD

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) traces its roots back to a group of medical, pharmacy, and dental schools founded during the nineteenth century on the Near West Side (“Medical Center”), as well as an Undergraduate Division of the University of Illinois established in 1945 on Chicago’s Navy Pier to help receive the influx of World War II veterans seeking higher education under the GI Bill.

In 1965, the Navy Pier campus was shut down and a full-scale university known as the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (UICC) was opened about a mile south of the Medical Center. Finally, in 1982, the Medical Center and UICC were merged to create UIC as it is today.

Organized into 16 colleges, the university offers 86 bachelor’s degrees, 111 master’s degrees, and 66 doctorates. Through its Extended Campus, UIC offers scores of courses and degree programs organized into twelve different professional clusters.

UIC is associated with one Nobel Prize laureate for peace: Jean Bogner.

Among many other distinguished UIC-connected individuals, we may mention the following:

• Mathematicians, Louis Kauffman and Bhama Srinivasan
• Computer scientists, Daniel J. Bernstein and Venkat Venkatakrishnan
• Philosophers—Richard Kraut, Nancy Cartwright, Samuel Fleischacker, Nick Huggett, Marya Schechtman, and Sally Sedgwick
• Mathematician, philosopher, and theologian, William A. Dembski
• Literary scholar, Stanley Fish
• Religious studies scholar, Paul J. Griffiths
• Children’s book author, Shel Silverstein
• Mystery writer, Stuart Kaminsky
• Actors, Michael Gross and Mike Hagerty
• Comedians, Sheryl Underwood and Azhar Usman
• Sculptors, Richard Hunt and Tom Friedman
• Blues harmonica virtuoso, Billy Branch
• Physicist, Juan Carlos Campuzano
• Synthetic organic chemist and entrepreneur, Herbert Paaren
• Microbiologists, Ananda Chakrabarty and Susan Lindquist
• Evolutionary biologist, Barbara A. Schaal
• Biodemographer, S. Jay Olshansky
• Cultural anthropologist, Anne Allison
• Economist, Deirdre McCloskey
• Architects, Stanley Tigerman and Adrian Smith
• Video game designer, Lindsay Grace
• Former television news anchors, John Chancellor and Bernard Shaw
• Former US Senator, Carol Moseley Braun
• Current US Representatives, Bobby L. Rush and Jesús G. “Chuy” García

UIC is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

University of Illinois at Chicago's most influential alumni faculty include professors and professionals in the fields of Criminal Justice, Social Work, and Biology. University of Illinois at Chicago’s most academically influential people include William A. Dembski, Nnedi Okorafor, and Alaa Al Aswany.