University of Chicago

The University of Chicago (commonly referred to as UChicago, the U of C, or just Chicago) is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890; William Rainey Harper became its first president in 1891 and the first classes were held in 1892.

The University consists of the College of the University of Chicago, various graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees organized into four divisions, six professional schools, and a school of continuing education. The University enrolls approximately 5,000 students in the College and about 14,000 students overall. It has a reputation of devotion to academic scholarship and intellectualism, "The University of Chicago was founded in 1892, and within a short time became internationally recognized as one of the world's great centers of scholarship, research, and teaching." and is affiliated with 85 Nobel Prize laureates as of the 2009 awards announcement.

In 2007, the University spent $322,488,000 on scientific research. University of Chicago scholars have played a role in the development of the Chicago School of Economics, the Chicago School of Sociology, the Law and Economics movement in legal analysis, and the physics leading to the world's first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction. The University is also home to the Committee on Social Thought, an interdisciplinary graduate research program, and to the largest university press in the United States.

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 November 16, 2006) was an American economist, statistician, and public intellectual, and a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. He is best known among scholars for his theoretical and empirical research, especially consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.

He was an economic advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Over time, many governments practiced his restatement of a political philosophy that extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with little intervention by government. As a professor of the Chicago School of economics, based at the University of Chicago, he had great influence in determining the research agenda of the entire profession. Friedman's many monographs, books, scholarly articles, papers, magazine columns, television programs, videos and lectures cover a broad range of topics of microeconomics, macroeconomics, economic history, an...

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922 ? April 11, 2007; ) was an American novelist who wrote works blending satire, black comedy, and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cats Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973). In print: Smith, Dinitia, "Kurt Vonnegut, Novelist Who Caught the Imagination of His Age, Is Dead at 84", The New York Times'', April 12, 2007, p.1 He was known for his humanist beliefs as well as being honorary president of the American Humanist Association.