Portal:Indiana/Selected article/1

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Purdue University is a land-grant, public university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States. Purdue was founded in 1869 when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, which offered public lands to any state that would establish a college for teaching agriculture and mechanics, accepted a donation of land and money from Lafayette businessman John Purdue. Today, Purdue is the largest university in Indiana in terms of student enrollment and is the flagship campus of the Purdue University System.

The quality of Purdue's instruction and research, as well as its faculty and students, have a strong world-wide reputation. Particularly noted for its engineering, agriculture, pharmacy and management schools, which are consistently ranked among the best, the university has continually expanded into other domains of knowledge. In 1962, for instance, Purdue laid the foundation of computer science program in the United States. The university is also associated with a long-standing tradition of aviation. Twenty-two American astronauts are graduates of Purdue University, including the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong.