Fast facts about Indiana University for media covering the 2016 Foster Farms Bowl
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- In advance of Indiana University's appearance in the 2016 Foster Farms Bowl on Dec. 28, playing the University of Utah, here are some behind-the-scenes facts about the Hoosiers.
1. Founded in 1820, Indiana University is one of the United States’ top public universities. With more than 114,000 students and 9,200 faculty on eight campuses, IU is also one of the largest institutions of higher education in the United States. Its annual budget for all eight campuses totals over $3 billion. Each one of the eight IU campuses is an accredited, four-year degree-granting institution. The largest and oldest IU campus is in Bloomington.
2. IU faculty have been awarded every major national and international prize including the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Oscar Award and Emmy Award, as well as major research grants from the National Science, Ford, Guggenheim, Rockefeller and MacArthur foundations. The late IU Distinguished Professor Elinor Ostrom became the first female recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2009.
3. IU will be well represented at the Foster Farms Bowl, as over 26,260 proud Hoosier alumni live in California. Nearly 9,500 Hoosier alums reside in the San Francisco Bay area, including Sacramento. Over 13,375 IU alumni live within 300 miles of Santa Clara. Prominent IU Bloomington alumni now making a name for themselves in northern California include Thomas Ehrlich, former Indiana University president (1987-1994); Todd Spaletto, president of The North Face Americas; WordPress founder Tony Conrad; Jean Ann Ford and Jane Ford-Petrin, co-founders of Benefit Cosmetics; David Krane, general partner at Google Ventures; and Louis Jordan, owner of Tympany Vineyards, former senior vice president for Starbucks Coffee Co. and former CFO for Global Retail at Nike.
4. IU alumni who have distinguished themselves in sports include George Taliaferro, an All-American football player who led the Hoosiers to their only undefeated championship and the first African-American to be drafted by the National Football League; and California native Mark Spitz, competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic gold medalist in 1968 and 1972.
5. Indiana University Research and Technology Corp., which protects, markets and licenses intellectual property developed at IU so it can be commercialized by industry, was issued a record 53 U.S. patents and 112 global patents in FY 2016. It also completed 46 licensing agreements, received 150 invention disclosures from faculty and filed 326 global patent applications. IURTC has licensed 17 technologies to four companies in the Silicon Valley area.
6. IU is a leader in the areas of supercomputing and data networking, with multiple National Science Foundation-funded projects that support large-scale, high-speed data connections between research institutions in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The university also provides operational support to the Department of Energy’s efforts to coordinate supercomputing resources to advance research in high-energy physics, nanoscience and structural biology. IU is also home to one of the country’s premier high-performing supercomputers, Big Red II.
7. Back-to-back bowl appearances -- The Hoosiers will be making their 11th bowl appearance, their second consecutive and their first at the Foster Farms Bowl. IU last made back-to-back postseason appearances in 1990-91.
8. Reuters' “Most Innovative Universities” list ranks IU 37th worldwide and 25th among U.S. universities in the most recent list, which was released in September. IU's academic programs are consistently ranked among the top 10 in the nation: The Kelley School of Business is one of the most respected business schools in the world. Graduate programs at IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Bloomington rank No. 1 in U.S. News & World Report's Best Graduate Schools. The Bloomington campus's IU Maurer School of Law is ranked in the top 25 overall by U.S. News & World Report, eighth among public universities with five research centers and several acclaimed programs. The IU Jacobs School of Music is one of the best schools of music in the world, with top-ranked opera, theater and jazz studies programs and graduates performing and teaching around the world.
9. In June 2016, IU announced Precision Health Initiative, a research initiative focused on patient-centered precision medicine therapies, as the first recipient of funding under the university’s new $300 million Grand Challenges Program. The Precision Health Initiative will develop IU's expertise in individualized precision medicine and will seek to seek to cure at least one cancer and one childhood disease, as well as find ways to prevent one chronic illness and one neurodegenerative disease.
10. Indiana and Utah will meet for the first time since 2002. In its previous matchups, IU earned a victory in 1975, while the Utes collected wins in 2001 and 2002. The Hoosiers have played two postseason games in the state of California. Indiana defeated BYU (38-37) in the 1979 Holiday Bowl and fell to USC (14-3) in the 1968 Rose Bowl.
Related Links
The Hoosiers are headed to the Foster Farms Bowl, being played at Levi's Stadium in northern California.
IU Bloomington's 1,937-acre campus in the rolling hills of southern Indiana is considered one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation.
Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. has licensed 17 technologies to four companies in the Silicon Valley area.
The $300 million Grand Challenges Program will transform health care for the people of Indiana and medical research and education at IU.
Media Contacts
Margie Smith-Simmons
- Office 812-855-9634
- Cell 317-201-7114
- smithsim@iu.edu
Nicole Wilkins
- Office 812-856-2119
- nnwilkin@iu.edu