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Outlook

This issue of Perspectives celebrates a major anniversary: the 40th year that a much-lauded editorial project, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, has been headquartered at SIUC. By making available the key writings of an American military hero and president, this far-reaching endeavor, led by history professor John Y. Simon, has given scholars and the public a fuller picture of the Civil War, 19th-century politics, and Grant as a person. One of the top U.S. awards in history, the Lincoln Prize, was given to Dr. Simon this year in recognition of the Grant project's special achievement.

Other research featured in this issue touches on aspects of our environment--from forest management to fuel cells to fish populations in the Mississippi River--and our connection to other nations, represented here by a project to revitalize agriculture in Afghanistan. But to kick things off, we momentarily come to a halt with "Stopping Power," an update on brake materials research by SIUC's Center for Advanced Friction Studies.

The diverse research accomplishments of all of our faculty recently boosted SIUC to #100 (up from #104) in the National Science Foundation's annual ranking of public universities by research and development expenditures--another step toward our goal of being among the top 75 public research universities by our 150th anniversary in 2019. We are proud to count ourselves among this select group of institutions committed to the synergy of research and education.