Paul Howard Douglas (March 26, 1892 - September 24, 1976) was an American politician and University of Chicago economist. He served as a Democratic U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1949 to 1967.

Michael Stern Hart (b. 1947 in Tacoma, Washington) is an American best known as the founder of Project Gutenberg (PG) which makes electronic books freely available via the Internet. At least one version of each book is a plain text file that can be displayed on virtually any computer. Most of the early postings were personally typed in by himself. Today, the e-texts are produced (usually scanned) by Project Gutenberg's many volunteers.

David Foster Wallace (born February 21 1962) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer.

Brian Lee Cardinal (born May 2 1977 in Tolono, Illinois) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA.

Stephen S. Chang (1918-1996) was a Chinese-born, American food scientist who was involved in the research of lipid and flavors in food, including the development of technology transfer between the United States and Taiwan.

Blake Schilb (born December 23 1983, in Rantoul, Illinois) is an American college men's basketball player at Loyola University Chicago, and projected by several sources as a potential 2007 NBA Draft pick. The 6'7", 220-pound forward averaged 19.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game as a junior in 2005-06, and was named Honorable Mention All-American. Schilb entered his name in the 2006 NBA Draft after his junior year, and attended several player evaluation camps.

Clyde Martin Reed (October 19, 1871-November 8, 1949) was an American politician from Kansas who served as both governor of and U.S. Senator from that state. Born in Champaign County, Illinois, Reed moved to Kansas with his family when he was four years old. After completing a basic education, he taught school for a single year then began work as a federal employee, a position he would serve in different capacities for the next thirty years.

Scott Anderson (June 26, 1913 - October 1, 2006) was a physics professor and the founder of Anderson Physics Laboratory in Urbana, Illinois (the predecessor of APL Engineered Materials), a leading provider of metal halides and amalgams to the lighting industry. He received 11 U.S. patents. Dr. Anderson was a Rotarian and honorably served as the President of the Rotary Club of Champaign, Illinois from 1963 to 1964.

Ken Coffey is a former professional American football defensive back who played safety for four seasons for the Washington Redskins of the NFL. He played college football for Southwest Texas State University.

Michael Krasny is a businessman from Illinois. He is the founder and former chief executive officer of CDW Corporation, a direct seller of technical gadgets including computers and networking equipment. Krasny's previous job before creating CDW was that of a Toyota car salesman for his father at Arlington Toyota. After quitting his job as a car salesman in 1982, Krasny was forced to sell his own computer for cash.

Daniel E. Weber (born 1940) was the fourth Executive Vice President of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), serving in that manner from 1991 until his 2003 retirement.

Milton Feng co-created the first transistor laser, working with Nick Holonyak in 2004. The paper discussing their work was voted in 2006 as one of the five most important papers published by the American Institute of Physics since its founding 75 years ago. He is currently a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds the Nick Holonyak Jr. Professorship.

Marianne Dickerson (born November 14, 1960 in St. Joseph, Illinois) is a retired long-distance runner from the United States, who won the silver medal at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.