List of Famous people born in Illinois, United States of America

Steven Ray Nagel, , was an American astronaut, aeronautical and mechanical engineer, test pilot, and a United States Air Force pilot. In total, he logged 723 hours in space. After NASA, he worked at the University of Missouri College of Engineering as an instructor in its Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.

Sidney Richard Coleman was an American theoretical physicist who studied under Murray Gell-Mann. He is noted for his research in high-energy theoretical physics.

John Phillip Preskill is an American theoretical physicist and the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology, where he is also the Director of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter.

Thomas "Tad" Lincoln III was the fourth and youngest son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. The nickname "Tad" was given to him by his father, who observed that he had a large head and was "as wiggly as a tadpole" when he was a baby. Tad Lincoln was known to be impulsive and unrestrained, and he did not attend school during his father's lifetime. He had free run of the White House, and there are stories of him interrupting presidential meetings, collecting animals, and charging visitors to see his father. He died unexpectedly at the age of 18 on July 15, 1871, in Chicago.

Rick Wohlhuter is a retired American middle-distance runner.

Thomas Robert Cech is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman, for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA. He also studied telomeres, and his lab discovered an enzyme, TERT, which is part of the process of restoring telomeres after they are shortened during cell division. As president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, he promoted science education, and he teaches an undergraduate chemistry course at the University of Colorado.

Raymond Ernest Nitschke was a professional American football middle linebacker who spent his entire 15-year National Football League (NFL) career with the Green Bay Packers. Enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978, he was the anchor of the defense for head coach Vince Lombardi in the 1960s, leading the Packers to five NFL championships and victories in the first two Super Bowls.

Thomas John Campbell is an American academic, educator, and politician. He is a Professor of Law at the Dale E. Fowler School of Law, and a Professor of Economics at the George Argyros School of Business and Economics, at Chapman University, in Orange, California.

Max Abramovitz was an American architect. He was best known for his work with the New York City firm Harrison & Abramovitz.

Arthur Joseph Goldberg was an American statesman and jurist who served as the 9th U.S. Secretary of Labor, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the 6th United States Ambassador to the United Nations.