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

Gene Howard Golub, Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, was one of the preeminent numerical analysts of his generation.

Sy-David Friedman is an American and Austrian mathematician and a (retired) professor of mathematics at the University of Vienna and the former director of the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. His main research interest lies in mathematical logic, in particular in set theory and recursion theory.

Peter M. Holt is an American businessman. He is the former CEO of HoltCat, the largest Caterpillar dealership in the United States and former chairman, CEO, and owner of Spurs Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, the USL's San Antonio FC, the AHL's San Antonio Rampage, and the NBA Development League's Austin Spurs.

Thomas Eugene Kurtz is a retired Dartmouth professor of mathematics and computer scientist, who along with his colleague John G. Kemeny set in motion the then revolutionary concept of making computers as freely available to college students as library books were, by implementing the concept of time-sharing at Dartmouth College. In his mission to allow non-expert users to interact with the computer, he co-developed the BASIC programming language and the Dartmouth Time Sharing System during 1963 to 1964.

Arthur L. Horwich is an American biologist and Sterling Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine. Horwich has also been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1990. His research into protein folding uncovered the action of chaperonins, protein complexes that assist the folding of other proteins. Horwich first published this work in 1989.

George Gaylord Simpson was a US paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the modern synthesis, contributing Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944), The Meaning of Evolution (1949) and The Major Features of Evolution (1953). He was an expert on extinct mammals and their intercontinental migrations. He anticipated such concepts as punctuated equilibrium and dispelled the myth that the evolution of the horse was a linear process culminating in the modern Equus caballus. He coined the word hypodigm in 1940, and published extensively on the taxonomy of fossil and extant mammals. Simpson was influentially, and incorrectly, opposed to Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift.

John Edward Porter is an American former politician who served a U.S. Representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district for 21 years. During his tenure, Porter served on the United States House Committee on Appropriations and as chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. Under his subcommittee’s jurisdiction were all the health programs and agencies, including National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), except U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and all of the education programs and agencies of the federal government. During his chairmanship he led efforts resulting in doubling funding for the NIH.

Tim Johnson is an American film director, film producer, and television director. Johnson is best known for directing the DreamWorks Animation films Antz, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Over the Hedge, and Home.

John Erman is an American television and film director, actor and producer.

John Hammond is an American basketball executive who is the general manager of the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Previously, Hammond had been the general manager of the Milwaukee Bucks, as well as the assistant general manager with the Detroit Pistons, where he had also worked as an assistant coach. He had also been an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, and Houston Baptist University. He is a graduate of Greenville College. He has a daughter named Lauryn Hammond, who attended Marquette University. He is known as the General Manager who drafted NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo.