Southeastern United States - Higher Education

Higher Education

The Southeastern United States is home to a number of prominent universities, with several large research universities of longstanding significance (such as University of Georgia, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Duke University, Elon University, Wake Forest University, University of Maryland, Clemson University, University of South Carolina, University of Florida, University of Central Florida, Florida State University, University of Miami, University of Virginia, University of Kentucky, Vanderbilt University, University of Tennessee, Auburn University, University of Alabama, Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi, University of South Florida, and University of Southern Mississippi) exerting an influence beyond the region.

Research Triangle Park, in the Raleigh-Durham urban area of North Carolina, has emerged (over a nearly 50-year existence) as a major hub of technology, governmental and biotechnological research and development, as has the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond. The Cummings Research Park in the Huntsville, Alabama, area is the second largest research complex in the nation. It is one of the biggest areas of aerospace engineering and missile defense technology. Huntsville is also home to Redstone Arsenal, United States Army Missile Command, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and many other key government, military, and aerospace agencies. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida is the largest laboratory in the world devoted to the study of magnetism. The University of South Carolina is currently constructing a research campus in downtown Columbia, and the University is the nation’s only National Science Foundation-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells.

Duke University, Emory University, the University of Florida, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tulane, Vanderbilt University, the University of Maryland at College Park, and the University of Virginia are the only educational institutions in the Southeastern United States that are members of the Association of American Universities (AAU). The AAU is an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education.