The University of Madras (also known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an act of the Legislative Council of India under the British government.It is a collegiate research university and has six campuses in the city: Chepauk, Marina, Guindy, Taramani, Maduravoyal and Chetpet. It offers more than 230 courses under 87 academic departments of post-graduate teaching and research grouped under 18 schools, covering diverse areas such as sciences, social sciences, humanities, management and medicine along with 121 affiliated colleges and 53 approved research institutions. The university houses national centres for advanced research in nanotechnology, photonics and neurotoxicity. In addition, it has three Centres of Advanced Study in biophysics, botany and the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics.The University of Madras is the alma mater of five presidents of India, including A. P. J. Abdul Kalam; two Indian physics Nobel laureates, CV Raman and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar; several notable mathematicians including Srinivasa Ramanujan; Abel Prize winner S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan; and Turing Award winner Raj Reddy among others.The National Assessment and Accreditation Council has conferred 'five star' accreditation to the university in the first cycle, and subsequently with its highest A++ grade. The University of Madras has been given the status of 'university with potential for excellence (UPE)' by the University Grants Commission. Madras University is also recognized among the 18 universities in India having the 'Centre with Potential for Excellence in Particular Area (CPEPA)' with a focus on drug development and climate change. Source: Wikipedia (en)