With historical strengths in agriculture, engineering, and textiles, it is perhaps most widely recognized as one of the three
anchors of North Carolina's Research Triangle, together with
Duke University and the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. With more than 29,000 students, it is also the largest university in the University of North Carolina System
and in the state of North Carolina. The NCSU Library, ranked 32nd out of 113 North American research libraries, includes
3,210,612 print volumes and 51,209 print and electronic serial subscriptions.Notable current faculty include aquatic botanist JoAnn Burkholder, chemist Mike Whangbo, linguist Walt Wolfram, computer engineer Donald Bitzer,
entomologist George Kennedy, and science-fiction author John Kessel.