The University of Florida (UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and traces its origins to 1853 and has operated continuously on its Gainesville campus since September 1906. The University of Florida is one of sixty-two elected member institutions of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the association of preeminent North American research universities, and the only AAU member university in Florida. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities ? Very high research activity".