NBC News (Nov. 4) -- The big money behind the elections Tuesday comes from a host of familiar billionaires. But there's one name on the top 10 list most people won't recognize: Illinois alumnus and co-head of Renaissance Technologies Robert Mercer. He got a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he helped a professor, Dan Slotnick, on the Illiac IV, then the world's fastest computer.