External Rankings of
the
Department of Physics & Astronomy,
Michigan State University
The Department of Physics & Astronomy at
Michigan State University is regarded as one of the top
Physics and Astronomy departments in the country.
The bases for these recent rankings include citation
impact studies and research funding compilations.
Citation Impact Study
The importance of research can be measured by the
number of times a publication that reports on these
results is cited by other authors in their
publications.
In the Nov./Dec. 1998 issue of Science Watch,
science departments were ranked based on citation impact.
The results on the top ten physics departments
were:
|
Rank
|
University
|
No. of
Papers
|
Relative
Impact (%)
|
|
1
|
Univ. Cal. Santa Barbara
|
2,526
|
176
|
|
2
|
University of Chicago
|
1,236
|
171
|
|
3
|
Harvard University
|
1,844
|
167
|
|
4
|
Caltech
|
3,588
|
162
|
|
5
|
Yale University
|
872
|
160
|
|
6
|
Rutgers University
|
1,438
|
157
|
|
7
|
Univ. of Pennsylvania
|
1,168
|
153
|
|
8
|
Stanford University
|
2,584
|
152
|
|
9
|
SUNY Stony Brook
|
1,385
|
148
|
|
10
|
Michigan State University
|
1,049
|
142
|
Source: http://www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/ncsi/sw/nov-dec98/sw_nov-dec98_page1.htm
The citation ranking of MSU's Department of Physics
and Astronomy has been rising steadily over the last
decade. In a previous compilation (Physics Today, October
1996, p. 15) the ranking of physics departments by number
of citations per publication for papers published during
1981-94 had been (in brackets behind names are ranking
and citations per publication):
Princeton Univ. (1, 20.7), Harvard Univ. (2, 20.4),
Tulane Univ. (3, 20.1), UC Santa Barbara (4, 19.3), Univ.
Chicago (5, 18.8), Brandeis Univ. (6, 18.5), UC Santa
Cruz (7, 18.4), CalTech (8, 18.0), Univ. Pennsylvania (9,
17.7), Rockefeller Univ. (10, 16.4), Stanford Univ. (11,
15.9), Yale Univ. (12, 15.8), SUNY Stony Brook (13,
14.4), MIT (14, 14.2), UC Berkeley (15, 13.8), Cornell
Univ. (16, 13.3), UC Riverside (17, 12.9), Michigan
State University (18, 12.8), Tufts Univ. (19, 12.8),
Univ. Illinois Urbana (20, 12.7).
Research&Development Expenditures in Physics
External funding for research and development is
usually awarded based on peer review. The programs which
are funded are those whom other researchers in the field
view as being of high quality and which propose exciting
new research. For Fiscal Year 1997, here is the
cumulative funding of the top U.S. Physics
departments:
|
Rank
|
Institution
|
Dollars
(millionss)
|
|
1
|
MIT
|
90.357
|
|
2
|
Johns Hopkins Univ.
|
71.693
|
|
3
|
Caltech
|
56.972
|
|
4
|
Univ. Cal. Berkeley
|
44.069
|
|
5
|
Cornell Univ.
|
34.248
|
|
6
|
Univ. of Md. College Park
|
28.617
|
|
7
|
Univ. Cal. Los Angles
|
22.921
|
|
8
|
Michigan State Univ.
|
22.882
|
|
9
|
Univ. of Arizona
|
20.525
|
|
10
|
Univ. Cal. San Diego
|
19.238
|
The universities ranked 11th to 25th are (in order):
Princeton Univ., Univ. Wisc. Madison, Univ. of
Pennsylvania, SUNY Stony Brook, Indiana University, Univ.
of Michigan, Univ. of Iowa, Florida State Univ., Univ.
Texas Austin, Rutgers Univ., Univ. Mass. Amherst, Univ.
Cal. Santa Barbara, Univ. Illinois Urbana, Univ. of
Colorado, Harvard Univ.
Other National Rankings
- The last ranking of the National Research Council
(1995) lists our Department of Physics and Astronomy
in the top quartile (32).
- The publication US News ranks the major Ph.D.
programs in all universities, and in their most recent
ranking our nuclear physics Ph.D. program was
ranked
number 2 in the country, behind only MIT.
- Nanotechnology citation rankings: MSU
Physics/Astronomy is number
6 in the World