UW Faculty Production Among Nation's Top 10 |  
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March 1, 2007 -- Two University of Wyoming departments are ranked in the top 10 nationally in faculty research productivity, according to rankings listed in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The College of Agriculture's Department of Animal Science was ranked seventh in the agricultural sciences category, and the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Zoology and Physiology was ranked eighth in the biological sciences category.
"The life sciences have been a priority for the University of Wyoming since at least the development of our first Academic Plan in 1997," says UW Vice President for Research and Economic Development Bill Gern. "This ranking is a validation of our commitment to excellence in this important scientific teaching and research cluster."
"This validates in a highly-respected, prestigious publication what I have always said about our people," says Professor Doug Hixon, head of the animal science department. "We have excellent, productive scientists on our faculty who are conducting high-quality research comparable to that of any land-grant institution in the country."
Professor Graham Mitchell, head of the Department of Zoology and Physiology, says the rankings recognize the faculty members' ability to publish consistently in their discipline's top journals.
"Our faculty's expertise and skill at identifying important biological problems underpins their productivity and clearly is also recognized by funding agencies," Mitchell says.
The 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index ranks 7,294 individual doctoral programs in 104 disciplines at 354 institutions. UW was among 166 schools ranked as large research universities, which include 15 or more Ph.D. programs. Academic Analytics, a company owned partially by the State University of New York at Stony Brook, developed the comprehensive ranking system.
The index rated a total of 177,816 faculty members nationwide. Each faculty member's productivity was measured on three factors: publications, which can include the number of books and journal articles published as well as citations of journal articles; federal-grant dollars awarded; and honors and awards.
For each discipline, a weight is assigned to each variable. For example, when books are included, their weight is five times that of journal articles. Awards considered more prestigious were given more weight than others.
The animal science department led the top 10 in the percentage of faculty (71 percent) receiving grants. The zoology and physiology department led the top 10 in the average amount of grants received ($454,000). Both departments were among the leaders in other weighed categories.
The complete rankings can be found on the Web at:
http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?bycat=true&primary=2&secondary=19.
Photo
Beef Test -- University of Wyoming animal science researchers Steve Paisley, left, and Jeff Ward use ultrasound technology to assess quality in beef in this 2006 photo at a UW livestock research facility. Paisley, UW's beef cattle extension specialist, uses ultrasound to predict the value of an animal before it goes to market. The UW departments of Animal Science and Zoology and Physiology are ranked in the top 10 nationally in faculty research productivity, according to rankings listed in the Chronicle of Higher Education. (UW Photo)
Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2007
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