|
|
-
Top program
A new ranking has the Department of Chemistry in the top five in
graduate analytical chemistry programs.
-
The latest U.S. News & World Report is out with its rankings
of the top graduate programs in the country.
And as usual Iowa State's Department of Chemistry is included.
But what is a little unusual is a significant jump in the rankings that
the department realized.
Iowa State is ranked fifth in analytical chemistry among graduate programs
nationwide. This is a jump from the department's previous ranking by the
magazine of number ten in the nation.
Patricia Thiel, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry, says
her academic department's outstanding faculty and willingness to reinvent
itself are major reasons why the department is continually ranked high.
"There are always going to be new areas in chemistry that scientists
are attracted to," she said. "One of the great things about
this department is the willingness of the faculty to change with the times."
* There are numerous other indications of the Department of Chemistry's
present standing including:
* According to the National Research Council (NRC), the department is
the top ranked department on campus and among the top 15 percent of Ph.D.
granting departments nationwide.
* The department receives more than $10 million a year in external funding.
* Faculty in the department are members or fellows of the National Academy
of Sciences, the American Physical Society, the American Vacuum Society
and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
* Departmental faculty are historic winners of prestigious awards from
the American Chemical Society (ACS) including 2002 awards in chromatography
(Edward Yeung, Distinguished Professor) and theoretical chemistry (Klaus
Ruedenberg, professor emeritus).
* Recognitions owned by the faculty include Sloan Fellowships, Beckman
Young Investigator Awards, the Kipping Award, Presidential Young Investigator
and NSF Awards.
* Valerie Sheares, assistant professor, has been selected as one of the
12 American women judged to be rising stars in the field of chemistry
by C&E News.
* Yeung has won an astonishing four R&D 100 Awards including one last
fall. Fellow faculty members Jacob Petrich (2000) and Gerald Small (1998)
won the same award.
* Almost 20 percent ( nine) of the Distinguished Professors at Iowa State
hold faculty appointments in the Department of Chemistry, more than any
other department on campus.
*Of the 32 tenured or tenure-track faculty members in the department,
12 are either Distinguished Professors or University Professors.
* The department teaches the third most student credit hours (SCHs) on
campus. Last fall semester, a total of 15,613 SCHs were taught by faculty
in the Department of Chemistry.
"Science and research are the center of every Ph.D. earned in the
department," Thiel said. "Collaborative research is also common
throughout our department. We function pretty well as a department; we're
not a dysfunctional group."
Around LAS
April 29 to May 11, 2002
|
|
