ODU MOVING CLOSER TO BECOMING A TOP 100 PUBLIC RESEARCH INSTITUTION
Ten Old Dominion University academic programs are among the nation's Top 100 in research and development (R&D) expenditure rankings reported this month by the National Science Foundation.
The university also moved closer to its goal of becoming a Top 100 public research institution, said Mohammad A. Karim, ODU vice president for research. NSF's latest figures, which are from 2005, place ODU at 118 in total R&D expenditures among public institutions. Last year, NSF's ranking had ODU 131st in the public-institution category.
In a category new for this year, ODU finished 71st in total R&D expenditures among universities that have no schools of medicine.
Among all institutions, private as well as public, ODU moved from 181st in last year's report to 166th this year in total R&D expenditures. Karim noted that ODU is now ahead of George Mason University, which is 173rd in this summary category. Five Virginia universities are ahead of ODU in the category: Virginia Tech (56th), University of Virginia (69th), Virginia Commonwealth University (99th) and College of William and Mary (162nd).
ODU's high-ranking programs are aeronautical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, mathematics, computer science, education, business administration-management, humanities, and visual and performing arts.
The university is ranked 70th in the nation for overall engineering R&D expenditures, up four positions from the last report.
"I am very proud of the fine work done by the faculty," said Roseann Runte, ODU president. "Dr. Karim's leadership has been remarkable, and these results demonstrate what a strong team of dedicated faculty can do. Even more impressive are their fine contributions to the advancement of knowledge and to economic development for our nation."
"In recent years, ODU has been making continual investments in building up its research infrastructure," said Karim. "These efforts have resulted in creation of
attractive research start-up packages for incoming faculty members, seed funding for multidisciplinary and multi-investigator projects and programs,
hiring of both researchers and grant-writers, and establishment of Innovation Research Park @ ODU."
The research park's first building, which will open this spring, will have 100,000 square feet of office and laboratory space for ODU researchers and private-sector companies involved in technology and the sciences.
Some ODU rankings from the latest NSF report:
� Aeronautical engineering:18th in total expenditures, as well as in federal expenditures
� Electrical engineering: 25th in total expenditures, 22nd in federal expenditures
� Civil engineering: 86th in total expenditures, 88th in federal expenditures
� Mechanical engineering: 87th in total expenditures, 82nd in federal expenditures
� Mathematics: 76th in total expenditures
� Computer science: 97th in total expenditures
� ODU overall: 50th in total expenditures, non-science/engineering
� Visual and performing arts: 18th in total expenditures in non-science/engineering
� Business administration-management: 23rd in total expenditures in non-science/engineering
� Humanities: 33rd in total expenditures in non-science/engineering
� Education: 39th in total expenditures in non-science/engineering
� ODU overall: 50th in NASA R&D expenditures
� ODU overall: 70th in Department of Defense R&D expenditures