NSF FIGURES DOCUMENT ODU PROGRESS IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
The latest research and development (R&D) expenditures data released by the National Science Foundation (NSF) show that Old Dominion University attained Top 100 rankings in 18 academic areas for fiscal year 2008.
Mohammad Karim, the ODU vice president for research, said the university's total expenditures placed it 112th for the year among public research institutions in the nation, up from 131st five years ago.
Among public research institutions without a medical school, ODU was in 61st place in 2008, up from 71st five years ago.
Within the category including all research institutions, ODU stood at 156th, up from 181st five years ago.
ODU's ranking among public universities places it for the second year in a row ahead of the College of William and Mary (123rd). Other state institutions that were ranked included Virginia Tech (29th), University of Virginia (48th), Virginia Commonwealth University (73rd), George Mason University (107th) and Norfolk State University (218th).
The Top 100 academic categories in total R&D expenditures at ODU are aerospace engineering (24th), business management (18th), chemistry (98th), computer science (86th), economics (75th), education (17th), electrical engineering (51st), engineering (69th), engineering-other, which includes engineering management and systems engineering (30th), environmental science (86th), humanities (33rd), mathematics (77th), non-science and non-engineering (30th), oceanography (37th), physics (95th), political science (79th), social science (82nd) and visual and performing arts (8th).
Karim noted that among those 18 programs, two are new to the Top 100 list: physics and chemistry. He added that ODU slipped for the year in NASA and agricultural funding, while it registered an increase in funding from the federal Department of Defense, Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NSF.
NIH funding awarded to ODU researchers showed the most relative growth, moving up 14 positions in one year and 88 positions in five years.