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HOW DO WE RANK? Did you think we were performing well in mathematics at Minnesota? Well, others agree. Thomson ISI publishes a list of 'highly cited researchers' in mathematics available at the internet site ISIHighlyCited.com. Worldwide, out of the top 234 mathematicians listed, 5 of them are currently in our department. They are Professors Douglas Arnold, Wei-Ming Ni, Peter Olver, George Sell and James Serrin. This surely puts us in a strong position compared to other departments. Thomson ISI also has a number of different categories into which they break down the research output of federally funded universities. One of these categories is 'most prolific' - which measures the total number of papers produced by mathematics departments in the years 1998 - 2002. The top five in this 'most prolific' category, along with the number of papers contributed by each department to a certain group of journals is: 1. University of California, Berkeley 664 2. University of Michigan 576 3. Rutgers University 559 4. University of Wisconsin, Madison 546 5. University of Minnesota 506 (info available from http://www.in-cites.com/research/2003/december_22_2003-1.html). It was comforting to read the more general ranking of 'Best Places to Work in Academia' compiled by 'The Scientist'. Their top 5 American institutions are: 1. Fox Chase Cancer Center 2. Purdue 3. Yale 4. University of California at San Francisco 5. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities In a similar vein the Massachusetts consulting firm Collegia Inc. produces a College Destination Index. They evaluate large, mid-size and small cities on various 'lifestyle' aspects. In the 'Large City' category the top 5 are: 1. Boston-Cambridge Mass. 2. Washington 3. San Francisco Bay Area 4. Minneapolis - St. Paul 5. New York - Long Island - Northern New Jersey |