For the second year in a row, ASU has claimed the No. 2 spot on a list of the universities earning the most federal funding for chemical-engineering research.
The National Science Foundation’s annual rankings, released earlier this month, show that for fiscal year 2006 ASU’s chemical-engineering research was awarded $8.9 million in federal funding, second only to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
When other sources — including state and private funding sources — are accounted for, the University attracted about $12.7 million, claiming the sixth spot on the foundation’s ranking of overall funding for chemical-engineering research.
Jean M. Andino, associate chair for graduate affairs in ASU’s department of chemical engineering, said that the ranking demonstrates the high quality work that ASU’s chemical engineering department is doing.
“The ranking is of great benefit to the department. Research funding is decided upon through a very rigorous peer review,” she said. “The fact that peers around the nation have reviewed the research and consider it worthy of funding says a great deal about what others think about the quality of the program.”
Andino said that ASU’s success in chemical engineering is a direct result of the innovative students and faculty that create an environment conducive to creativity and education.
“Chemical engineering is poised to make an even greater impact in the future,” Andino said. “Faculty are constantly looking for collaborations across campus to further engage in use-inspired research and provide access to make a profound impact.”
Andino said that the funding review process is incredibly competitive and that ASU’s innovative and creative research is what has earned the University much of its money.
“Faculty write grants, submit them to an agency, and then the agency sends the proposals out for review to panels of assembled experts,” Andino said.
Andino credits the chemical engineering department’s success to work ethic and creativity.
“Chemical engineering is successful because of a lot of hard work and good ideas that are carefully crafted and submitted,” she said.
Ronda Britt, project officer of the Research and Development Statistics Program at the National Science Foundation, said that the ranking system is a survey of about 700 universities throughout the country and serves as a fairly accurate barometer of a university’s success in different fields.
“To get the data for the ranking, the NSF surveys different research-performing institutions,” Britt said. “To qualify as a research-performing institution, each university must have spent at least $150,000 on research.
ASU’s total research expenditures from fiscal year 2006 were close to $203 million, and estimates for the most recent fiscal year, 2008, are said to be upward of $238 million.
Britt said that the ranking system highlights where the federal government is investing its money based on innovation and past success.
“Most universities like the ranking system,” she said. “We typically have over a 95 percent response rate to the survey, and because they are all competing with each other, the universities tend to keep each other honest in how they report expenditures.”
Britt said that the rankings for the most recent fiscal year, 2007, are complete but not yet accessible to the public.
Reach the reporter at jaking5@asu.edu.
