UNM ranks fifth as a high-impact university in materials science, according to the Institute for Scientific Information, which used an index to measure the number of times a paper from the University was cited by other researchers.
UNM was fifth out of the top 100 federally funded institutions with 131 materials science papers and 5.18 citations from 1999 to 2000. The University of Southern California ranked first with 170 papers and 8.5 citations during the same period.
Using the same method, the UNM School of Engineering had a high-impact ranking of 16th.
Professors Abhaya Datye, director for the Center for Micro-Engineering Materials, and Jeff Brinker, the Center's co-director, said they were surprised by the fifth place ranking, noting the lack of a department of materials science. Brinker, a professor of chemical and nuclear engineering and chemistry at UNM and a researcher at Sandia National Labs, won the Collegiate Inventors Competition earlier this semester along with doctoral student Dhaval Doshi for their patented work on optically-adjustable nanostructures. The year before, professor Ravinder K. Jain and student Balaji Srinivasan won the competition for their invention in the field of fiber lasers.
Brinker said the materials science faculty is probably most influential in establishing the kind of rankings in U.S. News and World Report magazine.
"So, without some of our own graduates out there, we have few obvious champions," he said. "From the standpoint of funding, I think we are quite competitive."
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He added that UNM's collaboration with Sandia National Labs and Los Alamos National Laboratories were vital.
Datye, also a professor of chemical and nuclear engineering, called UNM's efforts in materials science broad-based, meaning that the work of just one or two researchers would not get UNM such a high ranking.
"It means that collectively, all the materials research going on at UNM is being recognized by our peers," he said. "Ultimately, it is the faculty and graduate students and post-docs who get the credit for this ranking since they have published quality papers in this area."
Datye, who has been the Center's director since 1994, said the ranking should be helpful for increasing funding and attracting top students.
School of Engineering Dean Joseph Cecchi said he was pleased with the Materials Science and School of Engineering rankings.
"I certainly was aware that we were doing well in materials science and engineering based upon our extensive research activities and the fact that we have many faculty who are well-known and respected both nationally and internationally," said Cecchi, a professor of chemical and nuclear engineering.
He added that Brinker will be organizing a UNM-wide academic program at the master's and doctorate levels in materials science and engineering that focuses on small-scale technologies such as nanomaterials, microsystems, microelectronics, optics and photonics.
Cecchi said the School of Engineering's 16th place impact ranking put UNM in very good company. He mentioned Yale University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Cornell University and Northwestern University as some schools that were ahead of UNM.
