Contact: Phil Hearn
Mississippi State continues to climb the ranks of the nation's top research universities.
According to statistics newly released by the National Science Foundation, the university rose from 84th to 82nd among American universities, both public and private, in total research and development expenditures for fiscal year 2001. MSU also is up from 34th to 32nd in engineering research expenditures and remains at No. 5 for agricultural sciences research.
Among public universities, MSU retains its 57th ranking on the basis of FY 2001 expenditures of $146.9 million, up from $132.5 million during the previous year. Those figures are among the wealth of data included in the NSF publication "Academic Research and Development Expenditures: Fiscal Year 2001."
The full report is available at http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf03316/htmstart.htm.
Mississippi State's R&D expenditures accounted for 63 percent of the total for doctorate-granting institutions in Mississippi. NSF tracks research in engineering and the sciences, including mathematics and computer science, psychology, and social sciences.
In addition to the NSF, the largest portion of MSU research funds--more than $65 million--came from such federal agencies as the departments of Defense, Agriculture, Energy, and the National Institutes of Health. Other support is derived from industry, state and local governments, and institutional sources.
In the overall rankings of public and private universities, MSU this year moved ahead of Carnegie Mellon University and continued to lead institutions such as Arizona State, Florida State, Auburn, and Washington State.
In the rankings of engineering research expenditures, MSU leads the University of California-Davis and the University of Tennessee System, while ranking just behind Louisiana State, California Institute of Technology and University of California-Los Angeles.
In agricultural sciences research, MSU trails only UC-Davis, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina State.