Education

MSU Chemistry Department moves up in research dollars

Posted: Dec 14, 2012 10:54 AM by MSU News Service

The MSU News Service says that students and faculty members in Montana State University's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry recently learned that the department has now surpassed Yale, Princeton and other top U.S. schools in terms of federal support for chemical research and development.
This ranks the department 28th in the nation, up from last year's ranking of 42. When all sources of funding are taken into consideration, MSU is 39th in the nation, up from 64th a year ago.
According to the News Service, MSU officials said the department would have ranked even better if the data were adjusted per capita. Those rankings were based on the latest information from the National Science Foundation and published this fall in "Chemical and Engineering News."
"This remarkable achievement reflects first and foremost on the great quality and energy of the department's faculty, whose scholarly work to create knowledge has earned great support in the scientific community," said former department head David Singel.
"It also reflects very positively on the foresight and stewardship of administrators who made major investments in the department, and who collaborated with it to seize opportunities to bring talent and treasure to MSU," Singel said. "These investments have provided great returns for the MSU community. We all enjoy, for example, the advantages that a strong academic profile brings in recruiting students.
"Moreover, this achievement supports opportunities for students to collaborate with renowned faculty in research and service projects, and thus helps to advance the MSU mission of integrating learning, discovery and engagement," Singel added.
Current department head and chemistry professor Mary Cloninger said, "This is a remarkable achievement, especially when one compares the size of the faculty in our department with the faculty makeup of other schools in the top 50."
MSU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has 18 full-time tenure-track faculty members, compared to 40 for other schools near MSU in the rankings. But Cloninger said those 18 faculty members are extremely active in research. They are also extremely dedicated and care deeply about teaching, research and service. Not only are they highly committed to their individual research programs, but they are devoted to working collaboratively.
MSU's department also houses the Center for Bio-Inspired NanoMaterials headed by Trevor Douglas, recently named a Montana University Systems Regents Professor; the Thermal Biology Institute led by John Peters; and the CoBRE Center for the Analysis of Cellular Mechanisms and Systems Biology directed by Edward Dratz, Cloninger said.
The News Service reports that MSU had a record $112.3 million in research expenditures for Fiscal Year 2012, which ended June 30. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was the year's top research department, with research expenditures totaling $10.6 million.

Photo courtesy: Montana State University

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