Survey ranks OSU science among nation's finest

On today's critical questions of ecology, forestry, and the environment, residents of the Pacific Northwest don't have to look far to find some of the world's leading scientists and educators, a recent study suggests.

According to an analysis based on faculty publications in professional journals, OSU ranked 11th in the nation in the broad fields of ecology, evolution, and behavior--and even higher in some subdisciplines, including first nationally in forest ecology. The findings were presented in the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. OSU came in about level with two other prestigious western schools--Stanford and the University of Washington--and far ahead of some other institutions often cited for their academic quality, such as Yale and Princeton.

A key point in the analysis was that academic reputations are often based on outdated assumptions about educational quality and don't always reflect the true level of scholarly accomplishments when measured by more objective standards like published research.

"Surveys such as this help demonstrate what we've been saying for some time, which is that the people of Oregon don't have to look far to find top-tier performance and world-class educational excellence," says OSU president Paul Risser.