University of Minnesota mathematics ranks fourth in the world

Contacts:

Rhonda Zurn, College of Science and Engineering, rzurn@umn.edu, (612) 626-7959

Preston Smith, University News Services, smith@umn.edu, (612) 625-0552

Rankings based on research citation impact

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (06/02/2011)—The University of Minnesota is ranked fourth overall among the world’s most influential research universities in the field of mathematics, according to a new ranking released today in the London-based Times Higher Education magazine. The University of Minnesota ranked fourth behind Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley.

In addition, the University of Minnesota ranked third in the world in the number of times mathematics research papers were cited. The three institutions with the highest number of citations are the University of California, Berkeley (14,070), Stanford University (12,548) and the University of Minnesota (11,375).

“These new rankings reconfirm the long-standing quality of research in the University of Minnesota School of Mathematics and the impact of our faculty’s research worldwide,” said Peter Olver, head of the School of Mathematics within the University’s College of Science and Engineering. “We are pleased to see our accomplishments recognized.”

The research for the rankings, carried out by Thomson Reuters exclusively for Times Higher Education, was based on citation impact of research papers published during the 10-year period from Jan. 1, 2001 to Feb. 28, 2011. About 20,000 institutions were included to obtain the final rankings.

The rankings list institutions by citation impact or citations per paper. The number of highly cited papers in the field for each institution is also listed, as well as the percentage of highly cited papers in terms of total output for each. Highly cited papers are defined as papers that rank in the top 1 percent by citations for their field and year of publication.

The nations represented by the institutions in the top 50 institutions are the United states (35 institutions), the United Kingdom (four), France (three), and Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Israel, Singapore and Switzerland (one each).

For a list of the full rankings and more information about the methodology used in determining the rankings, visit http://z.umn.edu/mathranking.