FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. --- For the first time, the University of Arkansas has broken into the "top 100" U.S. universities in research and education funding provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

For fiscal year 2001, which ended Sept. 30, the University received $8,584,000 in NSF funds, ranking 92nd. Of that sum, $4,917,000 million was for research support while $3,667,000 was for education and human resources programs.

The latter sum ranked the University of Arkansas 28th nationally in FY 2001 funding for education and human resources programs.

In fiscal year 2000, the University ranked 109th with a total of $5.2 million for both research and education and human resources programs.

"Breaking into the top 100 is a significant achievement for the University and our faculty as we realize our potential for becoming a world-class research institution, but it is only the beginning," said University of Arkansas Chancellor John A. White.

"NSF support is highly competitive, based on an intensive peer review system, and is recognition of the high quality of research and education that University of Arkansas faculty and students are achieving," White added. "The research support they attract will bring benefits not only to the University community, but also to the state as we strengthen the knowledge and technology base needed for the people of Arkansas to compete economically in the new century."

The rapid growth in NSF funding augurs well for the University to achieve its goal of $100 million in external research funding by 2010, White said. Last year, the University attracted $59.3 million in external research grants, a 43 percent increase over the $41.5 million received in 1999.

Research with NSF funding in FY 2001 included work done in four different centers: the Materials Manufacturing Research Laboratories, the Center for Sensing Technology and Research, the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, and the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Semiconductor Physics in Nanostructures.

NSF-funded education and human resource programs on campus include the Research Experience for Undergraduates, where undergraduate students from other institutions visit the campus to work with researchers in the summer; and the microelectronics-photonics graduate program, a multi-disciplinary approach to training graduate students in the latest technologies in physics and engineering.

The University of Arkansas had approximately 95 active research grants with NSF in 2001. Researchers in the College of Education and Health Professions, the Sam M. Walton College of Business, the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences had NSF funding in fiscal year 2001. Within Fulbright College, the grants ranged from psychology to math.

"Our progress in recent years as been extraordinary," White said. "Nevertheless, it is critical that we double and even triple our present NSF funding level over the next three years. By getting our NSF funding into the $20 million to $25 million range, the University of Arkansas could be in the top 50 universities in America in this key measure of academic quality."

White also praised the leadership of University administrators for communicating the importance of research and encouraging faculty to pursue NSF funding: Provost Bob Smith, the University’s chief academic officer; Collis Geren, vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate School; Randall Woods, dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences; Otto Loewer, dean of the College of Engineering; Reed Greenwood, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions; Doyle Williams, dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business; and Greg Weidemann, dean of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

Greg Salamo, University Professor of Physics, said the University’s research programs are making rapid progress because of a dynamic combination of "people, ideas and tools." Salamo is director of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Semiconductor Physics in Nanostructures, established in 2000 with a $4.5 million five-year grant from the NSF - the largest NSF grant the University has received to date.

"It’s always people, from faculty to students to administrators, who provide the energy and ideas to make creative advances possible," Salamo said. "The tools, on the other hand, have been made possible because of the Governor’s and General Assembly’s matching funds programs, which have paid off big-time.

"Such tools, coupled with a changing reward structure, are encouraging more faculty to pursue nationally competitive research and education," he added. "The emphasis on building the new Arkansas Research and Technology Park and on generating more Small Business and Industry Research proposals, not to mention the new research facilities that are being planned for our campus, are greatly encouraging as well."

Created by federal legislation in 1950, the National Science Foundation is an independent U.S. government agency responsible for promoting science and engineering through programs that invest funds in almost 20,000 research and education projects. For fiscal year 2003, the NSF, under the Bush budget, is projected to receive $5.035 billion, a five percent increase over the current year.

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