UCI Given Top Geoscience Rank

UC Irvine scientists are tops in the nation in geoscience research, according to a new report from a national institute in Philadelphia.

The Institute for Scientific Information ranked universities based on how frequently their work was cited by other researchers in the mid-1990s.

The institute found that research articles by UCI scientists were the most frequently cited in geosciences nationwide from 1993 to 1997. Geoscience encompasses scientific knowledge of the Earth, including its atmosphere, chemistry and geology.

Citations are important because they indicate cutting-edge scientific findings that lay the groundwork for advanced research, the institute’s staff said.

UCI Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone said the top ranking is even more significant given the fact that the Earth science program has only existed nine years.

“It is truly amazing and very gratifying that we have risen to the top and done it so quickly,” said Cicerone, who created the program when he arrived at the school in 1989.

UCI’s Earth science program, which has only eight full-time faculty members, also had the smallest number of research papers included in the survey. Following UCI in the ranking were Georgia Institute of Technology, University of New Hampshire, Columbia University and Harvard University.