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A 2007 index of scholarly productivity ranks Princeton as number one in civil engineering, environmental engineering, and computer engineering. The survey ranks Princeton as second in aerospace engineering and computational sciences. And in mechanical engineering and operations research? Princeton ranks in the top ten.

The Chronicle of Higher Education explains the survey’s methodology in this article, where you can find rankings of all 375 Ph.D.-granting universities included in the study.

Princeton Engineering faculty are known for being not just world-class scholars but also world-class teachers.

A recent New York Times article on graduate programs points out that Princeton University guarantees its doctoral students hefty financial support — both in free tuition and in stipends — so that they have the freedom to focus on research and earn their Ph.D.s in a timely way. Princeton, according to the Times, “has developed a culture where professors keep after students. Students talk of frequent meetings with advisers, not a semiannual review.”

To learn more about how William Russel, dean of the graduate school and professor of chemical engineering, keeps in close contact with his graduate students, read the full Times article here.

By the way, Russel’s fellow chemical engineering professor Pablo Debenedetti — also legendary for his teaching — has some intriguing new research coming out on, broadly speaking, the role that water plays in causing proteins to unfold under pressure, and at both low and high temperatures. For a preview, dive into this Water in Biology blog post.

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A new report from the Millennium Project at the University of Michigan offers a bold road map for the future of engineering. Among the report’s far-reaching recommendations: “the academic discipline of engineering (or, perhaps, more broadly, technology) should be included in the liberal arts canon undergirding a 21st-century undergraduate education for all students.”

This is a sentiment that Princeton has long embraced — and put into practice. When H. Vincent Poor, dean of Princeton’s School of Engineering, was invited in September to speak at the launch of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, he addressed the role of engineering in the liberal arts. You can listen to a podcast of Poor’s address here. Poor, the recipient of a National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars, for several years taught “The Wireless Revolution” — one of Princeton’s most popular undergraduate classes and heralded as a model for teaching technology in the context of political, economic and social dimensions.

By the way, Princeton’s quantum cowboy Marlan Scully has been invited to be Harvard’s Morris Loeb Lecturer in Physics in the spring. He will deliver three lectures and is expected to talk about his efforts to unite all fields of science under the umbrella of quantum physics as well as his research into applications for quantum physics, including the use of lasers to detect anthrax. The Loeb Lectureship has a long and distinguished tradition. Past lecturers include Enrico Fermi, Murray Gell-Mann, Stephen Hawking, Edwin Land, and Edward Witten.

Cover reprint of “Engineering for a Changing World,” courtesy University of Michigan

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