April 29, 2009
AMES, Iowa — Iowa State University's graduate program in agricultural and biological engineering was ranked third in the nation in the latest rankings by U.S. News and World Report.
Ramesh Kanwar, chair of the agricultural and biosystems engineering department, is proud of the highest rated graduate program at Iowa State. He said the program moved up to third place from ninth place in the magazine's previous ranking, when the discipline was categorized as agricultural engineering.
"Beginning this year, our discipline has been called "˜biological and agricultural engineering' by U.S. News and World Report because most of the agricultural engineering departments in the country have begun to offer degrees in "˜biological/biosystems engineering,' in addition to agricultural engineering, to serve the changing needs of industry working with the bioeconomy," he said.
The agricultural and biosystems engineering department is co-administered by the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Engineering.
"It is really an honor and a demonstration of the department's faculty, staff and students' excellence that the agricultural and biosystems engineering program at Iowa State is nationally ranked," Kanwar said.
U.S. News and World Report surveyed engineering school deans, deans of graduate studies at engineering schools and corporate recruiters about the previously ranked programs to help develop the rankings. The magazine also used data submitted by the schools, such as ratio of full-time master's and doctoral students to tenured and tenure-track faculty, the number of doctorate degrees earned per year, externally funded research expenditure per faculty member, mean Graduate Record Examination scores of accepted graduate students and percent of faculty in National Academy of Engineering.