Fisheries program third in nation
As a result of its successful graduate program and scholarly faculty, the fisheries program at USU has been ranked third in the nation.
“We have a really strong department and outstanding group of faculty and students,” said Chris Luecke, department head and professor of watershed sciences.
The Academic Analytic’s Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index rankings were released earlier this year. The rankings, released annually, are based on the amount of research funding and awards an institution receives. They also focus on publications by faculty members.
Steven Shapiro, spokesperson for Academic Analytics, said the FSP Index rank more than 7,000 doctoral programs nationwide at 354 institutions. They review 1,200 books, one million journals and more than seven million citations and determine placements based on the number of times a particular institution is mentioned.
“The ranking is important for many reasons, but it sets the esteem of an institution,” Shapiro said. “Their research is innovative and exciting, and that is good from a consumer stand point. It’s also good for those looking for PhD programs. It is good to know your faculty is being productive. It is an acknowledgement of how much production they are generating.”
USU tied for third place with the University of Montana at Missoula. The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities was second, and in first place was the University of Washington.
Luecke said, “Our faculty members have been extremely productive at competing for research funding. This funding allows us to attract outstanding graduate students and enables us to work collaboratively with some of the best aquatic research groups in the world. Our faculty and students publish results of their research in top academic journals.”
Professor Phaedra Budy said USU’s fisheries program, which is in the department of watershed sciences, works mainly in the Intermountain West studying the systems in which fish live. They also study organisms that live in surrounding ecosystems.
Luecke said their extension program has also seen success.
“We have a good extension program that has been adopted as a new model for state and federal agencies,” Luecke said. “We take what we know in research and gather it in a more usable form for use in terms of state and federal agencies.”
He said agencies then take that research to the people and inform them of issues like water pollution.
The fisheries program at USU is different from others in that it has a greater focus on the recruitment and education of graduate students, Luecke said. There are currently around 40 undergraduate students and 60 graduate students.
-ariek@cc.usu.edu