Graduate Studies
Outstanding scholarly and professional achievement: These are the goals of graduate study at the University. Admission is selective, the environment intimate and challenging. Here, promising candidates work closely with faculty to develop in-depth knowledge of their chosen fields as they establish themselves as independent, innovative scholars.
Over 400 Rochester graduates hold faculty positions in schools and programs ranked among the top 25 in the nation.
Included are representatives of almost all of the University's doctoral programs. A substantial number of graduates have appointments at each of several Ivy League schools (e.g. Harvard, Pennsylvania, and Columbia), other prestigious private universities (e.g. Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Northwestern), and the best public institutions (e.g. UCLA, Michigan, and UC-San Diego).
A list of Rochester alumni on the faculties of these highly ranked schools follows. They are grouped by the institutions at which they have appointments. The list reflects up-to-date information as of the summer of 2007.
Browse through the list and find Rochester Ph.D.s by their discipline groupings.
* Schools and programs were included if they were among the top 25 as ranked by US News & World Report; if they were among the top 25 doctoral programs in a discipline as ranked by the National Research Council; if they were among the top 25 national universities in average National Research Council faculty quality rating (reported in the May/June 1996 issue of Change); or if they were among the top 25 universities in terms of the number of disciplines highly ranked.
Leaders in Research and Teaching
Math professor Steve Gonek researches the field of analytic number theory, particularly multiplicative number theory and the distribution of prime numbers
The University of Rochester offers graduate students the chance to pursue research at the highest level in an environment scaled to the individual.
Studying at one of the nation's leading universities, graduate students at Rochester work closely with faculty who are at the forefront of their fields, and have exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study that few universities can match.
The combination of research excellence and personal scale is reflected in the book, The Rise of American Research Universities, (Johns Hopkins University Press: 1997), which ranks Rochester as 12th in research productivity among private universities nationwide when institutional size is taken into account.
People across the country—in academe, but also in the arts, the professions, government, and business—know the University and the strengths of those who study and teach here.
The list of alumni with Rochester graduate degrees includes three Nobel laureates—Arthur Kornberg, M.D. '41, Vincent du Vigneaud, Ph.D. '27, and Mastoshi Koshiba, Ph.D. '55—and three Pulitzer Prize-winners—George Walker, D.M.A. '56; Galway Kinnell, M.A. '49; and Dominick Argento, D.M.A. '58.
Scores of prominent individuals—for example, D. Allan Bromley, Ph.D. '52, originator of the "Emperor" accelerator concept and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the first Bush administration; Ernest D. Courant, Ph.D. '43, emeritus distinguished scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory; Renée Fleming, M.M. '83, Grammy Award -winning soprano; Bala Manian, M.S. '69, inventor of many of the technologies that create motion picture special effects; John Rowe M.D. '70, CEO of Aetna Insurance; Rick Rashid, Ph.D. '80, senior vice president for research at Microsoft; and Myles Brand, Ph.D. '67, president of the NCAA—testify to the broad impact the University has had through the accomplishments of its graduate alumni.
Such outstanding graduates learn from distinguished teachers. Rochester's faculty includes 44 fellows of the American Physical Society, 17 fellows of the Optical Society of America, 14 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 13 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and eight fellows of the National Academy of Sciences. Several professors have been officers of the leading academic societies in their fields.
Rochester faculty have received a total of 27 John S. Guggenheim Fellowships in the past 18 years. In the past 10 years they have won six National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellowships, and 21 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowships.
The faculty includes a recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Other professors include two recipients of the most prestigious honor of the Optical Society of America, the Frederic Ives Medal; a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association, an honor that goes only to two or three economists each year; and a recipient of the American Physical Society's Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics. The American Political Science Association annually awards a prize named in honor of Rochester's Richard F. Fenno, Jr., professor of political science.
But these distinctions are only part of the story. The University's libraries, research facilities, departments, and schools each offer unique opportunities for intellectual, scientific, and artistic growth. For example, the Sibley Music Library, in expansive quarters at the Eastman School of Music, is one of the major music research libraries in the world. The Laboratory for Laser Energetics operates the most powerful ultraviolet laser in the world. The Institute of Optics is widely considered the nation's premier optics school and leads the country in basic optical research.
Evidence of the quality of Rochester's programs can be found in a variety of sources. For example, the National Research Council's rankings of doctoral programs lists the Department of Political Science's training as sixth most effective in the country and the Department of Economics' as tenth. The 2003 edition of U.S. News & World Report's guidebook, America's Best Graduate Schools, rates Rochester's music program in the Eastman School as first in the nation. The graduate program in atomic and molecular physics is listed as seventh best. The School of Medicine is ranked 28th overall and 7th in the area of primary care. The American Association of Medical Colleges reports that four of the school's basic science programs (biochemistry, biostatistics, oral biology, and environmental medicine) rank among the top 15 in their fields in research grants from the National Institutes of Health. In 2003, the Financial Times of London rated the Simon School as third best for both its finance and economics programs and 38nd overall in North America and Europe combined.