Chinese Dominate Top Materials Scientists

Thomson Reuters released a ranking of the world's top 100 materials scientists, based on their research impact in the past 10 years. Altogether 15 Chinese made the top 100 list, while 6 of them occupying the top 6 slots.

1. Peidong Yang of University of California Berkeley
2. Yadong Yin of California Riverside
3. Michael H. Huang of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan
4. Younan Xia of Washington University St. Louis
5. Yugang Sun of Argonne National Laboratory
6. Yiying Wu of Ohio State University

Yang, Yin, Xia, Sun and Wu all graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, Anhui Province.

Twelve Chinese Universities Ranked in ESI Citations

Twelve Chinese Universities were ranked top according to the Essential Science Indicators (ESI).

181 Beijing University, Beijing

219 Qinghua University, Beijing

241 Zhejiang University, Hanghzou

291 University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei

302 Fudan University, Shanghai

307 Shanghai Communications University, Shanghai

325 Nanjing University, Nanjing

418 Sun Yet-sen University, Guangzhou

495 Shangdong University, Jinan

635 Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan

657 Lanzhou University, Lanzhou

774 Beijing Normal University, Beijing

The College Entrance Exam: 2011

College Admission of Shandong Province in 2011

school	total	high	low
Qinghua University	65	719	682
Beijing University	30	708	682
Fudan University	32	682	672
Shanghai Communication University	50	680	670
Zhejiang University	61	694	668
University of Science and Technology of China	40	676	667
Medical College of Shanghai Communication University	12	676	666
Chinese People's University	35	681	665
Nanjing University	65	680	664
Nankai University	60	671	658
Tongji University	108	673	651
Central University of Finance and Economics	62	674	646
University of International Business and Economics	34	670	646
Beijing University of Science and Technology	111	669	646
China University of Political Science and Law	33	665	645
Huazhong University of Science and Technology	128	664	642
Wuhan University	174	664	633
Shandong University	1774	667	629
Shanghai Foreign Languages University	13	652	627
Beijing Foreign Languages University	10	660	626
Huadong Normal University	36	650	626
Northwestern Polytechnical University	135	658	625
Sun Yet-sen University	130	664	623
China Oceanic University	858	659	619
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China	156	648	615
Zhongnan University	272	662	614
Nanjing University of Science and Technology	138	651	613
Hohai University	167	637	607
Northeastern University	180	637	605
Lanzhou University	120	631	605
Sichuan University	251	653	604
Shangdong University at Weihai	865	644	603
Southwestern University of Communications	284	638	603
Wuhan University of Science and Technology	380	630	603
Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology	276	658	601
harbin University of Engineering	256	643	600
Hebei University of Technology	47	626	600

What's interesting from the numbers:
• The top 2 universities swiped all high score students with no exception. In other words, the best student getting in any other school is not as good as the worst student who gets in either Beijing University or Qinghua University;
  
• The Fudan University, Shanghai University of Communications, Zhejing University, USTC, People's University and Nanjing University together formed the second tier group.
  
• There is little difference among tier three schools going forward;
  

The above observations echoed the choice made by students in entire mainland China, compiled from another study:

Qinghua University (1.25), Beijing University (1.61), Fudan University (3.36), Shanghai University of Communications (3.60), Zhejing University (5.40), People's University (6.24), USTC (6.28), Nanjing University (7.76)

Number represented ranking of lowest admission score by province.

Twenty years ago, 2nd tier universities and some 3rd tier universities could share a scoop of high score students with 1st tier universities. At the time, there was no clear divide between say, Beijing University and Nankai University. Today, privileged employers should look no further than the top 2 schools. With exclusive access to talents and exclusive resource backed by the national government, Beijing University and Qinghua University leave no air for any other school to breathe.

The bad and the Ugly: American Students Perform Consistently in Years

Secretary Duncan reported that American students have performed consistently in the past few years, but that is not necessarily a good news, given the reality of American students falling far far behind the norm of the world.

A new (as refreshing as last week) study by the National Center for Education found US students lack in math and science.

The ugly part of the story, however, is that while American students scores the same in 2003 and 2006, the rest of the world are making significant improvement.

"We've sort of lost our way," said Secretary Duncan.

Asian Corruption Index

1. Singapore 0.92
   
2. Hong Kong 1.74
   
3. Japan 2.63
   
4. Macao 3.75
   
5. South Korea 4.97
   
6. Taiwan 5.85
   
7. India 6.5
   
8. Thailand 6.76
   
9. Malaysia 7.0
   
10. China (Mainland) 7.3
    
11. Vietnam 7.4
    
12. Philippine 7.68
    
13. Indonesia 7.69
    
14. Cambodia 8.1
    

From: 澳门日报：《政經風險評估》發表貪污趨勢年報, base on a survey of more than 1,700 expatriate business executives by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC).

An Interesting Ranking of World Research Universities

Wuhan University published a "2007 Ranking of World Universities on Research Competitiveness"

Rank	Institution	Country	Score
1	Harvard	US	100.00
2	University of Texas	US	87.49
3	University of Washington (Seattle)	US	72.39
8	University of Tokyo	Japan	69.19
11	University of Toronto	Canada	66.90
17	University of Cambridge	UK	62.93
18	University of Minnesota	US	62.80
45	University of Helsinki	Finland	49.54
47	University of Munich	Germany	48.92
53	University of Utrecht	Netherlands	48.40
58	Hebrew University Jerusalem	Israel	47.04
59	University of Lund	Sweden	47.00
60	Eth Zurich	Switzerland	46.95
71	University of Sydney	Australia	44.94
73	University of Milan	Italy	44.89
75	Seoul National University	South Korea	44.65
77	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands	44.60
83	University of Sao Paulo	Brazil	44.16
84	University Paris 6	France	44.08
92	University of Vienna	Austria	43.23
97	Catholic University Leuven	Belgium	42.37
99	University of Copenhagen	Denmark	42.04
100	Louisiana State University	US	41.88
101	Hokkaido University	Japan	41.63
116	National University of Singapore	Singapore	40.48
119	Moscow MV Lomonosov State University	Russia	40.28
125	University of Barcelona	Spain	39.86
135	National Taiwan University	China-Taiwan	38.90
146	University of Oslo	Norway	37.87
149	University of Hong Kong	China-Hong Kong	37.73
161	University Nacl Autonoma Mexico	Mexico	36.61
192	Beijing University	China	34.57
196	Tsinghua University	China	34.31
198	Chinese University Hong Kong	China-Hong Kong	34.30
200	American College of Cardiology	US	34.29
201	Indian Institute of Technology	India	34.26
233	University of Auckland	New Zealand	32.06
248	Zhejiang University	China	31.03
252	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China	30.67
257	Fudan University	China	30.45
271	Nanjing University	China	29.87
273	University of Science & Technology of China	China	29.86
286	Hong Kong University of Science & Technology	China-Hong Kong	29.16
288	University of Buenos Aires	Argentina	29.05
295	National Cheng Kung University	China-Taiwan	28.56
300	University of Houston	US	28.38
301	University of Toulouse 3	France	28.38
307	University of Warsaw	Poland	27.80
308	University of Athens	Greece	27.68
320	City University of Hong Kong	China-Hong Kong	27.20
353	University of Cape Town	South Africa	25.78
357	University of Chile	Chile	25.61
367	Hong Kong Polytech University	China-Hong Kong	25.15
382	Jilin University	China	24.29
387	National Tsinghua University	China-Taiwan	24.16
393	National Chiao Tung University	China-Taiwan	23.82
398	University Ljubljana	Yugoslavia	23.60
400	University of Bremen	Germany	23.49
401	Shandong University	China	23.45
404	Tianjin University	China	23.29
408	Nankai University	China	23.23
413	Sun Yet-sen University	China	23.03
416	Wuhan University	China	23.00
422	Sichuan University	China	22.78
439	Huazhong University of Science & Technology	China	22.40
451	National University of Ireland University College Cork	Ireland	21.83
452	Lorand Eotvos University	Hungary	21.80
456	Hacettepe University	Turkey	21.63
467	University of Zagreb	Czech Republic	21.27
470	National Central University	China-Taiwan	21.13
483	Xi'an Jiao Tong University	China	20.63
486	Harbin Institute of Technology	China	20.50
494	Lanzhou University	China	20.42
498	University of Alaska	US	20.26
499	University Instelling Antwerp	Belgium	20.25
500	James Cook University North Queensland	Australia	20.24

The distinctive feature of this ranking, in many ways sharply different than man other existing rankings, is the fact that it weighs objective measurements （such as patents or cited papers) only. For example, there's no weight for peer reputation or amount of endowment. Consequently, this ranking does not award a school for its traditional heritage or cultural impact. It reflects more ongoing active research rather than a school's potential capacity.

Using publications as the dominant factor makes this ranking favors schools that are strong in humanities and natural sciences, where people tends to publish more. This is not surprising given that the sponsoring agency, Wuhan University, belongs to this category.

LSU's Computing Program Ranked 38th in the Nation

A study (1) published in the June 2007 issue of the ACM communication ranked LSU's computing graduate program the 38th in the nation, echoed a 1996 study (2) which placed LSU the 40th using different ranking methods.

• 1 MIT
  
• 2 U of Maryland
  
• 3 Carnegie Mellon University
  
• 4 Georgia Tech
  
• 5 Stanford
  
• ........
  
• 10 UC Berkeley
  
• ........
  
• 20 U of Minnesota
  
• ........
  
• 38 LSU
  
• ........
  
• 41 Harvard
  
• ........
  
• 50 New York University
  

Reference:
1.Ren and Taylor, Automatic and Versatile Publications Ranking for Research Institutions and Scholars, Commun. ACM, 50, 6(2007), 81-85;
2. Geist, Chetuparambil, Hedetniemi and Turner, Computing Research Programs in the US, Commun. ACM, 39, 12(1996), 96-99;