FOUR DEPARTMENTS RECEIVE SELECTIVE INVESTMENT FUNDING

   COLUMBUS -- As part of The Ohio State University's continuing commitment to enhance its academic and research excellence, four departments will receive up to $500,000 in special university funding intended to elevate already outstanding units to national and international prominence.

   Those receiving the reallocated university funding this year are Chemistry, History, Neuroscience and Political Science. Recipients provide matching funds from their own departments or colleges, bringing total targeted funding of up to $1 million to each department.

   The competitive program, now in its second year, requires departments to present detailed proposals; recipients are chosen by a faculty committee in consultation with external experts in each field. The winning proposals for this academic year feature a common theme: plans to hire senior and junior faculty members to strengthen specific disciplinary areas in the departments.

   "The Selective Investment program has already demonstrated that this special-purpose funding can make a difference in recruiting some of the most renowned faculty and researchers in the nation to Ohio State," said Edward J. Ray, executive vice president and provost. "The presence of those faculty in turn will attract other strong scholars and high-ability graduate students to this university, and will strengthen undergraduate instruction, as well. This is a component of our effort to achieve the goal of moving to the top tier of the nation's public institutions of higher education."

   Recipients of the first Selective Investment awards last year were the departments of Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Physics and Psychology.

   In choosing the recipients this year, the evaluation committee, chaired by Bunny Clark, Distinguished University Professor of Physics, looked at how candidates met several criteria, including departments' positioning related to the university's academic mission; plans to build on strengths and expectations for substantial benefit; demonstration of interdisciplinary potential; plans to monitor progress and evaluate achievement; and emphasis on outreach.

   "This process is deliberately designed to identify departments that clearly demonstrate their commitment to excellence on several levels," said President William E. Kirwan. "By recognizing these disciplines with substantial central support, we are sending a message throughout the university that this kind of collective effort is required if Ohio State is going to rank among the very best public universities."

   Department chairs and other representatives spoke to the Ohio State University Board of Trustees Friday (10/1) about this year's award-winning units.

   The Department of Chemistry faculty features many recipients of local and national awards, two Ohio Eminent Scholars and three Distinguished University Professors of the 12 so designated at Ohio State. In attraction of federal research funding, Ohio State's department ranks in the top 10 nationally; the department was ranked 22nd of 168 graduate programs in the 1994 National Research Council report and 20th in the 1999 U.S. News & World Report rankings of chemistry Ph.D. programs. A 1996 Strategic Plan for the department notes that chemistry's enrollment of at least 5,000 undergraduates annually, its external funding and its involvement of faculty in advising of students from other departments solidify its centrality to the university mission. Chemistry also is involved in interdisciplinary activity, with four centers/institutes led by chemistry faculty. The department has an enviable record of undergraduate teaching, providing many innovative opportunities for undergraduate research.

   The department will use its funding to recruit four senior, national academy-caliber faculty over the next four years in designated "thrust areas" -- chemistry of life process, chemistry of materials, environmental chemistry and chemical education. The department also seeks to replace faculty lost through attrition with assistant professors, and plans to expand its graduate program from the current enrollment of 200 to 300 students. The department's long-term goal is to be ranked in the top 10 of chemistry departments by 2010.

   Ohio State's Department of History has enjoyed top-20 status among public U.S. universities for a decade, most recently ranking 16th among public schools in the 1998 U.S. News & World Report rating of graduate programs. In Ohio, it emerged from a Board of Regents-mandated review of Ph.D. programs as the only comprehensive history doctoral program in the state. Within the university, the department earned the 1997 Departmental Teaching Award. Its faculty members have received numerous awards for both teaching and scholarship. Recent additions of celebrated scholars -- especially in the fields of diplomatic/international and medieval and early modern European history -- have attracted strong graduate students who consistently earn prestigious fellowships. In addition to its 525 majors, the department teaches more than 15,000 undergraduates per year as a core discipline. Ohio State's Department of History also received national recognition for its custom-published electronic database U.S. history reader Retrieving the American Past, which is assigned at more than 70 other institutions.

   The department's funding will be used primarily to expand its senior professorial ranks by hiring two senior scholars each in American (early and post-Civil War), European (modern) and Third World (Chinese and Latin American) history specialties.

   The neuroscience program houses many principal investigators on projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health; in 1998, the program's external funding exceeded $13 million. Additionally, the College of Medicine and Public Health's spinal cord program is ranked in the top 10 nationally. Until July, the discipline held division status; as part of a restructuring in the college, trustees on July 2 approved creating the Department of Neuroscience. The new department is integral to other strategic plans to enhance the neuroscience program, which include forming a Molecular Neuroscience Institute and collaborating with the College of Engineering to establish a center of biomedical imaging for housing the world's most advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) facilities. Neuroscience is highly interdisciplinary, collaborating with multiple units, such as engineering, cognitive science, computational science, veterinary medicine, psychology, chemistry and more. It also has strong outreach potential with businesses, industry and the public, and is well-positioned to transfer its research results to clinical applications.

   With its Selective Investment funding, the department plans to supplement endowed chairs and college commitments to neuroimaging, with new hires in molecular areas planned in later years to bridge molecular neurobiology and neuroimaging.

   Recent U.S. News & World Report rankings have highlighted Ohio State's political science programs, especially in American, international and comparative politics; the department also is ranked seventh overall among peer public schools by the National Research Council. This department, too, serves large numbers of undergraduates, teaching more than 6,000 annually. One-fourth of the 434 political science majors in 1998 were honors students. With more than 100 doctoral students, the department is a university leader in the number of Ph.D. students winning prestigious graduate school and presidential fellowships. The department regularly collaborates with economics, law and psychology faculty as well as with researchers in the Mershon Center, is instrumental to the operation of the Survey Research Unit, and will be a key participant in the new John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy. Within the university, the department has received other central support by way of two $150,000 Academic Enrichment grants supporting interdisciplinary projects.

   Selective Investment funding will support approximately half of 11 new faculty positions planned through 2002-03. The department expects to hire three faculty each in the fields of American, comparative and international politics, and two senior faculty in political theory; several of the new hires are designed to be joint appointments with other university units.

Contacts:
Edward Ray, Academic Affairs, (614) 292-5881
Bruce Bursten, Chemistry, (614) 292-6723
Leila Rupp, History, (614) 292-0156
Bradford Stokes, Medicine and Public Health, (614) 292-4953
Paul Beck, Political Science, (614) 292-2880