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UC San Diego Biology-Biochemistry Ranked Eighth in the World

US News ranking also rates molecular biology and genetics in top 10

October 27, 2017

By Christine Clark

Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications

The University of California San Diego has been named the globe’s 16th best university by U.S. News and World Report. The campus was also recognized as the nation’s 5th best public university in the fourth annual rankings, which measure factors such as research, global and regional reputation; international collaboration; as well as the number of highly-cited papers and doctorates awarded.

“UC San Diego is proud to receive this recognition and to have the academic achievements of our faculty and students commended by U.S News and World Report,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “As a top-ranked public research university, UC San Diego advances the frontiers of knowledge to find innovative, non-conventional solutions to global challenges and make the world a better place.”

The overall rankings evaluate 1,250 universities – up from 1,000 last year – across 74 countries.

“The schools that rank the highest in the Best Global Universities rankings are those that emphasize academic research, including by partnering with international scholars to produce highly cited articles,” said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News and World Report. “This is different from the Best Colleges rankings, which measure the overall quality of undergraduate institutions.”

The university’s cutting-edge research and stellar faculty are known throughout the world. Recently, computer science professor Stefan Savage was named a 2017 MacArthur Fellow for his work in cybersecurity. Stephen Mayfield, a UC San Diego professor of biology, led a research effort which produced the world’s first algae-based, renewable flip flops, an innovation that could be revolutionary, changing the world for the better environmentally.

The U.S. News Best Global Universities 2018 edition also features subject rankings in which UC San Diego received high marks across the board in areas such as pharmacology and toxicology (3), neuroscience and behavior (8), biology and biochemistry (8), molecular biology and genetics (10) as well as psychiatry and psychology (13). 

Other disciplines in which UC San Diego’s programs were listed in the top 40 include:

  • Geosciences (13)
  • Microbiology (19)
  • Clinical Medicine (19)
  • Immunology (23)
  • Plant and Animal Science (23)
  • Computer Science (24)
  • Social Sciences and Public Health (25)
  • Art and Humanities (28)
  • Engineering (28)
  • Economics and Business (35)
  • Environment/Ecology (38)

UC San Diego is consistently rated as one of the top universities in the world: Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) named the campus the globe’s 15th best. In addition, Times Higher Education recently listed UC San Diego 31st worldwide.

For more information about the U.S. News Best Global Universities 2018 edition, click here.

For more information about UC San Diego and its rankings, go to the Campus Profile.