Fast Facts

Examples of Oregon State University's strengths
as a land, sea, space, and sun grant research institution.

 

• OSU is the state's most productive four-year institution, given the designation of Very High Research Activity by the "Carnegie Doctoral/Research - Extensive University" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The classification system is widely considered the "gold standard," used in well-known school rankings nationwide. OSU is the only Oregon institution to receive the top "RU/VH" designation, and one of only 63 public institutions nationwide.
• OSU Research funds from external sources totaled $206,014,022 in FY07 .
• Fueled by a number of grants from federal agencies and private foundations, OSU's research positively affects nearly every segment of the Oregon economy - as well as every county in the state.
• OSU is one of only two land, sea, space, and sun grant research institutions in the United States.
• OSU is Oregon's largest public research university, garnering more than 60 percent of the total federal and private research funding in the Oregon University System.
• OSU's more than 19,000 students come from all 50 states and more than 80 countries.
• OSU research is conducted in 11 colleges and numerous multidisciplinary centers, institutes, and programs.
  oregonstate.edu/research/multi/index.htm

• The social impact of OSU's research is significant. Faculty are conducting research to, for example, boost K-12 and community college education, improve disease prevention, enhance the livability of rural communities, understand and protect the environment, and help Oregon prepare for a population that is aging and becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse.

• The university's "economic footprint" is now $1.5 billion – 50 percent higher than it was just a decade ago.

• Royalty revenue from commercialization of OSU intellectual property continues its upward trend. It reached an all-time high with total royalty income received for FY 06 of over $2 million.

• OSU has the largest tsunami research facility in the world. The National Science Foundation awarded $4.5 million grant to OSU to operate the Tsunami Wave Basin at the university's O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory through 2009.
• The College of Forestry at OSU ranks first in the total number of professional publications, first in the number of “citations” to those publications, and is perceived by academic colleagues as the leading forestry program in North America, according to a survey of 53 university forestry programs in the United States and Canada. The study was published in the Journal of Forestry.

  OSU has one of the largest forestry education, research and Extension programs in the nation. Its first degree programs were offered in 1906. The college now how has more than 600 students, 15,000 acres of college forests, about 5,500 graduates, and an annual budget of more than $20 million.

• Over the past five years, expenditures based on OSU competitive awards, gifts, and land-grant appropriations ah ve increased by 17 percent, from $166 million in 2002 to $194 million in 2006. These expenditures generate part of OSU's total estimated economic impact of $1.3 billion, benefiting every Oregon county.
• Noted OSU zoologist Jane Lubchenco is one of the principal investigators for the ambitious OSU-led Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO). PISCO seeks to gain new understanding of the nearshore ocean ecosystem along the west coast of the United States. Grants to fund the program over the next five years were provided by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation ($11 million) and the G&B Moore Foundation ($13.5 million).
• Larry Rosenkoetter, a psychology professor in OSU's College of Liberal Arts, is studying the impact of television and video game violence on children's behavior, with a grant of $730,571 from the U.S. Department of Education. The study expands on his previous work in creating intervention programs at public schools to include parent and teacher education components.
• Emily Ho, one of a growing number of OSU researchers focusing on disease prevention, received a $260,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for her study on the impacts of zinc deficiency. An assistant professor of nutrition and exercise sciences, Ho is investigating whether the lack of zinc in human diets can damage DNA.
• Kaichang Li, an associate professor in the College of Forestry, received a small grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study how mussels attach themselves to rock. From that research Li developed a new group of adhesives that have resulted in three patents and commercial partnerships with Columbia Forest Products and Hercules, Inc. These adhesives have the potential to revolutionize a large portion of the wood products industry, and they have important environmental and economic benefits
• As an example of Oregon State University’s impact on local economies: OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) in Newport had budget expenditures of some $18 million, and some 120 employees, in 2005.
  OSU's presence at that sight has resulted in the addition of seven affiliated state and federal agency activities on the HMSC campus, representing another $18 million and 180 employees.

  More than 20 agency scientists have courtesy faculty appointments, adding to OSU's education and research programs. hmsc.oregonstate.edu

• The Center for Microtechnology-Based Energy, Chemical and Biological Systems (MECS), an OSU interdisciplinary initiative engaged in a major partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as well as growing collaborations with UO and PSU, has brought in commitments of millions of dollars of since its inception in 2000, with growth in both federal and private activity accelerating rapidly. mecs.oregonstate.edu

• Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) unites OSU and Oregon's two other major research universities with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the state of Oregon, and private industry. The institute is focused on increasing its research capacity and commercializing a combination of nanoscience and microtechnology, in order to foster the creation of new products, companies and jobs. http://www.onami.us/

• OSU ranked 76th among the top 100 research universities in the United States in federal science and engineering funding in FY 2001, with total federal funding of of $153,925,000.
  www.nsf.gov

• The College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences has one of the premier graduate programs in oceanic and atmospheric sciences in the nation. COAS faulty bring in over $370,000 per person each year in Federal grants and contracts in a wide range of areas of studies about our Earth system. The COAS dean, Mark Abbott, was appointed by the President to serve as a member of the National Science Board, which is governing body for the National Science Foundation and advises the President and Congress on policy issues related to science and engineering.
  oregonstate.edu/research/multi/OcAtmSci.htm

• OSU is ranked 11th in the nation in total scholarly activity in the broad fields of ecology, evolution and behavior programs.
  The ranking put OSU on a par with Stanford University and the University of Washington, and ahead of Yale University and Princeton University.
  source: Brett, M.T., L. Brouwer, and L. Brett. 1999. Research Productivity and Reputational Ratings at United States Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Programs. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 80(4):250-256

• Forty-six notebooks of alumnus Linus Pauling are available through the OSU Libraries Special Collections/ website. The 7,500 total pages span the years 1922 to 1994, covering the myriad scientific and peace-related fields in which the double-Nobel laureate involved himself. The website's opening was noted in Science and the New York Times, and was the subject of a homepage feature of National Geographic magazine. In the first three months that the website was available to the public, it received over 1.6 million hits.
  osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/rnb/index.htm

• The Linus Pauling Institute, at OSU since 1996, continues to build upon the work and interests of the late Linus Pauling. LPI researchers have made important advances in understanding the underlying basis for several disease and life processes, including atherosclerosis, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and aging. Millions of dollars in grants from federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, have spurred progress in preventing or treating these conditions.
  lpi.oregonstate.edu/

• The OSU Valley Library is a member of the Greater Western Library Alliance, a consortium of 30 research libraries located in 15 states. OSU's library was the first academic library ever to be voted as the "Library of the Year " by the Library Journal.
  oregonstate.edu/research/multi/library.ht

• The University has been involved in research agreements and contracts with institutions and organizations in countries all over the world, from Argentina to Yemen.
  oregonstate.edu/research/multi/index.htm.

• OSU programs in forestry, oceanography, nuclear engineering, public health, biochemistry, food science, zoology, ecology are among the top-ranked nationally.

• OSU University Honors College has entry standards as competitive as those of universities in the top 25 nationally, yet with small classes and access to unparalleled research, scholarship and learning opportunities.

• OSU's Engineering College is the 23rd largest undergraduate engineering college in the nation

• Among the major agencies sponsoring OSU research are the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Public Health Service and National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

See more OSU Points of Pride

---

•