Academic Ranking of World Universities listed JGU's institutes of physics among 75 best worldwide
31.08.2011
The Institutes of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have been listed in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) among the top 75 research institutes of their kind worldwide. They have also been named as one of the six best institutions of physics in Germany. The leading physics research departments are still those at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, and the California Institute of Technology. Among German universities, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz holds a rank between 11 and 14 and it is even among the top eight universities in the category of natural sciences and mathematics.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, was founded in 2003 and compiled and published ever since by the Jiao Tong University Shanghai; since 2009, the rankings have been published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. Being the first global ranking system of its type, the ARWU attracts a great deal of attention all around the world. The ranking compares the research excellence of more than 1,000 leading international universities. The main indicators used to determine research performance include the number of publications and citations as well as Nobel Prize and Fields Medal awards. The AWRU began as a ranking system for universities as a whole, but since 2007 it has also generated rankings for five general subject areas including the natural sciences; in 2009, it also began compiling rankings for the individual subjects of mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, and economics.
"This first-class ranking again confirms the excellent quality of the research conducted in our core research areas such as physics. Our Mainz physicists are also among the best in several other rankings," explains the President of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Professor Dr. Georg Krausch.
JGU's successes in excellent rankings are an impressive attest to its research achievements in its profile areas. In the current Leiden Rankings, for example, JGU is ranked first among German universities and fourth among the 250 largest European universities in terms of the number of citations per publication. According to the President, "even if the subject-specific differences in terms of citation culture are taken into account, Mainz University still achieves an excellent sixth place among German universities."