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INDEX

• Introduction
• Highly ranked and poorly ranked physics departments in the Subatomic-Superatomic plane
• How does a department make the transition from low rank to high rank?
  • Probability of being highly ranked instead of poorly ranked as a function of the ratio of subatomic to superatomic physics. Data shown for the full sample of 129 departments and for departments with less than 32 faculty members.
• NRC rank vs faculty size. The poorly ranked departments have fewer than 32 physics faculty whereas the highly ranked departments range in size from 16 to 70. Thus it is possible to achieve high rank without having a large faculty.
• Understanding the National Research Council rankings of PhD programs in Physics
  • linear fit to the NRC quality ratings
  • linear fit including numbers of Nobel laureates on a faculty
  • square root fit
• Optimal balance in a physics department
• Square foot fit including Nobel laureates and members of the National Academy of Sciences
• The effect of geographical prejudice
• a summary
• The top three winners and losers in terms of relative change of perceived quality
• Research profile of US physics departments at the end of the twentieth century with trends of the previous decade noted
• Rank of 147 physics PhD programs based on the 1999 research profiles and a fit to the values expressed in the last (1992) NRC ratings
• State support for physics as measured by total number of full-time faculty in state supported PhD programs
• Top ten physics departments in fractional improvement in NRC perceived quality
• Characteristics of 129 physics PhD programs as a function of quintiles in the NRC rank.

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