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Top 50 Physical Sciences universities

10 November 2011

The US takes each of the top six places in the physical sciences league table - and 27 of the top 50.

Honours are shared for the top spot by the West Coast's California Institute of Technology and the East Coast's Princeton University.

Chartered in 1746, Princeton is the fourth-oldest college in the US, but its work in the physical sciences is as up to date as it gets.

The first undergraduate chemistry laboratory in the US was founded by Princeton physician John Maclean in 1795, and throughout the 19th century chemistry was a required subject for all Princeton students.

Today, it boasts the flagship Frick Chemistry Laboratory, opened in 2010. It is the second-largest single academic building on the university's campus and houses some of the world's most advanced instrumentation in the discipline.

Covering a range of subjects including astronomy, chemistry, mathematics and physics, the physical sciences is a globally diverse field - and an increasingly competitive one.

Although the US accounts for more than half the world's top 50, there are nine countries represented in the table.

France has three representatives: the École Polytechnique, the Université Pierre et Marie Curie and the école Normale Supérieure.

Pierre et Marie Curie is one of the three famous Parisian Sorbonne universities. It specialises in science and medicine and it accounts for the lion's share of the annual budget allocated to the trio: €472 million (£416 million) out of €684 million.

Its foundations in the heart of the capital's Latin quarter date back 900 years. Its most famous alumna is Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre for their work on radioactivity, and the prize for chemistry in 1911 for her research into polonium and radium - research that ultimately cost her her life.

Curie remains the only woman to have won two Nobel prizes.

Top 50 Physical Sciences Universities 2011-2012
  Subject RankOrdered by this column, descending Institution Country / Region Physical sciencesOverall score Physical sciencesTeaching Physical sciencesInternational mix Physical sciencesIndustry income Physical sciencesResearch Physical sciencesCitations
1 California Institute of Technology United States
94.6
96.7
56.5
87.6
98.7
98.3
1 Princeton University United States
94.6
94.3
58.8
92.3
98.8
99.2
3 University of California, Berkeley United States
94
90.3
68.5
100
99.2
97.9
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States
93
93.9
78.3
65.5
91.1
98.8
5 Stanford University United States
92.8
93.5
48.4
62
98.8
99.3
6 Harvard University United States
92.5
94.3
59.3
43.5
95
99.7
7 University of Cambridge United Kingdom
90.9
92.1
81.2
75.9
91.8
92.4
8 University of Chicago United States
89.9
87
73.4
Data withheld by THE
85.9
99.9
9 University of California, Los Angeles United States
88.7
85.6
60
Data withheld by THE
91.8
97
10 University of Oxford United Kingdom
87.5
90.4
84.9
65.6
88.8
86.3
11 ETH Zürich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich Switzerland
86.7
89.6
96
Data withheld by THE
92.1
78.9
12 Yale University United States
86.5
87.5
58.4
32.3
86.3
95.8
13 Cornell University United States
85.6
83
53.1
Data withheld by THE
85
97.1
14 Imperial College London United Kingdom
84.9
89.3
86.4
71.5
85.2
81.7
15 University of Washington United States
81.2
75.7
47.7
39
76.3
99.5
16 University of Michigan United States
80.2
74
71.4
39.5
77
92.3
17 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
79.8
77.6
53
34.7
75.1
94.1
18 University of Toronto Canada
79.1
74
68.2
30.9
78.9
89
19 University of California, Santa Barbara United States
77.5
58.9
52.7
91.5
73.3
99.8
20 University of Tokyo Japan
77.4
89.4
23
64
91.7
69.4
21 University of Texas at Austin United States
77.1
65.7
51.4
91.9
79.5
88.5
22 École Polytechnique France
74
73.7
82.3
56.3
63.8
81.7
22 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States
74
66.7
50.5
Data withheld by THE
77.9
83.1
24 University of British Columbia Canada
73
64.6
88.8
39.3
66.7
83.5
25 University of Colorado Boulder United States
72.6
58.7
42.2
Data withheld by THE
69.1
95.1
26 Australian National University Australia
71.9
66.1
95.3
82
79.1
64.9
27 University of Wisconsin-Madison United States
70.4
66.5
30.5
82
70.3
81.2
28 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
70
55.6
97
32.7
54.3
90.5
29 University of Edinburgh United Kingdom
69.9
57.8
75.4
65.2
50.9
93.4
30 Universität Heidelberg Germany
69.4
67.9
62
39
51.5
88.4
30 Université Pierre et Marie Curie France
69.4
74.1
72.6
27
64
72.3
32 Rice University United States
68.5
57.4
54.3
45.3
46.4
99.4
33 École Normale Supérieure France
68.4
73.2
54.9
50.2
51.1
82.3
34 University of Melbourne Australia
68.3
57.4
72.7
43.3
55.3
87.9
35 Georgia Institute of Technology United States
68.1
54.1
65.7
94.8
51.2
91.1
36 Brown University United States
66.9
58
39.6
41.5
44.4
99.3
37 University of California, San Diego United States
66.6
57.4
33.7
54.2
55.8
90.1
38 University College London United Kingdom
64.7
67.3
88.1
61.7
57.4
63.6
39 University of Bristol United Kingdom
64.6
56.6
71.9
41.1
52.8
80.3
40 Carnegie Mellon University United States
64.4
41.6
54.3
40.8
47.7
99.3
41 Utrecht University Netherlands
63.8
47.2
60.7
71.2
47.7
89.5
42 Boston University United States
63.6
51.5
52
31.4
38
97.9
43 Kyoto University Japan
63.5
76.9
19.8
79.5
79.2
49
44 University of California, Santa Cruz United States
63
41.3
35.9
33.3
48.1
99.7
45 University of Minnesota United States
61.8
44.4
26.7
Data withheld by THE
55.5
89.8
46 University of Manchester United Kingdom
61.5
53
71.1
54.2
53.8
72.7
47 The Ohio State University United States
61.4
50.5
59.8
29.8
43.4
86.6
48 Durham University United Kingdom
60.9
36.8
63.3
39.4
40.7
96.8
48 University of Massachusetts United States
60.9
53.4
43.5
50.7
55
76
50 Universität Basel Switzerland
59.1
35.5
94.7
80
21.5
98.1

Uni

Physical sciences scores

Subject rank
101
Overall score
Teaching
International outlook
Industry income
Research
Citations
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