U.S. News & World Report Global Subject Rankings Give High Marks to Food Science and Agriculture at UMass Amherst

U.S. News & World Report recently released their 2022-23 Global Universities and global subject rankings and two UMass programs earned top marks: food science and technology placed at No. 3 and agriculture at No. 5.

These subject-specific rankings — which are not of academic majors, departments or specific schools at universities, such as business or medical schools — are based on academic research performance in those subjects. U.S. News used various bibliometric measures, including publications and citations, as well as indicators for global and regional reputation in each specific subject.

Image

The Food Science Department, which has the oldest academic food science program in the United States, features internationally recognized faculty members and attracts innovative students and post-doctoral researchers who have made significant contributions to the field.

The department is a global leader in research on nutraceuticals, functional foods, food nanotechnology, food safety, the gut microbiome and healthy lipids, and is developing new programs on sensory science, genomics, plant-based foods, alternative proteins and sustainability.

Several departments in the College of Natural Sciences contribute to the research being done in agriculture, with the Stockbridge School of Agriculture being central to that mission.

Since its establishment 158 years ago, agriculture has been at the core of the educational mission of UMass Amherst. Over time, the Stockbridge School has evolved to meet society’s needs for sustainable food and landscapes, expanding from a set of two-year associates degree programs to a modern department of plant and soil sciences, encompassing associates, bachelors and graduate degrees, with opportunities to work in world-class research labs.

In addition, UMass Amherst polymer science earned a distinctive ranking of No. 87.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst ranked 160th among global universities. This is among 2,000 of the world’s top universities across 90 counties and is based on a number of factors including academic research performance and global and regional reputations.