In 2018, consultants told University of Memphis leaders that gaining R1 status from the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education would take 10 to 20 years.
Then the school got it in three years, scoring the top research designation in December 2021.
Why? In part, because faculty rallied around the effort, planned ambitious research projects, and sought large federal grants.
In recent years, the amount of research awards obtained by the U of M has grown immensely.
It earned $31.86 million in research awards in FY 2018; $36.24 million in FY 2019; and $39.68 million in FY 2020.
In FY 2021, it eclipsed $50 million in research awards for the first time, earning $51.04 million. And in FY 2022, it nearly matched the record number from FY 2021, earning $49.38 million, according to U of M’s annual research report.
But just who’s bringing in all this funding? Which faculty members earned the biggest research awards?
Per the report, here’s a breakdown of U of M’s principal investigators (PIs) who garnered more than $1 million in research awards in FY 2022.
- Eddie Jacobs, Ph.D., of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, earned $3,231,722
- Brian Waldron, Ph.D., of the Department of Civil Engineering, earned $2,278,614
- Susan Neely-Barnes, Ph.D., of the School of Social Work, earned $1,558,317
- Dipankar Dasgupta, Ph.D., of the Department of Computer Science, earned $1,265,422
- Jeremy Whittaker, Ph.D., of the Loewenberg College of Nursing, earned $1,264,215
- Kan Yang, Ph.D., of the Department of Computer Science, earned $1,261,161
- Tracy Collins DNP, FNP-BC, of the Loewenberg College of Nursing, earned $1,257,855
- Santosh Kumar, Ph.D., of the Department of Computer Science, earned $1,232,151
- James Whelan, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychology, earned $1,205,000
- Richard Irwin of the College of Professional and Liberal Studies, earned $1,120,905
- Mitchell Withers, Ph.D., of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, earned $1,058,028
These professors received funding for a variety of projects. For example, most of Jacobs’ funding came from the U.S. Army, for his project "Multi-UAS Multi-Sensor Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance” — which focuses on finding effective combinations of sensors and drones for public use.
And James Whelan has received significant funding from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (MHSAS), to bolster The Institute for Gambling Education and Research (T.I.G.E.R.).
But Jacobs, Whelan, and the others listed merely represent the faculty members who received more than $1 million in research awards in FY 2022. Many others received grant funding too, and the average award size that year was $160,854.
In total, 213 PIs submitted research proposals in FY 2022 and 37 received $500,000 or more in awards. Both numbers are records for the institution, and it’s crucial that the U of M keeps this pace up as it moves into the future — because even though the school has gained R1 status, it could lose it, if it’s not diligent.
Carnegie releases new rankings every three years, and with so many universities jockeying for a spot in the standings, it isn’t unheard of for institutions to lose their status to others.
“There are so many universities that have made this their mission now,” U of M EVP of Research and Innovation Jasbir Dhaliwal, Ph.D., told MBJ in December 2021. “The economic benefits of being R1 are tremendous.”
According to MBJ research, U of M is the third largest research institution in the Memphis area, behind St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
