One accepted measure of faculty excellence is the number of faculty who are members of prestigious national academies, such as the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineers. Many of the universities among the “Fifty” to be reviewed have had an impressive percentage of faculty members elected to these and other national academies. The UC campuses, in particular, have achieved great success in this area.

The leaders in our group are listed below. The data have been adjusted to show the number of awards based on the total number of full-time faculty members. Therefore, large universities do not receive disproportionate weight because of their larger faculties.

1. UC San Diego, significantly ahead of the rest.
2. UCLA
3. Michigan
4. Washington
5. Wisconsin
6. Georgia Tech
7. UC Santa Barbara
8. UC Irvine
9. UT Austin
10. Virginia
11. Minnesota
12. Illinois
13. North Carolina
14. Pitt
15. Colorado
16. Maryland
17. Rutgers
18. UC Davis
19. Arizona
20. Iowa