Three other Miller School programs - microbiology and immunology, physiology and biophysics, and molecular and cellular pharmacology - were among the dozen UM programs that were ranked in the top half of all U.S. programs of their type.

Based on data from 2005 and 2006, the NRC rankings are the first released by the agency in 15 years. In the previous rankings, which were released in 1995 and based on data collected in 1993, six UM doctoral programs were in the top half.

"The recently released NRC rankings attest to the University of Miami's ongoing evolution into one of the nation's leading research institutions," said Thomas J. LeBlanc, executive vice president and provost of the University. "And since they draw on data that are nearly half a decade old, we believe that the University today has an even more exciting story to tell.

"In the intervening years, we have continued to hire outstanding faculty, recruit stellar students, and enhance our graduate program offerings and scholarship opportunities. Thanks to these and several other metrics, the quality of UM and its graduate programs has risen significantly - a fact that is reflected in several prestigious national rankings. There's no question that we have advanced beyond the strides we had made when the data used in this assessment were compiled."

For the recently released rankings, the NRC collected extensive data from more than 5,000 doctoral programs in 62 academic fields at 212 universities. Twenty program characteristics, including faculty publications, funded research, student scholarships, rates of degree completion, and diversity, were incorporated in the assessment.

Using complex statistical methodologies, the NRC created two overall rankings of doctoral programs. "S" rankings weighted program characteristics according to faculty survey ratings of their relative importance in evaluating overall program quality. "R" rankings applied a statistical technique known as regression to the same characteristics to predict reputational assessment of programs. In addition to the "S" and "R" rankings, the NRC published "dimensional rankings" in three subcategories: faculty research activity, student support and outcomes, and diversity.

In each of the five categories, instead of being assigned a single ranking, programs received a range of rankings. To determine these ranges, the NRC removed the top 5 percent and bottom 5 percent of the multiple rankings received by each program. The results that remain - those between the 5th and 95th percentiles - are intended to indicate the range in which a program's true ranking is most likely to fall.

In addition to the Miller School's epidemiology and public health program, the UM programs ranked among the top quartile nationwide in the "S" rankings are sociology, psychology, and philosophy. Joining the three Miller School programs that fill out the top half are the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and doctoral programs in English language and literature, chemistry, biomedical engineering, and mechanical engineering.

In the "R" rankings, the Miller School's program in molecular and cellular pharmacology is ranked in the top quartile, and the physiology and biophysics program is in the top half.

In the NRC's dimensional rankings of faculty research, the Miller School's neuroscience program was among the top half nationwide. In the student support and outcomes category, physiology and biophysics was in the top quartile; epidemiology, microbiology and immunology, and biochemistry and molecular biology were in the top half.

Reflecting its unusually multicultural environment, the University also received high rankings for its diversity. Twenty of the 27 UM programs evaluated by the NRC are ranked among the top quartile for diversity nationwide, including all but one of the Miller School programs that appeared in the other four rankings.