Standing among the nation's leading research universities, Rutgers is acclaimed for the achievements of our people and for their contributions to society and the pursuit of knowledge.
Rapid Diagnostic Test for Virus Variants
What’s different about the Rutgers COVID-19 variant test? It cuts from days to hours the time it takes to obtain results. Rutgers shared this latest innovation on an open-source basis to serve the greater good, enabling swift, responsive test modifications as new variants emerge.
The new rapid test is easy to set up and can be adapted for labs that use varying types of equipment and methods. The open-source test is free to use as described or modify as needed.
“This rapid test was developed and tested over a few weeks in a crash program to respond to a serious public health need,” said David Alland, director of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) Public Health Research Institute and professor and chief of infectious disease at NJMS. “Despite our hurry to get the test completed, it performed extremely well. We hope that this test will help in the control of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic.”
Pictured: David Alland
Rutgers is making game-changing contributions in the fight against COVID-19.
And our work continues. At the newly established Center for COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness, our scientists will accelerate the discovery of new diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for COVID-19 and prepare now to respond to future epidemics.
Excellence Spotlight: With a $15 million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, Rutgers University established the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice to provide opportunities for faculty whose work addresses racism and social inequality to collaborate in ways that lead to meaningful action. An intellectual corridor that connects scholars and ideas, the institute amplifies work in the humanities to dismantle racism and end systemic inequities. Learn more about the institute's directors below.
Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice
Founding Executive Director
Michelle Stephens joined the Department of English and the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University–New Brunswick in spring 2011. She is a psychoanalyst and served as the dean of the humanities in the School of Arts and Sciences from 2017–2020. Originally from Jamaica, West Indies, she graduated from Yale University with a Ph.D. in American studies. She is the author of Black Empire: The Masculine Global Imaginary of Caribbean Intellectuals in the United States, 1914 to 1962 (Duke University Press, 2005) and Skin Acts: Race, Psychoanalysis and The Black Male Performer (Duke University Press, 2014). She has published numerous articles on the intersection of race and psychoanalysis in such journals as JAPA, Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Studies in Gender and Sexuality, and Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society.
Institute Campus Director, Rutgers University–New Brunswick
Erica Armstrong Dunbar joined the Department of History at Rutgers University–New Brunswick in 2017. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and specializes in African American, United States, and women’s and gender history, with specialization in late 18th-century and early 19th-century history. She is the national director of the Association of Black Women Historians.
Institute Campus Director, Rutgers University–Newark
Elise Boddie joined the Rutgers Law School faculty in 2013. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. An award-winning legal scholar, her work explores the regulation of race in spatial contexts and dynamic systems in law and policy that perpetuate racial inequality. Before joining the Rutgers faculty, Boddie directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.’s nationwide litigation program. She is also the founder and director of The Inclusion Project, which works to advance racial equity and inclusion in law and policy using multiple tools of research, outreach, community engagement, and media.
Institute Campus Codirector, Rutgers University–Camden
Gregory Pardlo CCAS’99 joined the faculty of the Department of English and Communication at Rutgers University–Camden in 2016. He holds an M.F.A. from New York University and an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Columbia University. In 2015, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Institute Campus Codirector, Rutgers University–Camden
Patrick Rosal joined the faculty of the Department of English and Communication at Rutgers University–Camden in 2011. He holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. In 2018, he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow.
A top-25 national public university, Rutgers is an academic and research powerhouse. Rutgers' main locations are in New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden, and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences is a statewide academic health leader.
U.S. News & World Report
Academic Ranking of World Universities
Bloomberg Businessweek
QS World University Rankings by Subject
Every day, our students are pursuing knowledge that prepares them for success and improves the quality of life for people around the world. Meet three among many of our finest.
Ravichandran was one of only 46 students in the nation awarded the postgraduate scholarship.
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Prestigious law fellowship will send Estrada to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the international law firm Fried Frank in New York City.
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Tai is among an exclusive group of scholars worldwide to capture the elite humanities scholarship.
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The Cause of Freedom: A Concise History of African Americans, published in February 2021 by Oxford University Press, is the latest book by Jonathan Holloway, the 21st president of Rutgers University. Holloway is an eminent historian and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His scholarly work specializes in post-emancipation U.S. history with a focus on social and intellectual history.
The text offers a brief telling of the complex history of African Americans—from the arrival of enslaved Africans at Jamestown to the Black Lives Matter movement—and challenges readers to consider what it means to be an American.
Four Rutgers professors have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor awarded by their association peers.
AAAS fellows pursue scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
Distinguished Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick and interim director of Rutgers’ Waksman Institute of Microbiology.
Inaugural chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and the executive vice president for Health Affairs at Rutgers University.
Adjunct professor at Rutgers’ Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute.
Professor in the management science and information systems department at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick.
With her translation and analysis of Nahuatl sources debunking commonly believed myths about the Aztecs, Camilla Townsend, Distinguished Professor of History in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers–New Brunswick, received the 2020 Cundill History Prize for her work, Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs.
The award recognizes books that best embody historical scholarship, originality, literary quality, and broad appeal.
“Camilla Townsend revolutionizes how we should look at Aztec society before, during and after the arrival of Europeans in Central America,” said Peter Francopan, the prize’s 2020 jury chair. “After more than 500 years, we are finally able to see history through the eyes of the Indigenous people themselves rather than those of their conquerors. Not many books completely transform how we look at the past. This is one of those that does.”
Rutgers University–New Brunswick is again on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual list of Top-Producers of Fulbright U.S. Student Grants, a distinction shared by some of the nation’s most elite institutions.
Public Policy and Korean
School of Arts and Sciences, 2020
Destination: South Korea
Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies
School of Arts and Sciences, 2017
Destination: Indonesia
Study/Research Award
Fulbright Bulgaria-Greece Joint Research Award
Destination: Greece and Bulgaria
Breakthroughs in knowledge—technology, the humanities, or health care—are the essence of a top research university. At Rutgers, we have a strong track record of discovery—from finding a cure for tuberculosis to developing eco-friendly building materials, just to name a few.
2019 data
Reuters (2019)
2019 data
Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences conducts research, trains health professionals, and provides patient care through our Rutgers Health practice, New Jersey's sole academic health care provider organization.
Chartered in 1766, Rutgers is the eighth-oldest college in the nation. Our charter was granted by King George III of England and signed by William Franklin, the last Royal Governor of New Jersey and son of Benjamin Franklin.
Rutgers perennially appears in the most respected annual listings of the world's top universities. And we are the only university in the United States that is a colonial college, a land-grant institution, and a leading national public research university.
Rutgers faculty include members of the National Academies and winners of the National Medals of Science and Technology; Pulitzer Prizes; Guggenheim, MacArthur “Genius,” and Simons Fellowships; Fulbright Scholarships; and NSF CAREER Awards.
Rutgers is proud to be The State University of New Jersey, the Garden State's premier, comprehensive public research university, with educational and outreach programs that reach residents in all 21 New Jersey counties.
Rutgers and its partners form one of the nation's largest academic health care systems, and the largest in New Jersey.
Our students receive an outstanding education that prepares them for a future of leadership and success and is also a great value. Forbes magazine ranks Rutgers as #29 in the nation as "Best Value Colleges."
Every day, Rutgers faculty, students, and staff appear in global, national, and regional news outlets. Last year, 624,416 news stories cited Rutgers.