In this era of increased accountability and tightened budgets within higher education, it is essential that programs and colleges demonstrate their quality and success. One indicator of the quality and success of a program is its faculty and their research, which can be measured through grant dollars received. In a recent study, “Rainmakers: The Most Successful Criminal Justice Scholars and Departments in Research Grant Acquisition” (Mustaine, Tewksbury, 2009) in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, three faculty from the FSU College of Criminology and Criminal Justice were ranked among the top 10 for being awarded grant funding.

The study looked at criminology and criminal justice faculty across the country and the amount and type of grants they received, focusing specifically on the dollar amount, number of grants, and type of grants. Among 147 faculty who received a minimum of $250,000 in grant funding and were the principal/co-principal investigator during 1997–2007, Dean and Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology Tom Blomberg ranked in the top 10 scholars with the highest dollar amount of grants, with his individual grants totaling $20, 331, 000. In the highest dollar amount in grant funding received at the state agency level, Blomberg heads the list and is joined by Professors Gordon Waldo and Dan Maier-Katkin. Blomberg is also at the top of the list in the highest dollar amount in local grants received.