Grants vs. compensation
High faculty salaries are often attributed to grant-getting. This groups teaching faculty by the total federal research fundingthey acquired as lead principal investigator (public NIH + NSF awards, FY2015–2025) and shows each group’s median peak salary.
| Grant bracket | Georgia Tech | UGA | Georgia State | Kennesaw State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No federal grant | $92,283n=2129 | $89,282n=5184 | $23,188n=6868 | $28,553n=5362 |
| Under $1M | $178,367n=403 | $142,532n=122 | $137,436n=58 | $129,929n=32 |
| $1M–$5M | $189,333n=241 | $161,629n=136 | $172,042n=65 | n<10 |
| $5M–$20M | $260,490n=40 | $248,930n=30 | $264,313n=16 | — |
| $20M+ | n<10 | n<10 | n<10 | — |
Largest attributed federal grant totals
The 25 people with the most attributed federal funding, with their peak salary. Totals are a lower bound (lead-PI only) and are not comparable across fields.
| Person | Institution | Federal funding | NIH / NSF | Peak salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ted M Ross | UGA | $74.6M | 14 / 0 | $293,053 |
| Johnna Temenoff | Georgia Tech | $46.3M | 22 / 1 | $302,665 |
| Bonnie Ferri | Georgia Tech | $44M | 0 / 3 | $270,000 |
| Michael Paul Eriksen | Georgia State | $29.7M | 36 / 0 | $467,528 |
| Vince D Calhoun | Georgia State | $28.8M | 45 / 0 | $547,485 |
| Christopher Francis Basler | Georgia State | $27.6M | 35 / 0 | $326,619 |
| Suresh Marru | Georgia Tech | $25.5M | 0 / 2 | $233,000 |
| Pascal Van Hentenryck | Georgia Tech | $23.7M | 0 / 8 | $382,229 |
| Cynthia Nau Cornelissen | Georgia State | $22.6M | 36 / 0 | $272,275 |
| Gene H Brody | UGA | $20M | 42 / 0 | $139,684 |
| Nicholas Hud | Georgia Tech | $20M | 0 / 1 | $284,657 |
| Ashok Goel | Georgia Tech | $19.4M | 0 / 7 | $295,783 |
| Andres Garcia | Georgia Tech | $19.1M | 54 / 0 | $413,705 |
| Richard Karl Plemper | Georgia State | $18.4M | 25 / 0 | $411,816 |
| Kelley W Moremen | UGA | $17M | 26 / 0 | $245,731 |
| Minghui Zou | Georgia State | $15.9M | 34 / 0 | $425,846 |
| Michael Carter Trent | UGA | $14.7M | 29 / 0 | $305,627 |
| Gabriel Kwong | Georgia Tech | $14.6M | 21 / 0 | $198,092 |
| Steven R Beach | UGA | $13.8M | 18 / 0 | $295,629 |
| Rick L Tarleton | UGA | $13.8M | 30 / 0 | $313,100 |
| Robert S Haltiwanger | UGA | $12.8M | 28 / 0 | $308,168 |
| Andrew Ted Gewirtz | Georgia State | $12.3M | 28 / 0 | $268,353 |
| Cheng Zhu | Georgia Tech | $12.2M | 28 / 0 | $251,424 |
| Christopher Jones | Georgia Tech | $12.2M | 0 / 2 | $337,400 |
| Silvia Nj Moreno | UGA | $12M | 35 / 0 | $193,813 |
Grant dollars are a defensible lower bound: only public federal awards (NIH RePORTER + NSF) are counted, credited to the single lead/contact PI, matched to faculty precision-first (exact PI email where available, else a name scorer restricted to instructors). Co-PI credit, non-federal grants (foundation, industry, state), and awards whose PI could not be confidently matched are excluded — so a professor’s true external funding is often higher. Georgia Tech reaches the highest match confidence (instructor emails); UGA / GSU / KSU are name-only. See ADR-013 and ADJUSTMENTS.md.