Past few years have brought many accolades to U.

• The David Eccles School of Business has soared in the national rankings, from No. 83 in U.S. News & World's Report's 2001 national rankings to No. 56 in 2005, and from unranked in the Wall Street rankings in 2001 to No. 49 in 2005. The executive MBA program was ranked 36th in the U.S. and 67th in the world by The Financial Times of London.

• The university's ballet department, ranked in the top five nationally since the 1960s, ranks among the top two. In 2003, Dance Teacher Now ranked the U.'s modern dance graduate program first in the nation; the modern dance undergraduate program was ranked third.

• In 2003, University of Utah biological chemistry student Gretchen Jane Domek, a member of the school's nationally ranked ski team, was named a Rhodes scholar.

• In 2005, Utah became the first school in history to produce the first pick of both the NFL and NBA drafts. Quarterback Alex Smith, named national Player of the Year by Sports Illustrated and Sporting News, helped the Utes become the first non-BCS school ever to earn a berth in a BCS bowl. Center Andrew Bogut, who was named national Player of the Year, led the Utes to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

• In the last academic school year, the ski team finished third in the nation; the gymnastics team was ranked No. 1 much of the season; and women's volleyball and soccer teams climbed into the Top 25 of the national rankings.

• For 11 straight years, University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics have been ranked as one of U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals. University Hospital's gynecology program was ranked 45th in the country and the cancer program, 47th. The University of Utah School of Medicine's residency program in diagnostic radiology has been rated No. 1 among 190 programs in the United States and Canada for the five-year period 2000-04, according to the American Board of Radiology.

• Both the John A. Moran Eye Center and the Huntsman Cancer Institute are considered top 10 programs in their fields.

• University of Utah researchers were recently awarded $6.7 million in federal grants to develop wireless electrodes that would be implanted in the body to provide blind people with artificial vision and stimulate paralyzed body parts, enabling disabled people to walk, talk or control a computer with their thoughts.