chemical engineering, 26th in electrical engineering, 14th in mechanical engineering (5th in research), 9th in operations research & industrial engineering, 7th in applied mathematics, and 6th in computer sciences. The school's department of computer science is ranked 11th in the nation, 36th in the world by U.S. News & World Report, and 18th worldwide by QS World University Rankings. Its biomedical engineering program is ranked 9th according to US News. Among the small prestigious programs, the school's chemical engineering is ranked 20th, civil engineering and engineering mechanics 18th, electrical engineering 3rd, applied physics 4th, industrial engineering and operations research 4th, material engineering 10th, computer science 15th, and applied mathematics 15th, according to National Science Foundation. From The Chronicle of Higher Education, Columbia's engineering mechanics is 6th in the nation, its environmental engineering 4th, industrial engineering 7th, mechanical engineering 5th, applied physics 8th, and operations research 6th. Finally, Columbia's financial engineering program is ranked 3rd nationally, according to the 2020 ranking from Quantnet. Facilities Columbia's Plasma Physics Laboratory is part of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), in which the HBT and Columbia Non-Neutral Torus are housed. The school also has two wind tunnels, a machine shop, a nanotechnology laboratory, a General Dynamics TRIGA Mk. II nuclear fission reactor, a large scale centrifuge for geotechnical testing, and an axial tester commonly used for testing New York City bridge cables. Each department has numerous laboratories on the Morningside Heights campus; however, other departments have holdings throughout the world. For example, the Applied Physics department has reactors at Nevis Labs in Irvington, NY and conducts work with CERN in Geneva. Notable alumni The School of Engineering and Applied Science celebrates its ties and affiliations with at least 8 alumni Nobel Laureates. Alumni of Columbia Engineering have gone on to numerous fields of profession. Many have become prominent scientists, astronauts, architects, government officials, pioneers, entrepreneurs, company CEOs, financiers, and scholars. Albert Huntington Chester (E.M. 1868, Ph.D. 1876), geologist and mining engineer, professor at Hamilton College and Rutgers College and the namesake of Chester Peak Henry Smith Munroe (E.M. 1869, Ph.D. 1877), Foreign advisor to Meiji Japan Roland Duer Irving (E.M. 1869, Ph.D. 1879), geologist, pioneer in petrography H. Walter Webb (E.M. 1873), executive with the New York Central Railroad Eben Erskine Olcott (1874), president of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers from 1901 to 1902 Frederick Remsen Hutton (E.M.