Four MCS Faculty Named Among World's Most Highly Cited Researchers
Including Chemistry's Neil Donahue, Rongchao Jin and Kris Matyjaszewski.
By Ben Panko
The research of four Mellon College of Science faculty is some of the world’s most highly cited in the sciences, according to a new list published this month by Clarivate Analytics.
Neil M. Donahue, the Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry, professor of chemical engineering and engineering and public policy, and director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research, was listed among the most cited researchers in the field of geosciences. Donahue’s research centers on the chemistry of the atmosphere, specifically how organic molecules behave and change in it. He was the founding director of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, through which he has led research into how airborne particles can affect human health.
Rongchao Jin, professor of chemistry, was listed among the most cited researchers in the field of chemistry. Jin’s research focuses on nanochemistry, and he is well-known for developing new methodologies to create gold nanoparticles with precise numbers of atoms. More recently, he has pioneered “nano-surgery” that can be used to tailor the structures of these nanoparticles to enhance their functional abilities for health care or electronics.
Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, the J.C. Warner Professor of Natural Sciences and director of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Macromolecular Engineering, was also listed among the most cited researchers in the field of chemistry. Matyjaszewski is known worldwide for developing atom transfer radical polymerization, a method that lets scientists carefully structure polymers. With this precision, he and other scientists are able to develop innovative products with a wide range of functionalities, for example ATRP has been used to create materials that improve the color of paints or deliver drugs to exactly where they need to go in the body.
Di Xiao, associate professor of physics, was listed among the most cited researchers in the field of physics. Xiao’s research looks at the properties of materials in relation to quantum mechanics and how these properties can be harnessed for applications in electronic and magnetic devices. Last year, he was named a Cottrell Scholar, an award recognizing America’s best early career scientists in the fields of chemistry, physics and astronomy.
Joining Donahue, Jin, Matyjaszewski and Xiao on the list was College of Engineering faculty member Greg Lowry, who was among the most cited in the field of environment/ecology and Ilona Riipinen, a professor at Stockholm University and an adjunct professor of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon, who was listed among the most cited researchers in the field of geosciences.
The 2017 list was based on citations in papers published between 2005 and 2015. This year’s list includes roughly 3,400 highly cited researchers in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences. Researchers make the list if their research publications were in the top 1 percent of the most cited papers for their subject field and year, and indexed in the Web of Science indexing platform operated by Clarivate Analytics. Details on the methodology of the list are available online.
Originally published as: Four MCS Faculty Named Among World's Most Highly Cited Researchers