Four MCS Faculty Named Among World's Most Highly Cited Researchers
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 list published 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. Donahue was named a University Professor earlier this year.
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. He and his students have continuously pushed this work forward, refining gold nanoparticles so they can be used to create functional nanomaterials that can be deployed in a number of fields including energy, manufacturing and biomedicine.
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. Matyjaszewski was elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year and was named the recipient of the 2019 American Chemical Society Award in the Chemistry of Materials.
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. Xiao was awarded a prestigious Simons Fellowship earlier this year.
Carnegie Mellon faculty joining Donahue, Jin, Matyjaszewski and Xiao on the list include: Greg Lowry, the Walter J. Blenko, Sr. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who was among the most cited in the field of environment/ecology; Kathryn Roeder, UPMC Professor of Statistics and Data Sciences and vice provost for faculty, who was among the most cited in cross-field research; Petar Stojanov, a graduate student in the School of Computer Science, in the field of molecular biology and genetics; 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 2019 list was based on citations in papers published between 2008 and 2018. This year’s list includes more than 6,000 highly cited researchers in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences and cross-field researchers whose work is highly cited in more than one field. Researchers make the list if their research publications were in the top one percent of the most cited papers for their subject field and year and indexed in the Web of Science Group indexing platform operated by Clarivate Analytics. Details about the list's methodology can be found online.