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.
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. To mark his 70th birthday, Matyjaszewski was honored this year with a commemorative issue of the Journal of Polymer Science.
Di Xiao, 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.
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, who was among the most cited in cross-field research; and Petar Stojanov, a doctoral research assistant in the School of Computer Science, in the field of molecular biology and genetics.
The 2020 list was based on citations in papers published between 2009 and 2019. 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.