Three Drexel Faculty Members on Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers List

Three Drexel University faculty members earned the distinction of being ranked among the most cited researchers in their respective fields according to Thomson Reuters’ “Highly Cited Researchers 2014” list. Gordon Richards, PhD, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Trustee Chair professor in the College of Engineering, and Peter DeCarlo, PhD, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences, were included on the list of 3,215 distinguished researchers compiled by the international media and information company.    

“Drexel University is very proud of the accomplishments of these three faculty members. They are shining examples of the numerous and diverse research strengths within the University” said Aleister Saunders, PhD, interim senior vice provost for research.

In developing the 2014 list, Thomson Reuters shifted away from a methodology centered around total citations, which favored more well-established researchers with lengthy publication histories, to a selection approach focused on “more contemporary achievement” and highly cited work. To do this, Thomson Reuters only considered 2002-2012 Web of Science Core Collection Highly Cited Papers, which are those ranked in the top 1 percent by total citations per year, within 21 different fields.

Richards, who oversees the Joseph R. Lynch Observatory atop Drexel’s Main Building, is an expert in the identification of quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) through modern statistical methods using imaging data (pictures) from large astronomical sky surveys, particularly the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project. Richards was one of 23 physicists --three in astrophysics-- selected for the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan research fellowships in 2007 and in 2013 was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt research fellowship for sabbatical research at the Max Planck Institut für Astronomie in Heidelberg, Germany.

Gogotsi, who is the director of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, has been at the forefront of nanotechnology research. His research as part of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has been recognized with numerous international awards, including recognition from the European Carbon Association, the Chinese Ministry of Education, the International Union of Materials Research Societies, the International Institute for the Science of Sintering and the American Ceramic Society. His most cited works involve research on materials for a next-generation energy storage device being developed at Drexel called an electrochemical flow capacitor, as well as pieces published in Science about the behavior and uses of various carbon nanomaterials. Gogotsi is one of only 147 materials science researchers worldwide appearing on this list.

DeCarlo, who holds dual appointments in the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences, has been at Drexel since 2011. He leads Drexel’s Air Resources Research Lab which specializes in aerosols (also called particulate matter), climate and air quality research. DeCarlo was an AAAS Science Policy Fellow from 2010 to 2011 and was a Sheldon K. Friedlander Award recipient for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation from the American Association for Aerosol Research in 2009. He obtained an NSF International Research Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2009 to 2010 and his graduate work was funded by a fellowship from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  DeCarlo’s most cited pieces include research on organic aerosols using a mass spectrometer that he helped to develop as a doctoral researcher at the University of Colorado.

To view the full list of the 2014 Highly Cited Researches, visit the official website by clicking here: http://highlycited.com/