Penn State Materials Researchers Ranked Top in Scientific Impact
May 28, 2003
University Park, Pa. --- Penn State recently was recognized as the most dominant university in the field of materials science internationally by ISIHighlyCited.com, a subdivision of Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), an organization that monitors scientific citations worldwide and whose rankings are a respected indicator of quality across scientific disciplines.
According to ISIHighlyCited.com, Penn State alone accounts for nearly 5 percent of the researchers, the largest percentage to date of researchers in a given category based at a single institution. Penn State's 12 university faculty members in ISI's list of most cited researchers amount to twice as many representatives as the next institution: University of Texas, Austin, with six faculty members, followed by these universities, each with five researchers: University of California, Santa Barbara; Stanford University; North Carolina State University; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Germany.
Materials research is linked to virtually every field of science and technology. It is inherently interdisciplinary and includes contributions from physics, chemistry and engineering. The discovery and development of new materials enables advances in emerging technologies such as wireless and optical communications, fuel cells, molecular electronics and artificial organs. Materials research can also contribute to lowering the cost and enhancing the performance of more established manufacturing technologies for consumer electronics and automobiles.
Most of Penn State's strengths in materials research can be grouped into the following areas: electronic materials, devices, and sensors; nanoscale science and technology; biomedical materials and devices; materials processing and manufacture; computer simulation and characterization of materials; fuel cell technology; and materials in the environment.
ISI attributes Penn State's success to its integration of materials science across a variety of colleges and departments including the Colleges of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Engineering, Agricultural Sciences, Medicine and the Eberly College of Science through the Materials Research Institute, including the Materials Research Laboratory where many of the highly-cited researchers performed their work. MRI also works to develop industry partners and establish core facilities across campus and is the host of Materials Day, a University-wide showcase of materials research. In fiscal year 2000,the National Science Foundation ranked Penn State No. 1 for research expenditures in materials science.
ISI is the publisher of the Current Contents and Citation Index series among other scientific publications. ISIHighlyCited.com recognizes outstanding researchers in a variety of scientific fields. ISI uses the citation databases they have accumulated between 1981 and 1999 to track the number of citations for each paper, compiling totals of citations for each individual researcher. They identify researchers and crosscheck citations against curriculum vitae to ensure accuracy.
The Penn State researchers on the list are:
--L.E. Cross, Evan Pugh professor emeritus of electrical engineering, College of Engineering;
--Randall M. German, Brush Chair Professor in Materials, engineering science and mechanics, College of Engineering;
--Sridhar Komarneni, professor of clay minerology, College of Agricultural Sciences;
--Digby D. Macdonald, Distinguished Professor of materials science and engineering, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences;
--Russell Messier, professor of engineering science and mechanics, College of Engineering;
--Gary L. Messing, Distinguished Professor of ceramics, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences;
--Robert E. Newnham, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences;
--Rustum Roy, Evan Pugh professor of the Solid State emeritus, intercollege program;
--Thomas R. Shrout, senior scientist and professor of materials, intercollege program in Materials;
--Jogender Singh, senior scientist, Applied Research Laboratory and professor of materials science and engineering, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences;
--Karl E. Spear, professor emeritus, ceramic sciences, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences;
--William B. White, professor emeritus of geochemistry, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
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