Two Named to Reuters’ Highly Cited Researchers List

Sept. 15, 2016 - Two Samueli School faculty members have been recognized as among the world’s most influential scientific minds, according to the 2016 Highly Cited Researchers list published by Thomson Reuters. The list of highly cited scholars includes preeminent researchers from around the world in 21 fields of the sciences and social sciences who have demonstrated great influence as measured by citations to their work.

Syed Ali Jafar, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, who made the Highly Cited Researchers list for the third consecutive year, analyzes the capacity of wireless communication networks. In addition to his earlier work on multiple antenna (MIMO) technology and cognitive radio, Jafar is best known for his influential work on the idea known as interference alignment, which demonstrates how a resource such as network bandwidth can be shared among competing users in such a manner that each user gets half of the total bandwidth free from interference from others.

Jafar and his doctoral student Viveck Cadambe were among the youngest researchers ever to win the prestigious IEEE Information Theory Society Paper Award, and interference alignment has since been recognized as one of the "Top Topics" and as a "Fast Moving Research Front" by Sciencewatch in 2011. Jafar also received the 2015-16 UCI Distinguished Mid-Career Faculty Award for Research, and was awarded the 2015 Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists in physical sciences & engineering, one of three winners chosen from among 300 candidates from highly ranked American universities and research institutions.

Satya Atluri, Distinguished Professor emeritus in mechanical and aerospace engineering, made the Highly Cited Researchers list for the second consecutive year. His research included inventing the so-called “meshless method” that has aided the design of safer materials for aircraft. His work encompassed theoretical, applied and computational mechanics of solids and fluids; and structural longevity, failure prevention and health management. Atluri also has received India’s Padma Bhushan award “for distinguished service of high order in the field of engineering and science.” In addition, he was the 2015 recipient of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics Walter J. and Angeline H. Crichlow Trust Prize, which recognizes a specific achievement or body of work that has become significant during the immediate past 15 years.

The 2016 list of highly cited researchers is based on papers published during the 11-year period 2004-2014. Highly cited papers are those that rank in the top 1 percent by citations indexed in the Web of Science. Researchers are selected not only for total citations but also for the number of highly cited papers contributed.

--Anna Lynn Spitzer