Three Samueli School Faculty Recognized for Research Influence
Dec. 2, 2021 - UC Irvine faculty members Amir AghaKouchak, Xiaoqing Pan and Vojislav Stamenkovic have all been named Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate Web of Science for the second year in a row. Experts in their fields, these three were named to the list of researchers who have distinguished themselves by publishing a large number of papers that rank in the top 1% by citation for their field and year of publication, demonstrating significant research influence among their peers.
AghaKouchak is a professor of civil and environmental engineering whose interdisciplinary research crosses the boundaries between hydrology, climatology, statistics and remote sensing to address critical global water resource issues. He seeks to understand the interactions between different types of climatic and non-climatic hazards, including compound and cascading events. AghaKouchak, a California professional licensed civil engineer, is the author or coauthor of more than 195 papers in publications including Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science Advances, Water Resources Research and Geophysical Research Letters. He has received several awards and recognitions including the American Geophysical Union’s James B. Macelwane Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers Walter L. Huber Research Prize, fellow of AGU, AGU Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award, and International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics Early Career Scientist Award.
Pan is a Henry Samueli Endowed Chair in Engineering and professor of materials science and engineering who has a joint appointment in physics and astronomy. He is also the director of the Irvine Materials Research Institute and the Center for Complex and Active Materials, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program. Pan is an internationally recognized materials scientist and electron microscopy expert. His work has led to the discovery of new materials and novel functionalities. He has pioneered the development and novel applications of transmission electron microscopy methods for probing structure, properties and dynamic behaviors of materials at the atomic scale. The recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the Chinese NSF’s Outstanding Young Investigator Award, Pan is a fellow of the American Ceramic Society, American Physical Society, Microscopy Society of America and the Materials Research Society. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers in journals such as Nature, Science and Nature Materials.
Stamenkovic, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering who has a joint appointment in chemistry, is the inaugural director of the Horiba Institute for Mobility and Connectivity². Stamenkovic is a leading expert in the design and synthesis of functional materials for electrochemical applications, primarily in the fields of hydrogen production, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, electrolyzers and batteries. His research interests include materials for energy conversion and storage, electrocatalysis, spectroelectrochemistry, as well as functional biomaterials.
Stamenkovic joined the Samueli School faculty in 2020 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, where he was a senior scientist and group leader. He spent most of his career working for the U.S. National Laboratories: first, for seven years at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and then 15 years at the Argonne National Laboratory. In both places, he pursued fundamental and applied research on materials for electrochemical systems, aiming to reveal correlations between fundamental and functional properties of materials for electrochemical applications. He is the author of over 190 peer-reviewed articles published in journals, including Science, Nature Materials, Nature Energy and Nature Chemistry. Stamenkovic has more than 15 issued patents related to scientific discoveries that have been implemented in electrochemical applications. He is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, such as the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Award, the Distinguished Performance Award by University of Chicago, the Recognition Award by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and was a selected speaker at the U.S. National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering symposium.
Since 2001, the Highly Cited Researchers™ list has identified global research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence – reflected through their publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade. The methodology draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information™ at Clarivate. This year’s list includes 6,602 highly cited researchers in various fields from more than 70 countries and regions, including 2,622 from the U.S.
– Lori Brandt
