Accolade for UPM researcher

Dr Pradhan with a copy of the email that first informed him about the recognition as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers.

DR Biswajeet Pradhan, an associate professor from Universiti Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) Department of Civil Engineering, has been named as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers in the latest Highly Cited Researchers 2016 Report.

The report was published by Clarivate Analytics, formerly the Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters.

Dr Pradhan, 41, is the first researcher from UPM to receive this acknowledgement, and is among six researchers from Malaysia who has been named in the 2016 report as the world’s leading and most influential scientific minds by Thomson Reuters.

He earned this distinction by publishing a number of scientific papers that were ranked among the top one percent most cited for his subject field and year of publication. His H-index in Scopus was 46.

Scopus is a database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles covering nearly 22,000 titles from over 5,000 publishers, of which 20,000 are peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical, and social sciences.

The Highly Cited Researchers 2016 report assessed close to 130,000 Highly Cited Papers indexed over an 11-year period from 2004 to 2014, in 22 fields of science, medicine and social sciences. The 2016 list consisted of 3,265 researchers.

Dr Pradhan, who has been working with UPM since 2007 said he found out about the recognition though an email from Thomson Reutersrecently.

He said he was happy to have been accorded with such an invaluable recognition, and to be the first from UPM to be named among the world’s most highly cited researchers in the Highly Cited Researchers report.

“I hope this will spur and encourage more researchers from UPM to get recognition and distinction,” said Dr Pradhan in a statement.

“This is significant as it shows our growing strength in research, as well as the impact UPM has locally and internationally as a science hub,” said Dr Pradhan, who also expressed gratitude towards UPM vice-chancellor Prof Datin Paduka Dr Aini Ideris, officials and staff for their support which enabled him to achieve this distinction.

With over 16 years of teaching, research and industrial experience, Dr Pradhan has written 370 articles, of which 270 were published in science citation index international journals.

He specialises in remote sensing, geographic information system application, as well as soft computing techniques in natural hazards and environmental problems.