Kent State Materials Scientist Again Named Among Most Highly Cited Scholars

It’s starting to look a lot like an annual tradition to see a certain Kent State University professor named on Clarivate Analytics’ list of Highly Cited Researchers in the world.

Mietek Jaroniec, Ph.D., professor in Kent State’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a member of the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, is again ranked in the top one percent of chemists and materials scientists, based on citations in Clarivate’s Web of Science database.

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The 2019 list, released in November, is based on a survey of highly cited papers in science journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection during the 11-year period 2009-2010. This year’s list names 6,216 Highly Cited Researchers — including 23 Nobel laureates — in various fields from nearly 60 countries. The United States claims the highest number of Highly Cited Researchers, with 2,737 authors, or 44 percent of those listed.

“The number of citations is not the measure of quality of research, but this is one of the major indicators that your work is recognized, that colleagues and others find your work worthy to cite,” Jaroniec said. “How else do you know that this work is somehow accepted. It means that what I’m doing is somehow important.”

Jaroniec has been a tenure-track professor at Kent State since 1991, and his own list of achievements is long. As early as 2001, he was listed among the world’s top 100 materials scientists. He was listed on the Clarivate report in 2015 and 2016 for citations in chemistry, and each year since 2017 and 2018 for both chemistry and materials science.

His top paper, “Gas adsorption characterization of ordered organic-inorganic nanocomposite materials,” published in Chemistry of Materials in 2001, has been cited 2,174 times, an average of more than 100 citations a year, including 215 in 2019. He was cited more than 9,280 times total this year. Overall, Jaroniec’s papers have been cited more than 68,400 times, an average of 1,490 citations annually.

“Mietek’s continued recognition as an established authority in chemistry and materials science comes as no surprise to us,” said Paul DiCorleto, Ph.D., Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs. “He’s been a leader at Kent State for nearly thirty years, and it’s because of his influence here and abroad that we’ve been able to build an environment where such world-class researchers can thrive. He certainly has our congratulations, but more than that he has our gratitude.”

Jaroniec’s other honors, both global and domestic include Kent State’s Distinguished Scholar Award (2002), Advisor Excellence Award (2007), and College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teacher Award (2010), service on several journal advisory and editorial boards, and membership in multiple scientific organizations like the American Chemical Society.

In June 2018, he became an Academic Associate Editor of Science Advances journal, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and in July he was promoted to Academic Deputy Editor. He has edited several books and published more than 1,000 scientific articles in international journals.

In 2016, Jaroniec received the Polish Chemical Society’s Medal of Marie Sklodowska-Curie for scientific achievements. The prestigious award is given to outstanding chemists working permanently abroad for exceptional scientific achievements of international significance and for contributions to the community of Polish chemists.

Before joining the faculty at Kent State in 1991, Dr. Jaroniec obtained his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry at the Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Poland in 1972 and 1976, and a Sc.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1979 before serving as a professor there from 1972-1991 in the Department of Theoretical Chemistry.

Media Contacts
Dan Pompili: 330-672-0731, dpompili@kent.edu
Emily Vincent: 330-672-8595, evincen2@kent.edu