PUSHING INNOVATION, ONE CITATION AT A TIME
Here’s Why Two TN Scientists Are In The Elite Club Of Most Referred Researchers
U.Tejonmayam@timesgroup.com
07.02.2019
More than a decade ago, applied mathematician R Sakthivel spent hours in a robotics laboratory in South Korea rolling out an algorithm that would go on to improve sensors that act as the eye of robots. A year before that, in 2007, Rajnish Kumar, a research scholar in University of British Columbia, Canada, published a paper along with his supervisors on the process of capturing carbon dioxide before exhaust gases are released into the atmosphere from coal-based thermal power stations.
A few months ago, Sakthivel, a mathematics professor at Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, and Kumar, an associate professor of chemical engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, reached a milestone that only a handful of Indian researchers managed to achieve. Over the years, their research had helped several more who were working on similar topics. They were among the 10 in the country and two from Tamil Nadu to be named world’s most ‘influential’ and ‘highly-cited’ researchers in 2018. The list released by the firm Clarivate Analytics in its fifth edition selected 4,000 researchers from across the world. The two scientists are now part of the elite 0.1% of researchers, who have made it to the list based on their citations.
Recognized twice in a row, Sakthivel’s work to improve performance of low-cost sonar sensors that acts as an eye or ‘pathfinder’ for robots was cited 196 times. From military operations, to aiding surgeries and for vacuum cleaners, the algorithm is used in diverse fields. “Though sonar sensors are 25% cheaper than laser sensors, they work like the eye of a 75-year-old, while laser ones are like that of a 25-year-old. Hence, sonar sensors require constant improvement,” said the mathematician, who has more than 6,700 citations to his credit from the 265 published papers.
Kumar’s insight on carbon dioxide recovery was cited more than 284 times. “When you burn coal, you may use the energy to heat water or produce electricity. A lot of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen are released in the process. Now with checks on carbon dioxide, and the Paris agreement restricting its release into the atmosphere, my work on separating the gas before release into the air becomes a turning point,” he explains.
Areas like energy, carbon dioxide capture, water and nano materials, which have a direct impact on the day-to-day lives of the people, are cited often as more researchers are working on it to find solutions to these related issues. But for researchers to be recognized, it takes more than just one paper. “You need to have at least 10 papers that are highly ranked in reputed journals,” says Kumar. “For a researcher, success comes only years after you publish your first paper, because your citation count increases only when your area of research and the work done is considered important and others cite your paper.”
Sakthivel’s area of expertise goes beyond number crunching. Control Theory being one of his areas of research, he often collaborates with engineers to develop algorithms that can control and make a system work according to the requirements. “My algorithms can be used in robotics. In research, there are three stages — theoretical, simulation and experimental set up. To test the effectiveness of my algorithm, I compare it with the data from existing experimental setup,” he said.
Indian industries may not be ready yet to utilize the expertise of chemical engineers like Kumar, especially since the country is in a nascent stage in the field of manufacturing, unlike the US. But his work still reaches the common man. For instance, he was involved in producing biodiesel from sunflower oil using a chemical reaction with ethanol and methanol at very high temperatures (supercritical fluids). “Supercritical fluids act as a solvent as well as a catalyst. This was demonstrated for the first time for the synthesis of biodiesel and thus was cited heavily — around 260 times,” he says. Kumar is now involved in a long-term project on methane recovery from marine natural gas hydrates, which could meet the country’s requirement for the next two centuries.
In between producing quality research work, scientists also have to deal with several other challenges to get noticed in the international community. According to the professors, active collaboration and promotion are ways to do it. “In science individual achievement is almost impossible. Collaboration brings a different dimension to your research. You also have to actively promote your work through interactions and attending international conferences. Scientists won’t know your work and won’t cite your paper unless they have interacted with you,” says Kumar. Funding and lack of government support are other impediments in research. “I applied for Centre’s funding for a project, but it was rejected after the first review. There were no applied mathematicians in the committee that scrutinized the proposal. How will they understand my work,” he asks.
Here’s Why Two TN Scientists Are In The Elite Club Of Most Referred Researchers
U.Tejonmayam@timesgroup.com
07.02.2019
More than a decade ago, applied mathematician R Sakthivel spent hours in a robotics laboratory in South Korea rolling out an algorithm that would go on to improve sensors that act as the eye of robots. A year before that, in 2007, Rajnish Kumar, a research scholar in University of British Columbia, Canada, published a paper along with his supervisors on the process of capturing carbon dioxide before exhaust gases are released into the atmosphere from coal-based thermal power stations.
A few months ago, Sakthivel, a mathematics professor at Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, and Kumar, an associate professor of chemical engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, reached a milestone that only a handful of Indian researchers managed to achieve. Over the years, their research had helped several more who were working on similar topics. They were among the 10 in the country and two from Tamil Nadu to be named world’s most ‘influential’ and ‘highly-cited’ researchers in 2018. The list released by the firm Clarivate Analytics in its fifth edition selected 4,000 researchers from across the world. The two scientists are now part of the elite 0.1% of researchers, who have made it to the list based on their citations.
Recognized twice in a row, Sakthivel’s work to improve performance of low-cost sonar sensors that acts as an eye or ‘pathfinder’ for robots was cited 196 times. From military operations, to aiding surgeries and for vacuum cleaners, the algorithm is used in diverse fields. “Though sonar sensors are 25% cheaper than laser sensors, they work like the eye of a 75-year-old, while laser ones are like that of a 25-year-old. Hence, sonar sensors require constant improvement,” said the mathematician, who has more than 6,700 citations to his credit from the 265 published papers.
Kumar’s insight on carbon dioxide recovery was cited more than 284 times. “When you burn coal, you may use the energy to heat water or produce electricity. A lot of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen are released in the process. Now with checks on carbon dioxide, and the Paris agreement restricting its release into the atmosphere, my work on separating the gas before release into the air becomes a turning point,” he explains.
Areas like energy, carbon dioxide capture, water and nano materials, which have a direct impact on the day-to-day lives of the people, are cited often as more researchers are working on it to find solutions to these related issues. But for researchers to be recognized, it takes more than just one paper. “You need to have at least 10 papers that are highly ranked in reputed journals,” says Kumar. “For a researcher, success comes only years after you publish your first paper, because your citation count increases only when your area of research and the work done is considered important and others cite your paper.”
Sakthivel’s area of expertise goes beyond number crunching. Control Theory being one of his areas of research, he often collaborates with engineers to develop algorithms that can control and make a system work according to the requirements. “My algorithms can be used in robotics. In research, there are three stages — theoretical, simulation and experimental set up. To test the effectiveness of my algorithm, I compare it with the data from existing experimental setup,” he said.
Indian industries may not be ready yet to utilize the expertise of chemical engineers like Kumar, especially since the country is in a nascent stage in the field of manufacturing, unlike the US. But his work still reaches the common man. For instance, he was involved in producing biodiesel from sunflower oil using a chemical reaction with ethanol and methanol at very high temperatures (supercritical fluids). “Supercritical fluids act as a solvent as well as a catalyst. This was demonstrated for the first time for the synthesis of biodiesel and thus was cited heavily — around 260 times,” he says. Kumar is now involved in a long-term project on methane recovery from marine natural gas hydrates, which could meet the country’s requirement for the next two centuries.
In between producing quality research work, scientists also have to deal with several other challenges to get noticed in the international community. According to the professors, active collaboration and promotion are ways to do it. “In science individual achievement is almost impossible. Collaboration brings a different dimension to your research. You also have to actively promote your work through interactions and attending international conferences. Scientists won’t know your work and won’t cite your paper unless they have interacted with you,” says Kumar. Funding and lack of government support are other impediments in research. “I applied for Centre’s funding for a project, but it was rejected after the first review. There were no applied mathematicians in the committee that scrutinized the proposal. How will they understand my work,” he asks.
No comments:
Post a Comment