Three professors of NU among world’s top 2% scientists

DIMAPUR — Three faculty members of Nagaland University (NU) namely Prof. Ambrish Singh from Chemistry department, Prof. Joginder Singh from Botany department and Prof. Sujata Dash, professor and head of Information Technology department have featured in the list of the world’s Top 2% scientists for 2024 released by Elsevier and Stanford University, USA.

An update from the university stated that Prof. Ambrish Singh has been included in the list for the past five years, while Prof. Joginder Singh has been recognised for the last two years.

Prof. Ambrish Singh completed his Ph.D. at VBSPU, Jaunpur. Before joining Nagaland University, he was professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Southwest Petroleum University in Chengdu, China, from January 1, 2016, to May 14, 2023. He was an assistant professor at Lovely Professional University and also served as a senior research fellow and research assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University.

Prof. Joginder Singh earned his M.Sc. in Botany in 2000, specialising in plant-microbe interaction and completed his Ph.D. in 2003 on arbuscular mycorrhizal relationships of halophytes in Western Rajasthan. He has published more than 200 research articles, edited 32 books and authored or co-authored 150 chapters.

Prof. Sujata Dash completed her Ph.D. at Berhampur University and a Postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Manitoba, Canada. She holds an advanced diploma in Bioinformatics from the University of Alabama, Huntsville, USA, and an M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering.

She was honoured with the prestigious Titular Fellowship from the Association of Commonwealth Universities, United Kingdom in 2017. She has authored over 200 technical papers published in international journals and conference proceedings and edited book chapters by reputed publishers such as Springer, Elsevier, IEEE, IGI Global USA, and Wiley.

Meanwhile, NU vice chancellor, Prof. JK Patnaik, said: "This is a remarkable achievement for Nagaland University, reflecting the perseverance and unwavering dedication of the three faculty members in reaching this significant milestone."

The prestigious list was published on September 16, 2024.

The Top 2% scientists list, published by Elsevier and Stanford University, evaluates the impact and relevance of scientists' work using various metrics. Key criteria included total citations, which reflect the overall number of citations received by a scientist’s publications; the H-index, a metric that quantifies both productivity and citation impact; and co-author impact, which considers the influence of collaborators on citation metrics.

Additionally, the field-weighted citation impact adjusts citations based on the average citation rate within specific fields to account for variations in citation practices.

It stated that scientists are categorised based on their overall career contributions as well as their recent achievements, and in some cases, performance metrics are compared against the top scientists within specific fields through top 10% thresholds. The comprehensive evaluation serves to identify leading researchers across disciplines.