Physicist is out of ‘cite’
Physics professor John Perdew was elected a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.
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| John Perdew, professor of physics at Tulane since 1977, may be the world’s most-cited physicist. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano) |
In spring 2011, physics professor John Perdew was elected a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.
Members of the academy, composed of about 2,000 distinguished scientists from all fields, advise the U.S. government on science policy. Election to the academy, founded in 1863, is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a scientist or engineer.
Perdew is a leader in the development of density functional theory, which is now widely used in many fields to calculate fundamental properties of materials.
In 2010, a physics and math student at Tulane ran reports on 327 of the most–cited researchers listed by information company Thomson Reuters. In doing so she found that Perdew's work was cited nearly 70,000 times going back to 1981 – making him among the most cited, if not the most cited – physicist in the last 30 years.
"Tulane gave me the chance to do the research that I wanted to do in the density functional theory of atoms, molecules and solids," Perdew says. "My thanks to the academy for electing me and to Tulane for making it all possible." |
