Three Florida Polytechnic Scientists Ranked Among Globes' Top Two Percent

With innovative research in nanomedicine, energy systems, and rare earth element recovery, three Florida Polytechnic University professors have been listed among the top 2% scientists in the world. The prestigious list is compiled annually by Stanford University.

Dr. Ajeet Kaushik, assistant professor of environmental engineering; Dr. Hisham Mahmood, assistant professor of electrical engineering; and Dr. Patrick Zhang, director of research mining and beneficiation at the University's Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute, were named to the global list of top 2% of the world's scientists.

The list is based on the number of articles a person publishes and the citations those papers received. The findings were shared in Elsevier, a leading publisher of academic journals. Dr. Muhammad Rashid, professor of electrical and computer engineering, was named to last year's list.

"We are proud of these faculty members' outstanding achievements and are very pleased to see their inclusion among the world's top scientists," said Dr. Terry Parker, the University's provost.

Kaushik's research explores smart and intelligent nanomaterials for use in biosensing applications such as COVID-19 diagnostics. He is also working on using high-performance nanoparticles for developing medicine and targeted drug delivery for the treatment of Alzheimer's and other diseases.

"If your research has an objective to solve an existing problem, you feel motivation automatically," Kaushik said, who recently accepted editorial board positions with several academic journals.

Mahmood studies energy systems integration and distributed generation control and optimization, while working primarily on industrial control design.

"In one of the papers I published, I was one of the first who suggested using voltage control for renewable energy control systems in islanded microgrids instead of conventional control systems," Mahmood said. "I also got attention for research on designing energy control systems that can adapt themselves to operate properly when communications are disrupted."

Zhang, whose recent research focuses on recovering critical rare earth elements from phosphate processing, said he feels honored by the recognition.

"I consider it very important to communicate research results worldwide, and unless there's confidential information, you should try to publish as much information as you can and play a leadership role in the community," Zhang said.