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Meet top scientists of PU; 2 are women

CHANDIGARH: The top scientists of Panjab University (PU) are particle physicists, who explore building blocks of matter and radiation, and their interaction.

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Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 16

The top scientists of Panjab University (PU) are particle physicists, who explore building blocks of matter and radiation, and their interaction. Whether you count the number of publications or citations, they are much ahead of faculty members from other subjects. Two of them are women.

As per Scopus, which is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed scientific journals, books and conference proceedings and is used for international rankings of universities, Prof Vipin Bhatnagar from the Physics Department has 1,292 publications and has 58,692 citations. His h-index, which is a measure of publications and citations of a scientist and is used to rate them, is 100. If a person has an h-index of 100, it implies he has 100 papers, which have at least 100 citations.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) also used Scopus database for ranking Indian institutions. Prof Emeritus Suman Bery has 1,361 publications and 58,692 citations. Her h-index is 99.

Prof Manjit Kaur has 1,186 publications and 48,099 citations. Her h-index is 88.

Prof JB Singh has 1,049 publications and has 57,161 citations. His h-index is 104.

Asst Prof Nitish Dhingra of GHG Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, Ludhiana, has 615 publications and has 29,331 citations. His h-index is 78. The college is affiliated to the PU. Dr Dhingra was a PhD student of Prof JB Singh. He completed his PhD in 2012.

Immunology and microbiology has lowest contribution at 2.1%, environmental sciences has 2.4% and social sciences has just 2.8%.

The total number of publications from the PU in 2016 was 1,238, while in 2017 it slumped to 1,115. In 2018, it rose to 1,197. There were 8,635 citations in 2016, 4,909 in 2017 and 1,189 in 2018.

Why particle physicists are ahead

Explaining reasons behind high citations, Prof Vipin Bhatnagar, who has been publishing papers since 1994, said, “With 100 to 150 publications of high energy physics group at the PU every year, their number is high. Our citations are high too due to their impact. All of us are attached with Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project, which is the biggest physics experiment. I am also attached with Fermi Lab.” “Founding chairperson of the Physics Department was Prof BM Anand. He was a student of Nobel Laureate. He started high energy physics at our department. So, we have got a legacy and are continuing with that,” he added. “The LHC is the biggest physics experiment. It is a collaborative project. So, any paper connected with it is cited a lot,” said Prof Suman Bery. “We have multiple authors in our papers, sometimes over 1,000,” she added. 

Top performers of PU

Teacher h-index

Prof JB Singh 104 

Prof Vipin Bhatnagar 100

Prof Suman Bery 99

Prof Manjit Kaur 88

Asst Prof Nitish Dhingra 75

(From Scopus Database as on Jan 14)

What is LHC

The LHC is aimed at uncovering what the universe is made of and how it works. European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) built the LHC between 1998 and 2008. The experiments at the lab led to discovery of God Particle in 2012.

What next is in store

“Experiments at the LHC will continue to establish properties of Higgs Boson, which is also referred to as God Particle. Detectors are being upgraded as of now. There are questions related to dark matter, which will be answered. The PU has major contribution in the project,” said Prof Manjit Kaur. 

Scopus Database: Max papers are in Physics

It is physics and astronomy from the PU, which have contributed 20.1%, the highest number of publications among all subjects during three consecutive years (from 2016-18). It is followed by engineering at 9.5% and chemistry at 9%. The publications related to biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology come next at 8.2%. Material science has contributed 7.7%, medicine 6.7% , computer science 6.4%, pharmacology and toxicology and pharmaceutics 6.2% in publications.

Subject % of Publications in Scopus

Physics and Astronomy  20.1 %

Engineering                    9.5 %

Chemistry                    9 %

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 8.2 %

Material Science 7.7 %

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