POTSDAM – Clarkson University's Egon Matijevic, the Victor K. LaMer Professor of Colloid and Surface Science, and Evgeny Katz, the Milton Kerker Chair in Colloid Science, are listed in the H-index of living scientists.
The H-index attempts to measure both the scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other people's publications.
At ranking #218, Matijevic, with an H of 69, has published 69 papers (among total 575 papers), which have each received at least 69 citations.
At ranking #380, Katz, with an H of 60, has published 60 papers (among more than 300 papers), which have each received at least 60 citations.
It should be noted that this listed of the most-cited chemists totals only 587 worldwide with the two Clarkson's professors among them.
The index was suggested by physicist Jorge E. Hirsch as a tool for determining quality of scientific publications of a person and is sometimes called the Hirsch index or Hirsch number.
The purpose of this index is similar to the popular impact factor, which is used to rank the quality of scientific journals, but it is applied to a person. The definition of the H-index and the explanations of its importance can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index .
The latest list, compiled by Henry Schaefer of the University of Georgia, together with colleague Amy Peterson, was updated in November 2010 and can be found at http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/news/2007/april/23040701.asp .