Tour a top-10 chemist
Rice researcher named to list of world’s most-published, most-cited

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

Rice University’s James Tour is one of the world’s top 10 chemists for the past decade, according to a new ranking by Times Higher Education, a United Kingdom publication for professionals in education and research.

	JAMES TOUR

Tour is 10th on the list of high-profile international researchers who were judged on the number of papers published in journals from January 1999 to June 2009, the total number of citations and, critically, the number of citations per paper. The statistics are drawn from the comprehensive database of “Essential Science Indicators” compiled by Thomson Reuters, a business and professional information service.

The analysis found that Tour, Rice’s T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry and a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science, has published 135 papers in that time, with an average of 62.76 citations per paper.

Tour found out about the honor not from Times Higher Education but from the editor of a publication in Germany who sent a note of congratulations.

Natural Sciences
Find out what other award-winning research is being conducted at Rice University
Apply to Rice
Come join the thousands who have found their paths to success at Rice
“It was a surprise, that’s for sure,” Tour said. “It’s nice to see that over the past 10 years, a lot of people have been taking note and it’s been benefiting other people’s research. I guess that’s what it really means when they cite your work.

“The other thing about it, which is really nice, is it’s ranked purely by statistics. There’s nothing political there.”

At the start of the decade, Tour was featured in Wired magazine for his advances in the world of molecular electronics. As 2010 draws near, Tour has branched out into all kinds of research involving manipulation of molecules. Highlights of his lab’s work include, but are not limited to, construction at the nano level, as illustrated by the creation of the first nanocars; graphene-based next-generation computer circuitry; nanoparticles for oil extraction; a Web site to facilitate advances in pharmaceutical synthesis; and even video games and other tools to teach scientific concepts to children.

See the complete top 10 list at http://tinyurl.com/tourtop10.