Top Organizations and Researchers in Low Observable Material Science

Inquiry_Default_6

Posted on October 28, 2019 | Completed on October 28, 2019 | By: Taylor H. Knight

Who are the top global researchers and organizations in low, observable (LO) material science?

 

The Defense Systems Information Analysis Center (DSIAC) was asked to search available databases to identify the top global researchers and organizations in low observable (LO) material science.   DSIAC searched multiple literature databases, including Elsevier’s Scopus database and Clarivate’s Derwent Innovations and Web of Science (WoS) databases, to provide information on the publications, number of citations, and patents awarded in LO material science technology and research development.  Lists of the top global researchers and affiliations were compiled based on patents awarded and Scopus and WoS database publications and citations.

 


1.0 Introduction

The Defense Systems Information Analysis Center (DSIAC) completed literature searches for publications and patent information on low observable (LO) material science technology via the Scopus database and Clarivate’s Derwent Innovation and Web of Science (WoS) databases.  DSIAC used a combination of the following search terms:

  • stealth AND military AND (material OR coating)
  • “low observable” AND (infrared OR coating)
  • “low observable” AND (materials OR design OR shaping)
  • stealth AND (materials OR design OR infrared)

The searches were limited to the past 3 years so that the results would reflect the most recent research.  The results across all searches are compiled in Table 1.

 

Table 1:  Top Researchers Across All Searches

Researcher No. of Patents Granted No. of Patents Pending No. of Scopus Publications No. of WoS Publications
Cheng, Hai-feng 13
Liu, Hai-tao 12
Pottier, Agnes 10
Levy, Laurent 10
Meyre, Marie-Edith 10
Cao, Tun 10 31
Zhou, Yong-jiang 10
Cui, Hua-gang 9
Yao, Jun-feng 8
Zhang, Chao-yang 8
Qu, Shaobo 11 12
Wang, Jia-fu 9 11
Pang, Yongqiang 8 10
Zhang, Anxue 8
Baskey, Himangshu Bhusan 7
Brookner, Eli 7
Chen, Juan 7
Jiang, Tian 7
Singh, Dharmendar Kumar 7 10
Liu, Ruihuang 7
Panwar, Ravi 7
Xu, Guoyue 7
Zhang, Jieqiu 7
Zhao, Dapeng 7
Huang, Jun 7
Li, Xiong 12
Li, Guanyong 10
Zhang, Yin 9
Liu, Yujia 9
Wang, Jian-wei 9
Zhang, Jing 9
Zhou, Jian-jing 17
Yamashita, Shigeyuki 17
Junkers, Eric P. 15
Junkers, John K. 14
Wang, Fei 14
Shi, Chen-guang 13
Zhang, Xiaoxing 12
Li, Hai-lin 12
Wang, Feng 12

Note:  WoS = Web of Science.

 

The following results are provided in Sections 2.1 and 2.2:

  • Top researchers and organizations based on the number of patents awarded and pending in LO material science research (Section 2.1).
  • Research and patent trends among top countries performing LO material science research (Section 2.1).
  • Top researchers and organizations based on the number of publications and citations found in Scopus (Section 2.2).
  • Top researchers and organizations found in the WoS database (Section 2.2).

 


2.0  Top Researchers / Organizations Based on Patents

The Derwent Innovation database, part of Clarivate Analytics, was used to search for global researchers in LO material science based on the number of granted (awarded) patents.  Searches were performed using the following terms:

  • stealth AND military AND (material OR coating)
  • “low observable” AND (infrared OR coating)
  • “low observable” AND (materials OR design OR shaping)
  • stealth AND (materials OR design OR infrared)

A spreadsheet containing patent information for the top results found in Derwent Innovations was exported and delivered to the inquirer for further review.

 

2.1 Patents Granted

The search parameters included patents granted in 2016 to the present and alive and indeterminate patents. The total number of hits was 733, and 100 (i.e., 14%) of the patents are from the top organizations (shown in Table 2).

Table 2 lists the top organizations based on patents granted, with the top researcher from the associated organization. The researchers identified in bold in Table 2 can also be found in Table 3, which lists the top researchers, based on patents granted, in descending order.  The top researchers hold 100 patents, or 14% of the total patents granted.

 

Table 2:  Top Organizations Based on Patents Granted

Organization No. of Patents
Granted per
Organization
Top
Researcher(s)
No. of
Patents per
Researcher
Dalian University of Technology 15 Cao, Tun 10
National University of Defense Technology, China 15 Cheng, Hai-feng 13
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics 13 Zhou, Jian-jing 6
Nanobiotix 10 Pottier, Agnes 10
Harbin Institute of Technology 8 Li, Long-qiu 2
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China 8 Deng, Long-jiang 3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 8 Wardle, Brian L. 3
Northwestern Polytechnical University, China 8 Zhang, Qun 4
Hnegyang Tellhow Communication Vehicles Co., Ltd. 8 Cui, Hua-gang 9
Shandong University 7 Liu, Jiu-rong 4

 

Table 3:  Top Researchers Based on Patents Granted

Researcher No. of Patents Granted Affiliation
Cheng, Hai-feng 13 National University of Defense Technology
Liu, Hai-tao 12 National University of Defense Technology
Pottier, Agnes 10 Nanobiotix Co., Ltd.
Levy, Laurent 10 Nanobiotix Co., Ltd.
Meyre, Marie-Edith 10 Nanobiotix Co., Ltd.
Cao, Tun 10 Dalian University of Technology
Zhou, Yong-jiang 10 National University of Defense Technology
Cui, Hua-gang 9 Hengyang Tellhow Communication Vehicles Co., Ltd.
Yao, Jun-feng 8 Shanghai Smartee Denti-Technology Co., Ltd.
Zhang, Chao-yang 8 National University of Defense Technology

 

2.2 Patent Trends by Top Countries

According to the Derwent database, China, the United States, and Japan are the top patent holders in LO research. Based on data from Derwent, the number of patents issued in each country from 2016 to the present has increased each year, suggesting LO research is on the rise (shown in Figure 1).

 

Figure 1:  Graph of U.S., Chinese, and Japanese Patent Trends.

 

2.3 Patents Pending

The top researchers and their affiliations based on the number of pending LO patent applications without grants are shown in Table 4.  Using the same terms as before, the search was limited to alive and indeterminate patents from 2016 to the present.  Indeterminate patents were included because it was unclear whether they were dead or alive.

 

Table 4:  Top Researchers Based on Pending Patents

Researcher No. of Pending Patents Affiliation
Cao, Tun 31 Dalian University of Technology
Zhou, Jian-jing 17 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Yamashita, Shigeyuki 17 Lintec, Corporated
Junkers, Eric P. 15 Hytorc Division, UNEX Corporation
Junkers, John K. 14 Hytorc Division, UNEX Corporation
Wang, Fei 14 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Shi, Chen-guang 13 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Zhang, Xiaoxing 12 Hytorc Division, UNEX Corporation
Li, Hai-lin 12 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Wang, Feng 12 Hengyang Tellhow Communication Vehicles Co. Ltd.

Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

 


3.0 Top Researchers / Organizations Based on Publications and Citations

 

3.1  Scopus Search Results

DSIAC also used Scopus, a literature database, to search for researchers and organizations working in hypersonics and patents related to hypersonics.  Scopus is the largest curated abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, containing over 71 million records, 23,000 peer-reviewed journals, and more than 166,000 books.  Scopus uses sophisticated search tools that can search by document, author, or affiliation and can refine results by source type, year, language, author, affiliation, and more.  As with other search engines, Boolean logic can narrow the number of citations to more relevant results.  Scopus also contains hundreds of thousands of engineering conference papers not covered in alternative databases [1].

Using the same search terms as in the patent search, the Scopus search was also limited to publications from 2016 to the present.  The top organizations are shown in Table 5, and the top researchers are shown in Table 6. The rankings are based on number of publications and citations per organization/researcher.  The h‑index metric is also included as an attempt to measure the productivity and citation impact of the publications of the researchers.  The h‑index is based on an author’s number of publications and citations to provide an estimate of the importance and impact of his/her research contributions.  The h-index means a researcher has index h if h of his/her publications have at least h citations each.  For example, an h-index of 15 means that 15 of the author’s publications have received at least 15 citations each.  The higher the h-index, the more credible the research.

Table 5 identifies the top organizations based on the number of publications, with the top researcher(s) from the associated organization.  Ten of the top researchers identified in bold in Table 5 are can also be found in Table 6, which identifies top researchers based on number of publications.

 

Table 5:  Top Organizations Based on the Number of Publications

Organization No. of Documents Top Researcher(s) No. of
Documents
No. of
Citations
h-Index
Ministry of Education China 43 Cao, Weiping 2 32 9
Northwestern Polytechnical University 39 Zhou, Li 5 16 7
Air Force Engineering University, China 37 Qu, Shaobo 11 47 39
Wang, Jiafu 9 47 32
Pang, Yongqiang 8 47 18
Zhang, Jieqiu 7 41 21
National University of Defense Technology 30 Liu, Ruihuang 7 3 1
Zhao, Dapeng 7 19 7
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics 27 Jiang, Tian 7 68 22
Xu, Guoyue 7 17 22
Chinese Academy of Sciences 26 Luo, Xiangang 6 45 51
Beihang University 22 Huang, Jun 7 6 10
Beijing Institute of Technology 22 Fang, Daining 3 24 43
Xi’an Jiaotong University 19 Zhang, Anxue 8 5 18
Harbin Institute of Technology 19 Wen, Guangwu 3 11 23

 

Table 6:  Top Researchers Based on Scopus Publications and Citations

Researcher Affiliation No. of Documents No. of Citations h-Index
Qu, Shaobo Air Force Engineering University, China 11 47 39
Wang, Jiafu Air Force Engineering University, China 9 47 32
Pang, Yongqiang Air Force Engineering University, China & Xi’an Jiaotong University, China 8 47 18
Zhang, Anxue Xi’an Jiaotong University, China 8 5 18
Baskey, Himangshu Bhusan Indian Institute of Technology 7 24 9
Brookner, Eli Raytheon 7 9 14
Chen, Juan Xi’an Jiaotong University, China 7 4 9
Jiang, Tian Nanjing University, China 7 68 22
Singh, Dharmendar Kumar Indian Institute of Technology 7 45 25
Liu, Ruihuang National University of Defense Technology, China 7 3 1
Panwar, Ravi Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, India 7 57 9
Xu, Guoyue Nanjing University, China 7 17 22
Zhang, Jieqiu Air Force Engineering University, China 7 41 21
Zhao, Dapeng National University of Defense Technology, China 7 19 7
Huang, Jun Beihang University, China 7 6 10

 

3.2  WoS Search Results

WoS provides access to research literature linked to a rigorously selected core of journals, ensuring a unique combination of discovery through captured metadata and citation connections.  The WoS Core Collection provides over one billion cited reference connections indexed from high-quality, peer-reviewed journals, books, and proceedings from 1900 to the present.

WoS was the final database used by DSIAC to search for top global researchers and organizations in hypersonics.  The top researchers and organizations identified via the WoS search are shown in Tables 7 and 8, respectively.  The same search terms were applied to the WoS search, with this search also being limited to publications from 2016 to the present.

 

Table 7:  Top Researchers in WoS

Researcher Affiliation No. of Documents
Li, Xiong Chinese Academy of Sciences 12
Qu, Shaobo Air Force Engineering University, China 12
Wang, Jia-Fu Air Force Engineering University, China 11
Pang, Yongqiang Air Force Engineering University, China 10
Singh, Dharmendra Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India 10
Li, Guanyong Chinese Academy of Sciences 10
Zhang, Yin Nanjing University, School of Information Engineering 9
Liu, Yujia Chinese Academy of Sciences 9
Wang, Jian-wei Chinese Academy of Sciences 9
Zhang, Jing Chinese Academy of Sciences 9

 

Table 8: Top Organizations in WoS

Organization No. of Documents No. of Citations
Chinese Academy of Sciences 36 238
Air Force Engineering University 23 108
Northwestern Polytechnical University 21 307
Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, France 21 113
Indian Institute of Technology System 20 141
Nanjing University of Aeronautics Astronautics 19 56
Xi’an Jiaotong University 16 83
Zhejiang University 16 284
Beijing Institute of Technology 15 145
Monashi University 15 127
National University of Defense Technology, China 15 82

 

3.3  Search Results Analysis

There were two different metrics used to search top global researchers in LO material science research—the number of patents and the number of publications and citations.  When the searches were compared, zero organizations appeared in the search results of each database.  The following organizations appeared in the search results of at least two of the databases:

  • Harbin Institute of Technology, China
  • Air Force Engineering University, China
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Beijing Institute of Technology
  • Xi’an Jiaotong University

There were no researchers that appeared in all our database search results.  Two researchers appeared in the search results of at least two of the databases, Tun Cao and Dharmendra Singh.  Tun Cao is affiliated with Dalian University of Technology and has been awarded 10 patents.  He currently has 31 pending patents, suggesting he is a key researcher in current LO material science.  Dharmendra Singh is affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology and had some of the top publications in Scopus and Derwent databases.

A potential point of interest is that even after multiple rounds of filtering search results, many medical patents and publications were in the final search results.  The technology being used in medical applications may or may not prove applicable to LO material science applications being sought in the military.  However, the medical use of LO materials may be worth exploring.

 


References

[1] Elsevier.  “Scopus.  An Eye on Global Research:  5,000 Publishers.  Over 71M Records and 23,700 Titles.” https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/how-scopus-works,  24 October 2019.

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