UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Bruce Logan, Kappe Professor of Engineering and Evan Pugh University Professor, has been named to the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list for 2016. This is the third year in a row Logan has received this honor.
The Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list is comprised annually of authors with leading peer-reviewed papers. Researchers given this honor were in the top 1 percent of citations for their field of study and publication year. The 2016 list included more than 3,000 Highly Cited Researchers who were categorized into 22 broad fields of science and social science. Collectively, the researchers named to the list were responsible for more than 128,000 highly cited papers.
Logan has been part of the Penn State faculty since 1997. During his career, he has published more than 460 journal articles, numerous books, and contributed to several book chapters. His research primarily focuses on the sustainability of water infrastructure. This includes topics such as bioelectricity using microbial fuel cells, used water treatment using biological processes, and bio-hydrogen production.
His interest in engineering was sparked by the desire to solve environmental problems.
“I was going to be an ecologist, but then someone suggested that if I wanted to solve environmental problems I should become an engineer,” said Logan. “I had never thought about being an engineer prior to that.”
Logan, who was also named a Highly Cited Researcher in 2014 and 2015, was excited to hear that his work is still making an impact in the engineering community.
“I was very pleased that the area of research is still staying vital and people are still reading my publications,” he said.
Logan was the only faculty member from the College of Engineering to receive this honor. Nine other Penn State researchers also received this distinction in 2016.
Looking forward, Logan is excited and optimistic about the future of his research. His lab primarily focuses on the development of new renewable energy technologies, such as microbial fuel cells and thermal batteries, for achieving an energy sustainable water infrastructure. He is currently interested in further exploring desalination and working to develop new technologies to remove energy from salient gradients.