By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Shahiddan Saidi

BANGI, 26 Jan 2016 – In order to be a world-class scientist, one has to think ahead and do research into new fields, said Professor Datuk Ir Dr Wan Ramli Wan Daud, who is one of only three Malaysian researchers who are included in Thomson Reuters’ list of The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds for 2015.

Being a pioneer in a chosen field is important as high quality journals look for scientific work which are about new findings that have not been done by others, said Prof Wan Ramli, who was cited in the list along with his protégé  Prof Dr Siti Kartom Kamarudin.

Speaking at a press conference at UKM, Prof Wan Ramli – an authority on fuel cell technology, hydrogen energy and drying technology – said he does research in anticipation of the future.

“I do research on the technology after ‘Next’. That means there is technology after that. Technology, that would be another 10 years before it becomes mature. That means you are in the forefront of technology. You  are in the forefront of technology, doing things that nobody else in Malaysia is doing, for example, because UKM is the first university to do the technology. Fuel Cell is zero emission device that produces no carbon dioxide, only water. So it’s a zero emission technology.

“What I did was to go into a research area that you will be using the next technology after next, that you will be using in a low-carbon economy.

“It’s not just in the future it is already around the corner. So if you look at the Automotive industry, they are leading in this field, not the governments. For example in Japan, Germany and America.

“By doing work in an area which is on the frontier of science, your research will be original and other top scientists in the same area will refer to your work. So, if its so novel and new, researchers would like to refer to you, because they want to do newer research. It so happens that billions of dollars are being invested in the Western world, Europe and Japan and even China and Korea in this field. They are talking about billions of dollars while we only get about ten million dollars,” he explained.

In thanking the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Higher Education Ministry for the funding, he stressed that Malaysian research is of world standard, because scientists around the world refer to UKM.

“The more scientists refer to you work, that means your work is of high quality. They won’t refer to your work if it is of lower quality. That’s how it works, the number of citations. Other scientists cite your work, to contribute new knowledge to a field,” he stated.

Prof Wan Ramli is the Principal Research Fellow of the Fuel Cell Institute Institute (FuelCell) of UKM and Professor of Chemical Engineering, while Prof Wan  Siti Karton is FuelCell Deputy Director and Head of the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering.

Meanwhile, Prof Siti Kartom explained her research in micro fuel cells.

“I’m looking into using direct methanol fuel cells, such as battery that could be used in mobile phones in Malaysia. It is a sub-set of proton-exchange fuel cells. Direct methanol cell battery system may eventually replace the current battery for mobile applications, e.g. mobile phone battery,” she said.

As to the recipe of success, she insisted that discipline and sincerity are what every researcher needs to have.

“I do research and write papers for scientific journals because I like what I do, and not because I have to do it. That is what I have been practicing,” she remarked.

She also believes that quality is more important than quantity.

 “Sometimes people are publishing like 70-80 papers per year. I publish only 10-15 papers per year but I make sure that my students are publishing in high quality journals.

“The students’ thesis are in Bahasa Melayu, but we get them translated and then send them to English language proof-read before submitting them for publication,” she disclosed.

She stressed that it is important for students to realise that they can write their research in bahasa Melayu and then have it translated to English if they want it to be published in international journals.

She added that she hopes to maintain her annual publication output of 10 to 12 papers and at the same time help UKM to raise its international rankings.

Prof Siti Kartom has been serving UKM for 18 years, and did all her studies starting as an undergraduate through to PhD, at the same university.

Based on an analysis of over a decade of research paper citations among 21 general scientific fields, the Thomson Reuters list is meant to recognise scientists who are most cited by their peers.

The analysis, produced by the intellectual property and science wing of Thomson Reuters, made use of data sets tracking research paper citations.

The three scientists from Malaysia, who are among some 3,000 highly cited researchers listed in the report, were selected by analysing citation data over a recent 11-year period and identifying those who published the greatest number of highly cited papers.

The third is Professor Dr Bassim H Hameed from Universiti Sains Malaysia, who was also cited in the previous year.