A global study by Stanford University has identified 17 SMU researchers as among the top scientists in the world.

Their fields of research span the management of innovation, econometrics, urban geography, behavioural science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and mobile computing.

SMU Provost Professor Timothy Clark said, “I would like to congratulate our researchers for being placed among the top scientists in the world through their rigorous and impactful research. These recognised scholars are testament to SMU’s peaks of excellence in research, and exemplify SMU’s commitment to deep disciplinary knowledge and top-quality academic scholarship.

“Collectively, the works of these leading researchers demonstrate SMU’s academic excellence at the intersection of social sciences, management and computing. Their scholarly work and applied research also underlines SMU’s multi-disciplinary focus on cities and their complex ecosystems, covering a wide range of issues spanning urban economics, innovation ecosystems, urban heritage and data-driven optimization of urban services such as logistics and municipal services.”

The work of several of the recognised scholars attests to SMU’s aspiration for societal impact through translational and multi-disciplinary research, often in collaboration with external organisations. For example, in addition to being known for his academic scholarship on machine learning fundamentals with applications across diverse fields such as computer vision and computational finance, Prof Steven Hoi is currently on leave from SIS to take up the appointment of  Managing Director, Salesforce Research Asia.

Similarly, Prof David Chan is not only known for his outstanding scholarship on industrial and organisational psychology, he is also a well-regarded public voice, advising many public agencies on policy issues. He has recently authored his 13th book titled “Combating A Crisis: The Psychology Of Singapore's Response To Covid-19”.

This attention to contemporaneous impact is fostered by the leaders of the University, with SMU President Prof Lily Kong also an award-winning researcher, well known for her research on urban transformations, and social and cultural change in Asia.

In the Stanford study, Dr John P. A. Ioannidis of Stanford University and his research team used data from Scopus and created a database of 100,000 top-scientists that provides standardized information on citations, an individual’s scientific productivity and impact or h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator. The scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields. Separate data are shown for career-long (until 2019) and single year impact.

About SMU Research

Singapore Management University is a dynamic city university in the heart of Singapore. We are a specialised university focused on Management, Social Sciences and Technology, and their intersections.

We adopt an integrated research-teaching-learning-practice approach that fosters innovative learning experiences, develops influential change agents and leaders, and creates positive impact on business, government and society in Asia and beyond.

SMU continues to strengthen as a research-intensive university which generates high impact, disciplinary and cross-disciplinary research that addresses issues of regional and global relevance. This is done through our six Schools and our institutes, centres, and labs. To maximise societal impact, SMU conducts both fundamental academic and use-inspired translational research, often in collaboration with public agencies and partner companies.

For more information on SMU’s research, please visit research.smu.edu.sg.