UTSA professor Banglin Chen has been ranked as one of the top 100 chemists over the past decade for his citation impact factor.
(March 25, 2019) -- Banglin Chen, a highly prolific chemistry researcher at UTSA, has been awarded the distinguished Humboldt Research Award. The award recognizes a researcher’s entire achievements to date and is granted to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories and insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline, and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.
Chen, the Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, arrived at UTSA in 2009 and credits the warm weather, tenure position and a beautiful city of San Antonio as convincing his family to make the move. He was born in Zhejiang, China and studied in China and Singapore. He also worked with researchers Omar M. Yaghi at the University of Michigan, Stephen Lee at Cornell University and Andrew W. Maverick at Louisiana State University as a postdoctoral fellow (2000-2003) before joining the faculty at UT-Pan American in 2003.
Since arriving at UTSA, Chen has won a series of recognitions for his research. In 2011, he was ranked as one of the top 100 chemists over the past decade based on his citation impact factor. Each year, from 2014 to 2018, he was chosen as a highly cited researcher by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics. He was also spotlighted in The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014-2018 by Thomson Reuters and is on the 2016 List of Most Cited Researchers in Materials Science and Engineering by Elsevier Scopus Data.
As a Humboldt recipient, Chen will visit several institutions in Germany this summer to initiate long-term collaborations with scientists in the nation, particularly Stefan Kaskel, whom he has known for 10 years. Kaskel, who is based at Technische Universitat Dresden, nominated Chen for the Humboldt Award and will serve as his Humboldt host professor.
Each morning, Chen awakes with excitement to work with his students at UTSA and make new discoveries.
“UTSA has given us the freedom and environment to fully develop our ongoing research, particularly through the Welch research grant,” he said. “My colleagues, administrative staff and research officials, particularly Mary Riedel and Neal A. Guentzel, are very friendly and supportive.”
Chen’s work on gas storage, gas separation, photonics, sensing and heterogeneous catalysis has been published over 40,000 times in close to 300 peer-reviewed articles and books with citations. His work has been published in Science, Nature Materials, Nature Energy, Advanced Materials, Energy and Environmental Science and other top journals.
The chemist’s current research goal is to develop membranes and to commercialize materials for large-scale gas separations. For example, a material termed UTSA-280 [Ca(C4O4)(H2O)]∙xH2O can be straightforwardly synthesized at a large scale in water from sodium squarate and Ca(NO3)2∙4H2O. This material is very stable in the air and under water moisture. It shows highly selective sieving separation for ethylene/ethane.
“Metal-organic frameworks are very promising materials for gas storage and gas separation at a lower energy and economic cost,” said Chen.
Michael Doyle, the Rita and John Feik Distinguished University Chair in Medicinal Chemistry, has mentored Chen during their time together at UTSA.
“The importance of metal-organic frameworks is likely to be recognized by a Nobel Prize in the near future, and Professor Chen will be one of those in the pool of scientists who are the leaders in the development of this important technology,” said Doyle. “His contributions are recognized nationally and internationally, and they bring a heightened visibility to the role taken by UTSA in advancing science and technology.”
When Chen and Kaskel collaborate this summer, they will examine flexible metal-organic frameworks for gas separation and storage and for energy transformation.
In a nutshell, Chen’s goal is to discover some basic chemistry and materials that can benefit society.
Learn how the UTSA Department of Chemistry is advancing science through research and discovery.
Celebrate UTSA’s 50th Anniversary and share social media posts about the 50th using the hashtag #UTSA50.
Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
The UTSA Office of Undergraduate is proud to celebrate National Undergraduate Research with an annual event sponsored by the (OUR) featuring students will showcase undergraduate student research and creative endeavors from all disciplines across campus.
Various LocationsDía en la Sombrilla, formerly Fiesta UTSA, is a festival hosted each spring as a part of Fiesta® San Antonio events. Sponsored by Roadrunner Productions, the event features music, food, confetti, games, event t-shirts, and more.
Sombrilla Plaza and Central Plaza, Main CampusFiesta Arts Fair features contemporary art from more than 100 artists from across the U.S., Fiesta favorite foods, drinks, live music by local and regional performers, and a Young Artists Garden providing opportunities for budding artists to learn, explore and express their creativity.
UTSA Southwest CampusJoin the PEACE Center and Wellbeing Services for Denim Day, a day of learning about the importance of consent and why we wear denim on the last Wednesday of the month each April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Stop by our Denim Day display to take a photo in front of our Denim Wall, spin the "Is It Consent?" Wheel, and get a Concha or goodie.
Student Union Window Lounge, Main CampusLearn to use Zotero®, a citation manager that can help you store and organize citations you find during your research. Zotero can generate bibliographies in various styles, insert in-text citations and allow you to share sources with collaborators.
Virtual EventThis event is to achnowlege the graduating seniors and induct the new cohart of scholars to our program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140,) Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
AlamodomeThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
