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Fréchet goes over 100K

Vice President for Research Jean M.J. Fréchet has been cited more than 100,000 times.

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Vice President for Research Jean M.J. Fréchet joined a small, highly elite group of researchers recently when he surpassed the 100,000 citation mark. According to the Google Scholar Citations database, Fréchet's research has been cited 100,158 times as of December 2016. In the Webometrics list of highly cited researchers, Fréchet ranks 82nd all-time among researchers both living and deceased.

Obtaining such an impressive record of citations is no easy task considering that only three papers in recorded history have been cited more than 100,000 times and only 148 papers have ever been cited more than 10,000 times, according to research published on nature.com.
Fréchet is a prolific scientist and innovator, having authored over 800 publications and holding over 100 U.S. and international patents. Among his scientific contributions is the development of an essential piece of every mobile device you own—the chemically amplified photoresists used in the fabrication of microprocessors and memory chips.


 

A lifetime of inquiry

Born in France, Fréchet received his first university degree at the Institut de Chimie et Physique Industrielles (now CPE in Lyon, France) before moving to the United States for graduate studies in organic and polymer chemistry at Syracuse University and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Ottawa in Canada in 1973 and remained there until 1987, when he became an IBM professor of polymer chemistry at Cornell University in the U.S. In 1995, he was named the Peter J. Debye chair of chemistry at Cornell.

Fréchet joined KAUST after 14 years at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the Henry Rapoport chair of organic chemistry and professor of chemical engineering. While at Berkeley, he also served as a principal investigator in the Materials Science Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and as the scientific director of the Organic and Macromolecular Facility for the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

His numerous awards and honors include the Japan Prize and multiple recognitions from the American Chemical Society, including the Arthur C. Cope Award, and awards in polymer chemistry and applied polymer science. Fréchet is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Science, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors and the Academy of Europe.