Date: 2017-03-17

THE Editors of Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics under the Elsevier platform, has awarded Dr Olufemi Adebesin of the Department of Physical Science Landamark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State the 'Highly cited research' award.

Adebesin's paper published in 2013 and themed: "Equatorial vertical plasma drift velocities and electron densities inferred from ground-based lonosonde measurements during low solar activity", was described as one of the five most highly cited papers in 2014, 2015 and up till June 2016.

The paper, according to Adebesin, was part of his Ph.D research he embarked upon under the tutelage of Prof. Adeniyi Olusegun and Adimula Isaac of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria.

The paper reported the upper atmosphere dynamics and effects, and more importantly picking a study station in Nigeria, where such are scantily investigated. It is believed that such studies would launch Nigeria and the continent of Africa into the global scene of space weather physics.

NASA is the agency of the United States responsible for the civilian space programme as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.

Adebesin's remarkable performance at NASA opened up a platform for mutual relationship between US agency and Landmark University for collaborationS in research and development. During the period, he was appointed NASA Community Coordinated Modelling Centre (CCMC) ambassador to West Africa.

The article which was published in Elsevier gained wide circulation on Scopus.

According to the publisher, Scopus is an article metrics module that gives a comprehensive view of an article's impact, and evaluates the influence and reach of such article, using a broad basket of both traditional (citation counts) and alternative metrics (e.g. social media activity, mass media mentions) for reporting and further research.

Congratulating Adebesin, LMU vice chancellor, Prof Aize Obayan, noted that the university is known for such exploits.

''Our philosophy is to ensure the total liberation of the Black Man through cutting edge research. This is the path we have set and we shall not deviate from it," she said.