UA Faculty Research Papers Top

UA Faculty Research Papers Top 'Most-Cited' Lists

By Bill Gerdes and Elizabeth Smith

Research papers published by two University of Alabama faculty members have been recognized as two of the most often cited articles in their fields.

An article titled, "The Market-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing," co-authored by Dr. Robert Morgan, associate professor of marketing at the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, now has the distinction of being the most frequently cited article of all the articles published in business and economic journals monitored by Thomson ISI (Institute for Scientific Information).

Another paper published by a group of researchers led by Dr. Robin Rogers, professor of chemistry and director of UA's Center for Green Manufacturing, was cited by the newsletter "Science Watch," which tracks trends and performance in basic research, as the fifth most cited chemistry paper in the world. The paper is titled, "Characterization and comparison of hydrophilic and hydrophobic room temperature ionic liquids," and was tracked by Thomson ISI for a specific two-month period.

Morgan's paper was co-authored by Dr. Shelby Hunt of Texas Tech University who was Morgan's adviser and mentor while Morgan was pursuing his doctorate at TTU.

"It's very humbling," Morgan said. "I was one of two authors, but we built on the things others had done, and I feel we did a good job of tying things together and testing things in ways they haven't been tested before."

Ionic liquids, the topic of Rogers' paper, have been a hot topic as the science community looks for new solvents to replace the traditional ones whose volatility is seen as a threat to the global environment.

"Almost everything we do leads to a new area of research where we have so much to learn of the fundamentals of the chemistry, while at the same time having so many possible applications to explore," Rogers said. "While the overall motivation is to develop green technologies for industrial practice, one can't help but get caught up in the wonder of the unknown and trying to tease out that fundamental picture of what they are and how they work."

Morgan's paper was published in the July, 1994 issue of the Journal of Marketing. Roger's paper was published in Green Chemistry, 2001, 3, 156-164. The full text of both articles may be retrieved online. Simply enter the name of either journal on the search line of the University Libraries' online e-journal list at http://www.lib.ua.edu/resources/ejournals/.

Dr. Robert Morgan — Associate Professor of Marketing and J. Reese Phifer Faculty Fellow

Specialty Areas and Interests: Marketing strategy, relationship marketing, market and competitive analysis, industrial marketing, channels of distribution, electronic commerce, building customer loyalty, e-business/commerce strategy.

Education: Wichita State University (B.S.), University of Kansas (B.S.), University of Dallas (M.B.A.), Texas Tech University (Ph.D.).

Honors, Achievements and Affiliations: Morgan has been an AMA Doctoral Consortium Fellow. He received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching at Texas Tech University. His research has been published in the Journal of Marketing, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research and Marketing Management, and he received the 1995 Harold H. Maynard Award for the best theory paper appearing in the Journal of Marketing. The professor is also a member of the editorial review board of the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is a contributor to two books: The Handbook of Relationship Marketing and Relationship Marketing: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention.

Dr. Robin D. Rogers — Professor of Chemistry and Director, UA Center for Green Manufacturing

Specialty Areas and Interests: The expansion of interest and research in ionic liquid systems, applying ionic liquids to clean separations. Co-organizer of NATO ARW and ACS symposia on Industrial Applications of Ionic Liquids.

Education: University of Alabama (B.S., chemistry, Summa Cum Laude, and Ph.D. in chemistry).

Honors, Achievements and Affiliations: Rogers holds three issued patents and has published more than 520 papers on a diverse array of topics including structural chemistry, green separation science and technology, room temperature ionic liquids, aqueous biphasic separations, dissolved metal ion separations, environmental applications, pollution prevention, pollution remediation, design and synthesis of porous solids, radiochemistry, and environmental inorganic chemistry. He currently holds research grants from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and various foundations. He was the editor of Journal of Chemical Crystallography, one of the founding editors of Crystal Engineering, and an associate editor for Separation Science and Technology. He currently serves on the editorial board for Separation Science & Technology and Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange and on the international advisory board for Green Chemistry. Rogers is the founding editor-inchief of the new ACS journal Crystal Growth & Design.