Elsevier and ProSPER.Net Announce 2012 Asia-Pacific ProSPER.Net-Scopus Young Scientist Award Winners

TOKYO, August 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services, today announced the winners of the 2012 ProSPER.Net Scopus Young Scientist Award.

Co-hosted by ProSPER.Net and Elsevier for the past 4 years, the Prosper.Net-Scopus Young Scientist Award in Sustainable Development Symposium, previously held in Malaysia, Shanghai and the Philippines, this year was held in Tokyo, Japan in July 2012. At this annual symposium the ProSPER.Net Scopus Young Scientist Award is given to young scientists or researchers based in the Asia-Pacific region who have made significant contributions in the area of Sustainable Development.

The award's selection criteria are based on the number of publication, number of citation and H-index from the world's largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, Scopus, as well as documented social impact. The winners receive prizes, including a fellowship to Germany with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

The three winners, respectively from Thailand, China and Indonesia, were selected by a panel of Education for Sustainable Development judges from 9 shortlisted candidates out of 85 applicants from Asia-Pacific.

The winners in the 3 categories are:

Sustainable Infrastructure:
Dr. Tanapon Phenrat, Naresuan University, Thailand
Research Area: Groundwater and Soil Remediation

Sustainable Consumption and Production:
Dr. Jun Yang, Chinese Academy of Science, China
Research Area: Sweet Potato Genetic Transformation for Environment-friendly Production

Health with a Focus on Poverty Eradication
Dr. Yodi Mahendrahata, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
Research Area: Poverty-related Diseases, Especially TB, Malaria and Dengue

"We are delighted to have the opportunity to present this award in collaboration with Elsevier. Every year we see more and more outstanding work being done by young scientists in the Asia-Pacific region. I hope this award serves as an inspiration to young researchers who will continue to tackle sustainability challenges and keep their efforts to build sustainable societies," said Mr. Kazuhiko Takemoto, Director of ProSPER.Net Secretariat and Programme Director for Education for Sustainable Development, UNU-IAS.

Mr. Lim Kok Keng, Managing Director of Science & Technology Asia-Pacific at Elsevier said, "Elsevier is honored to continue the tradition of recognizing the achievements of young scientists in Asia-Pacific who have made significant contributions to Sustainable Development research. These young scientists are conducting important work that will shape the future of sustainable development in infrastructure, consumption and production, and health sciences. We are proud to support the endeavors of the global scientific community."

"The inclusion of Sustainable Infrastructure in the 2012 ProSPER.Net Scopus Young Scientist Award was an inspired decision that attracted a very strong field of applications," said one of the award panelists, Prof. Tony Dalton from RMIT University. "Many young researchers within the Asia-Pacific region are passionate about Education for Sustainable Development. They demonstrate how scholars are contributing to making the infrastructure provision of cities and regions a part of important climate change mitigation and adaptation agendas. The winner of the Sustainable Infrastructure category demonstrates this capacity at a very high level, and future winners will continue to inspire many young scholars to emulate their committed approach to sustainability research."

About ProSPER.Net

The network for the Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research (ProSPER.Net) is a network of several leading higher education institutions in Asia and the Pacific that have committed to work together to integrate Sustainable Development into postgraduate courses and curricula. Member institutions involved have strong education and research programmes in sustainable development and related fields. http://www.ias.unu.edu/efsd/prospernet

About the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (http://www.humboldt-foundation.de) supports the ProSPER.Net-Scopus Young Scientist Award in Sustainable Development by providing a Humboldt Research Fellowship and additional benefits to the award winners. The Humboldt Research Fellowships allow them to come to Germany to work on a research project they have chosen themselves together with a host and collaborative partner in a German institution for a period of six to 18 months. To ensure a maximum value of the research stay the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation will provide the awardees with assistance in finding an appropriate host institution. This should be facilitated by an optional travel to Germany beforehand to meet possible host institutions. The approval of a scientist in Germany to host the award winner is a precondition being awarded the Humboldt Research Fellowship for experienced researchers. Once a Humboldtian, always a Humboldtian. Even after research fellows' initial stay in Germany has come to an end, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation maintain close links with them by providing a comprehensive alumni sponsorship programme.

About Scopus

Covering the world's research literature, Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality Web sources with smart tools to track analyze and visualize research. Scopus was designed and developed with over 500 users and librarians internationally. Its unique database contains abstracts and references from nearly 18,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, ensuring broad interdisciplinary coverage. In addition, Scopus not only offers users citation information about the articles covered, but also directly integrates Web and patent searches. Direct links to full-text articles, library resources and other applications like reference management software, make Scopus quicker, easier and more comprehensive to use than any other literature research tool. For more information about Scopus please visit http://www.info.scopus.com

In October 2008, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) announced it would use Scopus Custom Data for its research, analysis and benchmarking work due to its broad international coverage, clean flexible data and advanced features. Australian Research Council (ARC) selected Scopus to provide citation information for the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative Cluster One evaluation.  Of the top 50 universities, as ranked by Time Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, 50% depend on Scopus and the percentage continues to increase each year.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Nursing Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media contact
Catherine Gold
Elsevier
+1-212-462-1965
c.gold@elsevier.com