Mehmet A. Oturan, researcher in Electrochemistry and Environmental Chemistry at Gustave Eiffel University, cited in the Clarivate 2022 ranking
Un parcours d’excellence
His village of birth (east of Turkey) having no school, he carries out a school course far from his family which his teachers qualify as brilliant. Urged by his teachers to continue his studies, he entered the University of Hacettepe (Ankara) and obtained his Master of Science and then his PhD in organic electrochemistry. He then obtained a scholarship that brought him to France, at the University of Paris-Diderot, where he obtained, in 1996, a habilitation to direct research (HDR).
First assistant professor at the University of Hacettepe, he quickly became a teacher-researcher at the University of Paris-Diderot, then a contract researcher at the Fournier laboratory and at the CNRS before being recruited as a lecturer in environmental chemistry at the University of Marne-la-Vallée (now the University Gustave Eiffel). Freshly founded, the establishment counts him among its first professors-researchers. Thanks to his scientific influence, in 2019 he will receive the title of Professor Emeritus at the Université Gustave Eiffel.
He has been recognized as one of the most influential researchers of the last decade since 2018 for his outstanding research performance, demonstrated by the production of several highly cited articles (1% of top citations).
Prix et distinctions :
- Congress in honor of E. Brillas et M.A. Oturan, organised by ACS at the 250th meeting of the American Chemical Society CS (August 16th-20th 2015, Boston) : "Emerging Electrochemical Water Remediation Technologies. A Symposium in Honor of Professor Enric Brillas and Professor Mehmet A. Oturan" for the development of the electro-Fenton process.
- Special issue honoring E. Brillas et M.A. Oturan : Journal of Hazardous Material, volume 319 (2016).
- International expert and lecturer in "Thousand Talents", China (2018-2021) ; two-month stay each year, mainly at Nankai University (Tianjin).
- Expert of international standing "High-end Foreign Expert" of the State Administration of Foreign Experts' Affairs, China (2015-2017) ; one-month stay each year, mainly at Wuhan University.
- Award ERUDITE (Lecture series by Nobel Laureates and Eminent Scholars), Mahatma Gandhi University and Kerala Government, India (2012).
- Chevalier des Palmes Académiques of the "Légion d'Honneur" (2014.)
His research works
Within the Geomaterials and Environment Laboratory of Gustave Eiffel University, his research activities focus on advanced oxidation processes and their application to the treatment of water, soil and polluted sites. He is co-inventor of the electro-Fenton process and his work on the development of this process has helped to popularize it.
The purpose of this advanced oxidation process is to allow the degradation of refractory organic pollutants not destroyed by water treatment plants.
This efficient and clean method uses only natural elements such as oxygen from the air and iron. The objective is to apply this process in environments with high concentrations of these pollutants, such as hospital outlets or manufacturing plants.
He has been working on the development of the Electro-Fenton process since 2000 and obtained funding from the French Ministry of Research within the framework of the "Research and Technological Innovation Network" which allowed him to form his research team on environmental chemistry with Dr. Nihal Oturan and to equip his laboratory in order to pursue his research work including many PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and foreign guest researchers.
Summary of his scientific productions :
- Referenced articles : > 280 (mainly in high impact journals such as Chem. Rev., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Appl. Catal. B : Environ., Carbon, Water Res., Chem. Eng. J., Environ. Sci. Technol., J. Hazard. Mater, Electrochim. Acta, Chemosphere, Separ. Purif. Technol. et ainsi de suite)
- Number of citations (october 2021) : > 23 600 (Web of Science), > 31 700 (Google Scholar)
- H-index : 81 (Web of Knowledge), 90 (Google Scholar)
- Books and monographs : 5, Books chapters : 9, guest editorials for special issues : 6
- Invited lectures (conferences or seminars) : 78 (including 38 plenary/key lectures and 40 invited seminars)
- Supervision of PhD students : 47 (defended : 44, in progress: 2)
- Organizer/co-organizer of 8 international meetings.