Three USF Sarasota-Manatee campus professors among world’s top researchers

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - Three professors from the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus – Faizan Ali, Thomas Becker and James Unnever – have been included in a database of the top 160,000 scientists worldwide, placing them among the elite in their fields across all disciplines. The database, created by researchers at Stanford University, assessed scientists based on their research citations.

Based on 2019 citations alone, Ali ranked in the top 31 percent of researchers worldwide in the field of “Sport, Leisure and Tourism” and among the top 19 percent of scientists in the dataset; Becker ranked in the top 1.25 percent in “Business and Management” globally and the top 11.6 percent of ranked scientists; and Unnever ranked in the top 1.5 percent among “Criminology” researchers worldwide and among the top 35.2 percent of ranked scientists.

Additionally, a second “career-based” analysis ranked Becker in the top 1.89 percent among Business and Management researchers globally based on research citations from 1996 through 2019 and in the top 47 percent of scientists within the dataset. The top-cited researchers were chosen from among approximately 7 million worldwide who have published at least five papers in their career.

“It was a pleasant surprise to see my name in the list with some of the finest researchers in my discipline,” Ali said. “I am also truly honored to be among some of the brilliant researchers at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. I thank the campus leadership, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Dean Pat Moreo and my mentor, Professor Cihan Cobanoglu, for their support.”

Becker and Unnever said they were pleased as well to be included in the ranking.

“I’m honored to be among the many fine researchers at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus,” said Becker, who joined the university in September 2014. “Many thanks to Regional Chancellor Karen Holbrook and Campus Dean Jean Kabongo for their enthusiastic support of scholarship on this campus.”

Unnever, a renowned criminologist and one of the longest serving professors at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus after joining the faculty in 2011, said, “It was very gratifying when I was informed that I have had a measurable impact on the field of Criminology.

“I began my career with the hope of leaving a legacy behind that includes broadening the field’s perspective on race-related issues,” Unnever said. “I could not have created this body of publications without the brilliant contributions of all of my co-authors. This was truly a collective enterprise.”