Rabat – Two Moroccan scientists have made it into the top ranks of the international 2021 AD Scientific Index.
Two researchers at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rajaa Cherkaoui El Moursli and Farida Fassi, have both made the list of top 50 scientists worldwide based on a variety of criteria.
El Moursli, a professor of nuclear physics, now holds first place across the board, in Morocco, Africa, and the “Arab League.” Globally, she holds 33rd place.
El Moursli is an internationally renowned professor of nuclear physics, at the faculty of science at the Mohammed V University of Rabat. In 2015, she received the L’Oreal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science for her contribution to the proof of the existence of the Higgs Boson. She was the first Moroccan woman to receive the prestigious award.
Read also: CWUR Ranking: Mohammed V University in Rabat Ranks 1st in Morocco
Fassi, a professor of physics at the Faculty of Sciences, follows closely in second place, both in Morocco and on the continent, as well as in the league, while ranked 38th worldwide.
Fassi works as a professor of physics at the Mohammed V University in Rabat, as a Linked Doctor at the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) and a visiting scientist at “Instituto de Física Corpuscular” in Valencia. She has contributed to the research of High Energy Physics, as well as to the Worldwide Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Computing Grid, which sets out to solve the problem of data storage for the LHC.
The rankings are based on three key factors, namely, the H-index, the i10-Index, and the number of general citations. The h-index is an author-level metric measuring productivity and citation impact of their publications, based on a set of the scientist’s most cited papers. The i10-Index measures the number of publications with at least 10 citations through Google Scholar.
The two scientists, by both local and international measures, can be considered trail-blazers. The results are indicative of Morocco’s rise to prominence as a scientific and academic powerhouse. As more Moroccan universities enter international rankings, local scientists and researchers are sure to start making waves soon after.
