Dr. Byoung-Suk Kweon was recognized as the top 9th most cited faculty member nationwide as of December 2018.
In a study in the Journal Land, researchers identified the top landscape architecture programs whose faculty consistently contribute to the field of academic research. The data shows University of Maryland’s Landscape Architecture was listed in the top 6 for both total citations and mean citations (citations per faculty member) in the United States. Maryland’s Dr. Byoung-Suk Kweon was also recognized as the top 9th most cited faculty member nationwide as of December 2018.
Traditional landscape architecture programs have provided students with the knowledge, skills, and values needed for students to succeed in the workforce. With the American Society of Landscape Architects recognizing the value of research to the profession with their new Research category in their annual Professional Awards, it is becoming increasingly apparent that research is becoming an important aspect of the profession. In order for students to resolve the ever-rising demand of the environmental and social issues of our time it is critical that university faculty provide information that is not only practical, but provides academic basis and evaluation for their students’ work.
The study details not only the scholarly output of the research conducted, but also takes the quality and impact of that research into account. Previous research had been conducted measuring the number of publications produced per faculty member; however, no study had previously taken the quality of these publications into account. Dr. Kweon was recognized as one of the top most-cited researchers in the field based on overall citations.
With this new recognition, the UMD landscape architecture department is now formally recognized as one of the most productive universities in the continuation of quality research in the field of landscape architecture. “As research becomes an increasingly important part of the profession, the productive programs and individuals identified in this study might provide models for others to emulate,” the study said (Brown, et al., 2020).
Source:
Brown, R.D., T. Tasnum, & Y.J. Kim. 2020. “Assessing U.S. Landscape Architecture Faculty Research Contribution.” Land. Volume 9(3), 64
