Georgios Nikolaou | Agricultural Engineering | Research Excellence Award

Published on by Invention Awards

Dr. Georgios Nikolaou | Agricultural Engineering | Research Excellence Award

Department of Agriculture (DOA), Cyprus

Dr. Georgios Nikolaou is an Agronomist specializing in Irrigation Engineering and Greenhouse Technologies, with professional experience since 2005 at the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment. His expertise includes the design, inspection, and auditing of large-scale pressurized irrigation systems, irrigation scheduling based on evapotranspiration modelling, and environmental control of plant production units. He holds a PhD from the University of Thessaly focused on greenhouse microclimate effects on hydroponic irrigation scheduling in Mediterranean conditions, complemented by strong research skills in phyto-sensing and precision agriculture. In addition, he earned an MBA from the Cyprus International Institute of Management, strengthening his competencies in strategic planning, decision-making, and agricultural cluster development. His academic foundation includes BSc and MSc degrees from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with extensive experience in crop production, irrigation planning, and sustainable farming practices. In recognition of his scientific excellence, he was awarded the EMS Tromp Award for Outstanding Achievement in Biometeorology in 2025.

Citation Metrics (Scopus)

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
10
0

Citations
605

Documents
25

h-index
13

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Scopus Profile

Featured Publications

 

Maikel Leon | Artificial Intelligence | Research Excellence Award

Published on by Invention Awards

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maikel Leon | Artificial Intelligence | Research Excellence Award

University of Miami, United States

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maikel Leon is an accomplished academic and AI specialist with a Ph.D. in Computer Science focused on artificial intelligence applied to transportation from Hasselt University, Belgium, and summa cum laude degrees from the Central University of Las Villas, Cuba. Since 2015, he has been a faculty member at the Department of Business Technology, Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami, teaching and coordinating a wide range of courses in business analytics, programming, machine learning, databases, and artificial intelligence for business. His academic career spans institutions in the United States and Cuba, reflecting strong international teaching and research experience. Dr. Leon is an active reviewer and program committee member for leading journals and conferences, including IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems and FLAIRS. He has received prestigious honors such as the Best Paper Award at the IEEE ICTAI Conference and the Cuban National Academy of Sciences Award for outstanding research. Beyond academia, he is a frequent media commentator on AI, a certified professional in generative AI and cloud technologies, and a leader in innovative teaching, entrepreneurship, and international collaboration initiatives.

Citation Metrics (Scopus)

400
300
200
100
50
0

Citations
355

Documents
38

h-index
11

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Scopus Profile

Featured Publications

 

Tarek Khalil | Surgical pathology | Research Excellence Award

Published on by Invention Awards

Mr. Tarek Khalil | Surgical pathology | Research Excellence Award

Ninewells, United Kingdom

Mr. Tarek Khalil is a disciplined and highly motivated surgical trainee at Ninewells Hospital, deeply committed to excellence in patient care and to continuous clinical and academic development. He adopts a proactive approach to surgery, consistently striving for improvement, with experience enriched through multiple audits and quality improvement projects, national and international presentations, peer-reviewed research publications, and ongoing studies aimed at advancing surgical knowledge and patient outcomes. He possesses strong statistical proficiency, with the ability to conduct diverse quantitative analyses to support evidence-based research. Alongside his clinical work, he demonstrates leadership and teaching excellence as a faculty member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, delivering teaching on the Core Surgical Training preparation course since 2020. He is also the developer and lead instructor of an international Duke Elder examination course at the University of Dundee, established in 2019, which has attracted participants from the UK, Europe, North America, and the Middle East, running annually in both in-person and online formats. The course has raised approximately £1,000 per year, all of which has been donated to charitable causes, reflecting his strong commitment to education, mentorship, and social responsibility.

Citation Metrics (Scopus)

900
750
500
250
100
0

Citations
882

Documents
46

h-index
19

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Scopus Profile

Featured Publications

 

Lijuan Du | Agricultural and Biological Sciences | Research Excellence

Published on by Invention Awards

Mrs Lijuan Du | Agricultural and Biological Sciences | Research Excellence Award 

Institute of Quality Standards & Testing Technique, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences | China

Du Lijuan is an accomplished Associate Researcher at the Institute of Quality Standards and Testing Technology, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, with more than fifteen years of professional experience dedicated to agricultural product quality, food safety, and standards development. Born in February 1981, she holds a Master of Engineering degree from the China National Research Institute of Food Fermentation Industries, where she received advanced training in food science, processing technologies, and quality evaluation systems. Her career reflects a strong commitment to safeguarding food quality and promoting sustainable agricultural development, particularly within the context of China’s rapidly evolving agri-food sector. Since joining the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2009, Du Lijuan has played a vital role in strengthening quality assurance systems for agricultural products. Her research focuses on food safety testing methodologies, quality standards formulation, traceability technologies, and identity identification of characteristic and geographical indication agricultural products. She has been deeply involved in advancing green and organic agricultural production, with particular emphasis on plateau characteristic products unique to Yunnan Province. Through her work, she contributes directly to improving consumer trust, regulatory compliance, and the market competitiveness of agricultural products. A significant aspect of her professional achievements lies in standards formulation and policy support. She has led the development of two Industry Standards of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, namely Green Food – Edible Fungi and Green Food – Seasoning Oil, and has participated in the formulation of additional national and group standards. These contributions have had a lasting impact on the normalization, safety, and quality control of green food products in China. Her innovative capacity is further demonstrated by her role as first inventor of four authorized patents, reflecting her ability to translate research outcomes into practical technological solutions. Du Lijuan has been actively involved in numerous provincial science and technology programs, including projects supporting the construction of the “Green Food Brand,” quality and safety supervision systems, and traceability platforms for organic and geographically indicated agricultural products.

Citation Metrics (Scopus)

  100
  80
  60
  40
  20
  0

Citations
7

Documents
1

h-index
1

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Scopus Profile

Featured Publications

 

Christian Schachtner | Data Science | Research Excellence Award

Published on by Invention Awards

Prof. Dr. Christian Schachtner | Data Science | Research Excellence Award

Full Professor at Hochschule RheinMain, Germany

Prof. Dr. Christian Schachtner has made significant scholarly contributions through his monographs and editorial work in the fields of smart governance, smart cities, and digital transformation in the public sector. In 2025, he edited Smart Public Governance, a volume in the Kohlhammer Publishing series, scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2026. He also co-edited, with M. Brunzel, the Handbook Smart Cities / Smart Regions, likewise forthcoming from Kohlhammer Publishing in early 2026. His edited book The European Smart City Movement  Case Studies from Around Europe, published by Springer in Chur, presents comprehensive insights into smart city practices across Europe. In the same year, he authored CDOs im öffentlichen Sektor – Perspektiven auf Chief Digital Officers und Strategien zur digitalen Transformation, published by Springer, which explores the evolving role of Chief Digital Officers in public administration. Collectively, these works highlight his expertise in digital governance, urban innovation, and strategic public-sector transformation.

Citation Metrics (Scopus)

25
20
15
10
5
0

Citations
9

Documents
23

h-index
2

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Scopus Profile

Featured Publications

 

Lyubka Pashova | Earth and Planetary Sciences | Research Excellence Award | 25942

Published on by Invention Awards

Assoc. Prof. Dr Lyubka Pashova | Earth and Planetary Sciences | Research Excellence Award

National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences | Bulgaria

Assoc. Professor Lyubka Pashova is a distinguished geodesist and geoscientist at the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography (NIGGG), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where she has been serving as an Associate Professor since 2012. With a strong academic foundation rooted in engineering geodesy, cartography, and photogrammetry, she brings over three decades of professional and research experience to the advancement of modern geosciences. She earned her M.Sc. in Geodesy, Cartography and Photogrammetry from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (UACEG), Sofia, and later completed her Ph.D. in General, Higher and Applied Geodesy at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Assoc. Prof. Pashova’s research is internationally recognized for its interdisciplinary scope and societal relevance. Her core scientific interests focus on geodetic reference coordinate and height systems, local and regional geodynamic processes, sea level change and its linkage to climate change, and the application of advanced mathematical, statistical, and intelligent methods for geospatial data analysis. A defining feature of her work is the integration of GNSS, satellite remote sensing, UAV photogrammetry, GIS, and big data analytics to address complex natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, and tsunamis, particularly in the Balkan and Black Sea regions. She has played key roles in numerous national, European, NATO, and ESA-funded projects, both as a participant and as a project manager. Notably, she has managed projects related to tsunami hazard and risk assessment in the Black Sea and contributed significantly to initiatives on flood risk management, Copernicus services, digital geodetic twins, and disaster preparedness. Her leadership extends to supervising doctoral students, coordinating interdisciplinary teams, and contributing to the development of research infrastructure and capacity building in geodesy and geospatial sciences.

Citation Metrics (Google Scholar)

1000
  500
  400
  300
  200
  100
  10
      0

Citations
569

Documents
25

h-index
12

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Google Scholar Profile

Featured Publications


Global TEC maps based on GNSS data: 1. Empirical background TEC model

– Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics , 2013


Conceptual framework for educational disaster centre “Save the Children Life”

– The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial, 2015 | Cited by 225

 

Shengchao Liu | Computer Science | Research Excellence Award

Published on by Invention Awards

Dr. Shengchao Liu | Computer Science | Research Excellence Award

The Chinese University | Hong Kong

Shengchao Liu is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, whose research lies at the intersection of machine learning, geometry, and scientific discovery. His work focuses on developing foundation models and physics-inspired learning frameworks for molecules, proteins, and materials, with the long-term goal of accelerating discovery in chemistry, biology, and materials science. By integrating multi-modal data, symmetry principles, and domain knowledge, his research bridges theoretical advances in AI with real-world experimental impact. A central theme of Dr. Liu’s research is geometric and symmetry-informed representation learning. He has pioneered group-equivariant and manifold-constrained generative models that respect the underlying physical laws of molecular and material systems. His contributions include SE(3)-invariant pretraining methods, group-symmetric stochastic differential equation models, and rigid flow matching techniques, which have significantly improved the fidelity and interpretability of molecular generation and dynamics modeling. These methods form a unifying framework for learning across molecules, proteins, and crystalline materials, as demonstrated in his influential works at ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS, and AISTATS. Dr. Liu’s work is deeply collaborative and interdisciplinary. He has worked closely with leading researchers across academia and industry, including Mila, UC Berkeley, NVIDIA Research, and national laboratories. As a Principal Investigator, he has led NERSC-supported projects on foundation models for material discovery, leveraging large-scale GPU resources to push the frontier of generative AI for science. His research has also contributed widely used open-source resources, including geometric graph learning benchmarks and toolkits adopted by the broader AI-for-science community.

Citation Metrics (Google Scholar)

4000
3000
2000
1000
  500
  100
      0

Citations
3510

Documents
40

h-index
22

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Google Scholar Profile

Featured Publications


Pre-training Molecular Graph Representation with 3D Geometry

– International Conference on Learning Representations , 2021 | Cited by 574


N-Gram Graph: Simple Unsupervised Representation for Graphs, with Applications to Molecules

– Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 2019 | Cited by 295


A text-guided protein design framework

– Nature Machine Intelligence, 2025 | Cited by 225

 

Shaokai Wang | Engineering Geology | Research Excellence Award

Published on by Invention Awards

Dr. Shaokai Wang | Engineering Geology | Research Excellence Award

North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, China

Dr. Shaokai Wang holds a Ph.D. in Geological Engineering and is currently affiliated with North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power (NCWU), with over five years of teaching and research experience in geological and geotechnical engineering, integrating academic instruction with advanced scientific investigation. His research has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including a completed project on the catastrophic effects of macro loess discontinuities and an ongoing project focusing on biopolymer-based soil improvement technology for Yellow River silt deposits. He has achieved a citation index of 7, reflecting the academic impact of his research contributions. Dr. Wang has published in leading international journals, including Engineering Geology and the Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, addressing geohazards, loess discontinuities, and landslide mechanisms on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Notable publications include studies on the underlying mechanisms of geohazards associated with macro loess discontinuities and the distribution and genetic types of loess landslides in China. His scholarly work contributes significantly to hazard mitigation, sustainable ground improvement, and the advancement of geotechnical engineering research in loess regions.

Citation Metrics (Scopus)

500
400
300
200
100
10
0

Citations
461

Documents
8

h-index
7

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Scopus Profile

Featured Publications

 

Jowita Trzcielinska | Circular Economy | Research Excellence Award

Published on by Invention Awards

Dr. Jowita Trzcielinska | Circular Economy | Research Excellence Award

Assistant Professor at Poznan University of Technology, Poland

Dr. Jowita Trzcielinska is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Management Engineering, Poznań University of Technology, in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Business Communication. She earned her PhD in 2017, with a doctoral dissertation focused on opportunity identification in small and medium-sized enterprises. Her research interests span sustainability, circular economy implementation, business ecosystems, strategic management, and opportunity theory, with publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, including Sustainability and the European Research Studies Journal. She has participated in an NCBR-funded research project on developing an innovative management system for an Intelligent Autonomous Environment and has extensive experience in consultancy and industry projects, including a professional internship in the plastics processing sector. Dr. Trzcielińska is a co-author of academic books in strategic management and business analysis and is a member of the Scientific Society for Organization and Management (TNOiK). She teaches Strategic Management and actively contributes to international education through the Erasmus–Socrates program.

Citation Metrics (Scopus)

25
30
20
15
10
0

Citations
28

Documents
5

h-index
3

Citations

Documents

h-index

View Scopus Profile

Featured Publications