What a great way to start the new year!  According to the Web of Science, my h-index has climbed to 13 this week!

For those not familiar with it, the Hirsch index is a (rough) measure of the importance of one’s contributions to science.  It is defined as

A scientist has index h if h of his N_p papers have at least h citations each, and the other (N_p – h) papers have at most h citations each.

In my case, an h-index of 13 means that I have 13 papers which have been cited 13 or more times by other scientists.  This is excellent, since I only just passed the h-index 12 mark back in October.  As Wikipedia notes, my h-index is at a level exceeding what Hirsch thought would be good for tenure, and approaching that which he though would be good for being an APS fellow!

2008 was a good year for me in terms of citations.  I had 209 total citations for that year, which was my best year yet.  Counting a number of citations not registered properly due to mistakes, my best paper now has over 100 citations.

Here’s hoping that 2009 is an equally good year for me, if not better.  I’m only three citations away from getting my h-index to 14…