Editors note: Please see the bottom of this article for a correction posted on March 26 at 6:10 pm. The article has otherwise been left as originally posted on March 13.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -- A Kurdistan Region academic, originally from Iran, has been named by an international analytics institution as a "2019 World Highly Cited Scientist” for his research in chemistry.

Clarivate Analytics, which owns and operates analytics-related services and has offices in Philadelphia and London, sent an email to Kurdish academic Mohammed Sajadi on Thursday, congratulating him for being recognized as one of the top 1% of cited scientists in his field.



“Congratulations on being named a 2019 World Highly Cited Scientist. Your research ranks among the top 1% most cited works in your field…earning the mark of exceptional impact. It is truly an honor to recognize researchers like you for your dedication and focus to extending the sphere of human knowledge,” read the email shared by Sajadi.



“Very few researchers earn this distinction - writing the greatest number of reports, officially designated by Essential Science Indicators as Highly Cited Papers,” added the email from the company.



Born in the Iranian city of Saqqez in 1981, Sajadi received his Bachelor’s Degree in pure and applied chemistry in 2005 and his Masters Degree in phytochemistry in 2009.

“I am really very happy to obtain such an excellent position in the international scientific community," he told Rudaw English on Friday.

He added that the Kurdistan Region has a great number of “excellent academics” at universities and scientific institutions who can contribute to the progress of scientific research in the Region.

Sajadi moved to the Kurdistan Region in 2010, seeking employment at a university. He now teaches at Soran University.



Muslih Mustafa, President of Soran University, who was the first person to announce the news, said on his Facebook page that they opened doors to Sajadi ten years ago when others would not.



“When Sajadi came to Kurdistan, other universities closed doors in his face due to various reasons. However, Soran University embraced him and paved the way for him to develop [his] skills,” wrote Mustafa.



Sajadi published 180 research papers between 2006 and 2019 which mainly focus on environmental factors and sustainability, including green nanotechnology, environmental pollution and pharmacognosy – related to medicine derived from plants- among others.



Clairvate Analytics was unavailable for further comment.

CORRECTION: This story was based on an email purportedly sent to Sajadi by Clarivate Analytics on March 12, then posted by Soran University on its Facebook page. The email congratulated Sajadi on being recognized as a "2019 World Highly Cited Scientist".



However, in an email sent to Rudaw English, Clairvate Analytics denied having sent Sajadi such a message.



"The letter [email] which was posted on [Soran University's] Facebook was not issued by Clarivate Analytics and we asked that it be taken down," Lisa Hulme, Head of Global Communications at Clarivate Analytics told Rudaw English in an email on March 24. "We do not have a Highly Cited Scientist award."



Though a "Highly Cited Scientist award" is not offered, Hulme pointed Rudaw English towards a public access list of Highly Cited Researchers powered by the Web of Science Group, which forms part of Clarivate Analytics. The list is described as "recognizing the world's most influential researchers of the past decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science." Sajadi cannot be found on the list.



However, in an email on March 18, Hulme said that Sajadi "is the author of some highly cited papers in our Essential Science Indicators database – that appears to be evident and correct."



The email of Sajadi's recognition as a "2019 World Highly Cited Scientist" has been removed from Soran University's Facebook page, but Sajadi insisted to Rudaw English that the story remains accurate.