15 of the world’s most influential scientists work for Richland lab

Fifteen Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers have been named among the world’s most influential.

Two other scientists recognized for 2019 work elsewhere, but also are affiliated with the Department of Energy national laboratory based in Richland.

The Web of Science Group, a Clarivate Analytics company, compiles a list annually of the scientists whose published research is most often cited by other scientists over a decade.

The new list released this month covers 2008 to 2018.

Scientists named to it rank in the top 1 percent for citations from fellow researchers.

PNNL said a citation is evidence that the research is considered important by one’s peers and serves as a building block for other scientists to make additional discoveries.

“The Highly Cited Researchers list contributes to the identification of that small fraction of the researcher population that significantly extends the frontiers of knowledge,” said David Pendlebury, senior citation analyst at the Institute for Scientific Information at the Web of Science Group.

Researcher has 38,000 citations

The PNNL scientist with the most citations in the latest ranking was Jun Liu, with 38,393 citations. It was his second year as the most cited PNNL researcher.

Liu was acknowledged in two subject areas, chemistry and materials science.

He is a laboratory fellow at PNNL and his research interest includes the development, synthesis and characterization of new materials for energy applications.

He not only has made the Highly Cited Researcher list since 2014, but also holds more than 60 U.S. patents.

Other PNNL and PNNL-associated scientists, some of them retired, on the 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list include:

▪ Chongmin Wang, PNNL, for materials science research.

▪ Jae Edmonds, PNNL, for research across multiple fields.

▪ Janet Jansson, PNNL, for microbiology research.

▪ Jie Xiao, PNNL, for materials science research.

▪ Ji-Guang (Jason) Zhang, PNNL, citations for materials science research.

▪ Katherine Calvin, PNNL, citations for research across multiple fields.

▪ Leon Clarke, PNNL, for research across multiple fields.

▪ Mark Engelhard, PNNL, for research across multiple fields.

▪ Nate McDowell, PNNL, for plant and animal sciences research.

▪ Page Kyle, University of Maryland with a secondary PNNL affiliation, for research across multiple fields.

▪ Philip Rasch, PNNL, for geosciences research.

▪ Steven Ghan, PNNL, for geosciences research.

▪ Steven J. Smith, PNNL, for geosciences research.

▪ Yuehe Lin, Washington State University with a secondary PNNL affiliation, for chemistry research.

▪ Yuyan Shao, PNNL, for materials science research.

▪ Zimin Nie, PNNL, for materials science research.

This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 9:37 AM.