Stanford lists 34 ESF researchers among the world’s most cited scientists in 2021

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Nearly three dozen scientists affiliated with SUNY ESF are on a Stanford University list of the world’s most cited scientists for 2021 released in September. According to the release, 34 ESF scientists were among the top 2% of cited scientists last year.

Stanford University creates two annual lists – one for single-year impact and one for career-long impact – of the most cited scientific researchers. Both lists are part of a database of the top-cited scientists that John P.A. Ioannidis, a professor of medicine at Stanford, runs.

The study, which examined over 100,000 scientists worldwide, included 22 professors from ESF on the single-year impact list for 2021 and 29 on the career-long impact list, with some of the professors receiving recognition in both categories. Stanford collects data from 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields for the dataset, which it released the first version of in 2019.

ESF President Joanie Mahoney wrote in a press release that much of the school’s research is at the forefront of modern environmental issues, ranging from renewable energy to conservation.

“Our scientists continue a century-long history of producing the work needed to solve the challenges of today and prevent the problems of tomorrow,” Mahoney wrote in the release.

Many of the recognized scientists at ESF ranked highly within their respective fields. In the Forestry subfield, Dr. David Nowak ranked #2 overall for single-year impact and #6 for career-long impact. Dr. Ruth Yanai ranked #75 overall for career-long impact in the same subfield.

Other highly-ranked scientists included Dr. Stephen Stehman, who ranked #11 overall for single-year impact and #26 for career-long impact in the Geological and Geomatics Engineering, and Dr. Karin Limburg, who ranked #88 overall in the Fisheries subfield for career-long impact.

The database used to create the lists examines the citations and authorship of research papers by scientists in different fields and subfields. The 98th percentile ranking includes the top 100,000 composite scores – singular data points that represent a combination of information from multiple variables – according to its website.

Other schools on the list include the University of British Columbia, Harvard University, the University of Washington, University of Toronto, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.