Six LAS faculty members rank among world's most influential

Eight University of Illinois researchers, including six from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, have been named to the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list for 2016 (previously known as the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list).

The list identifies scientists “whose research has had significant global impact within their respective fields of study,” according to a statement from Clarivate Analytics, formerly the intellectual property and science business of Thomson Reuters.

The list is based on an analysis of journal article publication and citation data, an objective measure of a researcher’s influence over the past 11 years.

The highly cited Illinois researchers this year are: crop sciences and plant biology professor Lisa Ainsworth (highly cited in plant and animal science), crop sciences and plant biology professor Stephen P. Long (plant and animal science), chemistry professor Yi Lu (chemistry), chemistry professor Catherine Murphy (chemistry), plant biology professor Donald Ort (plant and animal science), psychology professor Brent Roberts (psychiatry, psychology), and civil and environmental engineering professor Tami Bond (geosciences).

Former U of I materials science and engineering professor John Rogers, now at Northwestern University, also is on the list (physics, materials science). Rogers maintains an affiliation with the College of Engineering and with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois.  

In addition to being a professor of crop sciences and of plant biology, Ainsworth is employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit. She joined the U of I faculty in 2005 after earning her PhD at Illinois in 2003 and completing postdoctoral research at the Juelich Research Center in Juelich, Germany. Her work focuses on plant metabolism, photosynthesis and molecular variation within species, and how those factors contribute to plant responses to global change. A key goal is to maximize crop production in the future. Ainsworth is a University Scholar and a recipient of the Charles Albert Shull Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Long is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the departments of crop sciences and plant biology. He uses computational and experimental approaches to improve photosynthetic efficiency, and works to address the effects of climate change on crop yield. He earned his PhD from the University of Leeds in 1976. He joined the U of I faculty in 1999, was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2013 and has been recognized as a highly cited researcher in the field of plant and animal science every year since 2005.

Lu, the Jay and Ann Shenck Professor of Chemistry at Illinois, joined the department in 1994 after earning his PhD from UCLA in 1992 and conducting his postdoctoral research at Caltech. His research focuses on the design and engineering of metalloenzymes and their applications as biocatalysts in alternative energy applications and as sensors and imaging agents in environmental monitoring, food safety and medical diagnostics. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a recipient of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors Award.

Murphy is the Peter C. and Gretchen Miller Markunas Professor of Chemistry at Illinois. Her research focuses on the synthesis, shape control, biological applications and environmental implications of gold nanoparticles. She earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1990 and joined the U of I chemistry department in 2009. Murphy was recognized by Thomson Reuters as a highly cited researcher in the field of chemistry in 2014 and 2015, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2015. She is the associate director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at Illinois.

Ort is the Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at Illinois. He joined the faculty in 1978 after earning his PhD from Michigan State University in 1974. His work focuses on improving plant photosynthesis and addresses crop responses to increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone. He works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, leads the Genomic Ecology of Global Change research theme at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and was elected to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service Science Hall of Fame in 2015.

Roberts joined the U of I faculty in 1999. He is a professor of psychology in the field of personality psychology. He studies continuity and change in personality throughout adulthood, with an emphasis on understanding the factors that influence change. He is particularly interested in conscientiousness and its relationships to other key personality traits and to health and well-being. Roberts was named a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in 2009, a Fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in 2009 and a Fellow of the Association of Psychological Science in 2013.

Bond is the Nathan M. Newmark Distinguished Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She studies particle emissions, their color and how they affect the climate, as well as interventions to reduce emissions around the world. Bond earned her PhD from the University of Washington in 2000 and joined the Illinois civil and environmental engineering department in 2003. Among other honors, she is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER grant and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She was on the Highly Cited Researchers list in 2015.

Rogers develops flexible, stretchable and transient electronics for practical applications including medicine and solar energy. He earned his PhD in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995. He joined the U of I faculty in 2003. He has published more than 350 papers and is an inventor on more than 80 patents and patent applications, more than 50 of which are licensed or in active use by large companies and startups that he co-founded. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009 and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been recognized by Thomson Reuters as a highly cited researcher in the field of materials science since 2014.