Seven Illinois researchers rank among the world’s most influential

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Seven University of Illinois researchers have been named to the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list for 2015.

The list includes “some of the world’s most influential scientific minds,” according to a statement from Thomson Reuters. “About 3,000 researchers earned this distinction … ranking among the top 1 percent most cited for their subject field and year of publication, earning them the mark of exceptional impact.”

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 12 years.

The highly cited Illinois researchers this year are: civil and environmental engineering professor Tami Bond (highly cited in geosciences), crop sciences and plant biology professor Stephen P. Long (plant and animal science), chemistry professor Yi Lu (chemistry), electrical and computer engineering researcher Richard Masel (engineering), chemistry professor Catherine Murphy (chemistry), plant biology professor Donald Ort (plant and animal science) and materials science and engineering professor John Rogers (materials science and physics).

Bond is the Nathan M. Newmark Distinguished Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She studies emissions of particles, their color and how they affect the climate, as well as interventions for reducing emission to the atmosphere around the world. Bond earned her Ph.D. 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.

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 Ph.D. from the University of Leeds in 1976. He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2013, and has been recognized by Thomson Reuters 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 Ph.D. from UCLA. 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 to be used in environmental monitoring, food safety and medical diagnostics. Among his achievements, Lu 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.

Masel is a researcher in the department of electrical and computer engineering, having retired from the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Illinois. His expertise is in catalysts and fuel cells, and his current work focuses on converting carbon dioxide gas into fuel and other valuable chemicals as a way to reduce climate change. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. He was recognized by Thomson Reuters as a highly cited researcher in the field of engineering in 2014.                  

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 Ph.D. 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 was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2015. She is the associate director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.

Ort is the Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at Illinois. He joined the faculty in 1978 after earning his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1974. His work focuses on improving plant photosynthesis, and addresses crop responses to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations. Ort 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 at Illinois, and was elected to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service Science Hall of Fame in 2015.

Rogers is a Swanlund Professor at Illinois, a professor of materials science and engineering and the director of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at Illinois. He develops flexible, stretchable and transient electronics for practical applications including medicine and solar energy. Rogers earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009 and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was recognized by Thomson Reuters as a highly cited researcher in the field of materials science in 2014.

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