THE WORLD's Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014
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ONY GENTILE T S/ R REUTE THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL SCIENTIFIC MINDS 2014 “ Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.” — Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (1893 – 1986) Physiologist and Nobel Prize recipient Cover Image: The sun is viewed through a telescope at the Vatican Observatory in Castelgandolfo, south of Rome, June 23, 2005. In the sleepy lakeside village of Castelgandolfo, away from the noise and haste of Rome, the Vatican is helping to train tomorrow’s astronomers, regardless of their religious beliefs. For the past 20 years, the Vatican Observatory, one of the world’s oldest astronomical institutes, has selected young, promising scholars for courses at the papal summer palace. INtrodUCTION Who are some of the best and brightest scientific minds of our time? Thomson Reuters answers this question, as it has The second section of researchers lists some in the past, by analyzing data using its Web of 3,200 individuals who published the greatest Science and InCites platforms to determine which number of highly cited papers in one of 21 broad researchers have produced work that is most fields, 2002-2012. Highly cited papers rank in frequently acknowledged by peers. the top 1% by citations for their field and year of publication. Both hot papers and highly cited These highly cited researchers were determined papers are featured in the Essential Science by analyzing at citation data over the last 11 years Indicators database of Thomson Reuters. to identify those who published the highest- impact work (2002—2012 and 2012—2013). These It is precisely this type of recognition, recognition individuals are influencing the future direction of by peers, in the form of citations, that makes their their fields, and of the world. status meaningful. The identification of these individuals is rooted in the collective, objective Within this collection of most highly cited opinions of the scientific community. Fellow researchers is a small subset of individuals scientists, through their citations, give credit to who have published the greatest number of these people and their work. hot papers during 2012-2013. Hot papers are ranked in the top .1% by citations for their field. Everyone acknowledged in this book is a person In addition to being highly cited over the last of influence in the sciences and social sciences. decade, these individuals have produced recent They are the people who are on the cutting work, within the last two years, that’s made edge of their fields. They are performing and a notable impact on their peers. They are the publishing work that their peers recognize as authors of multiple hot papers, the publishers of vital to the advancement of their science. These research and experiments that fellow scientists researchers are, undoubtedly, among the most find groundbreaking and influential. influential scientific minds of our time. HIGHLYCITED.COM 3 THE HOTTEST RESEARCHERS OF TODAY HiggsHiggs Honorable Honorable Mention Mention The discovery of the Higgs boson dominated the consideration of hot authors to papers scientific research again this year.T he challenge with fewer than 500 contributors (authors). in assessing Higgs research is that most of the work on this topic has hundreds of coauthors, As many of the Higgs papers remain “hot,” with up to as many as 3,000 people listed for one we again include an honorable mention for paper. Given the impracticality of featuring all the the many physicists and technicians involved in deserving names, Thomson Reuters analysts limit Higgs research and other large collaborations. HiggsBiomedicine Honorable Leads the Hottest Mention Research This year’s roster of hot authors features an Papers. The majority of these were coauthored unmistakable concentration in genomics; 12 of with other Broad personnel. Among his the 17 hottest-of-the-hot researchers fall within coauthors was Broad’s Michael S. Lawrence, who this area. And, all but one of them are currently contributed to 16 of the hot papers on which the affiliated with one of two institutions: the Broad Broad-affiliated authors were notably grouped. Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston; and, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. Another Broad-affiliated name, with repeat recognition and 20 hot papers, is Eric S.Lander, Topping the list of authors who contributed who marks his tenth appearance among the most to five of theT CGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) influential scientific minds this year. hot papers as well as to 18 others is Stacey B. Gabriel of the Broad Institute. She Along with papers coauthored with some of his specializes in examining genomic underpinnings colleagues mentioned in this report, Lander also and mutations in cancers of the lung, prostate, contributed to hot papers on specific RNA type in and skin, as well as in autism spectrum disorders. cell pluripotency and differentiation; on “missing heritability” (the observation that heritability Matthew Meyerson is a coauthor with Gabriel in diseases and other traits cannot be entirely on many of these reports, as well as author of explained by individual genes); and on the use another on the genomic profiling of melanoma of large data sets to detect novel associations in tumors. Meyerson is affiliated with the Broad a variety of phenomena, including global health Institute as well as with the Dana-Farber Cancer and gene expression. Institute and Harvard Medical School. Rounding out the Broad authors is Six more Broad Institute colleagues also made Kristian Cibulskis who contributed to the list. First is Gad Getz who, according to 17 total papers, a total also matched by citations tallied during 2013, recorded 21 Hot Andrey Sivachenko, affiliated with the 4 HIGHLY CITED RESEARCH DIRECtorY Biomedicine Leads the Hottest Research (cont) Broad before a recent move to Brandeis authors: Elaine Mardis, who contributed to 21 University. Meanwhile, Kristin Ardlie coauthored of the reports, and Li Ding and Robert Fulton, 15 works, including two outside the main group featured on 18. As with the Broad contingent, the of reports. WUSTL coauthors examined genomic aspects of a range of diseases, including leukemia as well Genomics specialists contributing to the as cancers of the brain, breast and retina. core of hot papers also comprise colleagues from Washington University in St. Louis The remaining author representing the (WUSTL). The most prolific from this group biomedical sciences is another returnee from is a name familiar from last year’s analysis: last year: Gregory Y.H. Lip of the University of Richard K. Wilson, who contributed to 21 hot Birmingham, UK, who coauthored 17 Hot Papers. papers. In addition to fiveT CGA papers, two Along with general guidelines on the diagnosis of Wilson’s hot papers derived from another and treatment of cardiovascular disease, Lip large, multi-author collaboration, the Human contributed to studies of warfarin and aspirin Microbiome Project Consortium. (These papers in patients with heart failure, as well as papers actually figured in last year’s roundup and were utilizing a risk-prediction score for atrial still sufficiently cited during 2013 to maintain fibrillation, and recommendations on the their “hot” status.) use of oral anticoagulants. Joining Wilson among the coauthors on most of these papers were three WUSTL colleagues who, like Wilson, appeared in last year’s listing of hot HiggsMaterials Honorable and More Mention Although this year’s selection of scientists fabrication of supercapacitors on a carbon- is particularly crowded with names from nanotube “sponge”—a promising format for biomedicine, the physical sciences also energy storage. produced prolific authors of hot papers. With 15 hot papers, Konstantin Novoselov of During 2013, Hua Zhang of Nanyang the University of Manchester, UK, returns to the Technological University, Singapore, saw 16 list. He last appeared in 2010, the same year in of his recent papers register as hot. They cover which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with a variety of nanomaterials designed for sensing, Manchester colleague Andre Geim, for the pair’s clean energy, and other applications. These experiments in extracting single-atomic-layer materials include graphene-based composites, graphene from bulk graphite. Novoselov’s single-layer conducting nanosheets, and Hot Papers examine various aspects and thin-film transistor arrays. forms of graphene nanomaterials, including superlattices and plasmonics, for electronics Nanomaterials research, and 16 hot papers, and other applications. also bring Yi Cui of Stanford University to the spotlight. Among the selection of highly Completing the list of hot authors is Huijun Gao, cited papers by Cui and colleagues: the use of director of the Research Institute of Intelligent graphene-wrapped sulfur particles in lithium- Control and Systems at the Harbin Institute of sulfur batteries; nanowire solar cells; and the Technology, China. Gao’s 15 hot papers concern computation and filtering for the control of networks and other systems. HIGHLYCITED.COM 5 SCIENTISTS WITH MUltiPLE Hot PAPERS Stacey B. Gabriel Matthew Meyerson INSTITUTION INSTITUTION Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard FIELD FIELD Genomics Genomics NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS 23 22 Gad Getz Richard K. Wilson INSTITUTION INSTITUTION Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Washington University, St. Louis FIELD FIELD Genomics Genomics NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS 21 21 Eric S. Lander Elaine Mardis INSTITUTION INSTITUTION Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Washington University, St. Louis FIELD FIELD Genomics Genomics NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS 20 20 Michael S. Lawrence Robert Fulton INSTITUTION INSTITUTION Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Washington University, St. Louis FIELD FIELD Genomics Genomics NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS 18 18 6 HIGHLY CITED RESEARCH DIRECtorY Li Ding Andrey Y. Sivachenko INSTITUTION INSTITUTION Washington University, St. Louis Brandeis University FIELD FIELD Genomics Genomics NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS NUMBER OF HOT PAPERS 18 17 Kristian Cibulskis Gregory Y.H.