14 academics named in influential highly-cited scholars list
14 University of Sydney academics are among the world's most influential in their fields, according to the Clarivate Analytics 2019 Highly Cited Researchers List.
Spanning several fields of the sciences and social sciences, from renewable energies and soil science to chronic disease prevention and cancer research, the Sydney scholars named on the list this year are:
- Emeritus Professor Adrian Bauman
- Professor Alex McBratney
- Professor Budiman Minasny
- Professor Dacheng Tao
- Professor Dietmar Muller
- Professor Edward Holmes
- Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis
- Professor Georgina Long
- Professor Glenda Halliday
- Professor Ian Hickie
- Professor Manfred Lenzen
- Professor Phil Gale
- Professor PJ Cullen
- Professor Richard Scolyer
Their research was ranked in the top one percent of most referenced papers in their field from 2008 to 2018.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Duncan Ivison said the results reflect the significant contribution Sydney scholars are making to science and are a testament to the unprecedented investment the University has made recently in supporting researchers through career development, project funding and world-class research facilities.
“These distinguished scholars are at the very top of their fields, conducting important work that is helping to decode neurodegenerative diseases, find new treatments for melanoma and advance artificial intelligence," Professor Ivison said.
We are proud to support world-leading research that makes great strides in advancing knowledge and contributes to key global issues.
“Over the past few years, we have invested significantly in our researchers, launching several new internal funding schemes to mentor up-and-coming researchers and provide project funding for innovative research as well as establishing a suite of highly advanced research infrastructure.”
Professor Ivison added that since 2011, the University has invested heavily in multidisciplinary research, including lauching 10 whole-of-university initiatives focused on bringing in expertise from several fields to rethink some of the world’s most complex and pressing issues.
These include improving access to mental health treatment, with highly cited scholar Professor Ian Hickie and his multidisciplinary team at the Brain and Mind Centre recently launching a ground-breaking mental health care platform which may dramatically reduce waiting times for young people who need urgent support.
Australia has the fifth largest number of highly cited researchers in the world (behind the US, China, UK and Germany). The number of researchers working at Australian institutions, who are recognised as Highly Cited, has more than tripled in six years, from 80 in 2014 to 271 in 2019.
Our highly cited scholars
For more than 30 years Professor Bauman has been a world leader in the study of chronic disease prevention and the development and assessment of prevention research methods. He was instrumental in identifying the health benefits of moderate physical activity and reduced sitting time. He has published more than 525 papers and two books and is a member of the University’s multidisciplinary initiative, the Charles Perkins Centre.
Director of the Sydney Institute of Agriculture, Professor McBratney is a world-leading soil scientist. He was awarded the VV Dokuchaev medal by the International Union of Soil Sciences, the highest honour in the soil science discipline. Professor McBratney has published more than 420 refereed scientific articles with an h-index of 68. H-index measures an academic’s most cited papers and the number of citations they have received. A h-index over 40 is considered outstanding.
Soil scientist Professor Minasny is passionate about the role of soil in managing climate change, food, water, energy security and maintaining biodiversity. He has more than 280 journal publications, won numerous awards, and is recognised as the leader in digital soil mapping and modelling. He is also a member of three of the University's multidiciplinary iniatives, the Sydney South East Asia Centre and the China Studies Centre.
Professor Tao has made ground-breaking contributions in artificial intelligence, computer vision image processing and machine learning. In 2017 he was awarded an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship and in 2018 he was named a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He has produced more than 500 publications and won many prizes for his research contributions including a prestigious Eureka Prize. He is a member of the University's multidisiplinary iniative, the Brain and Mind Centre, and is among a select few academics to be named in the highly cited list in two fields – computer science and engineering.
A geophysicist, Professor Muller leads the University's EarthByte research group. He has published more than 200 publications and has a h-index of 55. He has received numerous awards, including a NSW Premier’s Prize, for his lifelong dedication and innovations in building a deep time travel machine, a virtual laboratory to see deep into the Earth in four dimensions, through space and time. By modelling the Earth's history we are better able to predict its future, for example, how it will respond to climate change.
Professor Holmes has spent more than 25 years researching how pathogens, such as avian influenza and HIV, emerge and spread. He has produced more than 560 peer-reviewed papers and two highly-regarded books, which have more than 61,000 citations and a h-index of 130. He is an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow and a Fellow of The Royal Society. He is a member of the University's multidisiplinary iniatives, the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity and the Charles Perkins Centre.
Professor Stamatakis leads a research program of epidemiologic and interventional research investigating how lifestyles and health related behaviours (physical activity, sedentary behaviour, screen time, alcohol consumption, sleep, dog ownership) influence cardiometabolic health, mental wellbeing and mortality risk. He has published more than 230 publications, has a h-index of 47 and is a member of the University's multidisiplinary iniative, the Charles Perkins Centre.
Professor Long is Co-Director of Melanoma Institute Australia. She leads an extensive clinical trials team and laboratory, with a focus on targeted therapies and immuno-oncology in melanoma. She has published more than 440 peer-reviewed papers and is the first woman and the first Australian to be President of the prestigious Society for Melanoma Research. She has a h-index of 68 and is a member of the University's multidisiplinary iniative, the Charles Perkins Centre.
Professor Halliday leads a research program of approximately 70 researchers tackling non-Alzheimer's neurodegeneration. She is on editorial boards of five international journals, and on the Scientific Advisory Boards for a number of international organizations and research institutes. Professor Halliday has produced more than 430 publications and has a h-index of 83. She is a member of the University's multidisplinary iniative, the Brain and Mind Centre.
Professor Hickie is Co-director of the University's multidisplinary iniative, the Brain and Mind Centre. He is an internationally renowned researcher in clinical psychiatry, with particular reference to medical aspects of common mood disorders, depression and bipolar disorder in young people, early intervention, use of new and emerging technologies and suicide prevention. He has published more than 790 publications and has a h-index of 75.
Professor Lenzen is a physicist and renewable energies expert. He has contributed major methodological advances and applications in the areas of embodied energy, greenhouse gas emissions, input-output analysis and life-cycle assessment. Professor Lenzen is Associate Editor of the Journal of Industrial Ecology and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Economic Systems Research.
Professor Gale’s work has potential future use in the treatment of diseases that are caused by faulty anion transport such as cystic fibrosis and also in the treatment of cancer. In 2018, he was awarded the prestigious Izatt-Christensen Award for his seminal contributions to the field. He has published more than 330 papers, has a h-index of 78 and been named in highly cited researcher lists since 2012.
Professor Cullen is a chemical and biomolecular engineer. He works with plasma, the fourth state of matter, with the spectacular Northern Lights being one of the best-known plasma displays on Earth. Plasma technologies are being developed for use in applications including agriculture, food safety, water purification, cancer treatment, materials processing and energy generation. Their aim is to reduce our traditional reliance on the chemicals currently used in products such as fertilisers, disinfectants and antibiotics.
Co-Director of Melanoma Institute Australia, Professor Scolyer is a world-leading expert in melanoma diagnosis and research. He consults on more than 2000 cases annually which are difficult to diagnose. According to Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge, he is the highest ever published scientist in the world in the field of melanoma pathology and he also has the highest H index in this field. In September 2019, he was ranked as the leading Australian Pathologist in the entire field of Pathology by League of Scholars. He is a a member of the University's multidisiplinary iniative, the Charles Perkins Centre.