Marzari, Spaldin, Yazyev Named in Global Highly Cited Researchers 2018 List

by Carey Sargent, EPFL, NCCR MARVEL

A trio of MARVEL researchers - Nicola Marzari, Nicola Spaldin and Oleg Yazyev - have been have named in the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2018 List. Now in its fifth year, the citation analysis identifies influential researchers as determined by their peers around the globe - those who have consistently won recognition in the form of high citation counts over a decade.  

Professor Nicola Marzari, holder of the Chair of Theory and Simulation of Materials in the Institute of Materials of EPFL, where he directs the MARVEL NCCR; Professor Nicola Spaldin, holder of the Chair of Materials Theory in the Department of Materials at ETHZ, and Professor Oleg Yazyev, Chair of Computational Condensed Matter Physics C3MP at EPFL were all included in the list this year.

Placement on the list has been recognized as a significant achievement for those named. The Web of Science serves as the basis for regular listings of researchers whose citation records position them in the top 1% by citations for their field and year.

This year’s list continues to recognize researchers whose citation records position them in the very highest strata of influence and impact as it includes 17 Nobel laureates, including two announced this year: James P. Allison, Physiology or Medicine, and William D. Nordhaus, Economic Sciences. 

"The Highly Cited Researchers 2018 list helps to identify the researchers who are having the greatest impact on the research community as measured by the rate at which their work is being cited by others and that contributes so greatly to extending the frontier and gaining knowledge and innovations for society - contributions that make the world healthier, safer, richer, and more sustainable,” said Annette Thomas, CEO of the Scientific & Academic Research group at Clarivate Analytics.

Spaldin, who has been included since 2014, said that she is concerned that such rankings reduce the assessment of scientific quality to number crunching and give young people the wrong impression about what is important.

The full Highly Cited Researchers 2018 list and executive summary can be found online at https://clarivate.com/hcr/.