Four Waterloo scientists from three departments are in the top 1% of citations for their field of study and publication based on Clarivate Analytics’ Highly Cited Researchers™ 2022 list. The annual publication uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify individuals from across the globe who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their chosen field or fields of research.
A total of 7,225 researcher awards from 69 countries and regions are recognized this year, including 14 from the University of Waterloo. Among this prestigious list include Distinguished Professor Emeritus Bernard Glick, Professor Juewen Liu, University Professor Linda Nazar, and Professor Will Percival, from the Faculty of Science.
The list published by the global analytics firm Clarivate identifies the “who’s who” of influential researchers. Recipients are selected for their exceptional research performance, determined by production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science.
David Pendlebury, Head of Research Analysis at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate said:
“Research fuels the race for knowledge and it is important that nations and institutions celebrate the individuals who drive the wheel of innovation. The Highly Cited Researchers list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers at the University of Waterloo who are having a significant impact on the research community as evidenced by the rate at which their work is being cited by their peers."
Bernard Glick, Department of Biology
His research focuses on plant-microbial interactions. His findings include discovering how certain bacteria can help plants grow, even under stressful conditions, such as drought. He's shown that growth-promoting bacteria can be successfully applied to several food crops as a more sustainable alternative to using chemicals.
Glick has been named a Highly Cited Researcher for the last three consecutive years.
Juewen Liu, Department of Chemistry
Liu is a leader in the field of bionanotechnology. He's found DNA molecules can be altered to serve as highly selective biosensors and reaction catalysts. He is interested in using DNA and lipids as functional polymers and building blocks to interface with metal ions, nanoparticles and hydrogels utilised for bioanalytical techniques.
Applications include detecting heavy metals instantly in water samples and targeted drug delivery.
His breakthrough in understanding the fundamental interactions of attaching DNA strands to the surface of gold nanoparticles was named one of the most influential in the history of the surface chemistry journal Langmuir. His discovery resolved many long-standing questions and paved the way for advances in biosensor technology.
Linda Nazar, Department of Chemistry
Linda Nazar carries out research in inorganic materials chemistry, solid state chemistry and electrochemistry. One of the most interesting aspects of materials chemistry is the design of structures with specific physical properties.
Using guided principles, Nazar’s team synthesizes new materials, determines their structures and investigates their physical properties. She is, in particular, interested in ion and electron transport in materials as these properties are central to solid state electrochemistry and energy storage batteries.
She was named a University professor in 2016 and has held the Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials since 2004. She was recently named a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK) in recognition of her excellence in research. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and named an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Will Percival, Department of Physics and Astronomy
With an h-index of 89, over 300 publications, and over 42,000 citations, Professor Percival holds a distinguished research chair in astrophysics and is Director of the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics.
His research interests focus on the properties of the Universe on the largest scales. Surveys of three-dimensional galaxy positions provide a wealth of data both on the physics just after the Big-Bang when the seed fluctuations that will grow through gravity to become galaxies were created, and on the physics driving the evolution of the Universe today.
Congratulations to Drs. Bernie Glick, Juewen Liu, Linda Nazar and Will Percival.