Three Waterloo scientists among top 1% of highly cited researchers

Nine University of Waterloo professors are in the top one per cent of citations for their field of study and publication based on Clarivate Analytics’ 2021 Highly Cited Researchers list. Among this prestigious list include Distinguished Professor Emeritus Bernard Glick from the Department of Biology, Professor Linda Nazar from the Department of Chemistry, and Professor Will Percival from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Published annually, this list is comprised of scientists and social scientists in 21 fields that rank in the top one per cent by citations for field of study and publication year. The list identifies scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant influence through publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade.

Out of almost 200 researchers listed in Canada, nine are from Waterloo. The other six Waterloo researchers who made the exclusive list, include: Zhongwei Chan, Geoffrey Fong, David Hammond and Sharon Kirkpatrick, Daniel Scott and Xuemin Shen.

With over 52,000 citations, an h-index of 101 and nearly 400 publications, Professor Glick has one of the highest citation records at the University of Waterloo.

Bernard Glick's research considers 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.

Appearing on the list of Highly Cited Researchers many times in the past decade in the categories of both chemistry and materials science, Linda Nazar is a world leader in inorganic materials research. With over 200 publications, she has been cited more than 46,000 times and has an h-index of 98.

Professor Nazar’s research is focused on the development of electrochemical energy storage devices and materials. Her team synthesizes new materials, determines their structures and investigates their physical properties. In particular, she is interested in ion and electron transport in materials as these properties are central to solid state electrochemistry and energy storage batteries.

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.

Professor Percival's 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.