November 18, 2020

Excellence Cited

Clarivate Analytics names 15 UC Santa Barbara scientists and social scientists to its 2020 list of highly cited researchers

Andrea Estrada

Fifteen UC Santa Barbara researchers have been named among the most influential scientists in the world, according to the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers released by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters).

The annual list identifies researchers in the sciences and social sciences who demonstrated significant influence in their respective field or fields through publication of multiple highly cited papers during the past decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science™ citation index.

The 2020 list contains 6,167 highly cited researchers in various fields from around the world — 3,896 recognized for their performance in the 21 Essential Science Indicator™ and 2,493 highly cited researchers recognized for their cross-field performance.

The highly cited UC Santa Barbara researchers for 2020 are:

Leon Balents, Physics

John E. Bowers, Cross-Field

Gary Charness, Economics and Business

Christopher J. Costello, Cross-Field

Benjamin S. Halpern, Environment and Ecology

Alan J. Heeger, Materials Science

D. Andrew Howell, Space Science

Anderson Janotti, Physics

Samir Mitragotri, Pharmacology and Toxicology

Daniel Sank, Physics

Joshua P. Schimel, Cross-Field

Jonathan Schooler, Psychiatry and Psychology

Sangwon Suh, Cross-Field

David Tilman, Environment and Ecology

Chris G. Van De Walle, Physics

The methodology for identifying the highly cited researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts from the Institute for Scientific Information at the Web of Science Group. The fields are defined by sets of journals and exceptionally, in the case of multidisciplinary journals such as Nature and Science, by a paper-by-paper assignment to a field based on an analysis of cited references in the papers. This percentile-based selection method removes the citation advantage of older papers relative to those more recently published, since papers are weighed against others in the same annual cohort.

The full 2020 Highly Cited Researchers list, executive summary and methodology can be found here.

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About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.