The University of Western Australia is proud to announce that 10 of our academics have been named on the annual Highly Cited Researchers™ 2021 list from Clarivate.

The researchers are: Professors David Edwards, Hans Lambers and Thomas Wernberg and Adjunct Associate Professor Etienne Laliberté from the School of Biological Sciences; Professor Enrico Valdinoci from the School of Mathematics and Statistics; Professor Gerald Watts from the Medical School; Professor Kadambot Siddique from the UWA Institute of Agriculture; Adjunct Professor Shaun Wilson from the Oceans Institute and Professor Nanthi Bolan and Adjunct Professor Muhammad Farooq, from the UWA Institute of Agriculture.

The highly anticipated annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last 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 methodology that determines the “who’s who” of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information™ at Clarivate. It also uses the tallies to identify the countries and research institutions where these scientific elite are based.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Amit Chakma said it was pleasing to see some of the University’s outstanding researchers recognised as among the world’s most influential.

"I congratulate our highly cited researchers for their commitment to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges.

"I am also acutely aware of the lack of women on this list and reiterate the University’s commitment to securing greater gender equality among our highly cited researchers."

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Amit Chakma

Hackett Professor of Agriculture and Director of the Institute of Agriculture, Professor Siddique was recognised in two fields: Agricultural Sciences and Plant and Animal Science. His major contribution to dryland agriculture has been crop yield improvements in grain legumes and wheat in the fields of crop physiology, production agronomy, farmland systems, germplasm development and breeding. 

Professor Siddique’s research is relevant to the farming community and aims to solve real problems through meticulous scientific research methodology and collaboration with a number of leading institutions in China, India and elsewhere.

Professor Edwards leads a team of researchers who work with industry to carry out bioinformatics research in genetics and genomics, with a focus on wheat, brassica and chickpea crops.

A biodiversity expert, Professor Lambers was also recognised in two fields: Agricultural Sciences and Plant and Animal Science. His research has contributed significantly to our understanding of the mineral nutrition of Australian plants and particularly how they obtain phosphorus from the soil and use it efficiently.

Professor Wernberg’s research uncovers how temperate marine ecosystems, such as kelp forests, respond to climate change, marine heatwaves and other human pressures. In Australia he has worked extensively across the Great Southern Reef.

Although based at Canada’s Université de Montréal’s Biodiversity Centre, Associate Professor Laliberté maintains an active field-based research program in WA’s South West studying dunes of increasing soil age as ‘natural experiments’ to test ecological hypotheses about how soil fertility influences plant biodiversity.

Professor Valdinoci’s research focuses on partial differential equations, non-local equations, calculus of variations and dynamical systems. He is the most quoted mathematician according to his graduation year in all subjects.

Professor Watts’ research focus is cardiometabolic medicine including the causes of cholesterol disorders, artery wall dysfunction and diabetic renal disease. Most recently, Professor Watts has employed implementation science methods to improve the clinical care of families with inherited metabolic causes of premature coronary artery disease.

Adjunct Professor Wilson’s work at the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions focuses on the health of tropical coral reefs and he collaborates with the UWA Oceans Institute.

One of the world’s leading soil scientists, Professor Bolan is a serving as a member of the ARC College of Experts and has initiated and fostered collaborations with industry and research institutions both nationally and internationally.

Based at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, Adjunct Professor Farooq’s research focus includes the response of crops to abiotic stresses, developing seed enhancements for improving crop performance, cost-effective biofortification of grain crops and non-chemical weed control. 

David Pendlebury, Senior Citation Analyst at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate said: “It is increasingly important for nations and institutions to recognise and support the exceptional researchers who are driving the expansion of the world’s knowledge. This list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers at UWA 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. The research they have contributed is fueling the innovation, sustainability, health and security that is key for our society’s future.”

The full 2021 Highly Cited Researchers list and executive summary can be found online here.