24 new Citation Laureates named, from six countries (USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea and United Kingdom)
Each year since 2002, ISI analysts have drawn on Web of Science™ publication and citation data to identify influential researchers in the research areas recognized by Nobel Prizes: Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics. Out of some 50 million articles and proceedings indexed in the Web of Science since 1970, only 5,700 (or .01%) have been cited 2,000 or more times. It is from the authors of this group of papers that Citation Laureates are identified and selected. They are individuals whose research reports are highly cited and whose contributions to science have been extremely influential, even transformative.
In early October 2020, the Nobel Assembly will vote to confer science's highest honor. Whilst this annual rite inspires worldwide speculation, Clarivate is the only organization to use quantitative data in addition to qualitative assessment to provide valuable insights about who may be chosen. To date, 54 Citation Laureates listed in the Hall of Citation Laureates have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize.
Joel Haspel SVP Strategy, Science, Clarivate said: "This year's Laureates have advanced humanity's understanding of topics as varied as the gender pay gap, nanocrystals and how galaxies are formed. They have pushed the boundaries of clinical care with advances in personalized medicine and vaccine development. We are delighted to recognize and celebrate their immense achievements, demonstrating that their citation tallies reflect their influence on their colleagues, disciplines, and the wider world."
David Pendlebury, Senior Citation Analyst at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate said: "To be cited 2,000 times or more is a rarity. Authors of very highly cited papers are usually members of national academies of sciences, hold senior appointments in universities and other research institutes, and have received many top international prizes in their fields. Indeed, some of them have helped to shape their fields of study. Some of these 'scientific elites' go on to receive Nobel honors, demonstrating each year the association between citations in the literature, influence through a research community, and peer judgment."
This year 19 of the 24 honorees are based at leading academic institutions in the United States; others hail from Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
The 2020 Citation Laureates are:
Physiology or Medicine |
Pamela J. Bjorkman, David Baltimore Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA, and Jack L. Strominger, Higgins Research Professor of Biochemistry, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA For determining the structure and function of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins, a landmark discovery in molecular immunology that has contributed to drug and vaccine development |
Yusuke Nakamura, Director, Cancer Precision Medicine Center, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Tokyo, JAPAN; Emeritus Professor, University of Tokyo, Tokyo JAPAN; and, Emeritus Professor, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL USA. For pioneering research developing and applying genetic polymorphic markers and for contributions to genome-wide association studies, both heralding personalized approaches to cancer treatment |
Huda Y. Zoghbi, Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Molecular and Human Genetics, Neurology and Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA, and Founding Director, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX USA; also, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. For discoveries on the pathogenesis of neurological disorders including the genetic origins of Rett syndrome |
Physics |
Thomas L. Carroll, Research Physicist, Center for Computational Materials Science, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC USA, and Louis M. Pecora, Research Physicist, Magnetic Materials and Nonlinear Dynamics, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC USA For research in nonlinear dynamics including synchronization of chaotic systems |
Hongjie Dai, J.G. Jackson & C.J. Wood Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA, and Alex Zettl, Professor of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley, and Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA. For fabrication and novel applications of carbon and boron nitride nanotubes |
Carlos S. Frenk, Director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology, and Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics, Durham University, Durham, UK, and Julio F. Navarro, Lansdowne Science Professor, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC CANADA, and Simon D.M. White, former Director, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, GERMANY For their fundamental studies of galaxy formation and evolution, cosmic structure, and dark matter halos |
Chemistry |
Moungi G. Bawendi, Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA, and Christopher B. Murray, Richard Perry University Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA and Taeghwan Hyeon, SNU Distinguished Professor, Seoul National University, Seoul SOUTH KOREA; also Director of Center for Nanoparticle Research of Institute for Basic Science For synthesis of nanocrystals with precise attributes for a wide range of applications in physical, biological, and medical systems |
Stephen L. Buchwald, Camille Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA, And John F. Hartwig, Henry Rapoport Chair in Organic Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA For contributions to organometallic chemistry, notably the Buchwald–Hartwig amination which forms carbon–nitrogen bonds through palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions of amines with aryl halides |
Makoto Fujita, Distinguished Professor, Division of Advanced Molecular Science, Institute for Molecular Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo JAPAN For advances in supramolecular chemistry through self-assembly strategies that take inspiration from nature itself |
Economics |
David A. Dickey, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC USA, And Wayne A. Fuller, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Iowa State University, Ames, IA USA, And Pierre Perron, Professor of Economics, Boston University, Boston, MA USA Dickey and Fuller for statistical tests of a unit root in time-series analysis and Perron for the statistical analysis of non-stationary time series |
Claudia Goldin, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA For contributions to labor economics, especially her analysis of women and the gender pay gap |
Steven T. Berry, David Swensen Professor of Economics and Jeffrey Talpins Faculty Director of the Tobin Center for Economic Policy, Yale University, New Haven, CT USA, and James A. Levinsohn, Director of the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Charles W. Goodyear Professor in Global Affairs, and Professor of Economics and Management, Yale University, New Haven, CT USA, and Ariel Pakes, Thomas Professor of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA For their BLP random coefficients logit model for demand estimation |
Commenting on his appointment as a Citation Laureate, Pierre Perron, Professor of Economics, Boston University said: "It is the best honor I could have hoped for. The reason I am so grateful is that it is based on facts: citations, impact on the profession... To me this is what is important as an econometrician, producing work that is useful for applications. Not publishing overly technical papers that appeal to only a few. I am a proletarian at heart! In that sense, it is much more rewarding than elections to elite societies. I decided early on that I would have my own research agenda, working mostly with Ph.D. students. It worked well and I am proud of the work, its impact on the profession, and on all the students I worked with."
