UCL in global top 10 for influential researchers

5 December 2024

A total of 75 UCL academics, including Professor Ivan Parkin, are featured in Clarivate’s annual ‘Highly Cited Researchers List’ 2024, recognising authors of the most influential research papers around the world.

With 60 academics on the list citing UCL as their primary affiliation (15 other UCL academics have a different primary institution listed), UCL has the second most researchers on the list among UK institutions, and has moved up to eighth globally for top-tier research talent.

UCL researchers were present in 12 of the 21 academic fields listed, namely: Biology & Biochemistry; Chemistry; Clinical Medicine; Computer Science; Cross-Field; Environment & Ecology; Immunology; Molecular Biology & Genetics; Neuroscience & Behaviour; Pharmacology & Toxicology; Psychiatry & Psychology; and Social Sciences.

A total of 30 UCL researchers, including Professor Ivan Parkin, have been recognised in the ‘Cross-Field’ category, up from 24 in 2023, reflecting the university’s increasing engagement with cross-disciplinary activity.

Two academics – Professors Andrew Steptoe (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health) and Charles Swanton (UCL Cancer Institute) – have been listed in two categories, joining just 238 other researchers worldwide recognised in multiple fields of research this year.

Professor Geraint Rees, UCL Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement), said: “I’m delighted to see so many of UCL’s leading academics included once again in this year’s Highly Cited Researchers. It demonstrates the powerful impact of world-leading research which seeks to increase our understanding and foster cross-disciplinarity, which is a crucial part of UCL’s commitment to harnessing insight and innovation for public benefit.

“I’d like to extend my warmest congratulations to the colleagues listed, and the many people across UCL who have contributed to these results, for their dedication and commitment to making UCL a world-leading university.”

David Pendlebury, Head of Research Analysis at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate, commented: “As the need for high-quality data from rigorously selected sources is becoming ever more important, we have adapted and responded to technological advances and shifts in the publishing landscape. Just as we have applied stringent standards and transparent selection criteria to identify trusted journals in the Web of Science™, we continue to refine our evaluation and selection policies for our annual Highly Cited Researchers™ program to address the challenges of an increasingly complex and polluted scholarly record.”

Listed UCL researchers:

Biology and Biochemistry: Andrey Y. Abramov

Chemistry: Junwang Tang

Clinical Medicine: Marianna Fontana, James C. Moon, David Wheeler, Bryan Williams, Charles Swanton, Perry Elliott

Computer Science: Kai-Kit Wong

Cross-Field: Amitava Banerjee, G. David Batty, Tim M. Blackburn, Michael A. P. Bloomfield, Dan Brett, Sean M. Davidson, Neil M. Davies, Bart De Strooper, Daisy Fancourt, Thomas Foltynie, Julian D. Gillmore, Mark Hamer, Kenneth D. Harris, Derek Hausenloy, Philip N. Hawkins, Michael Heinrich, Aroon D. Hingorani, Gotaro Kojima, Marcel Levi, Jianwei Li, Michael G. Marmot, Jing Meng, Zhifu Mi, Ivan P. Parkin, Linda Partridge, Sergio A. Quezada, Mervyn Singer, Robert West, Ian R. White, Derek M. Yellon, Ann Sarah Walker