Three UAB researchers amongst the most cited worldwide

20/11/2020

The list of highly cited researchers in 2020, published on 18 November by the Web of Science Group, identifies the social researchers who have demonstrated to have a significant influence in their field of study through the publication of multiple high impact scientific articles in the past decade. Their names appear on the list of the top 1% of articles witht he most citations in their field and year of publication.

The 2020 list includes 6,167 highly cited researchers in several fields, stemming from over 60 different countries. The methodology used to created the list is based on the data ana analyses conducted by bibliometric experts from the Institute of Scientific Information of the Web of Science Group.

A total of 3,896 researchers stood out from their achievements in the 21 fields included in the Essential Science Indicator (ESI), and 2,493 researchers were mentioned for their accomplishments in a variety of fields. Some of them appear in more than one discipline.

The classification includes researchers Esteve Corbera and Margarita Triguero, from the ICTA, and Jordi Martínez Vilalta, from the Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology. Also listed amongst the most cited was Erik Gómez-Baggethun, from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, who has collaborated with the CTA-UAB.

Esteve Corbera

For second year in a row, ICREA research lecturer at the ICTA-UAB Esteve Corbera appears on the list under the "interdisciplinary" category. This is the third year that researchers are acknowledged for their impact in a variety of fields, with exceptional and wide-ranging accomplishments based on high impact documents in several disciplines.

Esteve Corbera is an environmentalist and political ecologist studying the relation between humans and nature, and the impact of social, political and ecological changes in resource governance. Specifically, he has focused on the effects international policies on the preservation of biodiversity and the mitigation of climate change have had on the systems of lang use, institutions and the means of living of rural societies in countries of the Global South, including Mexico and Tanzania.

He has written over 90 peer-reviewed articles, several books and book chapters, and he has been guest editor in 11 special editions of different scientific journals. He is editor of the Geoforum journal and participated in the 2014 Report of the Intergovernmental Climate Change Panel. He was listed amongst the most cited multidisciplinary scientists in 2019 and 2020 by Clarivate analytics.

Corbera generates knowledge on the environmental impacts and the human wellbeing of climate change and biodiversity preservation policies and conducts scientific meetings which inform about the global policies for sustainable land use. He also studies the implications of global climate change in the vulnerability and resilience of farming communities and their ability to adapt to these changes, as well as policies in generating knowledge in scientific, environmental and preservation policies.

Margarita Triguero Mas

Margarita Triguero Mas also appears in the "interdisciplinary" category as one of this year's most cited researchers. She holds a PhD in Biomedicine and an MSc inPublic Health from the Pompeu Fabra University, as well as a BSc in Environmental Science from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Her doctoral thesis, supervised by Prof. Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen from CREAL-ISGlobal, studied the associations between natural surroundings, fresh air and health, exploring the possible mechanisms and modifiers of the effects these associations have. That was followed by a postdoctoral research stay as a member of Xavier Basagaña's group at the ISGlobal, exploring the health effects of air pollution and climate variables. She is currently affiliated to the ISGlobal and a postdoctoral researcher at the Barcelona Lab for Environmental Justice and Sustainability, as well as member of the Healthy Cities and Environmental Justice research group at the UAB-ICTA-IMIM (Institut de l'Hospital de la Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques), where she is working in a European Research Council project entitled GreenLULUs, which studies the (un)equal effects on health of urban ecologisation.

She studies how the places inhabited by humans can be made healthier, more equitable, resilient and sustainable. She is particularly interested in exploring the interaction between urban design and social environment. As a member of the research group in Healthy Cities and Environmental Justice, her objective is to unite the fields of public health, environmental epidemiology, urban planning, and environmental justice in the study of the social effects of urban planning policies aimed at building healthier cities.

Jordi Martínez Vilalta

This is the third consecutive year in which Jordi Martínez Vilalta has been listed as a "Highly Cited" researcher in the category of animal and plant sciences. He holds a BSc and PhD in Environmental Science by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He is currently professor of the Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology at the UAB and a CREAF researcher, where he coordinates a group on functional forest ecology. He was also honorary researcher at Edinburgh University. He is editor of several sicentific journals in his field of research (Tree Physiology, Plant Cell & Environment, Environmental & Experimental Botany, Journal of Plant Hydraulics), in which he has published over 150 research articles. He is author of two books: a university textbook (‘Ecología con números’, Lynx Edicions, 2006, in collaboration with J. Piñol) and a scientific dissemination book (‘Un planeta a la deriva, converses sobre el canvi global’, La Magrana, 2011, in collabroation with D. Sol, J. Terradas and J. L. Ordóñez). He has directed nine doctoral thesis at the UAB and in 2014 he was awarded an ICREA Acadèmia distinction.

His research aims to improve the knowledge of how forests function and how they respond to different global climate change factors at scales ranging from individual plants to an entire biosphere. The research focuses on the study of the use and long-distance transport of water and carbon to plants; the responses of forests to environmental changes, with an emphasis put on droughts caused by climate change; and the distribution and variability of a plant's functional attributes and their role in the dynamics of vegetation, including that of providing society with ecosystem services.

More information:
https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2020/