Six UI faculty named as some of the world’s most influential, cited scientists

Professor in LAS and plant biologist, Donald Ort, is one of the six UI professors that has been named for the 2021 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers.

Photo courtesy of Ort Lab Website

Professor in LAS and plant biologist, Donald Ort, is one of the six UI professors that has been named for the 2021 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers.

By Weiyu Ding, Staff Writer

Six UI professors have been named in the 2021 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers List.

The list tracks scholars who are named in academic papers and publications that rank in the top 1% of their respective fields.

Engineering Professor Axel Hoffmann focuses on magnetism. As a materials science and engineering professor at Illinois, one of his contributions is the diversification of the use of manipulation of electronic spin in reality. His efforts in the Spin Hall effect have contributed to the development of spintronics.

Atun Jain, professor in LAS, is part of the department of atmospheric sciences. His research focuses on addressing climate change through analyzing hydrological and biological processes. Jain recently looked at the role of climate change in permafrost carbon soil storage, environmental governance and crop conditions.

Stephen P. Long, member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 and professor in LAS, is paying attention to the efficiency of photosynthesis. He is a plant biologist and led an international project on food for the poor, which has increased global crop productivity by 20% through photosynthesis. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2013.

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Donald R. Ort, professor in LAS and a plant biologist, is focusing on helping crops cope with global change through photosynthesis. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2017. His interest is in the influence of the environment on photosynthesis, its energy conversion and genomic ecology.

Arend van der Zande, professor in Engineering, focuses on nanostructure mechanics. He trains feasibility techniques for the future based on the properties of nanomaterials. His research involves layering thin 2D materials to assist in the practical application of nanoscale mechanical systems in electronics and other aspects.

Ed Diener, professor in LAS who passed away this year, was honored with the list. Diener was a social psychologist whose research was focused on considerations of well-being. This includes happiness theory — how temperament, culture and personality affect well-being. He has around 200 publications about well-being psychology.

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