In November 2021, Clarivate, a global analytics firm, published its 2021 list of Highly Cited Researchers that included nine researchers from the University of Waterloo. The researchers on the list are from publications that rank in the top 1 per cent by citations for their field and publication year.
Compiled annually, the list for the year 2021 identified 6,602 researchers from more than 70 countries. About 3,700 of the researchers were recognized in specific fields while roughly 2,800 were recognized for cross-field impact.
The researchers from UW included Zhongwei Chen, Geoffrey T. Fong, Bernard R. Glick, David Hammond, Sharon I. Kirkpatrick, Linda F. Nazar, Will Percival, Daniel Scott and Xuemin (Sherman) Shen.
Zhongwei Chen is the Canada Research Chair in Advanced Materials for Clean Energy and a chemical engineering professor. His research is focused on using nanomaterials for advancing technologies important to alternative energy and environmental needs.
Geoffrey T. Fong is a psychologist in the faculty of arts. His research is geared towards understanding the impact of tobacco control policies through combining traditional epidemiological survey methods with psychological theories and research.
Bernard R. Glick is a biology professor whose research is focused on plant-microbial interactions, including how certain bacteria can help plants grow. He has one of the highest citation records at the University of Waterloo, with over 52,000 citations.
David Hammond is a professor at the school of public health sciences. His research is concentrated on chronic disease prevention and global health in key areas including tobacco and vaping, nutrition policy, and cannabis harm reduction policy.
Sharon I. Kirkpatrick is a registered dietitian and an associate professor at the school of public health sciences. Her research is focused on the intersections between nutrition, human and planetary health, equity, and policy.
Linda F. Nazar is a chemistry professor and Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials. Her research is geared towards the development of electrochemical energy storage devices and materials.
Will Percival is a physics and astronomy professor and Distinguished Research Chair in Astrophysics. His research is about the properties of the universe on the largest scales, such as the physics just after the Big Bang and the physics driving the evolution of the universe today.
Daniel Scott is a geography and environmental management professor. His research is focused on human dimensions of global environmental change, climate and society, and sustainable tourism.
Xuemin (Sherman) Shen is an electrical and computer engineering professor. His research focuses on wireless communication networks. He has been developing algorithms and protocols for wireless network security and privacy preservation.
Clarivate also summarized some key statistics drawn from the list.
The three countries that are home to the most highly cited researchers are the United States, China and the United Kingdom. The United States, being home to 39.7 per cent of the researchers on the list, leads the list by far, followed by 14.2 per cent from China and 7.5 per cent from the United Kingdom.
The institution with the greatest number of highly cited researchers was Harvard University, which was home to 214 of the researchers on the list.
