Eight scientists from the University of Freiburg are among the "Highly Cited Researchers" for 2023. A survey by Clarivate Analytics reveals that they are among the most-frequently cited authors worldwide in their fields of research over the past decade. With nine entries - one scientist is recognised for work in two areas - the University of Freiburg holds fifth place among German universities alongside Bonn and Düsseldorf.
The University of Freiburg's Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources is represented in the list by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bauhus and Prof. Dr. Carsten Dormann. Bauhus' research focuses on the structure and dynamics of forests, nutrient and carbon cycles in forests and ecological interactions in forest ecosystems. Dormann researches and develops statistical ecology methods that are used for example for the analysis of ecological networks.
Dr. Björn Grüning from the Department of Computer Science is also among the Highly Cited Researchers. Grüning is an expert in bioinformatics and heads Freiburg's Galaxy team. Galaxy is an open source platform for the analysis of big data in the life sciences.
Björn Grüning, Bertram Bengsch, Marco Prinz, Carsten Dormann, Jörg Meerpohl, Jürgen Bauhus, Lukas Schwingshackl and Ori Staszewski. Photos: SFB 1425, Freiburg University Medical Center, Christian Hanner, Jürgen Gocke, Angela Schuberth-Ziehmer.
Five researchers from the Medical Faculty among the most-cited scientists
From the Medical Faculty at the University of Freiburg, the Highly Cited Researchers include Prof. Dr. Bertram Bengsch, Prof. Dr. Jörg Meerpohl, Prof. Dr. Marco Prinz, Prof. Dr. Lukas Schwingshackl, and Dr. Ori Staszewski, who is now a neuropathology consultant at Klinikum Saarbrücken. With the direct involvement of patients, Bengsch, from the Department of Internal Medicine II, undertakes research into the adaptive immune system in chronic disease, specifically virus infections, tumour diseases and diseases brought about by the autoimmune system. Meerpohl is the head of the Institute for Evidence in Medicine at the Freiburg University Medical Center. Together with his team, he develops new ways of making scientific findings accessible to doctors more clearly, more quickly and more convincingly in review papers.
Prinz is the head of the Institute of Neuropathology at the Freiburg University Medical Center, and was recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate in two areas: in immunology and in the field of neural and behavioural sciences. Together with Staszewski, Prinz studies the role of the immune system in the healthy brain and its involvement in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and brain tumours. They are both researching among other things the influence of nutrition and epigenetics on the formation of the immune system in the brain. Schwingshackl, senior researcher at the Institute for Evidence in Medicine and at Cochrane Germany, analyses studies into the influence of nutrition on health and develops new methods for future dietary guidelines.
About the list
Clarivate Analytics identifies the Highly Cited Researchers from an analysis of the most-cited papers in the Web of Science literature database. The list ranks the authors of research papers that are among the top one percent in their field in the Web of Science citations index. For 2023, the survey looked at papers that were published and cited in the period from January 2012 to December 2022. In total, the list includes more than 6,800 researchers from more than 1,300 institutions across 67 countries and regions.