Five University of Utah faculty are among the most highly cited researchers in the world. Clarivate, a research-focused analytics firm, compiles the annual Highly Cited Researchers list to celebrate individuals who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields of study.
The 2025 list includes 6,868 individuals who have authored multiple highly cited papers, which rank in the top 1% by citations for their field over the past 11 years. The U.S. has the highest concentration of awards in 2025 with 2,670, followed by mainland China in second place with 1,406 awards and the United Kingdom in third with 570 awards.
Meet the U's highly cited researchers for 2025, a group whose expertise represents nearly all corners of campus.
William "Bill" Anderegg
Professor, School of Biological Sciences, College of Science
The Anderegg Lab studies how drought and climate change affect forest ecosystems, including tree physiology, carbon cycling and nature-based climate solutions. Some of his most highly cited papers have focused on drought legacies in forest ecosystems, the roles of drought, insect and temperature stress on tree mortality, and the role of hydraulic and carbon stress in a widespread climate-induced forest die-off.
Nathorn "Nui" Chaiyakunapruk
Professor, Department of Pharmacotherapy, College of Pharmacy
Chaiyakunapruk's expertise is in health technology assessment and global health, ranging from infectious and non-communicable diseases, community pharmacies, immunization programs and more. Some of his most cited work focused on the global economic burden of schizophrenia, cost-effectiveness of newly developed pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and preventing catheter-related bloodstream infections.
Aaron Quinlan
Department chair, Department of Human Genetics, School of Medicine
Quinlan's research group combines computational advances with genomics technologies to study the causes and consequences of genome mutation, identify all forms of genetic variation, and understand the genetic basis of rare diseases. His lab develops widely-used software for genomics research, and some of his most cited research focuses on LUMPY, a novel structural variation discovery framework and BEDTools, a flexible toolkit for exploring high-throughput genomics datasets.
Alessandro Rigolon
Associate professor, Department of City & Metropolitan Planning, College of Architecture + Planning
Rigolon's research focuses on environmental justice issues related to urban green space and their impacts on health inequity. His most cited publications have explored unequal access to urban parks, psychological impacts of COVID-19 on university students, and how greenspace influences gentrification in neighborhoods.
Dennis Wei
Professor, School of Environment, Society & Sustainability, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Dennis Wei is an economic/urban geographer and development specialist, with research interests in regional and urban development, urbanization, globalization, land use and China. Some of his most cited papers focused on urban growth patterns, housing prices, and environmental regulations' impact on the location of pollution-intensive industries.
Adapted from Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers.
