19 of the world’s most influential scientists work for, or with, this Eastern WA lab

Nineteen of the most influential scientists in the world work for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with headquarters in Richland, or have a joint appointment there with a university.

Each year Clarivate determines the top researchers in the world based on how often other researchers cite their work over the past decade, an indicator of their influence in the worldwide research community.

Their influence shapes the future of science, technology and academia globally, said Bar Veinstein, president of Academia and Government at Clarivate.

“We honor not just their scientific achievement but their impact on driving innovation and addressing wider societal challenges to help transform our world,” he said.

Clarivate has said that about 1 in 1,000 researchers make the list.

The United States again had the most researchers on the list with 2,507. But its percentage of researchers on the list has steadily dipped from 43% in 2018 to 36% in 2024, according to Clarivate.

PNNL’s most influential

Here are the PNNL highly cited researchers for 2024:

▪ Mark H. Engelhard, a chemist in PNNL’s Energy Processes and Materials Division, has made the list at least seven times. His research has involved advancing and using surface sensitive techniques, particularly X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, to study surface and interphase chemistry.

▪ Janet K. Jansson, a laboratory fellow emeritus has more than 30 years of experience in microbial ecology. Her expertise is in the use of molecular approaches to study complex microbial communities, such as those residing in soil, sediments and the human gut.

▪ Page Kyle, an earth scientist based at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, researches technology and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

▪ L. Ruby Leung, a Battelle fellow and chief scientist in Earth Science, works to make sense of Earth’s complicated climate system. This year she co-authored a paper that found hurricanes around the world are intensifying faster when close to the coasts. Last year she helped to uncover the mechanism underpinning super strong heat waves like those in the summer of 2021. Her research helps the nation better prepare for extreme weather.

▪ Nate G. McDowell, an earth scientist, was recognized for his plant and animal science research. His research includes a study of forest dynamics due to wildfires, drought and wind.

▪ Yuyan Shao is an electrochemist and materials scientist with a focus on electrochemical energy storage and conversion for both transportation and stationary applications. He is active in fundamental and applied research of high-performing electrode and electrolyte materials for batteries and fuel cells.

▪ Amy C. Sims, is a senior research scientist in PNNL’s National Security Directorate. Her biomedical research includes understanding how coronavirus evades immune response to enhance viral replication and spread.

▪ Steven J. Smith, an earth scientist based PNNL’s joint Global Change Research Institute, studies interactions between air pollution and climate and how socioeconomic systems are affected by climate change. He is the principal investigator of the Community Emissions Data System project that produces estimates of global historical air pollutant emissions from 1750 to the present.

▪ James C. Stegen, is an earth science expert in ecological theory and has built multidisciplinary teams to integrate computational simulation, experimentation and observation.

▪ Chongmin Wang, a PNNL laboratory fellow and materials scientist, was recognized for materials science for a sixth year. He leads a team researching materials for energy science and applications. His research focuses on the ability of sophisticated scientific instruments to probe the microstructure and chemistry of materials at the atomic scale.

▪ Wu Xu, chief scientist in the electrochemical materials and systems group, makes the list for at least the fifth time. He has over 25 years of experience in developing novel electrolytes for energy storage systems.

▪ Jason Zhang, a laboratory fellow working in the Energy Processes and Materials Division, is on the list for the 11th time. This year he won DOE’s inaugural Innovator of the Year Award. The principal investigator for PNNL’s work in energy storage for transportation, he is largely focused on research that results in longer-lasting batteries with more energy. He has 40 patents.

Joint appointments to PNNL

The list of highly cited researcher also includes seven university scientists, working from Seattle to Spain, with joint appointments to PNNL. They are:

• Alexandre (Alex) Arenas, physicist from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
• George Karniadakis, computational scientist from Brown University, Rhode Island
• Jun Liu, PNNL laboratory fellow from the University of Washington
• Charles M. Marcus, physicist from the University of Washington
• Yong Wang, laboratory fellow and associate director, Institute for Integrated Catalysis, from Washington State University
• Di Xiao, physicist from the University of Washington
• Xiaodong Xu, physicist from the University of Washington

This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "19 of the world’s most influential scientists work for, or with, this Eastern WA lab."