Blumwald & Luo named “most-cited researchers”

Two researchers in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences were named “highly cited researchers” for 2023, among the top 1 percent of scientists whose published papers become sources of information and ideas for other scientists.

Eduardo Blumwald and Ming-Cheng Luo are among 13 UC Davis scientists on the list, released Wednesday. For Blumwald, it’s the seventh year in a row to make the list. Blumwald is a distinguished professor and Will W. Lester Endowed Chair. He works broadly on plant genetics to create crops that can tolerate stress while increasing yield and nutrition. Crops he works on include rice, peanuts and poplar trees used for fuel.

Luo is a research geneticist who focuses on wheat and related plants, plus walnuts. The technique he developed to map genes is being used in a number of laboratories worldwide.

The announcement comes from Clarivate, an analytics company that tracks whose scientific papers are getting mentioned in the published work of other researchers. Its yearly citations list highlights researchers “who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their field(s) of research. This select group contributes disproportionately to extending (scientific) frontiers,” the company said in a prepared statement.

However, some have criticized Clarivate’s methodology, saying it misrepresents achievements in science and skews against work by women and minorities.