Trio named in most influential researchers list

LJMU showed its research prowess once again when three of its investigators were named in a new list of most influential academics.

The ‘Highly Cited Researchers’ list compiled by data analytics firm Clarivate, named two space scientists and a leading expert in public health in its’ list of the top 0.1% of global scientists and social scientists.

The trio are Professor Robert Crain and Dr Renske Smit of the Astrophysics Research Institute and Professor Mark Bellis, of the Public Health Institute, with all receiving the Clarivate ‘Highly-Cited Award’.

Remarkably, LJMU’s trio are among just eight researchers representing the entire UK post-92 university sector in a list dominated by Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and the prestigious London institutions, hospitals and national research laboratories.

Further, in space science Dr Renske Smit is the only female researcher listed.

Robert, Renske and Mark trio had a H-Index of 73, 63 and 51 respectively.

Professor Crain’s 2023 paper in the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics reviewing simulations of galaxies boasted 91 citations on Web of Science, a firm indicator of the significance and quality of the study.

Dr Smit’s work includes a paper in Nature on the discovery of the most distant galaxy which was cited 121 times in other academic journals. 

Professor Bellis’ work on social and health protections of children and violence prevention includes 277 publications cited over 14,000 times with one paper on childhood adversities cited over 700 times. His recent BMJ publicationsaddress the health economics of modern warfare.

Professor Keith George, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, who heads LJMU’s bid for the Research Excellence Framework 2029, said: “Congratulations to Rob, Renske and Mark. We are blessed to have these three and many more world-class researchers who are not only acknowledged in academia but also making important impacts in the real-world application of new knowledge.”

Image: The Liverpool Telescope serves research and discovery in the LJMU Astrophysics Research Institute.